1

Literacy

The Key to High School Success:

Ideas from NASSP & NCTE

2

Adolescent Literacy School Improvement Cycle

Increased Student

Achievement

Committed Instructional Leadership

Informative Formal and

Informal Assessments

On-going, Job-embedded

Research-based Professional Development

Highly Effective Teachers

Strategic, Accelerated Intervention

The student is the heart of the Literacy Improvement Cycle

3

Why Should Literacy Be Integrated into the School’s Improvement Plan?

Six million students in grades 6-12 are at risk of not graduating, or find themselves ill-prepared for college and career.

Thirty percent of U. S. students are not graduating from high school; 50% of African American males do not graduate

75% of students with literacy problems in third grade still experience literacy issues in ninth grade.

NAEP eighth and twelfth grade scores remain flat or have dropped since 1998.

4

Adolescent Literacy: A Critical Need

Not all students who read narrative text well can read and comprehend expository and non-fiction text (Snow, 2001)

American children are imperiled because they don’t read well enough, quickly enough, or easily enough to ensure comprehension in their content courses in middle and secondary schools (Snow, Burns, & Griffin, 1998, p. 98)

About 33% of secondary students have withdrawn from active participation in class and are reading below grade level (Joyce, Hrycauk, & Calhoun, 2001)

5

KEY Elements Needed to Improve Adolescent Literacy

Instructional Improvements Direct, explicit comprehension

instruction Effective instructional principles

embedded in content Text-based collaborative learning Motivation and self-directed learning Strategic tutoring Diverse texts Intensive writing A technology component Ongoing formative assessment of

students

Infrastructure Improvements Extended time for literacy Professional development Ongoing summative assessment

of students and programs Teacher teams Leadership A comprehensive and

coordinated literacy program

Biancarosa, G. & Snow, C. E. (2004) Reading Next- A Vision for Action and Research in Middle and High School Literacy:

A Report from Carnegie Corporation of New York. Washington, DC: AEE

6

All Teachers Are Not Teachers of Reading, but…

Featuring Doug Fisher

7

Highly Effective Teachers: The Essential Ingredient

Content teachers are the best source for providing students with

explicit instruction on how to critically read and think about text.

Abromitis, 1994; Campbell, 1994, Kamil et al., 2000

8

Explicit Instruction

Teacher models critical reading strategies

Scaffold instruction

Students internalize strategies to become strategic readers

Modeling of Strategy by Teacher

Shared Responsibility

Practice & Use of the Strategy by all Students

Gradual Transition of Responsibility

n

9

Effective Readers (Before Reading)

Activate Prior Knowledge

Understand and Set Purpose for Reading

Choose Appropriate Comprehension Strategies

10

Effective Readers (During Reading)

Focus attention Monitor comprehension Use fix-up strategies Use context clues Use text structure Organize and integrate

new information

11

Effective Readers (After Reading)

Reflect on what was read

Summarize major ideas Seek additional

information from outside sources

Feel success is a result of effort

12

The research suggests… lessons should include

activities/strategies before, during, and after reading;

instructional practices help students recognize that reading is an active process before, during, and after reading;

reading instruction and student understanding take place at multiple points (Graves, 2001).

13

A SCHOOLWIDE APPROACH TO CONTENT LITERACY STRATEGIES

14

What if we changed our thinking…

From all teachers are not teachers of reading to…

We all must create an environment where the strategies we teach are both

transportable and transparent.

15

1. Building Background

KWL Discovery Anticipation guides Questions Demonstrations

16

2. Read Aloud/Shared Reading Good selections Connected to the class Access to text? “Every day, every class” Modeling thinking

17

3. Modeling

Why? Humans mimic or imitate Students need examples of the type of

thinking required Facilitates the use of academic language

18

3a.Modeling Comprehension Inference Summarize Predict Clarify Question

Visualize Monitor Synthesize Evaluate Connect

19

3b.Word Solving

Context clues Word parts (prefix, suffix, root, base,

cognates) Resources (others, Internet, dictionary)

20

3c.Using Text Structure

Informational Texts Problem/Solution, Compare/Contrast,

Sequence, Cause/Effect, Description Narrative Texts

Story grammar (plot, setting, character) Dialogue Literary devices

21

3d.Using Text Features

Headings Captions Illustrations Charts Graphs Italics

Table of contents Glossary Index Tables Margin notes Bold words

Discover Magazine

What Happened to Phineas?

Attend the tale of Phineas Gage. Honest, well liked by friends and fellow workers on the Rutland and Burlington Railroads, Gage was a young man of exemplary character and promise until one day in September 1848. While tamping down the blasting powder for a dynamite charge, Gage inadvertently sparked an explosion. The inch thick tamping rod rocketed through his cheek, obliterating his left eye, on it’s way through his brain and out the top of his skull.

Discover Magazine

The rod landed several yards away, and Gage fell back in a convulsive heap. Yet a moment later he stood up and spoke. His fellow workers watched, aghast, then drove him by oxcart to a local hotel where a local doctor, one John Harlow, dressed his wounds. As Harlow stuck his fingers in the holes in Gage’s face and head until their tips met, the young man inquired when he would be able to return to work.

Discover Magazine

Within two months the physical organism that was Phineas Gage had completely recovered - he could walk, speak, and demonstrate normal awareness of his surroundings. But the character of the man did not survive the tamping rod’s journey through his brain. In place of the diligent, dependable worker stood a foul-mouthed and ill-mannered liar given to extravagant schemes that were never followed through. “Gage,” said his friends, “was no longer Gage.”

Shreeve, James. “What happened to Phineas?” Discover Magazine January 1995.

25

Questions

How did Phineas survive this penetrating brain injury?

For how much longer did he live?

26

What question would you have for the author?

27

A dentist found the source of the toothache Patrick Lawler was complaining about on the roof of his mouth: a four-inch nail the construction worker had unknowingly embedded in his skull six days earlier.

By AP via The Denver Post

28

29

30

3e. Questioning & Text

IRE model? QAR QtA Bloom Student-

generated

31

3f. Graphic Organizers

Concept maps Diagrams Text structure charts

(cause/effect, temporal sequence, problem/solution)

Students’ #1 choice

32

4. Vocabulary

Vocabulary Role Play

Language Charts Multiple Meaning

Word Study Word Sorts and

Making Words Vocabulary Journals

Vacca & Vacca, 1999

For example, vocabulary . . . General vocabulary

Words used in everyday language, with agreed upon meanings across contexts (e.g., pesky, bothersome)

Specialized vocabulary Multiple meanings in different content areas (e.g.,

loom, in, expression) Technical vocabulary

Specific to a field of study (e.g., concerto, meiosis)

34

Catherine the Great, a minor aristocrat from Germany, became Empress of Russia when her husband Peter, the grandson of Peter the Great, was killed.

www.picturehistory.com

35

Which word would most Social Studies teachers teach?

A. Russia

B. Aristocrat

C. Minor

D. Husband

.

36

The word (minor) in the sentence above means:

A) a person looking for gold

B) a person who is not important

C) a person who is under the age of 18

D) a person who is small

37

5.Notetaking and Notemaking Cornell notes Text structures Main ideas and

details Assessment of

notes

38

6. Writing to Learn

multiple strategies RAFT

39

7. Reciprocal Teaching

Students work in groups Summarize, question,

clarify, predict Zinger questions

40

One last thing …I’ll go back to school

and learn more about

the brain!

41

400+ Page text

“Somites are blocks of dorsal mesodermal cells adjacent to the notochord during vertebrate organogensis.”

“Improved vascular definition in radiographs of the arterial phase or of the venous phase can be procured by a process of subtraction whereby positive and negative images of the overlying skull are superimposed on one another.”

42

Skills Versus Strategies?

43

I don’t know how you’re going to learn this, but it’s on the test.

44

Quick, Build Background!

45

Expand Understanding Through Reading

46

Reading Increasingly Difficult Texts

47

Read “Non-Traditional” Texts

To date, over 100 YouTube videos! PBS (The Secret Life of the Brain) Internet quiz sites about neuroanatomy Talking with peers and others interested in

the brain

48

But, the midterm comes

17 pages, single spaced

49

Besides Some Neuroanatomy, What Have I Learned?

• You can’t learn from books you can’t read (but you can learn)

• Reading widely builds background and vocabulary

• Interacting with others keeps me motivated and clarifies information and extends understanding

• I have choices and rely on strategies

50

Resources

Available from NCTE

51

Pathways to Advance Adolescent Literacy

http://www.ncte.org/profdev/online/adlit/126068.htm

52

Leadership: Unlocking the Door to Literacy

Develop Literacy Leadership Team

Knowledgeable of Reading Research

Cheerleader

Lassoes Time Resource Locator

Continuous Assessment

Fosters Collaborative Learning Communities

Understands Literacy Instruction

53

Leadership

Leadership is the

art of getting

others to do

something that

you want done…

because they wantTO DO IT!

- Dwight David Eisenhower

54

Put Assessment in the Driver’s Seat

It is the action around assessment – the discussion, meetings, revisions, arguments, and opportunities to continually create new directions for teaching, learning, curriculum, and assessment – that ultimately have consequences. The ‘things’ of assessment are essentially useful as dynamic supports for reflection and action, rather than as static products with value in and of themselves.

Darling-Hammond, Ancess, and Falk (1995, p. 18)

55

Assessment Instruments

Informal Assessments Content Area Literacy

Assessments Teacher Observations Informal Literacy Inventories

Scholastic Qualitative Reading

Inventory III Burns and Roe

Other Grades Attendance Disciplinary Records

Formal Assessments Stanford Achievement Test California Achievement Test Group Reading Assessment

and Diagnostic Evaluation (GRADE)

Test of Reading Comprehension (TORC-3)

Stanford Diagnostic Reading Test 4

Woodcock-Johnson Reading Mastery

56

Professional Development: The Recipe for Success

Involves ALL stakeholders; Links student standards, curricular frameworks,

textbooks, instructional programs, and assessments; Includes professional development as part of the

professional’s workday; Relies on expertise of colleagues, mentors, and other

experts; Includes presence of strong instructional leader; and Adequate funding to meet professional development

goals.

Learning First Alliance, 1998

57

Creating Professional Learning Communities

Begin Conversations with Staff

Identify Learning Needs of Students and Teachers

Schedule to Support Opportunities for: Professional Development Coaching Sessions Shared Teaching Reflective Conversations

58

Supporting Professional Learning Communities

Peer Coaching Mentorship Study Groups Analyzing Teaching

Strategies Action Research Utilize Professional

Networks Professional Book Talks

Observe other teachers/model lessons

Visit model classrooms, schools, and programs

Develop curriculum/assessment

Plan lessons w/colleagues Participate in school

improvement planning Literacy Walk

59

Coaching Provides Support

60

Collaborative Learning Communities

Shared Teaching Peer Coaching

Improved Student Learning

Literacy Coach

Improved Teaching Strategies

61

Data meeting- identifies target students  Staff development- provides the instructional support for improving student learning Shared teaching –provides interactive experiences among colleagues

Walk through-identifies strengths and growing spaces

  This cycle is continuous and each component relies on the other but not necessarily in a sequential order.

  

DATA MEETING STAFF DEVELOPMENT

SHARED TEACHING

Cycle for Improving Instruction

Alabama Reading Initiative, adapted by Secondary Literacy Coaches (2004)

LITERACY WALK

62

63

Intervention: Meeting the Needs of ALL Students

Assign most effective teachers to work with struggling students

Create / implement intervention program to meet identified needs of ALL students (struggling to gifted)

Keep intervention classes small Use authentic and standardized assessments to

guide instruction Assure literacy strategies are integrated across the

curricula

64

Personalize Learning Explicit instruction in phonemic

awareness Explicit instruction in phonics Direct and integrated instruction

in text reading and comprehension

Assessment-based selection and monitoring of struggling readers

Accelerated not decelerated instruction

Intensive instruction in every session

Extensive amounts of daily practice

Teacher directed instruction Finite time for duration of

intervention More time for selected skills and

strategies Reduce teacher/pupil ratio Connections to classrooms and

parents Teachers who can deliver highly

skilled instruction Continuously developing

teachers of reading

65

Fitting the Pieces Together for Adolescent Literacy

Collaborative Leadership Assess to Identify:

Teacher Strengths and Areas for Focus Student Strengths and Needs

All Teachers Teaching Reading Strong Professional Learning Communities Well Defined Accelerated Intervention Plan