Regional Educational Laboratory (REL) Midwest is partnering with Michigan school districts to increase reading skills in kindergarten through grade 2. To meet this goal, the Strategies to Improve Reading (STIR) partnership is developing and implementing the STIR approach in collaboration with districts and schools to develop and implement a set of resources, tools, trainings, and coaching sessions—to support educators and school leaders in integrating evidence-based strategies and student-focused practices into K–2 literacy instruction, with a focus on students’ ability to decode unfamiliar words. This approach will build educator capacity to (a) implement features of effective instructional practices for phonological awareness and phonics, (b) use and support decision-driven data collection and analysis, and (c) adapt leadership practices to support literacy.
Current projects
REL Midwest works with educators to improve the implementation of instructional routines and data-based decision making related to phonological awareness and phonics in K-2 classrooms. Improving students' skills in phonological awareness and phonics will help them become fluent readers capable of making meaning from text.
Completed projects
No projects at this time.