Literacy Across the Curriculum

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Literacy Across the Curriculum

• with Kate Ellis
• North Tonawanda City School District
• kellis_at_ntschools.org

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Welcome!

• Todays Agenda
• What is literacy?
• Identifying the need for secondary literacy
  instruction
• The changing demands of literacy instruction
• What does literacy look like in your classroom?
• Parting words of inspiration from Taylor Mali

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What is LITERACY?

• Write a definition of literacy on your ppt
  handout.
• Share with a neighbor.
• Revise your definition if necessary.
• Share aloud.

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Literacy Is
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Literacy Defined

• LITERACY ISthe ability to identify,
• understand, interpret, create, communicate,
• compute, and use printed and written
• materials associated with varying contexts.
• Literacy involves a continuum of learning to
• enable an individual to achieve his or her
• goals, to develop his or her knowledge and
• potential, and to participate fully in society as
• a whole.

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But Literacy is also

• The ability to interpret graphics and visuals
• The ability to speak properly in multiple
  situations and communicate ideas effectively
• The ability to comprehend what is heard
• The ability to navigate through a technological
  world
• The ability to write effectively in multiple
  genres

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Literacy in the 21st Century

• Literacy in the 21st Century will mean the
  ability to find information, decode it,
  critically evaluate it, organize it into personal
  digital libraries, and find meaningful ways to
  share it with others. Information is raw
  material students will need to learn to build
  with it.
• From The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman

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Literacy for the 21st Century

• Adolescents entering the adult world in the
  21st century will read and write more than at any
  other time in human history. They will need
  advanced levels of literacy to perform their
  jobs, run their households, act as citizens, and
  conduct their personal lives. They will need
  literacy to cope with the flood of information
  they will find everywhere they turn. In a
  complex and sometimes even dangerous world, their
  ability to read will be crucial. (IRA, 1999)

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TODAY, literacy looks like this
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Changing Literacy Demands

• Between 1996 and 2006, the average literacy
  required for all American occupations increased
  by 14.
• The 25 fastest growing professions have far
  greater than average literacy demands, while the
  25 fastest declining professions have lower than
  average literacy demands.
• (Barton, 2000 Reading Next, 2004)

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Todays Reality High School

• Only 30 of high school students graduate as
  proficient readers who are college-ready (Greene
  Forster, 2003).
• Less than 50 of youth who take the ACT are
  prepared for the demands of college reading (ACT,
  2006).
• 35 - 40 of high school graduates do not have the
  sophisticated reading and writing skills that
  employers seek (Achieve, Inc., 2005 Kaestle et
  al., 2001 National Commission on Writing, 2004).

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Todays Reality College Readiness

• Only 51 of ACT-tested high school graduates were
  able to successfully perfom college-level reading
  tasks.
• Students readiness for college-level reading is
  at its lowest point in more than a decade.
• (Reading Between the Lines, ACT, 2006)

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Who Has Reading Difficulties?

• Percentage of students reading below a Basic
  Level of competence
• --Grade 4 38
• --Grade 8 29
• --Grade 12 26 (2002)
• Percentage of students reading below a Proficient
  Level of competence
• --Grade 4 71
• --Grade 8 71
• --Grade 12 64 (2002)

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Opportunity for Content Area Literacy Learning
A Matter of Equity

• If students do not have the opportunity to
  learn subject area knowledge, concepts, and
  vocabulary, then their capacity to read a broader
  range of texts will be further diminished.

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Findings from Studies of Middle and High School
Literacy

• Secondary students have abundant experience with
  low level literacy tasks that do not engage them
  in disciplinary reading and reasoning.
• I know the teacher will go over it and tell us
  what it means, so I dont have to read it.
• I dont know if they care, but no one reads the
  textbook. You just look for the answer to the
  questions at the end of the section. You can
  slide by without them knowing.

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Findings Continued

• Underperforming students hold powerful
  misconceptions of reading and learning that do
  not serve them well
• Good readers read fast and know what all the
  words mean.
• Some people can just read the paragraph and know
  what it means. I cant do that. Im just not a
  reader.
• Many high school students are profoundly
  inexperienced with advanced academic reading and
  literacy tasks

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What are Academic Literacy Demands?

• Across all content areas students should be able
  to
• Read
• Write
• Listen/view
• Discuss/present
• Think critically and creatively
• Use language and vocabulary to read and
  comprehend text to support the learning of content

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Reflection What are the Academic Literacy
Demands of my content area?

• What type of activities or tasks are required of
  students in my content area?
• What type of texts do students read in my content
  area?
• What reading and writing skills will students
  need to use those texts proficiently?
• What discussion and presentation skills will
  students need to verbalize understanding?

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Reflection What are the academic literacy
demands of my content area?

• (continued)
• What listening and viewing skills will students
  need to connect with the standards and objectives
  of my specific content area?
• What higher-order thinking skills will students
  need to use to move beyond basic understanding of
  content text?

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If someone came to my room looking for a
literacy-rich classroom, what would they see/not
see?

• Reading comprehension strategy instruction
• Writing instruction
• Opportunities for listening and viewing
• Opportunities for deep discussion and presenting
• Instruction in use of higher-order thinking
  skills

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Challenges of Literacy in the Academic
Disciplines

• Presentation of ideas through varied symbolic
  means
• Broad range of characteristic text types
• Specialized uses of language
• Densely packed ideas
• Different ways of thinking, reading, writing,
  speaking in different disciplines

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Academic Disciplines Have Distinct Literacy
Practices

• Specialized ways of reading, writing, speaking
  and reasoning that are specific to an
  intellectual discipline
• Particular reasons to read and write
• Conventional forms of text means of
  representation
• Valued reasoning processes
• Traditions of argumentation What counts as a
  good question, evidence, problem, or solution

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Content Area Teachers have Expert Blind Spots

• Secondary teachers tend to underestimate the
  literacy demands of their subject areas.
• Content area teachers are largely unaware of
  their own specialized literacy expertise.
• To support the content literacy learning of their
  students, teachers need to learn to see past
  their expert blind spots.

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Roles and Responsibilities of content area
teachers for Literacy Instruction

• You will not be held responsible for teaching
  basic reading skills to middle and high school
  students.
• Yet you should clearly understand that you do
  have the responsibility to provide instruction in
  the kinds of reading and writing that are
  specific to your academic discipline.

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Core Beliefs

• Content area teachers should know what is
  distinct about the reading, writing, and
  reasoning processes of their discipline and how
  to give students frequent and supported
  opportunities to read, write, and think in these
  ways.
• The best teachers of discipline-based literacy
  practices are themselves able to read, write, and
  think like specialists in their fields.

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How rigorous are theliteracy demands of
secondary students?

• Lets take a

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A Day in the Life of an Adolescent Reader

• Act 1 - Scene 1
• Venice. A street.
• Enter RODERIGO and IAGO
• RODERIGO
• Tush! never tell me I take it much
  unkindlyThat thou, Iago, who hast had my
  purseAs if the strings were thine, shouldst know
  of this.
• IAGO
• 'Sblood, but you will not hear meIf ever I did
  dream of such a matter, Abhor me.
• RODERIGO
• Thou told'st me thou didst hold him in thy hate.
  
• IAGO
• Despise me, if I do not. Three great ones of the
  city,In personal suit to make me his
  lieutenant,Off-capp'd to him and, by the faith
  of man,I know my price, I am worth no worse a
  placeBut he as loving his own pride and
  purposes,Evades them, with a bombast
  circumstance

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A Day in the Life of an Adolescent Reader
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A Day in the Life of an Adolescent Reader

• Only Thing We Have to Fear Is Fear Itself
• FDRs First Inaugural Address
• I am certain that my fellow Americans expect
  that on my induction into the Presidency I will
  address them with a candor and a decision which
  the present situation of our people impel. This
  is preeminently the time to speak the truth, the
  whole truth, frankly and boldly. Nor need we
  shrink from honestly facing conditions in our
  country today. This great Nation will endure as
  it has endured, will revive and will prosper. So,
  first of all, let me assert my firm belief that
  the only thing we have to fear is fear
  itselfnameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror
  which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat
  into advance. In every dark hour of our national
  life a leadership of frankness and vigor has met
  with that understanding and support of the people
  themselves which is essential to victory. I am
  convinced that you will again give that support
  to leadership in these critical days.
• In such a spirit on my part and on yours we face
  our common difficulties. They concern, thank God,
  only material things. Values have shrunken to
  fantastic levels taxes have risen our ability
  to pay has fallen government of all kinds is
  faced by serious curtailment of income the means
  of exchange are frozen in the currents of trade
  the withered leaves of industrial enterprise lie
  on every side farmers find no markets for their
  produce the savings of many years in thousands
  of families are gone.

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A Day in the Life of an Adolescent Reader
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A Day in the Life of an Adolescent Reader

• Vincent Van Gogh Self Portraits
• In the most limited definition of the term,
  Impressionism as the objective study of light did
  not encourage so essentially a subjective study
  as the self-portrait but in the later expansion
  of the movement this self-representation was
  given renewed force by Cézanne and van Gogh. The
  latter has often been compared with Rembrandt in
  the number and expressiveness of his
  self-portraits but while Rembrandt's were
  distributed through a lifetime, van Gogh produced
  some thirty in all in the short space of five
  years --- from the end of the Brabant period
  (1885) to the last year of his life at St Rémy
  and Auvers. In each there is the same
  extraordinary intensity of expression
  concentrated in the eyes but otherwise there is a
  considerable variety. From the Paris period
  onwards he used different adaptations of
  Impressionist and Neo-Impressionist brushwork,
  separate patches of colour being applied with
  varying thickness and direction in a way that
  makes each painting a fresh experience.
• Self-Portrait Dedicated to Paul Gauguin
  1888 (130 Kb) Oil on canvas, 60.5 x 49.4 cm (23
  3/4 x 19 1/2 in) Fogg Art Museum, Harvard
  University, Cambridge, MA.

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A Day in the Life of an Adolescent Reader

• Oven Baked Macaroni and Cheese
• Ingredients
• 1 8oz. box of elbow macaroni, cooked and drained
• 2 Tablespoons butter
• 2 Tablespoons flour
• 2 cups milk
• salt and pepper to taste
• 2 cups shredded sharp Cheddar
• Directions
• Preheat oven to 360 degrees.
• Prepare macaroni using directions on box and
  drain well.
• In a saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Add
  flour and stir to remove
• lumps. Pour in milk and cook until thickened.
  Season with salt and pepper.
• Add cheese and stir until melted. Add macaroni
  and stir until all macaroni is
• incorporated. Pour mixture into 2 qt. casserole
  dish and bake for 20 minutes.

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A Day in the Life of an Adolescent Reader

• Calculate Your Training Heart Rate Range
• Step1
• Subtract your age from 220. (Example for an
  18-year-old 220 - 18 202.)
• Step2
• Multiply the result by 0.55 to determine 55
  percent of your estimated
• maximum heart rate. (For an 18-year-old 202 x
  0.55 111.1, or approximately
• 111 beats per minute). This is the low end of
  your training range, or the
• slowest your heart should beat when you exercise.
  
• Step3
• Multiply the result from step 1 by 0.90 to
  calculate 90 percent of your
• estimated maximum heart rate. (For an
  18-year-old 202 x 0.90 181.8, or
• approximately 182 beats per minute). This is the
  high end of your training
• range, or the fastest that your heart should beat
  when you exercise.
• Step4
• Use your answers from steps 2 and 3 to determine
  your training heart rate

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A Day in the Life of an Adolescent Reader
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Thats not to mention
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So

• What can I do in my own classroom?

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Try These Ideas

• Read multiple varieties of text
• Use Graphic Organizers to help kids capture
  thoughts and meaning
• Use Before, During, and After Reading strategies
• Allow kids to annotate text
• Differentiate assignments by choice
• Allow kids to talk

• Use Admit and Exit Slips
• Allow kids to play with vocabulary words
• Provide time for and require written reflection
• Plan structured debates
• Require kids to make presentations
• Require kids to collaborate on projects
• Require kids to create original products

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Listen to your colleagues
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Consider these resources

• http//score.rims.k12.ca.us/score_lessons/content_
  area_literacy/
• http//www.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/score/rona/strategies.h
  tml
• http//www.lpb.org/education/classroom/itv/litlear
  n/
• http//www.education.ky.gov/KDE/InstructionalReso
  urces/Literacy/LiteracyStrategiesGlossary.htm
• http//www.learningpt.org/literacy/adolescent/stra
  tegies.php
• http//www.literacy.uconn.edu/78home.htm
• http//www.ebecri.org/custom/literacystrategies.ht
  ml
• http//www.ascd.org/video_guides/reading02/reading
  s.pdf
• http//findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0HUL/is_2_3
  0/ai_67046812/pg_1?tagartBodycol1
• http//curriculumcorner.wikispaces.com

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For Your Inspiration
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GO MAKE A DIFFERENCE!
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Thank you for your time and attention!Your
feedback is welcome!kellis_at_ntschools.org