Adolescent Literacy in Your School

1. Adolescent Literacy in Your School West Virginia Department of Education Office of Instruction February 1-2, 2007

2. Success in the 21st Century • Professionalism/Work Ethic • Oral and Written Communications • Teamwork/Collaboration and • Critical Thinking/Problem Solving

3. % of 8th Graders Scoring Below Basic NAEP 2005 Reading Assessment

4. More than 8 million students in grades 4-12 read far below grade level. • The 25 fastest growing professions have far greater than average literacy demands. • Eighth grade reading scores remain flat, and 12th grade scores have dropped significantly.

5. It is naïve to think that these extreme deficits in reading will be remediated in a traditional English class, silent reading or via content area reading.

6. Literacy Leadership • Highly skilled and deeply committed • Guide the development and implementation of AIM for Reading • Empower and build the capacity of the staff to meet the literacy learning of all students

7. Collaborative Environment • Roundtable discussions • Teacher support networks • Classroom observations • Celebrate success

8. Schoolwide Organizational Model • Sufficient time for literacy • Extended periods of time for language arts within a block or flexible schedule • Scheduling for teams of teachers to work collaboratively • Intensive interventions • Shift in instructional practices

9. Analyze Assessment Data • Instructional leaders (you), along with faculty, must fully understand the data and how to use the analyses to guide: • Intervention plan • Professional development

10. A Budget for Literacy Needs • Prioritize the needs of the school • Title funds • Business partnerships • Private grants • Pilot programs (research based)

11. Literacy Strategies in Content-Area Classrooms • Observations • Explicit Literacy Strategies

12. Commitment • Principals must be committed • Literacy Team (team-based approach)

13. AIM for Reading Literacy Team Savvy leaders pay attention to three critical components of effective literacy… • Knowledge base to evaluate research-based reading programs • Good choice of tools • Support system

14. “School leadership is second only to teaching among school-related factors in its impact on student learning.” Leithwood, Anderson and Wahlstrom, 2004

15. Teachers understand and routinely use instructional reading strategies in their daily lesson plans. • Determine what students need to learn • Select strategies that will help them make connections and have meaning. • Show them how to set benchmarks of achievement

16. Teachers understand and routinely use instructional reading strategies in their daily lesson plans. • Time always seems to be our task master • Time is needed for effective use of strategies. • Students need time to experience trial and error to determine the strategies that work best for them. • Students need time to understand the correlation between effort and achievement • They need time to review and reflect on their work

17. Teachers provide frequent and appropriate instruction to inform students as to how they can best use the textbook clues. Explain strategies Model the steps of a strategy Connect to student prior knowledge Use graphic organizers to help them see patterns and organize the new information Help students think about their thinking and become strategic in the reading process.

18. Teachers front-load new vocabulary. • Students must encounter words in context more than once to learn them • Instruction in new words enhances learning those words in context • Associate images with new words • Direct vocabulary instruction works • Direct instruction on words that are critical to new content produces the most powerful learning. • Marzano et al. Classroom Instruction that Works 2001

19. Teachers front-load new vocabulary and incorporate strategic variation • Wide Reading Approach • Direct Instruction • Superficial Instruction • Categorizing

20. Teachers provide frequent and appropriate instruction of textbook clues. • Determining Factors • Density of Text • Style of Text • Structure of Text • Organization of Text • Level of Text • Presentation of Text • Coherence of Text • Are students already text savvy?

21. Teachers instruct students to use assessment results to inform and improve reading and literacy skills • Pre-reading skills • Determine their purpose for reading • During reading skills • Make adjustments to improve comprehension • After reading skills • Summarize and self-assess to determine their new understanding and how they will use it.

22. InterventionandSupport Meeting the needs of ALL students

23. Individualized • The literacy plan • Highly prescriptive for each student

24. Assessment Driven • Interventions • Instruction • Formative and Summative

25. Time Factors • Ample • Strategic

26. Skilled Teachers • Highly skills • Work with struggling / striving readers

27. All Students • Power of reading • Not just for the struggling reader

28. Professional Development to Support Literacy

29. Planning • Literacy Team • Assessment of students’ strengths and needs

30. Best Practices in PD • School-based • Practice and reflection • On-going and Sustainable • Stages of PD • Awareness • Developmental • Transfer • Institutionalization School Level Professional Development Guide, WVDE 2003-2004

31. Professional “Talk” • Build Professional Learning Communities of Practice • http://www.serve.org/EdQuality/ProfLearnCom/Tools.php • http://www.sedl.org/pubs/change34/

32. Leadership • How can you lead others through the change process?

33. Literacy Walks • Identify focus of Walk • Instructional practices • Student engagement • Classroom environment • Five to ten minutes in each classroom • Core Observation Walk-through • More specific • Ten to fifteen minutes in a classroom

34. On-going Process • Evaluate efforts • Are the teachers implementing the strategies? • Are they fully participating in PD? • Is student achievement improving? • Make adjustments

35. Leadership “Most people would rather have the person in authority take the work off their shoulders, protect them from disorienting change and meet challenges on their behalf. But the real work of leadership usually involves giving the work back to the people who must adapt, and mobilizing them to do so.” Heifetz, R. and Linsky, M. 2004. Educational Leadership.