Creating Literacy-Rich Schools for Adolescents Douglas Fisher www.fisherandfrey.com

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Creating Literacy-Rich Schools for
AdolescentsDouglas Fisherwww.fisherandfrey.com
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Three Big Ideas

• Internalize an instructional framework.
• Develop a level of instructional consistency.
• Examine student work, with colleagues, on a
  regular basis.

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Internalize an Instructional Framework

• Do I know why Im doing what Im doing, or am I a
  strategy junkie?

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TEACHER RESPONSIBILITY
I do it
Focus Lesson
Guided Instruction
We do it
You do it together
Collaborative
You do it alone
Independent
STUDENT RESPONSIBILITY
A Structure for Instruction that Works
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In some classrooms
TEACHER RESPONSIBILITY
I do it
Focus Lesson
You do it alone
Independent
STUDENT RESPONSIBILITY
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In some classrooms
TEACHER RESPONSIBILITY
You do it alone
Independent
STUDENT RESPONSIBILITY
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And in some classrooms
TEACHER RESPONSIBILITY
I do it
Focus Lesson
Guided Instruction
We do it
You do it alone
Independent
STUDENT RESPONSIBILITY
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TEACHER RESPONSIBILITY
I do it
Focus Lesson
Guided Instruction
We do it
You do it together
Collaborative
You do it alone
Independent
STUDENT RESPONSIBILITY
A Structure for Instruction that Works
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Aimee Chen First year geometry teacher

• How does she use literacy in her instruction?
• How does the classroom structure facilitate
  understanding?
• How might she improve her instruction?

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Establishing Purpose

• Why?
• Focuses attention
• Alerts learner to key ideas
• Prevents birdwalking and maximizes learning
  time
• Can be used in formative assessment
• Types
• Content goal (based on the standards)
• Language goal (vocabulary, language structure,
  and language function)
• Social goal (classroom needs or school
  priorities)

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Samples

• Language Arts
• C Describe how a character changes in a story.
• L Use sensory detail to give readers a clear
  image of the character and the changes.
• Math
• C Determine reasonableness of a solution to a
  mathematical problem.
• L Use mathematical terms to explain why an
  answer is reasonable.

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Samples
Science C Identify the steps in the life cycle
of a frog. L Use signal words to describe the
life cycle of a frog. Social Studies C Identify
the causes of the Revolutionary War. L Explain
the meaning of taxation without representation
to a peer and summarize the meaning in writing.
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Three Types of Language Purposes

• Vocabulary (specialized, technical)
• Structure (the way the vocabulary is used in
  sentences to express ideas)
• Function (the intended use of those ideas)
• These language purposes build upon one another
  over a series of lessons.

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Vocabulary

• Specialized
• Words whose meaning changes depending on the
  context (problem, simplify, value)
• Multiple meaning words (run, place)
• These can be brick or mortar words
• Technical
• Words that represent one concept only
  (denominator, photosynthesis)
• These are the bricks of language

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Language Structure

• Grammar/syntax rules for language use (e.g.,
  plurals, noun/verb agreement)
• Signal words guideposts to support understanding
  of listener/reader (e.g., If/then, first, last,
  compared to)
• Frames and templates scaffolds for apprentice
  language users (On the one hand, ________. But
  on the other hand, _______.)

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Language Function

• Halliday identified 7 language functions
  (Instrumental, regulatory, interactional,
  personal, imaginative, heuristic,
  representational)
• These are translated into classroom interactions
  (express an opinion, summarize, persuade,
  question, entertain, inform, sequence, disagree,
  debate, evaluate, justify)

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The big a-ha

• The same content objective can have many
  different language purposes!
• CO Identify the phases of the moon.
• LP 1 Name the phases of the moon. (vocabulary)
• LP 2 Use sequence words (first, next, last) to
  describe the phases of the moon. (structure)
• LP 3 Explain how the moon, earth, and sun move
  through the phases. (function)

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Modeling

• Why?
• Humans mimic or imitate
• Students need examples of the type of thinking
  required
• Facilitates the use of academic language

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Modeling Comprehension
Visualize Monitor Synthesize Evaluate Connect

• Inference
• Summarize
• Predict
• Clarify
• Question

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Word Solving

• Context clues
• Word parts (prefix, suffix, root, base, cognates)
• Resources (others, Internet, dictionary)

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Using Text Structure

• Informational Texts
• Problem/Solution, Compare/Contrast, Sequence,
  Cause/Effect, Description
• Narrative Texts
• Story grammar (plot, setting, character)
• Dialogue
• Literary devices

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Using Text Features

• Headings
• Captions
• Illustrations
• Charts
• Graphs
• Bold words

• Table of contents
• Glossary
• Index
• Tables
• Margin notes
• Italicized words

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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 its way
  through his brain and out the top of his skull.

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• 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 hotel where
  a local doctor, one John Harlow, dressed his
  wounds. As Harlow stuck his index fingers in the
  holes in Gages face and head until their tips
  met, the young man inquired when he would be able
  to return to work.

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• 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 rods 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.

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Questions

• How did Phineas survive this penetrating brain
  injury?
• For how much longer did he live?

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Develop a Level of Instructional Consistency

• Are all teachers teachers of reading?
• Are schools building habits that are
  transportable and transparent?
• As students develop habits, are
  discipline-specific practices taught?

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7 Literacy Strategies that Work

• Anticipatory activities (building background)
• Read alouds / shared reading
• Vocabulary development
• Graphic organizers
• Note-taking
• Writing to learn
• Reciprocal Teaching

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Anticipatory Activities

• KWL
• Discovery
• Anticipation guides
• Questions
• Quick writes
• Discrepant events
• Demonstrations

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Read Aloud/Shared Reading

• Good selections
• Connected to the class
• Access to text?
• Every day, every class
• Model thinking

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Types of 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)

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

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Vocabulary

• Vocabulary Role Play
• Language Charts
• Multiple Meaning Word Study
• Word Sorts and Making Words
• Vocabulary Journals

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Graphic Organizers

• Concept maps
• Diagrams
• Text structure charts (cause/effect, temporal
  sequence, problem/solution)
• Students 1 choice

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Notetaking and Notemaking

• Cornell notes
• Text structures
• Main ideas and details
• Assessment of notes

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Writing to Learn

• Prompt or phrase
• Yesterdays news
• Crystal ball
• Best thing I learned
• RAFT

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Reciprocal Teaching

• Students work in groups
• Summarize, question, clarify, predict
• Zinger questions

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It sounds so easy, what gets in the way?

• Hard Books
• Students must read books at their grade level
• Whole Class Texts
• Read chapter 4 tonight
• Choice?

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Anxiety
Flow
Task Difficulty
Boredom
Apathy
Competence or Skill
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It sounds so easy, what gets in the way?

• Interventions for Struggling Readers
• Im working on fluency

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Ill go back to school and learn more about the
brain!
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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.
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Skills Versus Strategies?
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I dont know how youre going to learn this, but
its on the test.
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Quick, Build Background!
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Expand Understanding Through Reading
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Reading Increasingly Difficult Texts
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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

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But, the midterm comes
17 pages, single spaced
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Besides Some Neuroanatomy, What Have I Learned?

• You cant learn from books you cant 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

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Examine Student Work, With Colleagues, on a
Regular Basis

• Teacher-created, common formative assessments are
  the goal
• Teachers need time to develop, administer, and
  discuss the assessments
• Tests are a genre

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Select key standards with pacing guide
Identify materials and teach
Create and administer common assessment
Consensus score and complete item analysis
Reteach
Analyze results in course alike groups
Revise pacing guide
Revise assessment
Intervention groups
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Creating Literacy-Rich Schools

• We can do this.
• To do this, we must increase precision teaching
  (Breakthrough - Fullan, Hill, Crevola, 2006).
• Precision requires access to assessment
  information, consistent instructional routines,
  and an understanding of the role language plays
  in learning.

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Creating Literacy-Rich Schools for
AdolescentsDouglas Fisherwww.fisherandfrey.com