Reading to learn: Instructional Strategy of the Month
I have included the Reading to learn info below for all partnerships but then I have added buttons for teachers to click that are specific to their subject. Below are the buttons for all partnership's readings for the month. I have differentiated according to content as well as Newbie/Veteran designation.
Supporting Literacy Across the Content Areas
-adapted from Perspectives of Policy and Practice, Brown University 200
“Reading is a different task when we read literature, science texts, historical analyses, newspapers, tax forms. This is why teaching students how to read the texts of academic disciplines is a key part of teaching them these disciplines.” (Key Ideas of the Strategic Literacy Initiative, 2001)
Literacy - the ability to read, write, speak, listen, and think effectively - enables adolescents to learn and to communicate clearly in and out of school. Being literate enables people to access power through the ability to become informed, to inform others, and to make informed decisions. Adolescents need to have strong literacy skills so that they can understand academic content, communicate in a credible way, participate in cultural communities, and negotiate the world. In addition to a cultural component, therefore, building literacy addresses empowerment and equity issues.
What happens, as is often the case, when literacy skills are too weak to support learning in content areas? At the middle school and high school levels, literacy skills must become increasingly sophisticated to meet more challenging academic expectations. The ability to transact meaning from the academic text of different disciplines is often not directly taught, with the consequence of failure to comprehend those academic topics. For example, if students can’t understand a scientific argument, then they can’t understand the science that they’re trying to learn. If students can’t understand how history is presented, they can’t understand the points being made or connect those to what is happening in the present. If these literacy skills are not fluent due to lack of practice and inappropriate instruction, all but the most advanced readers and writers are placed at a disadvantage.
Research suggests there are four elements that are necessary for true improvement in literacy for secondary students and Cross Creek is on the right track. Elements include (1) Motivation, (2) Strategies, (3) Organizational support, and (4) Commitment to literacy across the curriculum. Cross Creek’s program uses SEL education (R-time) to help with intangibles such as motivation and mindset. The Powerful Teaching and Learning component employs strategies and protocols to assist in increasing literacy instruction. Fidelity to the model is key in this endeavor. Finally, commitment from all content teachers to insert literacy skill-builders in class is key. Instinctively we know that, but how can we get there?
Even though literacy strategies are part of the curriculum and instruction of English, the teaching of literacy strategies is everyone’s job. Regardless of the content standards for any content area, national and state standards include gaining new knowledge in a particular content and being able to communicate that knowledge. Thus, all content areas have the job of teaching literacy, not just English language arts.
Supporting Literacy Development in the LANGUAGE ARTS Classroom
Many “literacy strategies” take no time away from the language arts content at all. What they do is to help teach content in a way that more actively engages students so they will learn more. For example, using patterns of strategies like reciprocal teaching—where students must predict, summarize, ask questions and clarify hard parts—help teach content as well as skills. That content may be reading an adolescent or classic novel, or an essay written by Martin Luther King Jr. In any case, reciprocal teaching helps teach content and skills that can be transferred to other content and venues like university. The teacher covers the material, but the teaching is presented in a more deliberate and meaningful manner.
Supporting Literacy Development in the MATH Classroom
A secondary math classroom that supports literacy development uses language processes to enhance understanding and to demonstrate understanding. Especially with word problems, teachers model problem-solving through thinking aloud, and students articulate, verbally or in writing, how they solve problems. Students and teachers develop concepts actively. They make frequent use of word play and connections to real-life applications. They also use varied and flexible grouping, team construction, and presentation of responses to problematic scenarios requiring mathematical solutions.
Many people believe math only involves numbers, but there’s a great deal of instructional language involved in this subject area, too. One area of concern for readers is word problems. Students may have difficulty analyzing the written information in a problem such as this one: "Juan loans Laura six hundred and fifty-two dollars. He charges her an interest rate of 5% per month. If Laura waits three months to repay the loan, how much money will she owe Juan?" A problem like this one requires students to understand the functions related to words like "loan," "charge," and "owe."
Supporting Literacy Development in the AVID Classroom
AVID's entire reason for existence is based on building academic and personal skills in a holistic way. At Cross Creek, the instruction provided in the AVID classroom and supported by other content areas is critical to student success in high school and at the university. “AVID’s proven learning support structure, known as WICOR , incorporates teaching/learning methodologies in critical areas." It provides a "learning model that educators can use to guide students in comprehending concepts and articulating ideas at increasingly complex levels (scaffolding) within developmental, general education, and discipline-based curricula." AVID is administered differently at the early college than a traditional setting and that, too, has been turned into a plus situation because of the hybrid nature of on-line/in-school support. It sets students up for the realities of post-secondary education as well.
Supporting Literacy Development in the SCIENCE Classroom
In secondary science classrooms where literacy development is a priority, reading, writing, and discussion happen on a daily basis. Students and teachers build and expand understandings through the use of many kinds of texts, including the reading and analysis of essays, journal articles, Web sites, textbooks, and science fiction. Teachers support reading comprehension through electronic media, film, laboratory experiences, and visuals. Students actively construct and reinforce meanings of specialized vocabulary and make explicit use of textbook features. They also develop hypothesis, prediction, analysis, and description skills in verbal and written forms. Students are able to use the writing process to strengthen lab reports, analytic writing, solutions to problem sets, and research findings. Teachers use active inquiry, and students expect to read and conduct scientific research as the fabric of teaching and learning. Students frequently present and discuss their findings, ideas, and questions.
In detail-oriented classes such as chemistry, biology, and physics, the language of the discipline may seem quite foreign, but students must know the terminology in order to understand the content. For students who struggle with reading and retention, vocabulary review should include examples and visuals to trigger recall. Don’t simply make a list of words like "velocity" and "trajectory"—fold up that paper into an airplane and demonstrate the meaning of the words instead.
Instructional language is also critical to the sciences, especially as students are conducting and reporting on their own experiments. Students must use language to describe results, classify information, compare and contrast details, and draw conclusions. Extra opportunities to define and practice each instance of instructional language can help students who are struggling with the vocabulary. Lead students in analyzing lab reports to show how each literacy skill is used by real scientists. Where in the experiment results has the author summarized? Where did he or she draw conclusions about the data? How did the author defend his or her statements? Encourage students to take notes of examples or use different colored highlighters to mark each instance of the instructional vocabulary.
Supporting Literacy Development in the FOREIGN LANGUAGE Classroom
According to ACTFL, “Literacy development in one language supports literacy development in the second or subsequent languages learned. Knowledge and skills from a learner’s first language are used and reinforced, deepened, and expanded upon when a learner is engaged in second language literacy tasks… Through working with and strengthening those strategies, learners are able to develop stronger literacy in both languages. Second language learners use all means possible to make meaning; gaining awareness of the strategies used to make and express meaning in a second language strengthens learners’ first language strategies. The key question around literacy is to analyze what the author, speaker, or producer of the media wants the reader, listener, or viewer to understand or do. By interpreting and actively comparing linguistic and cultural systems and the interconnections among them, students develop valuable literacy skills.”
Supporting Literacy Development in the Social Studies Classroom
In a secondary Social Studies classroom that supports literacy development, students and teachers use a wide variety of resources, including reproductions of primary sources in texts, interactive notebooks, or Web sites, (diary entries, newspaper accounts, maps, inventories, photographs, film, and historical fiction), to develop understandings of eras, places, and events. They make use of explicit textbook features, use specialized vocabulary in classroom discussion and student writing, and investigate the thinking and approaches of social studies specialists (e.g., anthropologists, archaeologists, economists, social historians, sociologists). They actively participate in the framing and exploration of essential questions. They make frequent connections between eras, events, famous and infamous people, different representations of the same or similar events, and the past and present. They examine how languages develop and how language is used, both by those in power and by those who resist, as part of historical, cultural, geographic, and psychological studies. Students discuss, present, and debate. They use research skills. They are grouped in various ways for different kinds of assignments, and their interests are taken into consideration.
In terms of academic language, studying each period of history requires learning a new set of vocabulary. For example, a World History unit on Ancient Greece requires students to be familiar with the names of geographic locations, religious icons, types of government, and famous inventions. Fortunately, history classes have many opportunities to link written and spoken words with meaningful visuals. Students could benefit from using historical photographs to help them visualize the vocabulary of each time period or, if possible, viewing actual artifacts at a museum exhibit. Drawing maps, creating an illustration to accompany a historical text, and visually organizing sets of related terms are all strategies that readers can use to learn and retain a wealth of new vocabulary.
The buttons below are the links to each Veteran Newbie Team's instructions:
Resources/More information:
https://www.brown.edu/academics/education-alliance/sites/brown.edu.academics.education-alliance/files/publications/adlitcontent.pdf http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/105137/chapters/Reading-in-the-Mathematics-Classroom.aspx
https://www.lexialearning.com/blog/teaching-literacy-across-curriculum-focus-academic-language
http://avidmartin.weebly.com/wicor-reading.html
Supporting Literacy Across the Content Areas
-adapted from Perspectives of Policy and Practice, Brown University 200
“Reading is a different task when we read literature, science texts, historical analyses, newspapers, tax forms. This is why teaching students how to read the texts of academic disciplines is a key part of teaching them these disciplines.” (Key Ideas of the Strategic Literacy Initiative, 2001)
Literacy - the ability to read, write, speak, listen, and think effectively - enables adolescents to learn and to communicate clearly in and out of school. Being literate enables people to access power through the ability to become informed, to inform others, and to make informed decisions. Adolescents need to have strong literacy skills so that they can understand academic content, communicate in a credible way, participate in cultural communities, and negotiate the world. In addition to a cultural component, therefore, building literacy addresses empowerment and equity issues.
What happens, as is often the case, when literacy skills are too weak to support learning in content areas? At the middle school and high school levels, literacy skills must become increasingly sophisticated to meet more challenging academic expectations. The ability to transact meaning from the academic text of different disciplines is often not directly taught, with the consequence of failure to comprehend those academic topics. For example, if students can’t understand a scientific argument, then they can’t understand the science that they’re trying to learn. If students can’t understand how history is presented, they can’t understand the points being made or connect those to what is happening in the present. If these literacy skills are not fluent due to lack of practice and inappropriate instruction, all but the most advanced readers and writers are placed at a disadvantage.
Research suggests there are four elements that are necessary for true improvement in literacy for secondary students and Cross Creek is on the right track. Elements include (1) Motivation, (2) Strategies, (3) Organizational support, and (4) Commitment to literacy across the curriculum. Cross Creek’s program uses SEL education (R-time) to help with intangibles such as motivation and mindset. The Powerful Teaching and Learning component employs strategies and protocols to assist in increasing literacy instruction. Fidelity to the model is key in this endeavor. Finally, commitment from all content teachers to insert literacy skill-builders in class is key. Instinctively we know that, but how can we get there?
Even though literacy strategies are part of the curriculum and instruction of English, the teaching of literacy strategies is everyone’s job. Regardless of the content standards for any content area, national and state standards include gaining new knowledge in a particular content and being able to communicate that knowledge. Thus, all content areas have the job of teaching literacy, not just English language arts.
Supporting Literacy Development in the LANGUAGE ARTS Classroom
Many “literacy strategies” take no time away from the language arts content at all. What they do is to help teach content in a way that more actively engages students so they will learn more. For example, using patterns of strategies like reciprocal teaching—where students must predict, summarize, ask questions and clarify hard parts—help teach content as well as skills. That content may be reading an adolescent or classic novel, or an essay written by Martin Luther King Jr. In any case, reciprocal teaching helps teach content and skills that can be transferred to other content and venues like university. The teacher covers the material, but the teaching is presented in a more deliberate and meaningful manner.
Supporting Literacy Development in the MATH Classroom
A secondary math classroom that supports literacy development uses language processes to enhance understanding and to demonstrate understanding. Especially with word problems, teachers model problem-solving through thinking aloud, and students articulate, verbally or in writing, how they solve problems. Students and teachers develop concepts actively. They make frequent use of word play and connections to real-life applications. They also use varied and flexible grouping, team construction, and presentation of responses to problematic scenarios requiring mathematical solutions.
Many people believe math only involves numbers, but there’s a great deal of instructional language involved in this subject area, too. One area of concern for readers is word problems. Students may have difficulty analyzing the written information in a problem such as this one: "Juan loans Laura six hundred and fifty-two dollars. He charges her an interest rate of 5% per month. If Laura waits three months to repay the loan, how much money will she owe Juan?" A problem like this one requires students to understand the functions related to words like "loan," "charge," and "owe."
Supporting Literacy Development in the AVID Classroom
AVID's entire reason for existence is based on building academic and personal skills in a holistic way. At Cross Creek, the instruction provided in the AVID classroom and supported by other content areas is critical to student success in high school and at the university. “AVID’s proven learning support structure, known as WICOR , incorporates teaching/learning methodologies in critical areas." It provides a "learning model that educators can use to guide students in comprehending concepts and articulating ideas at increasingly complex levels (scaffolding) within developmental, general education, and discipline-based curricula." AVID is administered differently at the early college than a traditional setting and that, too, has been turned into a plus situation because of the hybrid nature of on-line/in-school support. It sets students up for the realities of post-secondary education as well.
Supporting Literacy Development in the SCIENCE Classroom
In secondary science classrooms where literacy development is a priority, reading, writing, and discussion happen on a daily basis. Students and teachers build and expand understandings through the use of many kinds of texts, including the reading and analysis of essays, journal articles, Web sites, textbooks, and science fiction. Teachers support reading comprehension through electronic media, film, laboratory experiences, and visuals. Students actively construct and reinforce meanings of specialized vocabulary and make explicit use of textbook features. They also develop hypothesis, prediction, analysis, and description skills in verbal and written forms. Students are able to use the writing process to strengthen lab reports, analytic writing, solutions to problem sets, and research findings. Teachers use active inquiry, and students expect to read and conduct scientific research as the fabric of teaching and learning. Students frequently present and discuss their findings, ideas, and questions.
In detail-oriented classes such as chemistry, biology, and physics, the language of the discipline may seem quite foreign, but students must know the terminology in order to understand the content. For students who struggle with reading and retention, vocabulary review should include examples and visuals to trigger recall. Don’t simply make a list of words like "velocity" and "trajectory"—fold up that paper into an airplane and demonstrate the meaning of the words instead.
Instructional language is also critical to the sciences, especially as students are conducting and reporting on their own experiments. Students must use language to describe results, classify information, compare and contrast details, and draw conclusions. Extra opportunities to define and practice each instance of instructional language can help students who are struggling with the vocabulary. Lead students in analyzing lab reports to show how each literacy skill is used by real scientists. Where in the experiment results has the author summarized? Where did he or she draw conclusions about the data? How did the author defend his or her statements? Encourage students to take notes of examples or use different colored highlighters to mark each instance of the instructional vocabulary.
Supporting Literacy Development in the FOREIGN LANGUAGE Classroom
According to ACTFL, “Literacy development in one language supports literacy development in the second or subsequent languages learned. Knowledge and skills from a learner’s first language are used and reinforced, deepened, and expanded upon when a learner is engaged in second language literacy tasks… Through working with and strengthening those strategies, learners are able to develop stronger literacy in both languages. Second language learners use all means possible to make meaning; gaining awareness of the strategies used to make and express meaning in a second language strengthens learners’ first language strategies. The key question around literacy is to analyze what the author, speaker, or producer of the media wants the reader, listener, or viewer to understand or do. By interpreting and actively comparing linguistic and cultural systems and the interconnections among them, students develop valuable literacy skills.”
Supporting Literacy Development in the Social Studies Classroom
In a secondary Social Studies classroom that supports literacy development, students and teachers use a wide variety of resources, including reproductions of primary sources in texts, interactive notebooks, or Web sites, (diary entries, newspaper accounts, maps, inventories, photographs, film, and historical fiction), to develop understandings of eras, places, and events. They make use of explicit textbook features, use specialized vocabulary in classroom discussion and student writing, and investigate the thinking and approaches of social studies specialists (e.g., anthropologists, archaeologists, economists, social historians, sociologists). They actively participate in the framing and exploration of essential questions. They make frequent connections between eras, events, famous and infamous people, different representations of the same or similar events, and the past and present. They examine how languages develop and how language is used, both by those in power and by those who resist, as part of historical, cultural, geographic, and psychological studies. Students discuss, present, and debate. They use research skills. They are grouped in various ways for different kinds of assignments, and their interests are taken into consideration.
In terms of academic language, studying each period of history requires learning a new set of vocabulary. For example, a World History unit on Ancient Greece requires students to be familiar with the names of geographic locations, religious icons, types of government, and famous inventions. Fortunately, history classes have many opportunities to link written and spoken words with meaningful visuals. Students could benefit from using historical photographs to help them visualize the vocabulary of each time period or, if possible, viewing actual artifacts at a museum exhibit. Drawing maps, creating an illustration to accompany a historical text, and visually organizing sets of related terms are all strategies that readers can use to learn and retain a wealth of new vocabulary.
The buttons below are the links to each Veteran Newbie Team's instructions:
Resources/More information:
https://www.brown.edu/academics/education-alliance/sites/brown.edu.academics.education-alliance/files/publications/adlitcontent.pdf http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/105137/chapters/Reading-in-the-Mathematics-Classroom.aspx
https://www.lexialearning.com/blog/teaching-literacy-across-curriculum-focus-academic-language
http://avidmartin.weebly.com/wicor-reading.html
