Interventions
In Hopkins, we believe in developing all of our scholar's strengths. This is called an asset-based mindset. When a scholar needs additional support to build those strengths, there are many strategies we use to meet their unique needs.
In this section you will find information about some programs and services that are supported by the Innovation Design and Learning department. They are meant to provide additional support to our students, teachers, and families.
Contact
Ann Ertl, Director of Innovation, Design and Learning
Ann.Ertl@HopkinsSchools.org
952-988-4889
Title I
Title I Reading and Math Assistance
Title I is a federally funded program designed to assist students below grade level in reading and math. The amount of funding is based on the number of students who qualify for free and reduced-price lunch. All Title I services and programming are supplemental to the regular classroom instruction.
Title I Programming
The Hopkins Schoolwide Title I program focuses on supports such as instructional coaches, MTSS specialists, and counselors who collaborate to strengthen Tier 1 instruction and create a supportive learning environment for all students. Using research-based instructional methods, Title I staff deliver small-group interventions both inside and outside the classroom while also working alongside teachers to enhance core instruction, implement effective intervention strategies, and support student well-being. This comprehensive approach ensures that all students have the foundation they need to succeed.
In our Title I Targeted assistance programs, targeted support in reading and math is provided for students with identified needs, ensuring equitable access to high-quality instruction.
Hopkins Schools Eligible for Title I Services
Six schools in the Hopkins Public Schools district have school-wide programs — Alice Smith Elementary, Eisenhower Elementary, Gatewood Elementary, Tanglen Elementary, North Middle School, and West Middle School. In a schoolwide model, all students are eligible for Title I services. Hopkins High School and VirtualEDU have a targeted program.
Parental Involvement
There are several ways parents can become involved in both your child's school and the Title I program. These include participating in an annual meeting, attending conferences and open houses, or serving as a Title I site representative. Each school site also has developed its own plan for ensuring parent involvement in Title I services.
Parent Right To Know
Teacher quality is important for your child's achievement. If your child attends a Title I school, you have the right to know the following information about your child's teacher:
- The certification of the grade level and subject they teach.
- Whether they are teaching under an emergency or provisional license.
|
|
|
Title I Schoolwide Plans: School Year 2024-25
|
|
|
Parent Involvement Plans: School Year 2024-25
Dyslexia
Dyslexia
Dyslexia is identified as a specific learning disorder that is neurological in origin. It is characterized by difficulties with accurate or fluent recognition of words and by poor spelling and decoding abilities. These difficulties typically result from a deficit in the phonological component of language that is often unexpected in relation to other cognitive abilities and the provision of effective classroom instruction. Secondary consequences may include problems in reading comprehension and reduced reading experience that can impede the growth of vocabulary and background knowledge.
In Hopkins, 75% of our teachers are trained in LETRS (Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling) a professional development program approved by the International Dyslexia Association and the Minnesota Department of Education to support solid instruction for students with dyslexia or dyslexia characteristics. This training is rigorous and takes about 80 hours to complete. We anticipate that 100 percent of our K-2 staff will be trained next year so we can support all of our learners' literacy needs.
Please note: These PDFs may not work properly with a screen reader or other accessibility device. If you need an accessible version of these documents, please contact Innovation, Design and Learning at 952-988-4133.
Characteristics of Dyslexia
- Preschool
- Kindergarten-Grade 1
- Grade 2 and Up
- Young Adults and Adults
- Strengths of a Dyslexic Child
- Dyslexia or Significant Reading Difficulty?
Preschool
What you might see or hear from your child
- Trouble learning common nursery rhymes, such as “Jack and Jill”
- Difficulty learning (and remembering) the names of letters and their corresponding sounds in the alphabet
- Difficulty recognizing letters in his/her own name
- Mispronounces familiar words; persistent “baby talk”
- Difficulty recognizing rhyming patterns like cat, bat, rat
Terms you may hear from adults about your child
- Emergent reader
- Language Delayed
- At-risk reader
- Immature learner
Actions you can take
- Read more about early reading development to help you know what is expected at this age.
- Gather examples and information on what your child can do compared to what is expected for the age (for more information on what to look for read the page on Screening Tools on the Get Ready to Read website).
- Start working at home to build skills in phonemic awareness and sound symbol relationships; be ready to explain how much practice it takes for progress to be seen.
- Have your child formally screened at school or with a psychologist or speech pathologist to determine:
- Differences between the child’s listening, speaking, reading and writing abilities and age or grade level expectations
- If the child is at-risk and appropriate services
Kindergarten-Grade 1
What you might see and hear from your child
Reading
- Makes errors that show no connection to the sounds of the letters on the page—will say, “puppy” instead of “dog” when shown picture labeled dog
- Does not understand that words come apart
- Complains about how hard reading is, or “disappears” when it is time to read
- Has parents with or family history of dyslexia and reading problems
- Cannot sound out even simple words like cat, map, nap
- Does not associate letters with sounds, such as the letter b with the “b” sound
Speaking and Listening
- Uses vague or generic terms for specific things
- Needs directions repeated frequently
- Relies on body language or non-verbal cues to support communication
- Slow to find the word to use in a conversation
- Complains that others are better readers
- Resists reading and practicing at home
Terms you may hear from adults about your child
- Struggling reader
- At-risk reader
- Student in need of interventions
- Possible dyslexia
Actions you can take
Continue all the actions listed at earlier ages, plus:
- Read more about early reading development to help you know what is expected at this age
- Ask your child’s teacher to describe or provide examples of grade level expectations
- Have your child formally screened at school or formally evaluated with a psychologist or speech pathologist to determine differences between the child’s listening, speaking, reading and writing abilities and age or grade level standards
- Advocate for and accept evidencebased interventions or intervention services
- Continue working at home to build skills in phonemic awareness and sound symbol relationships. When talking to professionals, be ready to explain how much practice it takes for progress to be seen
If all above have been done, move to actions listed at the next grade levels
Grade 2 and Up
What you might see and hear from your child
Reading
- Is very slow in acquiring reading skills; reading is slow and awkward
- Has trouble reading unfamiliar words, i often making wild guesses because he cannot sound out the word, or same errors over and over
- Does not have a strategy for reading new words
- Avoids reading out loud f Confuses or reads "saw" for "was", "what" for "that"
- Omits small words or parts of words when reading aloud
Speaking and Listening
- Searches for a specific word, but uses vague language such as “stuff” or “thing” a lot, without naming object f Pauses, hesitates and/or uses lots of “umm’s” when speaking
- Confuses words that sound alike, such as saying “tornado” for “volcano,” substituting “lotion” for “ocean”
- Mispronounces long, unfamiliar, or complicated words
- Needs extra time to respond to questions
School and Life
- Frequently misunderstands what was said
- Has trouble remembering dates, names, telephone numbers, random lists
- Has trouble finishing tests on time because of slow reading or writing
- Has great difficulty learning a foreign language f Has messy handwriting and or poor spelling; poor handwriting may mask poor spelling
- Practice spelling words do not stick and do not show up in daily writing
- Demonstrates low self-esteem that may not be immediately visible
- Frequently misses steps in multi-step directions (indicates weaknesses in working memory)
Terms you may hear from adults about your child
- Adults express concerns that the student has poor attention, is being lazy or unmotivated, doesn’t work to his potential, or is not trying hard enough
- In need of intervention
- In need of an IEP
Actions you can take
- Participate in meetings to adjust ineffective interventions; make a plan with the school on when to move forward with an evaluation
- Know your rights and how to request services so that you know what to do if you disagree with school's course of action
- Monitor and notice if your child shows physical or emotional symptoms related to the stress of school and reading
- Continue to build skills at home and monitor how much practice is required to see improvement
- Seek supports within the community to help you understand, advocate for and support child; this may include obtaining an independent evaluation
- Discuss with language specialists if there are concerns about the child’s speaking and listening, attention and/or memory
If all above have been done, move to actions listed at the next grade levels
Young Adults and Adults
What you might see and hear from your young adult
Reading
- A childhood history of reading and spelling difficulties
- While reading skills have developed over time, reading still requires great effort and is done at a slow pace
- Rarely reads for pleasure
- Slow reading of most materials— books, manuals, subtitles in films
- Avoids reading aloud
Speaking and Listening
- Not fluent, often anxious while speaking
- Pausing or hesitating often when speaking; using lots of “um’s”
- Using imprecise language, for example, “stuff” or “things,” instead of the proper name of an object
- Often mispronounces the names of people and places; trips over words
- Difficulty remembering names; confuses names that sound alike
- Struggles to retrieve words
- Slow response in conversations and/or writing; struggles when put on the spot
- Spoken vocabulary is narrower than listening vocabulary
- Avoids saying words that might be mispronounced
- Oral language difficulties persist
School and Life
- Despite good grades, will often say that she is dumb or is concerned that peers think that she is dumb
- Penalized by tests that limit ability to communicate knowledge (ex. multiple choice tests)
- Sacrifices social life for studying
- Suffers fatigue when reading
- Performs rote clerical tasks poorly and struggles to complete tasks on time
- Struggles with writing projects and essay tests
Terms you may hear from adults about your child
- Student is unmotivated, not reaching his her potential, not completing work and should just try harder
- Student needs a 504 Plan Student needs special education Student has dyslexia, depression, anxiety, attention, or other disorders
- Student is at-risk of dropping out or not graduating
Actions you can take
Continue all the actions listed at earlier ages, plus:
- As the child grows older provide opportunities for him or her to self-advocate and actively participate in making decisions about when, how and to what degree supports are provided
- Watch for changes in ability to recover from failure and frustration, and attitude towards school and learning
- Continue monitoring and supporting a balance between work and special interests
- Ensure documentation of disability and need for accommodations, modifications, services, etc. stays current and shows what is working
- Begin discussing and planning for post school plans in junior high school, if not earlier
- Ensure assistive technology and Accessible Educational Materials are in place and effective
Strengths of a Dyslexic Child
Kindergarten and first grade
What you might see and hear from your child
Potential Strengths
- Curiosity
- Creative imagination
- Ability to figure things out
- Eager embrace of new ideas
- Gets the gist of things
- Good understanding of new concepts
- Larger vocabulary than peers
- Talent at building models
- Oral language is relatively stronger than phonemic awareness and decoding abilities
Actions you can take
- Do not let reading problems define your child
- Look for and support the child's interests and strengths
- Avoid talking about child's reading struggles with other adults when child can hear you
Second grade and up
What you might see from your child
Potential Strengths
Reading
- Relatively strong thinking skills: conceptualization, reasoning, imagination, abstraction; gets the “big picture”
- Stronger with tasks that are meaningful, rather than rote memorization
- Understands most of what is read aloud
- Reads and understands overlearned (highly practiced) words in a special area of interest at a high level; for example, reads and understands auto mechanic magazines if hobby is restoring cars
- Reading in an area of interest becomes easier and productive as vocabulary is mastered
- Stronger listening vocabulary than indicated by reading and writing scores and samples
- Excellence in areas not dependent on reading, such as math, computers and visual arts, or excellence in more conceptual (versus factoid-driven) subjects such as philosophy, biology, social studies, neuroscience and creative writing
Actions you can take
- Continue to build a picture of your child’s growth, strengths, weaknesses and what supports are working; add new information from all professionals working with you and your child
- Encourage a growth mindset and focus on effort and strategies that lead to success and independent learning
- Continue to advocate for use of alternate instructional materials to balance practice in reading with access to subject matter vocabulary subjects
- Encourage and support areas of interest and special talents. Balance school with other interests and family time; consider tutoring as needed
Young Adult and Adult
Potential Strengths
- Demonstrates persistence in areas of interest f Noticeable improvement when given more time on multiple-choice exams
- Noticeable excellence when focused on a highly specialized area such as medicine, law, public policy, finance, architecture, or basic science
- Quality thought and elaboration of ideas in writing (spelling poor)
- Relatively articulate in the expression of ideas and feelings f Success in areas not dependent on rote memory
- Talent for high-level conceptualization, ability to come up with original insights
- Big-picture thinking; inclination to think outside of the box
- Noticeable resilience, ability to adapt
Dyslexia or Significant Reading Difficulty?
Ask these questions:
-
Are the characteristics above at odds with my perception of the student’s strengths and abilities?
-
Does the student exhibit exceptional skills and talents in multiple areas?
- Strong comprehension when read to
- Conversations and thinking demonstrates sophisticated listening and speaking vocabulary
- Creativity
- Vivid imagination
- Curiosity and high level of knowledge on topics, activities, or skills that do not require reading
- Intuitive and insightful
If you have answered yes to these questions, it is possible that this student may be dyslexic. Regardless of how you answered the questions, this student needs targeted, systematic, sequential, cumulative, and explicit phonemic awareness and phonics instruction.
Our Assessment Plan
- Screening
- Interventions
- Tier 3 Interventions or Special Education Services:
- Progress Monitoring
- Parent Notification
- Dyslexia Diagnosis
Screening
Universal Screening — FastBridge
Hopkins Public Schools uses FastBridge assessments for early identification screening of all students.
Kindergarten-Grade 1: All students are assessed in the fall and spring. Students not meeting the fall benchmark and receiving intervention services are also assessed in the winter. Phonemic awareness, phonics and decoding, word segmenting, sight words and fluency (spring of grade 1) are the focus of these assessments.
Grades 2: All students are screened in the fall and spring, using an oral reading fluency assessment as well as the areading and amath assessments. The oral reading fluency assessment provides us with information about decoding skills, accuracy and fluency. The areading and amath assessments provide information about students’ broad reading and math skills, respectively. Students not meeting the fall benchmark and receiving intervention services are also assessed in the winter.
Grades 3-6: All students are screened in the fall using an oral reading fluency assessment. This assessment provides us with accuracy decoding skills, accuracy and fluency. Students scoring below the fall benchmark and below proficient on the fall MAP assessment are rescreened during the winter and spring.
Our FastBridge screening assessments do not diagnose dyslexia. They are our first steps in identifying students who need additional targeted instruction in the components of reading. Next steps may include the following diagnostic assessments:
- Phonological Awareness Screening Test (PAST)
- Phonemic Awareness Inventory
- Decoding Inventory
- Family History - Is dyslexia present in family members?
- RAN/RAS - Rapid Automatized Naming/Rapid Alternating Stimulus Tests
- Teacher Checklist for Characteristics of Dyslexia
- Classroom observations
Interventions
Targeted Interventions used in Hopkins include:
- PRESS (Path to Reading Excellence in School Sites) - These targeted, skill-based interventions provide sequential and explicit instruction in phonemic awareness, phonics and fluency in combination with connected text.
- SIPPS (Systematic Instruction in Phonological Awareness, Phonics, and Sight Words) - This cumulative program provides a structured literacy approach to foundational reading skills instruction through explicit instructional routines. Instruction is differentiated based on an initial placement assessment.
- KPALS/PALS (Peer Assisted Learning Strategies) - This targeted intervention focuses on phonemic awareness and early phonics skills for kindergarten and first grade students.
Tier 3 Interventions or Special Education Services:
Not all students with characteristics of dyslexia need special education services. Students who are not showing adequate progress after at least two targeted interventions have been provided may be referred to the Student Assistance Team to determine next steps. The team may determine that a formal special education assessment is the next step.
SIPPS (Systematic Instruction in Phonological Awareness, Phonics, and Sight Words) - This cumulative program provides a structured literacy approach to foundational skills instruction through explicit instructional routines. Instruction is differentiated based on an initial placement assessment. Multisensory learning is used to enhance memory and learning of written language.
Tier 3 or Special Education?
Frequency, duration, intensity of instruction, grade level, and SIPPS level will differentiate the use of the SIPPS curriculum in providing intensive instruction in general education vs special education.
Progress Monitoring
Students who receive intervention support are monitored to document growth and the effectiveness of the intervention. If a student is making progress, we continue with the intervention until the student reaches grade level proficiency. If a student is not making progress, instruction may be adjusted in frequency or intensity. A student may also be placed in different intervention materials. Skill-specific assessments and on-grade level measures are both used to document student progress throughout intervention.
Parent Notification
Dyslexia Diagnosis
Public school districts cannot formally diagnose dyslexia. We do closely monitor student performance and screen for reading concerns that would indicate a need for supplemental instruction, alternative learning methods, or specialized services. Through these screenings we may also determine that no additional services are required.
Parents of students diagnosed with dyslexia by an outside source should make the classroom teacher aware of the diagnosis and share any additional information that would be helpful, including, but not limited to the outside evaluator’s summary and recommendations. The classroom teacher will bring this information to the attention of the building’s Student Assistance Team for consideration. The team will collaborate with parents to investigate the extent to which the dyslexia is affecting the student’s performance in reading instruction and determine the next steps. These steps may include: additional evaluation, implementation of classroom accommodations, inclusion in one of the interventions available at the site, or that no additional services are required. Parents will be notified of the team’s findings and will communicate permission prior to proceeding with additional supports or services.
Resources for Families
Local Literacy Plan
Local Literacy Plan
Hopkins Public Schools is dedicated to the success of all our students. This Literacy Plan describes the current goals, practices, and supports for students in Grades K-3 who need targeted assistance to reach grade level proficiency expectations in reading. This plan meets the requirements of MN statute 120B.12.
Curriculum & Instruction/Multi-Tiered System of Support
In Hopkins Schools, we help all children become independent readers and writers through a balanced literacy program. Of equal importance in literacy instruction are the emphasis on reading for meaning and the promotion of literature for enrichment and lifelong learning. The balanced literacy program in our elementary schools includes reading aloud, shared reading, guided reading, and independent reading.
Local Literacy Plan: 2024-25 School YearPlease contact Erica.Lee@hopkinsschools.org if you need an accessible version of this document.
Assessment
Reading proficiency develops over time, and students of all abilities need sustained and intentional reading instruction throughout their K-12 schooling. It is important to monitor student progress toward reading proficiency from Kindergarten through third grade and beyond in order to ensure that instruction is meeting the needs of all students and that proper support services are in place for those needing additional instructional time.
By regularly assessing students' progress in reading, Hopkins teachers can identify which students need more help and which are likely to make good progress with quality core instruction alone. An effective assessment plan has four main objectives:
- Identify students who are at risk or who are experiencing difficulties on an ongoing basis and who may need extra instruction or intensive interventions if they are to make adequate progress toward grade-level expectations (screening measurements).
- Inform instructional planning in order to meet the needs of individual students (diagnostic measurements).
- Monitor students' progress during the year to determine whether students in intervention are making adequate progress in literacy development (progress monitoring measurements).
- Evaluate the effectiveness of intervention and whether the instruction provided is intensive enough to help students achieve grade-level outcomes by the end of each year (evaluative measurements).
Parent Notification and Involvement
Parents or guardians will be notified of student results on the above assessments at the earliest possible time when their child performs below grade level on screening assessments. An explanation of the types of services the teachers will provide for their student will be discussed either via phone call or through a parent/teacher conference in the fall following the required screening assessments. Parents are encouraged to call their child's teachers when they have questions regarding this service. Parents have the right to decline service for their child by signing and returning the informational letter that they receive following the conference discussion.
Parents are given suggestions from teachers at conference times as to how they might help their child to improve in his/her literacy skills. A monthly district Reading Connections newsletter is posted on each building's website or printed for take-home.