mclass Small-Group Advisor After syncing your students mclass :DIBELS Next assessments, the Small-Group Advisor (SGA) guides you in setting up more manageable and rewarding homogenous groups. The information about your students assessment results becomes a springboard for determining effective groupings for focused instructional changes. These smaller groups create an environment in which students develop skills at the appropriate level of challenge and intensity. SGA determines each student s combination of risk levels on two Core Components for his or her grade level and the time of year. Core Components While it is important to analyze all the information available on a student s skills when planning individualized or small-group instruction, SGA focuses on the two most salient core components for the assessment period as identified by the DIBELS Next authors. Core components correspond to individual DIBELS Next measures depending on the students grade and the time of year. For example, the Grade 1 is measured by Fluency Letter Sounds at BOY, but at MOY and EOY it is measured by Fluency Whole Words Read. For kindergarten BOY, Phonemic Awareness is measured by First Sound Fluency; the DIBELS Composite Score is used as the second core component. Grade K K K Assessment Window BOY MOY EOY 1 BOY 1 MOY 1 EOY 2 BOY 2 MOY 2 EOY 3 6 BOY EOY Measure 1 First Sound Fluency Phoneme Segmentation Fluency Phoneme Segmentation Fluency Phoneme Segmentation Fluency Frequency Whole Words Read Frequency Whole Words Read Frequency Whole Words Read Frequency Accuracy Frequency Accuracy Frequency Accuracy Core Component 1 Phonemic Awareness Phonemic Awareness Phonemic Awareness Phonemic Awareness Accuracy with Accuracy with Accuracy with Measure 2 DIBELS Composite Score Frequency Letter Sounds Frequency Letter Sounds Frequency Letter Sounds Core Component 2 DIBELS Composite Score Wireless Generation 1
Starting the Small-Group Advisor Access the Small-Group Advisor from any mclass:dibels Next or mclass :Reading 3D Class Summary or Student Summary page. 1. Open your Web browser and go to www.mclasshome.com. 2. At the Welcome page, type your mclass user name and password, then click Enter Type your mclass user name and password, then click Enter. 3. When mclass :Home opens, click Enter in either the mclass:dibels Next or mclass:reading 3D area of My Assessments to access the Class Summary. Click Enter to view the Class Summary page. 2 mclass Small Group Advisor
4. Select Small-Group Advisor from the mclass Now What? Tools menu. For multi-grade classes, the Small-Group Advisor opens to show the grade with the most students. If two or more grades have the same number of students, the Small-Group Advisor opens to show the lowest grades. Select Small-Group Advisor to begin sorting the students in this class into intervention groups. 5. The first time you start Small-Group Advisor, a dialog box displays. Click Next to continue. Wireless Generation 3
6. The next page describes the steps used for the automated grouping process. Steps 1 through 4 are automated. Click Auto Group to start the grouping. You can return to this page by clicking either Restart Small-Group Advisor or Back on the Grouping Page. 7. On the Grouping Page, you can: Restart Small-Group Advisor Print recommended and/or custom groupings Modify recommended grouping View student activities 4 mclass Small Group Advisor
Recommended Groupings The recommended grouping is comprised of nine small groups to aid in individualized instruction. Use the recommendation as-is or as a starting point for you to refine your groups. If you choose to modify the recommended grouping, you can save it as a custom grouping. If desired, drag and drop students into other groups. Click Auto-Tidy Groups to place line students into groups. Click View Instruction to use Student Activities. Restart the entire process or print the Recommended Grouping. Changing Configuration You can also drag and drop students from one group into another to take into account factors beyond DIBELS performance. For example, if student NS doesn t fit with any other group, use your professional judgment to determine which of the existing groups would fit best. Students you move manually appear lighter with a solid border. You may also place unassessed students into groups. These students appear in the box labeled Students not assigned to groups in the lower right. Transfer students, for example, may not have mclass:dibels Next results, but you can use your professional judgement to place them in groups until the next Benchmark assessment. Wireless Generation 5
When you move students, SGA denotes the type of move as either user-moved or auto-tidy, by shading and changing the border. Students left in their recommended groups retain full color and borders. The key at the bottom of the Grouping Page reminds you of the significance of the different colors and borders. You can name each group by typing the name into the text fields at its top. Each group has a text field at the top where you can assign a unique identifier. Icons dim for students moved manually. Icons have borders reflecting the colors of the risk levels for the two Core Components. Icons have grey borders if the student wasn t assessed on the Core Components. 6 mclass Small Group Advisor
Auto-Tidy Auto-Tidy finds the next closest group for students whose skill levels don t match any other students in the class. Click Auto-Tidy Groups to try to find a match for these students. If SGA cannot find a good fit for these students, a dialog box opens saying, Small-Group Advisor does not recommend moving any students. Students moved using Auto-Tidy appear lighter with a dotted border. Return to the SGA recommendations by clicking Back to Original Groups. Saving Custom Groups and Defining Default Default groups are marked with an asterisk. The recommended grouping is the default unless you customize it. At the bottom of the Grouping Page, save any Custom Grouping by entering a name for the group in the Save As field, then click Save As. To view a saved grouping, select its name from the list and click Use Grouping. The default grouping is indicated by an asterisk. Type in the field above Save As to name your Custom Grouping, then click Save As. After saving, you can choose to view the custom grouping by selecting it from the Groupings list. Wireless Generation 7
Viewing Student Activities For each of the groups, SGA offers student activities from the mclass:dibels ACT feature. Click View Instruction from the Grouping Page to access these recommendations. Each group has a specific set of recommended activites. Access the group by clicking the group number (or name, if you assigned the group a name) at the top of the page. Click any listed activity to open that page. Click Print to generate a printer-friendly version of this page. Click Back to Grouping to return to the Grouping Page. Choose a group by clicking the group number. This group is labeled Some Risk in both and Fluent Reading of Connected. Read this column to discover more strategies for smallgroup instruction. The names of the students in the chosen group. ACT Reinforcement Activities display for each skill relevant to this group. Click a link to open an activity for that skill. Create a printer-friendly list of activities for all groups. Return to the Grouping Page. 8 mclass Small Group Advisor
When you lead group activities, use this page to help you target specific skills. Click a link to open the directions for that activity. Print this page directly from your web browser s Print menu. If an activity requires extra materials or manipulatives, a link is provided for you to download a file containing the related materials. The activity name appears in the upper left. Download materials needed for this activity. Wireless Generation 9
mclass Now What? Tools The mclass Small-Group Advisor is one in a suite of mclass Now What? Tools premium additions to the standard Web-based mclass:dibels Next reports. The Now What? Tools use mclass:dibels Next data as the starting point for developing differentiated instruction that best helps students achieve their reading goals. In addition to Small-Group Advisor, the mclass Now What? Tools currently include: Home Connect, which generates parent letters to explain each student s DIBELS results and provide parent/child activities tailored to the student s current developmental needs Item-Level Advisor, which offers observations explaining patterns of significance in the student s skill development Your available mclass Now What? Tools display with a blue background in the Now What? Tools menu. Now What? Tools are available from the Class Summary, Student Summary, and Probe Detail reports. If you would like access to the other mclass Now What? Tools, please talk to your school s mclass contact or your Wireless Generation Account Manager. 2007 2011 Wireless Generation, Inc. All rights reserved. Wireless Generation and mclass are registered trademarks of Wireless Generation, Inc. All other registered and unregistered trademarks are the sole property of their owners. 10 mclass Small Group Advisor