reading plus®

Product Path

Rick Cusick @rickcusick

rick@readingplus.com

The Way to do is to be

this prezi with help from lao tzu & stillwater

All art work © Jon J. muth all rights reserved

reading plus®

jump off point

the poisoned applet

The way

Story Mapping User Experience

[Paper] Prototyping

Usability Testing

User Personas

Collaborative Wire-Framing

agile godfather

www.agileproductdesign.com

@jeffpatton

Storymap as backlog

A Well Organized Backlog:

•Descriptive

•Prioritized

•Stories sized right

experience / Release

Dashboard

Log In

User Story

Sub Task

Business Logic

User Story

UI Details

Messages

Read Messages

Business Logic

UI Details

UI Details

Reply to Messages

Business Logic

User Story

UI Details

UI Details

Stories

Select Story

User Story

UI Details

Read Story

User Story

Business Logic

Questions

Answer Questions

Business Logic

MVP

M2

M3

Pragmatic personas

user research personas

Goal: To help her students see their potential and have new

focus in their lives.

Background

Meredith is a Reading Specialist at Deer Valley Middle School. She has been

teaching for 5 years. She recently received her Masters in Reading after taking

evening and summer courses for the last 3 years. Meredith works with the

school’s lowest performing students for intervention and remediation; she

needs to increase their test scores before they can move on to high school.

She is not currently married and has no children.

Attitudes

Motivations

The bene!ts are real. “They don’t

know it’s happening to them as

they’re doing it, they’re just enjoying

reading more and they notice their

“They pay attention to the print,

actually looking at the text. That

doesn’t come naturally to them.”

Kids say in math class they’re able to

read a problem faster and under-

Frustrations

Average comprehension display leads to misconception.

“Teachers aren’t digging in to see where that score came

from, they’re just scanning.”

Just after student levels up, they’re immediately going to

have a lower score. “They’ve just gotten an award and

there’s a setback....Everything changes at once on them.”

put a hold on a student who’s always away so he doesn’t

bring down my scores.”

“Exception” students’ grades get factored into the class,

bringing down the average.

Skill sheets are helpful for other teachers, but aren’t geared

to the standardized tests. “They look "imsy to me, not

substantial.”

Copy-and-paste between Reading Plus and grade book

doesn’t work, “because it’s in Java, that’s why.”

Some kids try to get around using it, ask their moms to do

Key Behaviors

Developed own curriculum and shares it with other read-

ing specialists after hours. “The system was failing them.”

Finds any reason to send a note to her students. “They love

getting messages. It’s personalized, individualized to

them. They don’t get a lot of that. Sometimes it unites the

whole class....I think it’s the best part of Reading Plus.”

Has previously looked for passages in Creole or Spanish

and assigned to a student to read. “Are they a poor reader

or is this a language barrier?”

“Squeeze out as much time as I can in the lab.” Students

that need more time can !nish up in her classroom.

Walks around the room and observes while the students

use the computers.

Tells students to raise their hand as soon as they level up.

Gives her an opportunity to praise them and gain some

recognition in the class.

As soon as she’s back in the classroom, prints out the cer-

ti!cate and pastes it on the wall immediately. She also

gives the student a prize – a frisbee, pencils, nail polish,

footballs, armbands – whatever she’s collected. They’re

happy to get the smallest thing.

Gives incentives. If every student does their sessions for 9

weeks, they get a pizza party.

Changes grade level and pre-reading rate when a student

is struggling; always discusses the issue with the student

!rst before making any adjustments.

At the beginning of the year, gives every student in her

class 5 rereads automatically. “I see no reason why these

should be so limited.” Notices students saving up their

rereads, afraid to use them too soon. They take guesses

earlier on instead and it ends up lowering their score.

Knows who to give easier worksheets to; print them out,

student answers in writing, then she grades it and they

discuss it together.

Doesn’t touch the PAVE rates. Once changed the max scan

rate because a student was complaining about it.

Regularly records scores in each student’s agenda book.

Encourages students to use Reading Plus at home to get

extra practice or make up a missed session. If they don’t

have a computer or DSL at home, sends them to the

school library.

Knows which of her students is an “exception” and isn’t

expected to earn above 70%.

When students read above an 8th grade level in the !rst

semester, they “level out” of Reading Plus in the following

semester and get to take an elective instead.

Periodically explores new teacher theories online.

Has explored several online teacher communities,

impressed with EdModo.

School uses TeacherWeb, but she would rather use her

own thing. “I like playing and experimenting with stu#.”

Shares with other teachers over lunch what new resources

she has found.

Contacts Reading Plus whenever she had a problem

(“‘Need Help?’ on the green screen gives you the number.”)

Previously participated in Project Smart. The district gave

her a blog where she would post ideas, assignments,

encourage kids to comment. No longer doing it.

Attends one statewide and one national reading confer-

ence every year.

“I’ll do whatever it

takes to help my kids.”

ENTHUSIASM:

READING BACKGROUND:

TECH SAVVY:

HIGH

MEDIUM

HIGH

MEREDITHTrained Teacher

Age 30 Phoenix, AZ

“Teaching someone how to read is

the best thing you could ever do for

somebody.”

“When you close your door, do what-

ever it takes to get your kids excited

about reading.”

“I am mesmerized by this program.”

“I didn’t like the previous program we

were using. It was terrible, it’s awful.”

“I connect well with my kids. I give a

lot of accolades.”

“I tell my students, ‘You’re not reading

on a 1st grade level, you’re missing

strategies from the 1st grade.’”

“I tell my kids that things will open up

for you [being a better reader] ... Sign-

ing a contract on a home, !lling out

an application, learning the rules for

a new job.”

“All of a student’s teachers are work-

ing together towards a goal.”

“I would have loved to work for last

year’s principal for the rest of my life.”

There has been a lot of administrative

turnover in her school the last three

years. She wants to be a stable force.

Goal: To be the highest performing reading department in

the county.BackgroundDebra is Boynton Beach Community High School’s Department Chair of

Reading. She !rst learned about Reading Plus in an email blast. Upon attending a

workshop she thought, “I like this. This is going to work.”

She convinced her principal to try the pilot program, and they purchased a

license the next year. Debra is married with two teenage children and has a Masters in Reading.Attitudes

Motivations“This makes our department more legitimate.”

County is very data driven: state testing for reading comprehension 3x

year; benchmark test 2x year; FCAT (comprehensive assessment test) 2x

year (closely related to graduation rate).

Diligent students are getting 18+ on the ACT

The principal paid for the program and is eager to see it work.

“Silent reading is so hard to evaluate because you can’t see it.” “Without Reading Plus, I don’t know if

a student is actually reading or com-prehending.”

“These kids who were never success-ful, never got a pat on the back, they

get their !rst reward and their face lights up.”

Sees tremendous progress among ESL and special-ed students.

FrustrationsNeed to get teachers and students bought into the program.Constantly !ndings herself encourag-

ing teachers to take greater advan-tage of all the options. “If teachers

would use all that Reading Plus has, they would bene!t.”

clear them. “If they aren’t checking then they can’t respond to the prob-

lem.”Wishes she could send a message to

multiple classes; needs spellcheck.

puters to use Reading Plus at one time.

Any time she has to edit enrollment

Key BehaviorsRuns the high school reading pro-gram, oversees all reading teachers,

has three of her own reading classes.Started using Reading Plus in 2005/06

with the lowest 25% achievers in the school and saw a major improvement.

Following year tried it with the whole school in both the Reading and Lan-

guage Arts classes.“At !rst the teachers weren’t sure they could do it because they’re not com-

puter savvy.” She sat with each teacher and walked them through it.

Demos the program to students using a fake student account that she set up

Logs in to the Management Interface every day, multiple times a day.

Sometimes at home at night.Manages the system for all teachers using it – Reading and Language Arts

– but only really monitors the Reading teachers who she oversees.Looks to see when the teachers have

last logged in. When sees that stu-dents have logged in much more

recently than teacher: “Well that’s a red "ag!”

Hardly has to say anything to the stu-dents anymore when they enter the

classroom. “They just sit down and get to work.” “Other teachers are always

wondering why it’s so quiet in my classroom.”

Tells students that they’re expected to achieve scores of 80% or higher. “At

our school we don’t aim for Cs, we aim for Bs.”

Bumps up students in 9th grade so they can see what it will be like in 10th

grade.Frequently making tweaks by stu-

dent: harder vocab; longer stories; slower speed. “Teachers don’t want to

do it so I do it for them.”Flips back and forth between compre-hension score and CLOZE score to

compare. Gives students more rereads when they ask for them.

Uses the Notes & Messages feature to write an entire class and let them

know if they’re on track as a class. Also writes personal notes to students who

are doing well to say “good job.”Keeps printed copies of all of the

Reading Plus skill sheets in binders for the Reading teachers to use.Walks around to observe other classes

using Reading Plus; brings students candy, “You did a great job.”Sets up competitions between the

classes; whoever gets the highest average comprehension for the quar-

ter gets an ice cream party; top three classes get donuts.Set up Reading Plus enrollment for all

classes, all teachers; moves students between classes as necessary. “If the

student is in the database, it’s easy. If they’re already enrolled in a class, I

need to unenroll them in the admin area.”

Unenrolls all students from all classes at the end of each year “I’m a real

Internet junkie.” Looks for worksheets online (Googles main idea work-

sheets). Attends education technology con-

ferences and uno#cially advocates for Reading Plus while there.

“You can’t do anything if you can’t read.”ENTHUSIASM:READING BACKGROUND: TECH SAVVY:

HIGHHIGH

MEDIUM

DEBRASite AdministratorAge 46 West Palm Beach, FL

Quote on her wall: “Reading is to the mind as exercise is to the body.”

“I was frustrated by not knowing how they were doing.” “Teachers have to know their stu-

dents.”Believes it works. “Of my students

who had failed the FCAT between 1 and 4 times, 43% passed – and I attri-

bute that to Reading Plus.”Concerned about adoption. “Some teachers don’t want to use it.” “You have to change the teachers’

minds about how the students learn.”Proud to be an advocate. “I am the

Reading Plus queen.”Believes the site admin’s role is to “monitor and motivate.” “A lot of

Reading Plus is enthusiasm and get-ting them turned on.”“I love that you can maneuver it.”

“Student’s anecdotes aren’t enough; data tells the story.” “What you put into it, you get out of

it.”

The Story Map is the User Experienceis the Product Backlog

is the Release Plan[is the Sprint Backlogs]

Personas reflectwhat is most Valuable

decide up frontwhat is of highest Valuenot when writing code

outcome > output

usability testingrequires real users

who experience the designevolving Design is a team sport

facilitation is fundamental

Takes everything that happens as it comes

walls to screens

outcome

“The kids know it’s just a beta, but they were wondering if

they were allowed to do their Reading Plus

at home tonight.”- beta class Teacher

Bad panda

Faces the decay of its fruits

Communicating UX Goals in a Distributed Agile Team

Everyone loves a Specification / Requirements

Changing Tools / Process is Hard

learnings

What you take with you

QA & UX/IxD needed to be on the Delivery Team

Development & Design Convergence toShared Understanding > Documentation

Documentation Simplifies Release Preparation

Culture Colors Process, and is What You Ship

Facilitation & Collaboration as Foundational

Feathered sprints

Rick Cusick @rickcusick

rick@readingplus.com