SCSD LITERACY INITIATIVE

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SCSDLITERACY INITIATIVE

• 2008-2009
• We know too much to say we know too little, and
  we know too little to say that we know enough.
• Baumann and Kameenui
• Karen Markoff, Director of Curriculum Staff
  Development

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What is the literacy initiative or framework?

• Why do we need to keep working on literacy?

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• The story the data tell is simple, consistent,
  and alarming. Although there has been some
  progress in recent years in reading ability at
  the elementary level, all progress appears to
  halt as children enter their teenage years. There
  is general decline in reading among teenage and
  adult Americans. Most alarming, both reading
  ability and the habit of regular reading have
  greatly declined among college graduates. This
  decline has implications on the social, economic
  cultural and civic world where we live
• To Read or Not to Read A Question of National
  Consequence, 11/2007

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• There has been no previous time in history
  when the success, indeed the survival, of nations
  and people has been so tightly tied to their
  ability to learn. Todays society has little room
  for those who cannot read and write
  proficientlyThe economy of high paying jobs for
  low skilled workers is fast disappearing.
• National Commission on Teaching
  and Americas Future, 1997

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National Institute for Literacy Statistics

• By age 17, only about 1 in 17 seventeen year olds
  can read and gain information from specialized
  text , for example the science section in the
  local newspapers
• 1 in 12 white 17 yr. olds
• 1 in 50 Latino 17 yr. olds
• 1 in 100 African American 17 yr. olds
• 
  Haycock

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NAEP (National Assessment of Educational
Progress)Only about 10 of 9 or 13 yr, kids
could perform at proficiency levels if they never
read for fun while 87 of students who reported
reading for fun on their own time performed at
the Proficient Level
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NAEP

• 18 of students who reported watching 6 hours or
  more of TV each day performed at the Basic Level
  while students who watched less than 5 hours of
  TV performed at the proficient level

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• The mothers educational level affects reading
  proficiency- only 1/3 of students whose mothers
  have less than a high school diploma can pass
  letter recognition reading proficiency testing at
  the end of kindergarten

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• The United States today is in a truly global
  environment, and competitor countries are not
  only wide awake, they are running a marathon
  while we are running sprints. If left unchecked,
  this could challenge our preeminence and capacity
  to innovate
• Friedman, The
  World is Flat, 253

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Reading Next Recommendations

• Direct, explicit comprehension instruction
• Effective instruction in reading and writing
  specific to each content area
• Motivation and self-directed learning
• Text-based collaborative learning

• Strategic tutoring in reading, writing, content
  instruction
• Diverse texts-different levels
• Intensive writing-what kids need to perform in
  high school and beyond
• Technology as tool for literacy instruction

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Recommendations, cont.

• Ongoing formative assessment- informal, daily
  monitoring of students progress and thinking
• Extended time for literacy 120-240 minutes by
  having all content areas involved
• Professional Development- long term and ongoing
• Ongoing summative assessment of students and
  programs formal and provides data

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Recommendations cont.

• Teacher teams- interdisciplinary that can meet
  regularly to discuss students and align
  instruction
• Leadership- principals and teachers who
  understand how to teach reading and writing to
  all students in school
• Comprehensive and coordinated literacy program-
  interdisciplinary and interdepartmental,
  inclusive of out-of-school organizations and
  local community

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Writing Next

• Sentence Combining
• Process Writing
• Pre-Writing
• Inquiry Activities
• Study of models
• Writing for content-area learning

• Writing strategy instruction is explicit
• Summarization
• Collaborative Writing
• Specific product goals
• Word Processing

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Principle of Reciprocal Causation (Matthew
Effects)
Effective Decoding Skills Background
Knowledge Extensive Vocabulary Effective
Comprehension Strategies Text Structure
Knowledge Positive Attitude Toward Reading
EXTENSIVE INDEPENDENT READING
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GOALS

• To increase the time students spend reading and
  writing in all classrooms
• To increase the achievement levels and to close
  the gap of literacy within and among content areas

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Therefore, we need to Increase Time on Literacy

• Our goal will be
  to provide 120- 180minutes of literacy
  instruction by including all content areas in
  helping students access content knowledge through
  the teaching of

• Comprehension
• Oral Fluency
• Vocabulary/Word Study
• Writing

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• Goals for Literacy Institute
• July 8-18, 2008
• Work with teacher leaders around the area of what
  a literate person looks like in each content area

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Vocabulary

• Teach students academic vocabulary because it
  increases word knowledge and background
  knowledge, enabling students to understand and
  learn new information about a subject
• Only words can free a thought from its prison
  behind your eyes. (ONeil, 1956)
• Encourage reading, use read alouds, model and
  expect use of vocabulary orally and in writing

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Academic Vocabulary
Referenced periodically in units Words that are
found in other classes / disciplines Forms a
core of academic literacy
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Standardized Test Prep and Practice Grades 6 - 8
Middle School Only
Lesson 1 Questions About Vocabulary in Context
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There is growing research indicating that we must
direct teach at least 400 words per year

• Tier 1- very basic, common words
• Tier 2- high frequency for mature language
• Tier 3- low frequency words often limited in use
  to a particular domain

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Vocabulary Strategies

• Frayer Model
• Semantic Map
• Concept Circles
• Concept Ladders
• Categories and Labels
• Dictologos

• I SpyScavenger Hunt
• Possible Sentences
• Word Wall

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Fluency

• Combination of reading speed, oral reading
  accuracy, phrasing and expression (prosody)
• Fluency Instruction-modeling, oral reading,
  repetition, guidance and feedback

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Goals of Fluency Instruction
LANGUAGE SOUND Good phrasing Intonation

• SPEED
• gt100 Words
• Per Minute

ACCURACY 99-100 Correct
SUCCESS!


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Types of Fluency Instruction

• Paired Reading
• Repeated Reading Choral Reading
• Purposeful Practice
• Taped Readings
• Chunking

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To Increase the Effectiveness of Interactive Read
Alouds

• Explicitly target vocabulary instruction before,
  during and after reading
• Use repeated readings
• Use teacher think alouds and guided
  reconstructions
• Use whole and small group read alouds
• Place greater emphasis on building content
  knowledge and use of informational texts

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Read Aloud, Think Aloud Transparencies
1 Setting a Purpose My purpose for reading is to
find out more about Mother Jones and how she
helped the mill children. I also want to know
what happened on the march. Did anything change
as a result?
2. Activating Prior Knowledge Sometimes on the
news, I see workers on strike because they are
unhappy with their jobs. They want to change
things, such as how much money they make or how
much they have to pay for healthcare.
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Fluency Practice Assessment
Part 1 Initial Screening Helps determine
students level before assigning selections in
workshops Part 2 Fluency Screening Includes
passages for practice and assessment and a
Progress Chart Part 3 Reading with
Expression Selections from poetry and
Readers Theater Passages are 150 200 words
long and use Lexile (700 1200)
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COMPREHENSION Strategies vs. Skills

• Strategies
• Intentional
• Metacognitive
• Reflective
• Complex/multi-step
• Probability of success
• Approximation
• Massed practice

• Skills
• Automatic
• Over-learning
• Immediate
• Simple/single step
• Certainty of success
• Accuracy
• Interval training

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What does it mean to teach a Reading
Comprehension strategy?

• Gradual release of control
• I do it.
• We do it.
• You do it.

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But what about the texts?

• Different texts make different demands on the
  readers in terms of rhetorical purpose,
  vocabulary, organizational structure, etc.

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Chemistry Reading

• Text provides knowledge that allows prediction of
  how the world works
• Full understanding needed of experiments or
  processes
• Close connections among prose, graphs, charts,
  formulas (alternative representations of
  constructs an essential aspect of chemistry text)
  
• Major reading strategies include corroboration
  and transformation

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How to meld skills and strategies?

• Teach any and all of them, but teach them all as
  strategies
• Recognize that all strategies refer to reader
  actions and many skills refer to types of
  information
• Organize the skills within the strategies

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Comprehension- 8 Reading Strategies

• Activate Prior Knowledge
• Decide what is important in the text
• Synthesize information
• Draw Inferences During and After Reading
• Self-Monitor
• Repair Faulty Comprehension
• Use Questions
• Build Vocabulary

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Activate Prior Knowledge

• Helps make meaning from text
• Helps integrate personal knowledge with authors
  words
• Rosenblatt says this affects readers ability to
  comprehend the authors words
• Schema Theory- This research emphasizes the
  importance of teachers employing ready-to-read
  strategies for student comprehension- each child
  brings unique experiences

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Decide what is important in a text

• Develop a purpose for reading
• Research
• Learn Specific Information (Cause/Effect,
  Problem/Solution, etc.)
• Keep abreast of current events
• Job
• Pleasure

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Whats the Connection?

• Skim survey chapter for things that are
  familiar and that connect with your life or
  world. List them.
• Read the summary if there is one
• Write down what questions you have about this
  material that may be answered in the chapter

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• Establish how the chapter is organized
• What categories of information are provide
• Read
• Translate

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Self-Monitor Repair Faulty Comprehension

• Good readers pinpoint confusing passages and
  vocabulary and use strategies
• Previewing/Predicting-understanding text
  structure
• Identifying Purpose- what is important
• Rereading-retell, summarize
• Using Context Clues
• Using Prior Knowledge-making connections
• Using Graphic Organizers
• Using Text Tagging
• Using Questioning

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Reading Comprehension Skills

• Cause and effect
• Classify and categorize
• Compare and contrast
• Draw conclusions
• Fact and opinion
• Main idea
• Important details
• Inferences
• Sequence
• Bias and propaganda

• Problem and solution
• Identify theme
• Literal recall
• Tone
• Mood
• Etc., etc., etc.

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Grade 6, 7 and 8 Organization
6 Units
Each Unit Big
Question 6
Workshops
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Scope and Sequence At a Glance
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Scope and Sequence
Literary Elements
Reading and Critical Thinking
Vocabulary
Writing and .Grammar
Listening, Speaking, and Viewing
Readability Scores Key Dale-Chall / DRP / Lexile
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Literature Launchers
Played at the beginning of a unit to introduce
The Big Question Includes videos at the
selection level for those selections that contain
the most tested skills. Many videos include
author interviews Teachers Guide located in
TeacherWorks along with teaching strategies and
worksheets
Grade 6 30 Grade 7 31 Grade 8 27
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Classroom Presentation Toolkit CD
PowerPoint presentations for every unit of the
textbook All slides are completely
editable Animation and sound available for many
slides
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Listening Library
All major selections on one CD as read by a
professional actor Available in
Spanish Increases reading fluency by allowing
students to listen and model
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Writing Resources
Transparencies for Writing Process
Strategies Writing Prompts Modes of
Writing Rubrics Annotated Anchor Papers Process
of Revision
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Nonfiction and Informational Text
Essays Biographies, Autobiographies and
Memoir Letter, Journal, or Diary Speech or Public
Document TIME Magazine Articles
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InTIME Magazine
Two issues per grade level of high interest,
informational text Articles from Time, Sports
Illustrated, and People
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Writing

• Writing to Learn
• Learning to Write

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KENT HENDERSON, ACSW
DENNIS ROWEN P.D. Reading,
President of Henderson, Hopper,
Educational Consultant/Author and
Associates LLC and a with
TechKnow Associates National Reading
First Grant NYS Reading First
Grant Reviewer Program Reviewer
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• In survey of 120 American corporations,
  corporations were dissatisfied with the writing
  skills of college graduates
• 51 take writing skills into consideration when
  hiring
• NAEP has noted direct links between writing
  effectiveness and critical thinking skill
  development

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Learning to Write
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Explicit Instruction Scaffolding
Teach
Model
Guided Practice
Supported Application
TEACHER
STUDENT
Independent Practice
Gradual Release of Responsibility
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Writing Process

• Prewriting/Brainstorming
• Writing/Drafting
• Responding
• Revising
• Editing
• Evaluation

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Process-Traits-Modes

• Narrative
• Cause-Effect
• Compare-Contrast
• Process-Sequence
• Problem-Solution
• Persuasive
• Argumentative
• Evaluation (critiques)

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Integrating Reading and Writing

• NCTE Students who read the text to learn the
  content and also write in response to the reading
  develop better reasoning skills than those who
  only read or wrote alone.
• NRP found that summarization instruction is one
  of the most powerful ways to improve reading
  comprehension.

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ACT / SAT Test Prep and Practice Grades 11 - 12
High School Only
Students receive a guide to specific
annotations Practice Bubble Sheets Guide to
Sections Exact Time Limits on sections
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Connections to Writing?

• LEAD
• Character Perspective Chart
• Character Change Chart
• History Reading Events Chart
• Herringbone
• Sourcing/Contextualization
• M
• GIST
• PORPE
• SPPI Chart
• Corroboration
• Graphic Post Organizers

• Frayer Model
• Word Family Tree
• Semantic Map
• Semantic Feature Analysis
• Four-square concept chart
• Concept Circles
• Categories and Labels
• I Spy
• Concept Ladders
• Possible Sentences
• Possible Questions
• Dictoglos
• List-Group-Label

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Writing to Learn

• Allows students to apply and connect their
  vocabulary and content knowledge
• Requires knowledge and focuses thought
• Can be used as a method to solve problems
• Enhances critical thinking
• Positively impact readings comprehension
• Shifts the responsibility for learning away from
  the teacher and toward the student

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Process-Trait Connection
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The Traits of Effective Writing

• Ideas
• Organization
• Voice
• Word Choice
• Sentence Fluency
• Conventions

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RAFTS

• Role from which to write
• Audience to address
• Format in which to write
• Topic to write about
• Strong verb to show
• purpose

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RAFTS Examples
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Literacy

• If we are what we read and write, what are we if
  we do not or cannot read or write at all? What
  are we if all we read and write is email?
• Imagine being in a world without print
• What if everyones paycheck increased with the
  number of minutes spent helping kids read and
  write in 2008-09 and thereafter?
• Thank you for joining us on this journey for all
  the literate graduates who will make it in this
  global world!