Understanding What Works in Literacy

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Understanding What Works in Literacy

• Literacy Coaches/Teams Reconnect
• December 5, 2007

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Todays essential questions

• What is working in my school?
• What strategies are other schools using that
  could enhance our literacy program?
• How are we helping students master the most
  critical literacy skills?
• How can we make sure that students are ready for
  college and careers?

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Five Literacy Goals

• Students read 25 books.
• Students write every week.
• Students use reading and writing strategies.
• Students complete research(ed) papers.
• Students take rigorous English courses.
• LAC page 17

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A Gallery Walk of Successes

• Look for ideas for each of the five literacy
  goals.
• Take notes of good practices that might transfer
  to your school.

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What are other schools doing?

• 8-member teams
• Jigsaw case studies
• Answer these questions
• What was the problem?
• What is the best practice?
• Did they address any barriers?

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Profiles of successful efforts

• What is always true?
• What might be true?
• What is never true?
• Page 6

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Updating our plans

• Validators
• Teasers
• Adoptions

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The Big Six Reading Skills
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The Six

• Summarizing
• Paraphrasing
• Categorizing
• Inferring
• Predicting
• Recognizing Academic Vocabulary

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How do we know these are important?

• Direct links to most items on ASSET/COMPASS
  reading placement tests.
• Included in ACT
• Consistently in state standards
• Recognized by postsecondary faculty for
  importance
• Linked to all content areas
• Linked to careers

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Summarizing

• Only skill identified in both Reading Next and
  Writing Next as improving essential literacy
  skills
• Essential in research and other expository writing

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Strategies to teach summarizing

• Jigsaw
• Paired Questioning
• GIST
• KWL
• Cornell Notes
• Reciprocal Teaching

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Paraphrasing

• Reduces plagiarismconsidered one of the biggest
  academic crimes
• Show adaptation for audience and
  purposeessential writing skills
• Reflects a deeper understanding of material

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Strategies to teach paraphrasing

• Jigsaw
• Paired Questioning
• KWL
• Cornell Notes

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Categorizing

• Ability to group information into manageable
  chunks
• Essential for study skills
• Mandatory for problem analysis and
  solutionespecially in workplace or laboratory
• Only easy for naturalist intelligencemust be
  taught to others

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Strategies to teach categorizing

• KWL
• Graphic Organizers
• Concept Definition Map
• Frayer Model
• Cornell Notes

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Inferring

• Reading between the lines
• Encourages connection within a text, across texts
  and to other contexts
• Shows that a reader really gets it

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Strategies to teach inferring

• RAFT
• Questioning the Author

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Predicting

• Form of inferring
• Requires support for prediction
• Forward thinking based on backward knowledge
• Required to solve non-routine problems in the
  real world

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Strategies to teach predicting

• KWL
• Story Impressions
• Anticipation Guides
• Visual Prediction Guide
• Reciprocal Teaching

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Recognizing academic vocabulary

• Separates success for second-language students
• Technical language (jargon)
• Understanding roots and affixes

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Strategies for teaching vocabulary

• Vocabulary Clues
• Concept Definition Map
• Mathematics Reading Keys
• Frayer Model

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Practicing the Six

• Group 1 summarize problem 1 (LAC 20-21)
• Group 2 paraphrase problem 2 (21)
• Group 3 categorize problem 3 (21-22)
• Group 4 infer problem 4 (22-23)
• Group 5 predict problem 5 (23)
• Group 6 vocabulary problem 6 (24)
• Group 7 summarize problem 7 (25)
• Group 8 paraphrase problem 8 ( 25-26)
• Group 9 categorize problem (27)

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How good is good enough?

• 12 indicators
• What do they mean?
• To which classes do they apply?
• How do we teach the skills?

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Text Complexity

• Relationships -- Interactions among ideas or
  characters are subtle or complicated.
• Richness -- Information is often communicated by
  data or literary devices in sophisticated ways.
• Structure -- The text is organized in elaborate
  and sometimes unusual ways.
• Style -- The authors chosen way of writing is
  often intricate.
• Vocabulary -- The authors words are frequently
  difficult and are highly dependent on the use of
  context clues.
• Purpose -- The authors intentions are implicit
  rather than directly stated.

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Now what do we know?

• Roleworkshop participant
• Audiencefellow faculty members
• Formatmemo
• Topicwhat I learned to impact our school
  literacy efforts