Taking the Lead: Using the K12 Literacy Policy in the Content Area Classroom

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Taking the Lead Using the K-12 Literacy
Policy in the Content Area Classroom

• Debby Gorman
• Mark Davis
• August 29th, 2006

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(No Transcript)
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What will be covering?

• Language and Law of Literacy (brief review)
• Defining Literacy and PLPs
• SALT Data Aggregated for Barrington
• Assessing Students with Appropriate Strategies
• Jigsaw of the Support Strategies
• Reviewing our Mission for the Year

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The Long and Winding Road

• A Nation at Risk (1983) noted,
• Time spent in the classroom and on homework is
  often used ineffectively and schools are not
  doing enough to help students develop either the
  study and literacy skills required to use time
  well or the willingness to spend more time on
  school work.

Becoming a Nation of Readers The Report of the
Commission on Reading
Literacy for All The RI English Language Arts
Framework
RI Literacy and Dropout Prevention Act (RILDPA)
passed
Personal Literacy Plans (PLP) Guidelines
(1st edition)
No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act passed
1985 1987 . . . . 1996
2001 2003
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What is Pragmatic Literacy?

• Strategic thinking skills are the ability to
  comprehend, analyze, and synthesis written
  information in all content areas and the arts.
• As defined by the IRA and RILDPA, includes
• Speaking
• Writing
• Reading
• Listening
• Performing mathematical tasks (numeracy)

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Personal Literacy Plans (PLP)

• A formal action plan documenting the
  deficiencies, progress, and support for students
  two or more years below grade level in reading
  or writing. These students received intensive
  support from the reading specialist and support
  from content area teachers.

Students who are less than two years below grade
level are targeted and supported by content area
teachers only.
PLP Support Team

• Students teachers, guidance counselor, support
  teachers, principal (as needed)
• Attends parent meetings,
• Monitor difficulties and informs specialists,
• Supports progress through differentiated
  instruction.

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Personal Literacy Plans (PLP) contd

• State of the PLP Implementation
• Design phase (2003-2004)
• Implementation (2004-05)
• Systematic Phase (2006-2008)
• The 2003 RI Regulations require all certified
  staff to participate in at least 15 hours of
  ongoing professional development annually,
  focused on the priority areas of literacy,
  graduation by proficiency, and personalization.

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Identifying Students Needs
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Supporting Students Needs
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New Standards Assessment Results

• Test items cover literature, social studies,
  math, science, and the arts.
• 77 achieved standard in Basic Understanding (6
  with honors)
• 18 did not achieve standard
• Problem areas
• Understanding main idea and supporting details
  and essential information
• Paraphrasing and summarizing from text

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Areas Needing Improvement

• Analysis and Interpretation
• 76 achieved Standard (3 with honors)
• 18 did not achieve standards (about 45 students)
• Problem areas
• making perceptive connections between ideas,
• formulating an insightful interpretation,
• making sophisticated claims and assertions,
• integrating relevant textual support into
  conclusions.
• Writing Effectiveness
• 78 Achieved Standard, 18 did not achieve
  standard (about 45 students)
• Problem areas
• establishing context creating a credible,
• authoritative stance,
• offer reasons evidence and explanations
  purposefully through detailed arguments and
  reasons.

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Spring 2006 GMRT Screening Results
The following information is a sample of data
gathered for all Freshmen, Sophomores, and
Juniors as of June 2006.
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SALT Survey Results (January 2006)

• October 2006 visit from the SALT team
• Data will be reviewed against their classroom
  observation
• Many of the numbers show that are students come
  with remarkable abilities but our educational
  practices are not reflective of their
  performance.

Read the Full Report by clicking here
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SALT Teacher Ratings of Educational Practices
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SALT Student Responses

• 44 of students admit to doing the work assigned
  by teacher involving reading/writing,
• Over 75 of students were doing less than 30
  minutes of reading per day (including at school)!

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BHS School-Wide Rubrics
Sample Not a Complete Copy
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Literacy Goals for BHS

• Build on momentum for literacy strategies in
  classroom through
• Development of literacy toolkits,
• Building on adolescent motivation,
• Comprehension investigation and analysis of
  content materials,
• Selecting pragmatic content vocabulary.

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Content Breakdown

• Read the On-to-Knowledge Text
• What went wrong?
• Explain results on results worksheet.
• How can we plan accordingly?
• Vocabulary Word Map

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RI Literacy Policy Handbook Work

• Groups I Vocabulary (pg 28-30)
• Groups II Text Comprehension (pg 31-32)
• Groups III Factors that influence Text
  Complexity (pg 33-35)
• Groups IV Reading Instruction for Struggling
  Readers (pg 44-45)
• Groups V Motivation (pg 46-47)

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Vocabulary (pg 28-30)
Top Five Lessons

• Its not the qunaitity of books per year that is
  important, but the number words read by the
  student.
• The single most important as a teacher can do is
  to increase students volume of reading.
• Instruction is most beneficial when teachers
  select vocabulary words based on usefulness.
• Helping students understand how word meanings
  apply to various contexts by talking about words
  they encounter in reading.
• A word must be used twelve times in order to
  impact comprehension.

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Text Comprehension (pg 31-32)
Top Five Lessons

• Good readers do the following activate their
  prior knowledge, monitoring comprehension and
  making connections, select important ideas,
  synthesize information and draw inferences, and
  ask questions to check comprehension.
• Constructing comprehension is an active
  experience.
• Strategies, not skills, improve comprehension.
• Strategies used before, during, and after reading
  must be taught first.
• Comprehension is strongest when connections are
  made to prior experiences.

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Factors that influence Text Complexity (pg 33-35)
Top Five Lessons

• Students awareness and understanding of text
  structure play a key in comprehension.
• Use thoughtful literacy analysis, evaluation,
  reflection, and assistance in constructing
  meaning from a text.
• Various text structures require varied demands on
  the reader.
• Students should evaluate various cognitive tasks
  for each text (i.e. compare/contrase,
  problem/solution, etc.)
• Learn more about narrative, expository, and
  informational texts in the classroom.

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Reading Instruction for Struggling Readers (pg
44-45)
Top Five Lessons

• Struggling readers need high-quality literacy
  classroom, rich in varied texts.
• Good instruction for struggling readers meets
  their immediate needs and reading level and
  pushes them beyond.
• Review the 5 important elements of effective
  interventions.
• Effective programs include three types of
  literacy services scaffolding (on-level), target
  intervention, and intensive intervention.
• Struggling readers have diverse needs and require
  differentiated instruction.

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Motivation (pg 46-47)
Top Five Lessons

• Students choice of text is key to their
  progress.
• Making reading relevant to the students lives.
• Parent support is essential to any literacy
  development program.
• Enthusiast teachers who read are vital.
• Risk-taking in literacy strengthens our
  understanding of our students needs.

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Our Mission as a Team

• We are here to support you and your students.
  Please feel free to see us for consultation on
  matters of student achievement, progress, or
  lesson planning.
• This year we will support your classroom with
  several new initiatives
• Lexile-supported texts (library included),
• Academic Vocabulary strategies (Marzano),
• Electronic portfolios (progress monitoring)
• Online resources (our website)
• We will ask you to continue your excellence in
  the classroom and to be proactive when a concern
  or question arises. Good luck this year!