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Research-Based Best Practices
for Promoting 21st Century Literacy
Statement of Purpose
Literacy is a primary goal of any effective school division and school site. Perhaps most importantly,
students must develop a complex range of literacy competencies and skills to ensure their success in
the world of the 21st Century. To support the achievement of this goal, Alexandria City Public Schools
has developed the following literacy framework. It provides a synthesis of research-based principles
and strategies proven effective in promoting all students’ literacy development—including the critical,
creative, and self-regulated thinking processes that underlie true 21st Century literacy.
Communication is at the heart of powerful literacy development—a process in which the sender and
receiver are aligned in understanding one another. Such understanding requires analysis of both the
overt and the implied ideas and meanings of a text. Therefore, this framework suggests that the term
“text” be interpreted in as expansive a way as possible—including text presented via print and
electronic media as well as the visual and performing arts.
Literacy-based communication also requires that learners engage in ongoing meta-cognitive/self-
reflection and self-analysis, i.e., using literacy strategies and processes to self-reflect and revisit and
revise their own thinking processes and conclusions. Literacy reinforces the enduring understanding
that we think and communicate for a variety of purposes.
Long-Range Goals of This Framework:
This Alexandria City Public Schools literacy framework is designed to:
1. Articulate an operational definition for “literacy” for use by all ACPS educators,
parents, and community stakeholders.
2. Delineate a set of controlling principles related to the key elements of literacy in all
content areas (i.e., “trans-disciplinary” literacy principles and strategies).
3. Summarize key research conclusions and evidence-based best practices related to
literacy within the content areas.
4. Provide an overview of observable subject-specific strategies for use in different
content areas.
5. Delineate strategies designed for use with students as they move along a learning
continuum (from emergent literacy through advanced, independent applications,
and transfer of literacy principles and techniques).
6. Provide a rich variety of electronic/downloadable resources for use with literacy
professional development sessions and workshops (e.g., websites, electronic links,
templates, assessment inventories and other tools).
Literacy Framework Page 1
Table of Contents
Literacy in the 21st Century School and Workplace .................................................................... Page 4
An Operational Definition of “Literacy” for Use by
ACPS Educators and Community Stakeholders ........................................................................... Page 6
Why This Literacy Framework? What Is It Designed to Help Teachers Do? .......................... Page 9
Addressing Instructional Practices That Work Against Literacy Development ...................... Page 11
Observing Literacy at Work in ACPS Classrooms
A Comprehensive Observation Protocol ........................................................................................ Page 15
Observing Literacy in the Content Areas ....................................................................................... Page 23
-- Career and Technical Education -- Physical Education -- Visual Arts
-- Mathematics -- Science -- World Languages
-- Performing Arts -- Social Studies -- English Language Arts
Comprehensive Balanced Literacy for Grades K-2 .......................................................................Page 29
Elements of Balanced Literacy Program: A Framework for the Primary Grades ...................Page 30
Comprehensive Balanced Literacy for Grades 3-5........................................................................Page 31
Elements of Balanced Literacy Program:
A Framework for the Intermediate & Middle Schools .................................................................Page 32
Key Learning Principles:
What Does Research Tell Us About Promoting Student Literacy?...........................................Page 33
Decoding and Comprehending Text:
Key Research-Based Strategies and Best Practices ........................................................................Page 38
Research-Based Reading Comprehension Strategies ...................................................................Page 46
Observing Student Decoding and Comprehension Behaviors
in a Literacy-Rich Learning Environment ......................................................................................Page 62
Vocabulary Acquisition Strategies and Best Practices ..................................................................Page 63
Note-Taking Strategies ........................................................................................................................Page 67
A Self-Reflection Questionnaire .......................................................................................................Page 69
Literacy Framework Page 2
Table of Contents (continued)
Writing-to-Learn Strategies................................................................................................................ Page 71
Types of Writing-to-Learn Activities ............................................................................................... Page 72
Examples of Writing-to-Learn Strategies ........................................................................................ Page 73
Questioning Strategies
(Promoting Higher-Order Thinking and Reasoning) .................................................................. Page 74
A Checklist for Effective Questioning ............................................................................................. Page 81
Questioning for Quality Thinking .................................................................................................... Page 82
Oral Language (Speaking/Listening) Strategies ........................................................................... Page 84
Twelve Components of Effective Classroom Assessment:
The Skillful Teacher (pp. 433-435) ..................................................................................................Page 87
Differentiated Assessment to Promote Literacy ............................................................................Page 101
Literacy Strategies for English Language Learners (ELL) ..........................................................Page 107
Literacy Strategies for Special Education Learners .......................................................................Page 112
Literacy Strategies for Talented and Gifted Learners ...................................................................Page 114
The Role of Technology in Promoting Student Literacy .............................................................Page 117
Literacy Framework Page 3
Literacy in the 21st Century School and Workplace
In the face of breathtaking technological innovation, information explosion, and global
interconnectedness, the 21st Century school and workplace demand knowledge workers equipped to
deal with change, personal and group dynamics, and self-management. These “meta-competencies”
require individuals to have well-developed literacy competencies associated with information
gathering and analysis, written expression, oral communication, data collection and evaluation, and
empirical observation. Consider that Time Magazine in its May 25, 2009, article “High Tech, High
Touch, High Growth” (P. 40) described the 10 career fields predicted to grow the most by 2016 as
work arenas requiring workers to be effective organizers, planners, and time managers—competencies
that presuppose workers who are literate and capable of critical, creative, and self-regulated learning.
According to “Beyond the Three Rs” (2009), a report by the Partnership for 21st Century
Skills: “Voters are clear: We are living in a different era that requires new thinking in our
approach to educating our youth. 80 percent of voters say the things students need to learn
today are different than 20 years ago. (P. 1).” This partnership—an internationally recognized
organization whose aim is “to help students master the multi-dimensional abilities required of
them in the 21st Century” (P. 1)—stresses the need for every student to acquire the ability to:
• Think and work creatively with others
• Reason effectively
• Make judgments and decisions
• Solve problems
• Access, evaluate, use, and manage information
• Adapt to change and be flexible
• Manage goals and time, work independently, and
be self-directed learners
• Manage projects and produce results
(21st Century Skills Framework, pp. 3-7)
Although longitudinal gains are evident in American students’ basic reasoning and computation skills
(NAEP, 2008, 2009), American students still lag behind many nations in such areas as practical
reasoning, analytical and evaluative judgment, and authentic applications of knowledge and skills
(TIMSS, 2007, 2008; NAEP, 2009; and PISA, 2007). Critics contend that there is a clear and growing
need to emphasize students’ independent use of complex reasoning skills and related competencies
such as metacognition, self-assessment, and self-regulation—key components associated with literacy
and the capacity of individuals to communicate with self, others, and groups.
Literacy Framework Page 4
Robert J. Marzano and many other prominent researchers (e.g., Piaget, 1928; Vygotsky, 1978; Bloom,
1956; Gardner, 1983) advocate engaging every learner in a gradual release of responsibility, with
students taught to assume growing levels of self-management and self-regulation. According to
Marzano (2003): “The research on the impact of teaching students strategies geared toward personal
responsibility is strong. Positive results using self-regulatory techniques range from increasing
competence in specific academic areas to increasing classroom participation (P. 77).” In effect, every
student must learn to: (1) plan for success, (2) organize ideas and materials to achieve personal and
academic goals, and (3) manage time and related resources in pursuit of both individual and shared
aims and priorities.
Educators’ need to address the startling changes we are all experiencing in the world of the
21st Century is powerfully summarized by the Partnership for 21st Century Skills Framework
(Education and Global Convergence: What Learning Is Needed for the 21st Century):
While today’s schools show the influence of industrial and information age models,
the 21st Century modern school must appropriately employ both individualized
and large scale approaches to assessment. It must bring together rigorous content
and real world relevance. It must focus on cognitive skills as well as those in affective
and aesthetic domains. It must be attentive to the needs of the individual child and to
society as a whole…At the same time, we can reinvigorate our schools in light of new
opportunities in our world, and new understandings of how people learn. (P. 7)
How, then, can we work collaboratively to promote students’ ability to develop and master
key literacy competencies and habits of mind? This framework is designed to answer that
important essential question.
Literacy Framework Page 5
Operational Definition of “Literacy”
The term “literacy” represents a complex set of interactive mental processes associated with
responding to, decoding, analyzing, and comprehending text. The term “text” refers to any medium of
communication in which a “sender” expresses information, ideas, emotions, and life experiences to a
“receiver” (i.e., a reader or audience). Text includes print and electronic media as well as the visual and
performing arts. Responding to, analyzing, and comprehending “text” can also include individuals’
interpretation of life experiences. Additionally, literacy involves our ability to communicate with
others, including our capacity for written expression, spoken expression, observation, and active
listening. Ultimately, a truly literate person demonstrates a sustained capacity for communication in a
variety of media, settings, and situations.
Universal Principles for use by ACPS Educators and Community Stakeholders
Comprehend Text We demonstrate comprehension when we confirm that we
understand print, visual, digital, and performance-based text
(e.g., a painting, a dance, a musical performance) using a
range of decoding and “meaning construction” strategies
and processes.
Read Text We construct meaning by activating background knowledge
Critically and and drawing inferences in order to analyze and critique the
Analytically ideas, structure, and organization of text(s).
Interpret a Variety We engage in interpretation to make sense (i.e., “construct
of Text meaning”) of what we experience and read, gathering
information and drawing inferences about what the text is
stating and implying. Texts may include the digital, visual, and
performing arts and the ways in which different media
nterrelate and overlap.
Write for a Variety We can express insights, inferences, judgments, and
of Purposes and interpretations via written and digital text in order to fulfill a
Audiences range of purposes for a variety of audiences.
Literacy Framework Page 6
Speak Effectively Oral communication involves our ability to use verbal and
and Powerfully in non-verbal cues, signals, techniques, and processes to convey
Both Formal and ideas, perspectives, and reactions to a variety of audiences in
Informal Settings one-on-one, small group, large group settings and situations—
whether face-to-face or digitally.
Listen Actively Literacy includes our ability to track another person or group’s
communication, including summarizing and paraphrasing what
they state directly and imply in accurate and complete ways.
Observe Accurately We use our senses to observe situations and real-world
and Thoroughly to phenomena, determining patterns and interconnections as well as
Identify and constructing meaning about the significance of those phenomena.
Analyze Patterns
Think About the Literate individuals use meta-cognitive reflection to self-
Meaning of Text monitor and self-regulate, including determining purpose(s) for
and Life communication and interaction with one or more forms of text.
Experiences
Develop a Sense of We can use literacy competencies to make ourselves stronger
Self-Efficacy and more self-directed learners. This process requires us to use
our ability to respond to a variety of text(s) to become more
efficacious in our approach to handling ourselves and our lives.
Express Ourselves Literacy also involves our ability to demonstrate creative
Creatively thinking, construct knowledge, and develop innovative
products and processes.
Investigate and 21st Century literacy emphasizes our use of technology as a
Analyze vehicle for achieving all literacy-based goals, including
Technology translating information, problem solving, decision making,
and strategic planning.
Literacy Framework Page7
Use Effective True literacy is proactive and goal oriented, requiring that we
Action Planning clarify our purpose for communication with clarity and
precision. Literacy-driven action planning involves
pre-determining how we will respond to one or more forms of
text and how we will develop and implement an action plan to
achieve the range of purpose(s) identified for the process of
communication required to complete a particular task.
Gather and Ana- A literate 21st Century individual uses a range of sources and
lyze Information resources to collect and analyze available data and related
Ethically and information in order to achieve our expressed goal(s) for a
Responsibly particular task or situation.
Make Decisions We must determine the scope of a decision to be made—and
Using a Coherent then gather complete and valid evidence to help us determine
and Sustained the most viable and productive course of action.
Strategic Process
Solve Problems Literacy is problem-based, requiring us to use a coherent and
Using a Coherent sustained approach to identifying and solving authentic
and Sustained problems
Strategic Process
Understand and 21st Century literacy is culturally sensitive, including our
Empathize with capacity to study, analyze, and evaluate the impact of culture
Universal Cultural upon individual and group life decisions and perspectives.
Patterns and
Distinctions
Literacy Framework Page 8
Why This Literacy Framework - What Is It Designed to Help Teachers Do?
1. This literacy framework should be used in the context of an ongoing professional learning
community (PLC) discussion of how to improve students’ literacy performance within and
across the content areas.
2. A professional learning community should consist of small groups of individuals
committed to working on a variation of study group and action research processes. Key
guiding questions for literacy PLCs should include:
• What is the status of our current students’ literacy performance?
• To what extent are there gaps or areas of underachievement related to literacy?
• When we disaggregate student performance data, do we discover specific cohorts
of students who need extra support or intervention in the areas of literacy within our
specific content areas?
• What research-based strategies for promoting literacy are we willing to try out to ad
dress our identified problems and areas of achievement gap?
• How can we study, collect data, and determine the “value added” of the strategies
and interventions we use?
• How can we share our conclusions and insights with others in the school?
3. When PLC groups identify emerging issues and problems shared with other educators in the
school, the literacy framework can be used as a rich resource for coaching and instructional
rounds. Here are some suggestions for both:
• Instructional Coaching: Instructional coaches are currently available to support
teachers in implementing the practices presented in this Literacy Framework. They
can do informal classroom observations, data analysis, and provide demonstration
lessons modeling key literacy strategies. Peers can also become fellow coaches,
observing one another’s classrooms and then exploring ways in which strategies
from the Literacy Framework might enhance student performance in the observed
classrooms.
• Instructional Rounds: Small groups make visitations to classrooms, with agreed-up
on “look-fors” (both in terms of what the teacher is doing and the students are
doing…) derived from the Literacy Framework. They are responsible for collecting
and analyzing data patterns relative to the criteria observed. Instructional rounds
are designed for data analysis and drawing of inferences about ways to improve
student achievement, rather than for purposes of evaluation.
Literacy Framework Page 9
4. Additionally, this Literacy Framework can be used for a variety of formal and informal
professional development purposes, including:
• Study group discussions
• Strategic planning activities (including coaching sessions focusing on literacy)
• Departmental or grade level professional development
• Formal professional development (on the entire literacy framework or key aspects of
it such as “writing to learn” strategies)
• Administrative observation trainings
• Professional development activities related to Response to Intervention (RtI)
• Alignment with school improvement planning initiatives
• Outreach initiatives to parents and community members
Literacy Framework Page 10
Addressing Instructional Practices That Work Against Literacy Development:
This Alexandria City Public Schools’ Literacy Framework is designed to help all educators integrate
research-based best practices designed to promote maximum achievement among all learners.
Specifically, it is designed to provide a counterpoint to instructional practices proven by research to
work against students’ maximum literacy development. Such practices include:
1. Emphasizing excessive didactic presentation of material (i.e., the “Sage on the Stage” model
of pedagogy): e.g., lecturing consistently during an entire class period. The research confirms
that for every ten minutes of formal didactic presentation, students need to engage in some
alternative form of small group or independent application and transfer work.
2. Using texts and related print and non-print materials that are not relevant or accessible to
students. Research tells us that a variety of materials are necessary—with student choice
playing a highly significant role in promoting motivation, engagement, and high levels of
student interest.
3. Using “busy work” to keep students quiet or passively occupied as a part of classroom
management: e.g., Word Searches, mechanical filling in of worksheets, crossword puzzles,
mindless drill-and-kill computer games. The research tells us that the learner must be
encouraged to be actively engaged in the learning process, including playing a central role
in self-regulation and self-assessment. Students must see the relevance of what they are doing
and why they are doing it. All learning activities and assignments should be clearly
criterion-related, i.e., students are very clear about the connection between lesson and unit
outcomes and the activities students are responsible for completing.
4. Displaying variations of low expectations: e.g., “I don’t ask my students to read because either
they won’t or they can’t…”: Students will not improve in their reading comprehension
performance unless they are engaged in active and guided reading processes. The strategies
identified in this framework can be used to promote active student comprehension—
especially when “tiered” readings are provided, i.e., readings assigned to students based upon
the same content focus but with varying degrees of reading difficulty or challenge. If the
students cannot read the identified text, teachers should provide alternatives. If students
won’t read, we need to examine ways to motivate them and engage their interest and sense of
relevance and authenticity.
Literacy Framework Page 11
5. Overemphasizing fiction—as opposed to non-fiction—as a text selection choice
(a variation of assigning reading but not teaching students how to read it, e.g., a textbook
selection): Students need direct and ongoing instruction in how to approach and “unlock”
non-fiction text. Interestingly, research confirms that reluctant readers actually prefer
working with non-fiction—with that format appearing to them as more accessible and
manageable. Emphasizing non-fiction-related reading, writing, speaking, and listening
activities can greatly enhance student comprehension and ability to communicate insights
and conclusions. Ideally, students should periodically have choice as to text selection,
reinforcing the power of differentiating based upon students’ interests and learning profiles.
6. Merely assigning reading—as opposed to helping students scaffold and analyze assigned
reading selections (including excessive use of Round Robin Reading): Reading should never be
just “assigned” without guiding questions and processes to help students decode and analyze the
meaning of the text. For example, every reading selection should have suggested guide questions
presented in the context of a meaningful reading protocol such as Before-During-After or SQ3R.
Similarly, merely having students engage in Round Robin reading (i.e., having students take turns
orally reading a paragraph) is proven by research to impede—rather than enhance—students’
reading comprehension since it often becomes a mechanical exercise in filling time.
7. Putting students in small groups and assuming that this constitutes cooperative learning:
A powerful 21st Century skill all students must develop is the capacity for collaboration and
operating effectively as a group member. Effective cooperative learning ensures that students
have a clear sense of purpose for their small group cohort and have clearly articulated norms for
group interaction. Roles (e.g., facilitator, time keeper, sergeant-at-arms, reporter/recorder, etc.)
should be clear, aligned with task purpose, and rotated during different sessions so that no one
remains in a single role consistently. Additionally, cooperative learning should be evaluated using
both group and individual grades, ensuring that no one individual takes on primary
responsibilities for task completion. Cooperative learning structures can greatly reinforce
students’ reading comprehension (e.g., Reciprocal Teaching, Tournaments and Games, etc.).
Literacy Framework Page 12
8. Suggesting that writing (or other literacy competencies) is only the responsibility of the
English teacher: Writing can be a powerful learning tool—not just the basis for an
assignment. This literacy framework confirms that writing improves reading, and reading
processes can enhance students’ writing performance. When assigning a writing activity,
students need to understand its purpose and its relationship to overall unit or lesson goals.
Informal writing assignments can be powerful writing-to-learn activities (e.g., Exit Slips,
Postcards Home, etc.). Additionally, all content areas should adopt some variation of the
writing process when formal compositions or essays are assigned, with students moving
through identifiable stages in writing: pre-writing, drafting, peer review, revision, editing,
publishing).
9. Failing to integrate formal and informal speaking/listening activities and assignments into all
content areas: Research is absolute in confirming that students will not learn to speak and
actively listen unless they are formally—and ongoingly—taught to do so. Students need
models, opportunities shape their ability to present in formal and informal situations, and
culminating performance assessment tasks requiring some form of formal or informal
presentation. Active listening (including students’ ability to summarize and paraphrase
accurately the ideas of others to whom they are listening) should be a regular and consistent
part of classroom community rules and culture. Giving students opportunities to engage in
small group and whole group presentations greatly reinforces their understanding of
text- based information and ideas.
10. Using technology as a cut-and-paste tool—rather than a true means for accessing, analyzing,
and presenting information: Research confirms that technology should be used as a tool for
answering student-generated questions and problems. Its use should be creative and inquiry-
based—rather than a mechanical tool for students to replicate existing information by
cutting and pasting from a website. The use of technology should be modeled by the teacher,
with students taught to move toward constructed meaning and transfer-based independent
application. Technology is not an end-in-itself—but a vehicle for opening up to students the
rich possibilities of information accessing, analysis, and synthesis.
Literacy Framework Page 13
11. Assigning “word lists” and requiring students to “look up” and write dictionary
definitions—and then use the word in a sentence: Research is absolute that this approach is
both the most used—and ironically the least effective method for teaching students
academic vocabulary. Instead, students need to have models of descriptions, examples, and
explanations for key academic terms. They need to create original versions of these ideas—
and actively use key academic vocabulary as part of daily discourse in class. Eventually,
students need to confirm their automatic use and internalization of key terms. Additionally,
a limited (rather than excessive) number of academic words and phrases should be taught as
part of formal vocabulary instruction. Excessively long (and sometimes trivial) word lists
can overload the learning process—and produce less—rather than more—student
comprehension and application.
So, this literacy framework will encourage educators in Alexandria City Public Schools to em-
phasize the following literacy processes in each of their classrooms:
• Read more, talk more, write more, think more!
• Allow for lots of choice in readings, including
differentiated texts—
• Ensure that students read for a range of
purposes —from personal interest to gathering
information to becoming informed about their
world—
• Model literacy strategies, including using
think-aloud activities to reinforce for students
how you are using a particular strategy or process—
• Integrate technology into the enhancement of students’ understanding of
text and discourse— rather than as an end in itself—
• Help all learners to understand the value of literacy and its subcomponents
as essential life-long skills that will help to determine their success and
happiness—
Literacy Framework Page 14
Observing Literacy at Work in ACPS Classrooms:
A Comprehensive Observation Protocol
Suggestions for Use:
The following observation protocol contains a detailed description of what an observer should see in
any ACPS classroom in which literacy-based principles and best practices are operational.
This protocol can be used for a variety of purposes, including:
1. Informal observations by administrators
2. Peer observations and coaching
3. Instructional rounds
4. Walk-through observations involving external and/or internal teams
The observation categories and related performance indicators can be addressed in their totality—or
observers may elect to concentrate upon one category at a time, looking for patterns and trends related
to a single area of literacy instruction and related student performance.
Observers may wish to use the following rating scale to assess the level of use of a particular strategy
or category:
4 = Highly evident throughout the lesson
3 = Evident during key aspects of lesson delivery
2 = Occasionally evident
1 = Little if any evidence
Part I: Decoding Text:
To what extent do emergent readers:
1. Display alphabet knowledge, correctly pronouncing the names and sounds associated with
printed letters?
2. Demonstrate phonological awareness, detecting, manipulating, or analyzing the auditory
aspects of spoken language (including the ability to distinguish or segment words, syllables,
or phonemes), independent of meaning?
3. Rapidly and automatically name letters or digits, including rapidly naming a sequence of
random letters or digits?
4. Rapidly and automatically name objects or colors, including accurately responding to a
sequence of repeating random sets of pictures of objects (e.g., car, tree, house, man) or
colors?
5. Write letters in isolation on request or write their own name?
Literacy Framework Page 15
Part I: Decoding Text:
To what extent do emergent readers (continued):
7. Apply concepts about print, including knowledge of print conventions (e.g., left-right, front-
back) and concepts (book cover, author, text)?
8. Demonstrate print knowledge, i.e., a combination of alphabet knowledge, concepts about
print, and early decoding?
9. Show reading readiness, a combination of alphabet knowledge, concepts of print, vocabulary,
memory, and phonological awareness?
10. Produce or comprehend spoken language, including vocabulary and grammar?
11. Engage in visual processing, matching or discriminating visually presented symbols?
Part II: Comprehending Text:
To what extent do students:
1. Demonstrate comprehension of print, visual, digital, and performance-based text
(e.g., a painting, a dance, a musical performance, a scientific experiment)?
2. Strategically apply before-, during-, and after-reading strategies to construct meaning in
response to text?
3. Use a range of decoding strategies and processes?
4. Use a range of “meaning construction” strategies and processes?
5. Transfer what they have read or learned, including explaining, interpreting, and applying it
to new or unanticipated situations and tasks?
6. Analyze perspectives and express empathy in response to text?
7. Use a variety of metacognitive processes requiring them to self-regulate, self-assess,
self-express, and self-adjust?
Part III: Reading Text Critically and Analytically:
To what extent do students:
1. Construct meaning by activating background knowledge and experience aligned with content?
2. Draw inferences in order to analyze and critique the ideas, structure, and organization of
text(s)?
3. Pose and answer a range of inferential, critical, and synthesis questions while reading?
4. Develop critical inferences and conclusions?
Literacy Framework Page 16
Part III: Reading Text Critically and Analytically:
To what extent do students (continued):
5. Support conclusions with text-based evidence?
6. Make judgments about the quality of ideas and presentation in a text(s)?
7. Discern how parts of a text align with the whole?
8. Make connections within and across texts, including tracing the development of key motifs
and themes?
Part IV: Interpreting a Variety of Text (Digital, Visual, and Performing Arts)—
Including Exploring Ways in Which Different Media Interrelate and Overlap:
To what extent do students:
1. Engage in interpretation to make sense of what they experience and read?
2. Use their understanding of the grammar and structures of specific media (e.g., electronic,
visual, performing) to interpret and evaluate non-print text?
3. Gather information and draw inferences about what the text is stating and implying?
4. Collect and present evidence from the text to defend conclusions and assertions?
5. Compare alternative or conflicting perspectives presented in opposing texts?
6. Determine which perspective(s) may have the greatest validity—and why?
Part V: Writing for a Variety of Purposes and Audiences:
To what extent do students:
1. Express insights, inferences, judgments, and interpretations via written and digital text?
2. Use written expression to achieve a range of purposes (i.e., to describe, narrative, inform,
explain and support ideas, convey information, analyze and critique, persuade and defend
an argument or perspective, and help oneself to clarify and understand information and
real-world experiences)?
3. Write for a variety of audiences?
4. Convey a personal tone and voice in their written expression?
5. Use the stages of the writing process to enhance written communication (i.e., pre-writing,
drafting, revision and peer critique, final drafting, publishing)?
6. Use writing as a vehicle for self-expression?
7. Use writing as a tool for self-inquiry and self-discovery?
Literacy Framework Page 17
Part VI: Speaking Effectively and Powerfully in Both Formal and
Informal Settings:
To what extent do students:
1. Use verbal and non-verbal cues, signals, techniques, and processes to convey ideas?
2. Engage actively in a variety of formal and informal speech activities (e.g., formal and
informal debates, presentations, panel discussions, think-pair-share activities)?
3. Use oral communication strategies to communicate and express personal perspectives and
reactions?
4. Modify oral communication to accommodate the needs, goals, and backgrounds of a variety
of audiences?
5. Communicate effectively in one-on-one, small group, large group settings and situations—
whether face-to-face or digitally?
6. Use feedback (verbal and non-verbal) from the audience to adjust and vary oral
communication and self-expression?
7. Integrate, where appropriate, visual aids and electronic tools to reinforce and enhance oral
communication and presentations?
Part VII: Listening Actively So That We Understand What Someone Is Saying
and How He or She Is Saying It:
To what extent do students:
1. Track another person or group’s communication accurately and appropriately?
2. Summarize and restate accurately what others communicate in a dialogue or conversation?
3. Use information they receive aurally in order to draw inferences,
4. Apply information they receive aurally to make decisions and solve problems?
5. Display empathy and understanding when listening to others?
6. Function as a responsible and responsive audience member?
Literacy Framework Page 18
Part VIII: Observing Accurately and Thoroughly to Identify and
Analyze Patterns:
To what extent do students:
1. Use their senses to observe accurately situations and real-world phenomena?
2. Determine patterns and interconnections as well as constructing meaning about the
significance of those phenomena?
3. Take in and make sense of print and non-print communication media?
Part IX: Thinking About the Meaning of Text and Life Experiences:
To what extent do students:
1. Use metacognitive reflection to self-monitor and self-regulate as they respond to text and life
experiences?
2. Determine purpose(s) for communication and interaction with one or more forms of text?
3. Adjust behavior as they receive feedback and input from themselves and others?
4. Modify their behavior to help them get closer to becoming proficient in applying a
procedure or process?
5. Adjust behavior to achieve identified short- and long-range goals?
Part X: Developing a Sense of Self-Efficacy:
To what extent do students:
1. Use literacy skills and competencies to make themselves stronger and more self-directed
learners?
2. Use their ability to respond to a variety of text(s) to acquire information that will help them
to make decisions, solve problems, and become efficacious in their approach to handling
themselves and their lives?
3. Demonstrate progress toward becoming responsible individuals and citizens capable of
responding to and evaluating critically a variety of text-based messages?
4. Assume responsibility for their actions as life-long learners?
5. Use their information-acquisition skills and processes to enrich their lives as human beings?
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Part XI: Expressing Ourselves Creatively:
To what extent do students:
1. Demonstrate creative thinking?
2. Construct knowledge and develop innovative products and processes to confirm their a
chievement of designated goals and standards?
3. Articulate and communicate a personal voice and vision, drawing upon their life experiences
and understandings to generate new and novel ideas?
4. Display fluency of self-expression and originality of thought?
5. Use creative thinking strategies (e.g., pre-writing, brainstorming, collaborative idea
generation) as part communicating with others?
6. Express their understanding of themselves and others through various forms of creative
expression?
Part XII: Investigating and Analyzing Technology and Using It as a Vehicle
for Understanding, Communication, and Self-Expression:
To what extent do students:
1. Use technology as a vehicle for achieving literacy-based goals?
2. Translate information across media?
3. Apply technology to tasks involving problem solving, decision making, and strategic
planning?
4. Access and disseminate digital information ethically and responsibly?
5. Use technology as a tool and focal point for study, analysis, and critique in itself?
6. Determine the most viable technologies to use to achieve a goal or purpose?
7. Judge the validity and value of electronic tools and sources?
8. Discern creative ways they can integrate technology into their own communication
process—with both self and others?
9. Use technology as an essential literacy vehicle for self-analysis and self-actualization?
Literacy Framework Page 20
Part XIII: Using Effective Action Planning:
To what extent do students:
1. Demonstrate the ability to be proactive and goal oriented?
2. Clarify their purpose for communication with clarity and precision?
3. Pre-determine how they will respond to one or more forms of text?
4. Develop and implement an action plan to achieve the range of identified purpose(s) and
goals for communication?
5. Revisit and evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of their action as they implement and
complete it?
Part XIV: Gathering and Analyzing Information Ethically and Responsibly
in Order to Achieve Self-Generated or Collaboratively-Identified
Goals
To what extent do students:
1. Use a range of sources and resources to collect and analyze available data and related
information in order to achieve expressed goal(s) for a particular task or situation?
2. Continually evaluate and make judgments about the validity of the sources they use—and
strive for objective and unbiased resources to the extent that they are available?
3. Ensure that information is as complete, unbiased, and accurate as possible?
4. Engage in responsible collection and analysis of information?
5. Observe copyright and intellectual property laws and policies?
6. Ensure that they do not suggest that another’s ideas, words, images, or related artistic
products are their own?
Part XV: Making Decisions Using a Coherent and Sustained Strategic
Process: To what extent do student:
To what extent do students:
1. Determine the scope of a decision to be made—and then gather complete and valid evidence
to help us determine the most viable and productive course of action?
2. Identify the key elements of the decision to be made (to fulfill one or more stated goals)?
3. Brainstorm possible alternative solutions to achieve their goal(s)?
Literacy Framework Page 21
Part XV: Making Decisions Using a Coherent and Sustained Strategic Process:
To what extent do students (continued):
4. Gather and analyze information to evaluate each decision?
5. Use clear evaluation criteria to judge alternative options?
6. Make the most efficacious choice concerning the alternative options available to us?
7. Develop and implement an action plan to achieve or realize the final decision(s) they make?
8. Evaluate the results of their action planning process, including adjusting and modifying as needed?
Part XVI: Solving Problems Using a Coherent and Sustained Strategic Process:
To what extent do students:
1. Use a coherent and sustained approach to identifying and solving authentic problems?
2. Clearly define and articulate the problem (i.e., a barrier or issue that is impeding our
achievement of one or more goals)?
3. Analyze possible causes for the problem?
4. Brainstorm and analyze alternative approaches to solving the problem?
5. Select the most viable approach to solving the problem, based upon coherent and well
articulated evaluation criteria?
6. Plan the implementation of the best alternative, based upon those criteria (i.e., action
planning)?
7. Monitor implementation of the plan, making adjustments as needed?
8. Verify if the problem has been resolved, making appropriate adjustments?
Part XVII: Understanding and Empathizing with Universal Cultural Patterns
and Distinctions Unique to a Specific Cultural Context:
To what extent do students:
1. Display cultural awareness, including a capacity to study, analyze, and evaluate the impact of
culture upon individual and group life decisions and perspectives?
2. Express an understanding of the importance of cultural context and how it influences our
interpretations about the meaning of real -world experiences and phenomena?
3. Demonstrate an ability to “read” a cultural context, including empathizing with others who
come from different backgrounds and cultural settings?
4. Recognize, explain, and apply universal themes and patterns that unify and connect different
eras and cultural milieus?
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Observing Literacy in the Content Areas
Suggestions for Use:
In addition to the research-based principles identified previously, every content area presents unique
challenges and opportunities for promoting student literacy. Consider the literacy strategies
recommended for each of the following content areas. To what extent are they evident in your own
classroom—or in the classrooms of teachers you observe?
Career and Technical Education
1. Encourage students to use SQ3R (survey, question,
read, recite, review) as they read and analyze technical text.
2. Anticipate areas of required text that may present challenges and
difficulties for some students.
3. Encourage students to identify and apply key academic
vocabulary required for students to understand key unit
concepts, skills, and processes.
4. Periodically engage students in writing assignments that will extend and refine their
understanding of key content using digital and print tools.
5. When students work in one-on-one and small group settings, model and reinforce students’
active listening skills.
6. Support students’ use of technology to design and complete required and independent tasks.
7. Offer opportunities for students to present findings and achievements in formal and informal
discussion and presentation formats.
Mathematics
1. Emphasize the importance of reading comprehension strategies
as part of students’ work with mathematical word problems
(i.e., the need to “unpack” the meaning of text presented within
the problem).
2. Encourage students to share insights and approaches to
problem solving in one-on-one and small group debriefing
sessions.
Literacy Framework Page 23
Mathematics (continued)
3. Ask students to summarize and synthesize what they have learned in a particular lesson (or
lesson segment) using exit slips, reflective journal entries, and other forms of brief, informal
writing activities in digital or print formats.
4. Have students present oral summaries and presentations of their approaches to mathematical
problem solving (e.g., creating a power point or video, demonstration, recap).
5. Approach academic vocabulary in mathematics strategically, ensuring that students have a
conceptual understanding of key terms and phrases.
6. Integrate technology into students’ exploration of key mathematical concepts and problem-
solving processes, including electronic opportunities to debrief, reflect, and revise thinking.
Performing Arts
1. Explore with students the concept of “performance
as text”: What will we experience? How is the
performance organized? What are the “grammars”
of the art form we are investigating (i.e., rules,
procedures, protocols)?
2. Debrief with students at the conclusion of a performance (or a preparation for one): What
have we learned? How might we have improved the performance? What do we need to work
on next?
3. Ensure that core academic vocabulary is taught directly, with students encouraged to use key
academic terms as part of everyday discourse.
4. Ask students to write and publish reviews and critiques of performances they observe and
experience as audience members.
5. Allow time for students to debrief and synthesize their reactions to their own
performances—and those of peers and professionals—via oral presentations and informal
small group analysis.
Literacy Framework Page 24
Physical Education
1. At key juncture points during the academic year, encourage
students to investigate and analyze articles and related readings
focused upon a key theme, issue, or topic explored in class.
2. Ask students to summarize and analyze these readings—and
present their conclusions and insights to peers in virtual and
face-to-face settings.
3. Integrate writing opportunities for students, e.g., summaries,
reflections, opportunities to analyze a particular issue or process.
Use both digital and print formats for writing assignments.
4. Periodically, provide opportunities for students to discuss their
progress with peers: What have I learned? What am I doing well? What do I need help with?
5. Revisit key academic vocabulary using research-based techniques and strategies.
Science
1. Approach science labs as a form of text: What can we
predict we will observe? What will we need to complete
the lab? What is the purpose(s) of doing this lab? How
will we collect and analyze data during the lab? How will
we debrief at the conclusion of the lab? How will we work
together during the lab?
2. Introduce and revisit key academic vocabulary,
encouraging students to internalize and use it as a part of their own daily discourse.
3. Integrate formal and informal writing assignments into weekly debriefings and synthesis
essions using both digital and print writing formats.
4. Encourage students to present their insights and observations in formal and informal oral
presentation sessions using both virtual and face-to-face settings.
5. Integrate technology into students’ work with science content and processes, including
opportunities for on-line investigations and research.
Literacy Framework Page 25
Social Studies
1. Reinforce students’ understanding of the range of
text associated with social studies (i.e., expository,
argumentation/persuasive, editorials, political
cartoons, etc.)—revisiting key text-based features
and challenges in both digital and print formats.
2. Emphasize comparison and contrast of perspectives
and points of view as a key focal point for reading
and discussion.
3. Include opportunities for formal and informal
debate as a powerful tool for building students’ oral
communication skills and competencies.
4. Use technology as a powerful tool for research and information accessing and analysis.
5. Make certain that key academic vocabulary is taught within the context of lessons,
emphasizing students’ acquisition and internalizing of key terms and concepts.
6. Ensure that written expression, both digital and print, is a fundamental and ongoing part of
students’ learning experience in social studies.
7. Reinforce principles and strategies for active listening as students discuss and debate ideas
and perspectives.
Visual Arts
1. Explore with students the concept of “visual art as text”:
What are our expectations about this medium? How is the
art form organized? What are the “grammars” of the art form
we are investigating (i.e., rules, procedures, protocols)?
2. Debrief with students at the conclusion of a class discussion
of a particular artist or genre: What have we learned?
How has this viewing experience expanded our
understanding and insight? What misunderstandings or
misconceptions have we addressed?
3. Prepare students to understand the sequence required to complete an assigned task
including using SQ3R or other reading strategies as they prepare to interact with a written
text (e.g., sets of directions).
Literacy Framework Page 26
Visual Arts (continued)
4. Ensure that core academic vocabulary is taught directly, with students encouraged to use key
academic terms as part of everyday discourse in approaching the visual arts.
5. Ask students to write and publish reviews and critiques of art works and media they observe
and experience.
6. Allow time for students to debrief and synthesize their reactions to their own work—and
those of peers and professionals—via oral presentations and informal small group analysis
(i.e., peer critiques and peer review sessions) using both virtual and face-to-face environments.
World Languages
1. Integrate research-based decoding skills and strategies into
students’ initial work with language acquisition within the
world language they are studying.
2. Use appropriate previewing and related before-during-after
reading strategies as students read and discuss text presented
in the world language being studied.
3. Offer extensive opportunities for students to understand and
apply key concepts, words, idioms, and phrases—using key vocabulary instruction
techniques and strategies to reinforce vocabulary acquisition.
4. Emphasize oral communication activities and tasks using digital and face-to-face tools to rein
force and extend students’ growing fluency and language command.
5. Periodically, offer students opportunities to engage in and record dialogues, monologues, and
spontaneous conversations using key expressions and vocabulary.
6. Integrate technology into students’ exploration of the history and culture of world regions
and locales associated with the world language being studied engaging in digital
communication and collaboration tools.
Literacy Framework Page 27
English Language Arts
1. Use a range of “before/pre-reading” strategies to engage
student interest and understanding of the goals and purposes
of assigned reading assignments and related text(s).
2. Encourage students during reading of fiction and non-fiction,
digital and print text to reflect on their comprehension and
monitor their level of understanding.
3. Ask students to share insights and observations about the meaning of text selections.
4. At the conclusion of reading assignments, encourage students to synthesize ideas, patterns,
and themes.
5. Integrate reading and writing assignments, encouraging students to share insights about text
via formal and informal compositions in digital and print formats.
6. Use a range of formal and informal oral presentation and communication strategies and
processes in virtual as well as face-to-face settings.
7. Identify key academic vocabulary necessary for student understanding of text, including
examples, illustrations, and explanations presented by instructor and then refined through
student application.
8. Integrate technology into tasks that allow students to express insights and observations,
including technology-based information investigation and analysis.
Literacy Framework Page 28
Comprehensive Balanced Literacy for Grades K-2
Read Aloud and Interactive Read Aloud:
The teacher reads aloud to the whole class or small groups of learners, modeling fluent reading of
narrative and expository text structures. In the Interactive Read Aloud, the teacher models his/her
Teacher Support
thinking process to demonstrate how good readers engage in metacognition during reading.
Students practice targeted objectives in peer to peer conversations about meaningful text.
Selected reading materials represent a variety of genres and reflect our diverse society. There is an
emphasis on oral language, vocabulary and comprehension.
Shared Reading:
Using enlarged text that all children can see or multiple copies of the text, the teacher reads to the
children. Eventually, learners join in, reading repeated phrases, refrains, etc. with the teacher.
Favorite texts may be re-read many times, drawing attention to the special features. Re-reading
familiar text with children also models and develops fluency and expressive reading. Appropriate
Shared Reading texts are those that the reader can successfully access with support. Suggested
texts include big books, content materials, retellings, summaries, interactive and shared writing
products, poems, songs and student-made books. There is an emphasis on fluency, vocabulary
and comprehension.
Small Group Differentiated Instruction:
The teacher uses data to cluster small groups of students at similar developmental spelling stages
and reading levels. The teacher supports students through systematic word study/phonics
Learner Independence
instruction and purposeful introduction and guidance through new text. Through a consistent
word study routine that uses a compare and contrast strategy rather than worksheets, children
learn to recognize sounds and patterns within and across words, working toward effortless word
recognition in multiple contexts. The teacher then uses minilessons before, during and after the
reading to support students in reading the entire text to themselves. There is an emphasis on
phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension.
Accountable Independent Reading:
Students read a large quantity and variety of texts. The texts are carefully selected, by the student
and/or teacher, to be at the student’s independent reading level and to be of high-interest to the
student. As appropriate, the teacher implements accountable reading structures that support
developing each and every student’s stamina, independence and engagement with reading. There
is an emphasis on fluency and comprehension.
Key:
High Low
Literacy Framework Page 29
Elements of Balanced Literacy Program: A Framework for the Primary Grades
Writing
Teacher Support
Writing Aloud:
The teacher models writing by prewriting, drafting, revising, and editing in front of the learners.
The teacher verbalizes his/her thinking (“thinks aloud”), demonstrating to students how a writer
thinks when engaged in writing.
Shared Writing:
The teacher and children work together to compose messages and stories. The teacher supports
the process as scribe.
Interactive Writing:
Learner Independence
As in shared writing, the teacher and learners compose messages and stories that are written using
a “shared pen” technique. The process directly and physically involves the children in writing.
Guided Writing or Writing Workshop:
The children engage in writing a variety of texts. They listen to and share constructive comments
about one another’s writing and participate together in the editing process. The teacher guides the
process and provides instruction through mini-lessons and conferences.
Independent Writing:
The children write their own pieces, retellings, labels, speech balloons, lists, correspondents, etc.
This is in addition to writing stories and informational pieces. As often as possible, the writing is
for real purposes and real audiences; i.e., it is authentic.
Special attention to letters, letter sounds, words, and how words work:
This attention is woven throughout the balanced literacy’s framework’s teaching and learning
activities. Teachers seize opportunities to teach phonics as well as - in the primary grades - phone-
mic awareness. Children learn how to use letters and words in their reading and writing, including
and understanding of the use of temporary spellings as well as correct application of spelling
principals. Learners’ skill in using letters and words is supported through the use of alphabet
centers, word banks, word walls, word sorts, etc.
Literacy Framework Page 30
Comprehensive Balanced Literacy for Grades 3-5
Read Aloud and Interactive Read Aloud:
Teacher Support
The teacher reads aloud to learners, modeling fluent reading of narrative and expository text structures. In
the Interactive Read Aloud, the teacher models his/her thinking process to demonstrate how good readers
engage in metacognition during reading. Students practice targeted objectives in peer-to-peer conversations
about the meaningful text. Selected reading materials represent a variety of genres and reflect our diverse
society. There is an emphasis on oral language, vocabulary and comprehension.
Shared Reading:
Using enlarged text that all children can see or multiple copies of the text, the teacher reads to the children.
Eventually, learners join in as they develop fluency and expression, with the teacher’s guidance. Appro-
priate shared reading texts are those that the reader can successfully access with support. Suggested texts
include big books, poems, songs, readers’ theatre scripts and content area books. There is an emphasis on
fluency, vocabulary and comprehension.
Small Group Differentiated Instruction:
Guided Reading: The teacher works with groups of learners having similar reading processes, supporting
the readers in the strategic reading of text, often nonfiction. The teacher selects teaching points and pro-
vides mini-lessons before, during and after the reading. With the teacher’s support, all students individually
read the entire text to themselves. At-promise readers receive explicit phonics instruction during part of
these lessons. There is an emphasis on systematic comprehension instruction, as well as vocabulary
instruction, for all students.
Literature Circles:
Students meet in small, temporary groups to discuss selected texts, often novels. Students read the text on their
own and then convene for discussion according to a regular, predictable schedule. Teachers serve as facilitators,
not instructors, during the book discussions, which are open-ended and conversational in nature. There is an
emphasis on vocabulary and comprehension.
Learner Independence
Word Study:
The teacher uses data to cluster small groups of students at similar developmental spelling stages. Through a
consistent word study routine that uses a compare and contrast strategy rather than worksheets, children learn
to recognize sounds and patterns within and across words, working toward effortless word recognition in
multiple contexts. Word Study is a bridge between reading and writing. As features are taught, students are held
accountable for applying them in daily reading and writing. There is an emphasis on phonics and vocabulary.
Accountable Independent Reading:
Students read a large quantity and variety of texts. The texts are carefully selected, by the student and/or teacher,
to be at the student’s independent reading level and to be of high-interest to the student. As appropriate, the
teacher implements accountable reading structures that support developing each and every student’s stamina,
independence and engagement with sustained reading. There is an emphasis on fluency & comprehension.
Literacy Framework Page 31
Elements of Balanced Literacy Program: A Framework for the Intermediate & Middle Schools
Writing
Teacher Support
Writing Aloud:
Thje teacher models writing by prewriting, drafting, revising, and editing in front of the learners.
The teacher verbalizes his/her thinking (“thinks aloud”), demonstrating to students how a writier
thinks when engaged in writing.
Shared Writing:
The teacher and learners work together to compose narrative and exploratory text. The teacher
supports the process as scribe. Shared writing is most appropriate with emerging writiers and with
the most struggling writier.
Interactive Writing:
Similar to shared writing. the teacher amd learners compose text using a “shared pen” technique -
Learner Independence
directly and physically involving the students in writing. Again, like shared writing, this process is
most appropriate for emerging writiers and seriously struggling writiers.
Guided Writing or Writing Workshop:
The students compose a variety of narrative and expository texts. They listen to and share
constructive comments about one another’s writing and perhaps participate together in the edit-
ing process. The teacher guides the process, providing instruction through responsive
mini-lessons and teacher-writer conferences.
Independent Writing:
The students write their own pieces, including narrative and exploratory text, story and
infomational text summaries, creative writing, correspondence, etc. As often as possible, the
writing is for real purposes and real audiences; i.e., it is authentic.
Special attention to letters, letter sounds, words, and how words work:
This attention is woven throughout the balanced literacy framework’s teaching and learning
activities. Students learn how to use word analysis skills in their reading and writing. Learners’
word/vocabulary is fostered through the use of word walls, word sorts, sematic mapping, word
banks, the study of word roots, skill affixes, and word origins, etc. In some limited cases,
assessment may indicate an intermediate/middle school student’s need for instruction in phonics
as a decoding strategy.
Literacy Framework Page 32
Key Learning Principles:
What Does Research Tell Us About Promoting Student Literacy?
Cognitive Learning Theory:
1. There are no blank slates. We construct meaning by attaching new knowledge to existing schema.
2. Students should be continually engaged in asking such questions as “Why are we learning
this? How does this connect to me and my previous experiences? To what extent can I make
connections with prior learning and the world beyond the classroom?”
3. Learning is highly situated. Transfer does not necessarily occur naturally. It requires that
students be coached to move from initial acquisition of new knowledge and skills toward
growing levels of constructed meaning and independent transfer. (Scaffolding is key.)
4. Learning often occurs in associational and recursive ways, not in neat, linear fashion.
Students need time to reflect and express their understandings—as well as
misunderstandings and areas in which they need help.
5. Effective learning is strategic: Students need to learn when to use knowledge, how to adapt it,
and how to self-assess and self-monitor.
Implications for Enhancing Students’ Literacy Development:
Promoting students’ literacy development requires constant on-the-spot coaching and
criterion-based feedback to learners so that they can revisit, revise, rethink, and refine their
understanding of text, including life experiences. Such standards-based coaching helps them
to play an active role in progressing from basic knowledge acquisition toward proficient and
advanced levels of learning goal mastery.
Literacy Framework Page 33
Constructivist Teaching and Learning:
1. Students (and their varying readiness levels, interests, and learning profiles) should be at the
heart of the teaching-learning process.
2. The teacher should be a facilitator and coach, not just a dispenser of information.
3. Content should be presented whole to part, with emphasis upon big ideas and essential
questions so that every learner can understand the “big picture.”
4. Assessment and instruction should be seamless, with continuing feedback to learners about
how they are doing and how they can improve their learning process.
5. Experiential learning, inquiry, and exploration supersede lecture and “transmission” of
information.
Implications for Enhancing Students’ Literacy Development:
Effective literacy instruction places the learner at the center of his or her own assessment
and learning process. It actively engages students in the processes of self-monitoring,
self-regulation, self-adjustment, and metacognition. Through it, students see the “big pic-
ture”: i.e., Why are we learning this? How can I help myself to improve? How can I enhance
my understanding of text—and my ability to communicate how I am experiencing things—
and constructing meaning?
Brain-Compatible Teaching and Learning:
1. The brain asks “Why?” Therefore, the “compelling why” should be addressed at the beginning of
every lesson or lesson segment.
2. The brain searches for connections, associations, and patterns: Students need help to see pat
terns, connections, and relationships within what they are learning.
3. The memory system to which we most often teach (the declarative/semantic/linguistic) is
inferior to the episodic (i.e., the memory of emotion, relationships, and narrative) and
procedural memory (i.e., the physical/muscular/tactual-kinesthetic) systems in storing and
retaining knowledge.
4. The brain “downshifts” when it perceives threat in the environment. Classrooms must be safe
and inviting learning communities.
Literacy Framework Page 34
Implications for Enhancing Students’ Literacy Development:
Brain-compatible teaching and learning reinforces the sense that “we are all in this together,”
including emphasis upon peer coaching, peer response groups, and peer celebration of learn-
ing progress. By engaging all memory systems, students retain more information, skills, and
procedures—and deepen their understanding of the “compelling why…” The more engaging
and physically active the learning experience, the more students will retain and understand.
Learning Style Preferences, Learning Modalities, and Multiple Intelligences:
1. We take in impressions and construct meaning about our world through multiple sensory
channels and modalities.
2. There is no single way to learn: We construct meaning, perceive our world, and make judgments
based upon a variety of learning styles.
3. According to Howard Gardner, intelligence is a potential, not an innate gift, and manifests
through multiple forms such as the linguistic, logical/mathematical, visual/spatial, musical,
bodily/ kinesthetic, interpersonal, intra-personal, and naturalist/ecological.
Implications for Enhancing Students’ Literacy Development:
Using a range of feedback tasks and strategies ensures that students’ learning style preferences
are accommodated. When students are periodically allowed options for demonstrating their
achievement of learning goals (e.g., via performance tasks involving multiple modalities and
formats, self-reflections, cooperative learning, and scaffolded prompts and projects), they
activate a range of intelligences and skills. Additionally, great literacy instruction takes into
account students’ unique needs and strengths, including their varying readiness levels,
interests, and learning profiles. The more students can “see themselves” in what they are
doing, the greater their level of engagement and retention.
Literacy Framework Page 35
Emotional Intelligence:
1. Dan Goleman and the Stanford “marshmallow experiments”: Emotional intelligence is a more
powerful determinant of life success (e.g., relationships, career, schooling) than the cognitive/
intellectual.
2. Students need coaching and support to develop a sense of efficacy and social consciousness.
3. Classrooms should be safe and inviting communities of learning.
Implications for Enhancing Students’ Literacy Development:
Interacting with powerful text (print, electronic, visual and performing arts, life
experiences) can provide students with powerful opportunities to develop emotional
intelligence. The more students are empowered to be responsible for their own learning
process, the greater their sense of efficacy and self-regulation. During effective literacy
instruction, students learn to monitor and adjust their own behavior in relationship to
learning goals. Classroom climate is enhanced by expanding emphasis upon student
interaction and direct engagement in the learning process.
Literacy Framework Page 36
Creativity and Flow:
1. Mihalyi Csikzentmihalyi: “Flow is a condition in which we experience a sense of
timelessness, engagement, and stress-free challenge.”
2. Creativity requires the ability to free associate and brainstorm.
3. We must help students to push the limits of their knowledge and ability.
4. Students must be taught to tolerate and explore situations and ideas that are ambiguous and
open-ended.
Implications for Enhancing Students’ Literacy Development:
An expanded emphasis upon active engagement in metacognitive and self-regulating
processes encourages students to overcome the perception that: “My teacher tells me how I am
doing so I don’t have to be responsible for doing it.” It reinforces the “locus of control” as being
centered within the learner. By engaging students in active self-assessment and self-monitoring,
formative assessment expands the likelihood that students can gain acceptance of challenging
and open-ended tasks and situations. Effective literacy instruction encourages students to
demonstrate creative self-expression and experience flow states (i.e., the universal sense of
timeless engagement where tasks are sufficiently engaging and challenging to take students
“outside” themselves).
Literacy Framework Page 37
Decoding and Comprehending Text:
Key Research-Based Strategies and Best Practices
Research-Based Decoding Variables
According to the National Institute for Literacy report Developing Early Literacy: Report of the
National Early Literacy Panel (2008, pp. vii-viii), research confirms the importance and impact of
the following eleven (11) variables in promoting emergent literacy and building a solid foundation
for students’ later literacy development:
1. Alphabet knowledge:
knowledge of the names and sounds associated with printed letters.
2. Phonological awareness:
the ability to detect, manipulate, or analyze the auditory aspects of spoken language (including
the ability to distinguish or segment words, syllables, or phonemes), independent of meaning.
3. Rapid automatic naming of letters or digits:
the ability to rapidly name a sequence of random letters or digits.
4. Rapid automatic naming of objects or colors:
the ability to rapidly name a sequence of repeating random sets of pictures of objects
(e.g., car, tree, house, man) or colors.
5. Writing or writing name:
the ability to write letters in isolation on request or to write one’s own name.
6. Phonological memory:
the ability to remember spoken information for a short period of time.
7. Concepts about print:
knowledge of print conventions (e.g., left-right, front-back) and concepts
(book cover, author, text).
8. Print knowledge:
a combination of alphabet knowledge, concepts about print, and early decoding.
9. Reading readiness:
usually a combination of alphabet knowledge, concepts of print, vocabulary, memory, and
phonological awareness.
10. Oral language:
the ability to produce or comprehend spoken language, including vocabulary and grammar.
11. Visual processing:
the ability to match or discriminate visually presented symbols.
Literacy Framework Page 38
ACPS students are taught spelling through a systematic, differentiated approach called Word Study.
The ACPS word study continuum below is a guide for teachers to use as they implement
systematic, differentiated word study instruction into their guided reading instruction. Ongoing
assessment data should be used to identify the appropriate weekly sorts for students. Teachers
should contact a literacy coach or reading specialist if assistance is needed in analyzing student data
for determining next steps in instruction.
I. Routines and Procedures for Word Study
__ Sort Intro
__ Sort and record in Categories
__ Speed Sort
__ Word Hunt
__ Spell Check and Games (Assessment)
II. Strategies for the Developmental Stage
__ Syllable-Counting
__ Rhyming
__ Letter recognition (different fonts)
uppercase consonants
lowercase consonants
uppercase vowels
lowercase vowels
III. Sequence for Letter-Name Stage
Initial Sounds: s, m, b,
continue sorting 3-4 initial sounds
t, a, l, c, f, d, r, o, p, n, g, I, v, k, u, z, y, e, j, w, h
Same-Vowel Word Families:
at an ad ap ag
it in ip ig ill
ot og op
ut ug un
et eg ed ell
Literacy Framework Page 39
Review week at the end of same-vowel word families.
Initial Blends and Digraphs (pictures and words in sorts)
t/h/th
s/h/sh
c/h/ch
th, sh, ch, wh
st, sm, sp, sn, sk, sw
bl, sl, fl, pl
br, cr, fr, gr, pr
qu
Review
Mixed-Vowel Word Families:
at/ot/it
ag/og/ap/op
an/en/in/un
ock/ick/ack/uck
ish/ash/ush
all/ell/ill
ing/ang/ung/ong
ink/ank/unk
ump/amp/imp
Short Vowels (not in word families):
a/i
o/u/e
All five short vowels
Affricates:
d/j/dr
t/tr/ch
Literacy Framework Page 40
IV. Sequence for Within Word, Syllable Juncture and Derivational Constancy
CVC (short)/ CVCe (long):
a/a_e
i/i_e
o/o_e
u/u_e
Common Long Vowel Patterns:
CVC (short a)/CVCe (long a)/CVVC (ai)
CVC (short o)/CVCe (long o) CVVC (oa)
CVC (short u)/CVCe (long u)/CVVC (ui)/CVVC (oo)
CVC (short e)/CVCe (long e)/CVVC (ee)/CVVC (long ea)
CVC (short e)/CVVC (ee)/CVVC (long ea)/CVVC (short ea)
CVC/CVCe/CVVC/CVV with each vowel (a, o, e): 3weeks total
CVC (short u)/CVV (ue)/CVV (ew)
CVC (short i)/CVCe/CVCC (igh)/CV (y = long i)
CVCC (short i)/CVCC (long i)/CVCC (short o)/CVCC (long o)
Review common long vowel patterns across vowels after this.
R-controlled Vowels:
ar/are/air
er/ear/eer
ir/ire/ier
or/ore/oar/w+or
ur/ure/ur_e
ar/shwa r/or
Teachers should do a review week at the end of r-controlled vowels.
Dipthongs, Ambiguous/Abstract Vowels:
oi/oy
ow/ou
oo (as in “cool”)/oo (as in “book”)
aw/au
wa/al/ou
Literacy Framework Page 41
Review week
Complex Consonant Clusters:
shr/thr/spr/str
scr/spl/squ
kn/wr/gn
hard c/soft c
hard g/soft g
The above are all in the initial position. Below are complex consonant clusters in
the final position.
g/ge/dge
ce/ve
ch/tch/k/ck
Review at the end of complex consonant clusters.
Syllable Juncture/Syllables and Affixes
Compound words
Inflectional Endings- Plurals:
-s/-es
Unusual Plurals: -fe→ -ves/ vowel change (ex: goose → geese)/ no change (ex: sheep →
sheep)
ey→eys/y →i + es
Inflectional Endings- ed: e-drop/double/nothing
Inflectional Endings- ing: e-drop/double/nothing
Final –y with inflectional endings
Review at the end of inflectional endings. (Three general categories: -s, -ed, -ing)
Syllable junctures:
VCV (long/open 1st syllable)/VCCV (short/closed 1st syllable) doublet (Ex: supper)
VCV/VCCV doublet/VCCV different (Ex: basket)
V-CV (open/long 1st syllable, as in “human”)/VC-V (closed/short 1st syllable, as in
“wagon”)
V-CV/VC-V/VVCV
VCC-CV (as in “athlete”)/CV-CCV (as in “kitchen”)/V-V (as in “poet”)
Review at the end of syllable junctures.
Literacy Framework Page 42
Vowel Patterns in Stressed Syllables:
Begin with a week of teaching children to listen for the syllable stress and sorting familiar
two- syllable words according to whether the accent is in the first or second syllable.
short a/aCe/ai/ay (in 2nd syllable)
short a/aCe/ai/ay/open syllable a, as in bacon (1st syllable)
short e/ee/long ea/ei (1st syllable)
short e/short ea/ee/long ea (2nd syllable)
short e/long ea/ei/open syllable e, as in fever (1st syllable)
short i/iCe/igh/iCC
short i/short y/iCe/long y/open syllable i, as in spider
short o/oCe/oa/oCC
short o/oCe/ow/open syllable o, as in open
short u/uCe/open u, as in super
The first five sorts are controlled for syllable accent so students can focus on the vowel pattern
while they are getting used to the idea of syllable accent. The last five sorts are not controlled
and can have the stress in the first or second syllable, as students should be more familiar with
the concept by then. Review between common long vowel patterns and other vowel patterns
(to follow).
oy/oi/ou/ow
au/aw/al
short ar, as in “harvest”/air/are/long ar, as in “parent”
er/short ear/long ear/er making the long a sound, as in “heron”
ir/ire
or/ore
ur/ure
scha + r: er/ir/ur/ear
war/wor/wa/qua
Literacy Framework Page 43
Review at the end of vowel patterns in accented syllables.
Unaccented Syllables:
Schwa + l: CVle/VCCle doublet, as in “puddle”/VCCle different, as in “wrinkle”
Schwa + l: -le/-el/-il/-al
Schwa + r: er/or/ar
Schwa + r: agents (er, or, ar)/comparatives (er)
-cher/-ture/-sure/-ure
Schwa + n: en/on/ain/in
Unaccented first syllable: a, as in “again”/de, as in “debate”/be, as in “before”
Review at the end of unaccented syllables.
Consonants:
hard c/soft c/hard g/soft g (in the initial position)
-ce/ -ss/-dge/-age
-gu/-gue
-ck/-c/-que
-ph/-gh = /f/
Review at the end of consonants.
Two-syllable homographs (as in record/record)
Simple Prefixes:
un/re
dis/mis/pre
non/in/fore
uni/bi/tri
Simple Suffixes:
-y/-ly/-ily
-er/-est
-ful/-less/-ness
Literacy Framework Page 44
Review at the end of prefixes and suffixes.
Derivational Relations/Derivational Constancy
Consonant Alternations:
silent, as in “sign”/sounded, as in “signal”
base ending in –ct, as in “connect”/-ct + ion, as in “connection”/base ending in –ss, as in “express”/
-ss + ion, as in “expression”
base ending in –t/-t + ion/base ending in –ic, as in “magic”/-c + ian, as in “magician”
base with hard c, as in “critic”/change to soft c, as in “criticize”/base with soft c, as in “office”/change to /
sh/, as in “official”
base ending in –te, as in “educate”/e-drop + ion, as in “education”/base ending in –se, as in “supervise”/
e-drop + ion, as in “supervision”
base ending in –de, as in “divide”/change to –sion, as in “division”/base ending in –it, as in “permit”/
change to –ission, as in “permission”
base ending in –t, as in “silent”/change to –ce, as in “silence”
Vowel Alternations:
long to short (“humane” to “humanity”)
long to schwa (“compete” to “competition”)
short to schwa (“adapt” to “adaptation”)
long to short (“vain” to “vanity”, “consume” to “consumption”, “detain” to “detention”, etc.)
long to schwa (“explain” to “explanation”)
Advanced Suffix Study:
-able/-ible
-ant/-ance
-ent/-ence
consonant doubling related to syllable accent (permitted versus benefited)
Greek and Latin Word Parts:
mono, bi, tri, tele, therm, photo, astro, tract, spect, port, dict, rupt, scrib, aud, bene, cred,
duct, fac, flex, form, fract, ject, jud, junct, port, sect, spir, struct, tang, tact, vert, vid, voc,
inter, intra, super, counter, ex, fore, post, co, com, con, sub, pre, anti, demi, semi, quad,
pent, crat, emia, ician, ine, ism, log, path, phobia, aer, aog, angel, bio, chron, derm, gram,
graph, hydr, logo, metr, micro, od, phem, phil, phon, pol, scope, techn, zoo
Absorbed/Assimilated Prefixes:
prefix + base word (in + mobile = immobile)
prefix + word root (in + mune = immune)
Literacy Framework Page 45
Research-Based Reading Comprehension Strategies
Strategy What’s that? How do I find out more about it? Where does it fit in the
Show me an example! instructional sequence?
Pre During Post
Engaging Students by Activating Prior Learning and Cognitive Schema
Activating Prior Providing http://rusd.marin.k12.ca.us/belaire/ X
Knowledge experiences that BALearningCenter/carewwebpage/
require students reading_handbook/prior_knowl.htm
to make connec- Suggested Resources:
tions to prior and multimedia software, word processing,
present learning concept mapping software, web-based
video streaming, student response systems
(“clickers”)
Activating Providing a visual http://manila.esu6.org/instructional- X
Organizers overview of key strategies/stories/storyReader$8
concepts and se- Suggested Resources: concept mapping
quence elements software, word processing, presentation
for a specific software
lesson—or set of
lessons
Anticipation A series of Anticipation Guides at Adlit.org X
Guide thought- provok- Template at ReadWriteThink.org (PDF)
ing statements
used before read- Suggested Resources: student response
ing to activate systems (“clickers”), word processing,
students’ prior online surveys
knowledge and
build curiosity
Literacy Framework Page 46
Research-Based Reading Comprehension Strategies
Strategy What’s that? How do I find out more about it? Where does it fit in the
Show me an example! instructional sequence?
Pre During Post
Previewing and Promoting Student Interest in Text
Anticipatory A writing-to- http://www.manhattan.edu/services/ X
Writing/Admit learn strategy in wac/pages/designing_assignments/
Pass which students informal_writing_assignments.html
formulate initial Suggested Resources:
written thoughts discussion boards, blogs, wikis, word
and ideas in processing, presentation software
anticipation of
a lesson or unit
topic/issue
Strategy K-W-L A pre-reading/ http://www.readingquest.org/strat/kwl.html X X X
discussion pro- http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/
cess in which issues/students/learning/lr1kwlh.htm
students identify
what they think Suggested Resources:
concept mapping software,
they know about word processing, presentation
a topic, what software
they want to
learn, and what
they have learned
at the end of
lesson or unit
Reading Guides Teacher-con- http://www.indiana.edu/~l517/QAR.htm X X X
structed ques- Suggested Resources:
tions and related word processing
activities to help
students navigate
a text
Literacy Framework Page 47
Research-Based Reading Comprehension Strategies
Strategy What’s that? How do I find out more about it? Where does it fit in the
Show me an example! instructional sequence?
Pre During Post
Previewing and Promoting Student Interest in Text
Seed Discussion Preliminary or initial http://www.adlit.org/strategies/22737 X
discussions that Suggested Resources:
form the basis for discussion boards, wikis,
students’ analysis an- collaborative tools
devaluation of text;
such discussions can
involve students’
response to
open-ended,
interpretive
questions
(i.e., essential
questions)
SQ3R A text survey and http://www.adlit.org/strategies/19803 X X X
analysis process: Suggested Resources:
survey-question- document camera, concept mapping
software, presentation software
read-recite-review
Textbook Reinforcing http://forpd.ucf.edu/strategies/ X
Inventory students’ under- textbook_inventory.pdf
standing of how http://forpd.ucf.edu/strategies/
print is organized, strattext_features.html
emphasizing the or-
ganization and struc- Suggested Resources:
tural components of word processing
a text or textbook
Literacy Framework Page 48
Research-Based Reading Comprehension Strategies
Strategy What’s that? How do I find out more about it? Where does it fit in the
Show me an example! instructional sequence?
Pre During Post
Reading Comprehension Strategies
Demonstrations Presenting key http://serc.carleton.edu/introgeo/ X
themes, motifs, demonstrations/
and patterns via Suggested Resources:
web-based video streaming, multi-
multi-media media software,
presentations presentation software
DRTA A teacher-guided http://www.kimskorner4teacher- X X X
investigation of talk.com/readingliterature/reading-
text, with overt strategies/DRTA.htm
attention to pre-/ Suggested Resources:
during/after strate- interactive whiteboard,
gies to guide and word processing
inform the reading
process
Exit Response Closure strategies http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/PD/ X
Cloze and Maze for determining Instr/strats/cloze/index.html
Response students’ Suggested Resources:
comprehension of interactive whiteboard, word
a text excerpt (e.g., processing, presentation
completing sen- software
tences with words
omitted)
Literacy Framework Page 49
Research-Based Reading Comprehension Strategies
Strategy What’s that? How do I find out more about it? Where does it fit in the
Show me an example! instructional sequence?
Pre During Post
Reading Comprehension Strategies
Higher-Order Using a range http://www.med.wright.edu/aa/ X X X
Questioning of questioning facdev/_Files/PDFfiles/Question-
Templates.pdf
strategies to pro-
mote student
engagement and
discussion (e.g.,
follow-up probes,
application, analy-
sis, synthesis,
evaluation)
Inferential Drawing http://www.adlit.org/strategies/ X X X
Reading inferences and /23355
conclusions about http://www.greece.k12.ny.us/
what a text implies instruction/ela/6-12/Reading/
(rather than just Reading%20Strategies/
inferentialreading.htm
states directly)
Literature A cooperative http://www.litcircles.org/ X X X
Circles learning process http://www.readwritethink.org/class-
in which students room-resources/lesson-plans/
gather in small literature-circles-getting-started-19.html
seminar groups and Suggested Resources:
take turns facilitat- wikis, online discussion board, pod-
ing discussions of casts, Storyline Online
fiction and non-
fiction text
Literacy Framework Page 50
Research-Based Reading Comprehension Strategies
Strategy What’s that? How do I find out more about it? Where does it fit in the
Show me an example! instructional sequence?
Pre During Post
Reading Comprehension Strategies
Monitoring/ A tool used to elicit http://www.readingquest.org/strat/ X X X
Clarifying and input and feedback ichart.html
Inquiry Chart from students http://forpd.ucf.edu/
before, during, and strategies/stratIChart.html
after reading—e.g., Suggested Resources:
What are the main spreadsheet software, word
ideas? What needs processing, interactive whiteboard
to be clarified? What
have we concluded?
Paired Reading Paired students read http://www.readingrockets.org/ X X X
and discuss part of a strategies/paired_reading
text together, using Suggested Resources:
teacher or digital voice recorders, digital video
class-generated recorders, podcasts,
anticipatory digital storytelling
questions to guide
discussion
Partner Reading A variation of http://www.liketoread.com/struct_ X X
paired reading, talk_partner_reading.php
with partners Suggested Resources:
meeting periodi- digital voice recorders, digital video
cally (rather than recorders, podcasts,
consistently, as in digital storytelling
paired reading)
Literacy Framework Page 51
Research-Based Reading Comprehension Strategies
Strategy What’s that? How do I find out more about it? Where does it fit in the
Show me an example! instructional sequence?
Pre During Post
Reading Comprehension Strategies
Question the Students imagine http://www.adlit.org/strategies/19796 X X
Author that they can ask Suggested Resources:
the author ques- word processing, online discussion
tions about his or boards, meet the author websites,
her purpose, inten- online book forums
tions, and writing
choices.
Read Aloud Teacher (or stu- http://lesson-plans-materials. X X
dent) oral readings, suite101.com/article.cfm/read_
aloud_strategies_for_k6_
with attention to
classrooms
appropriate intona-
tion, emphasis, etc. Suggested Resources:
digital voice recorders, digital video
recorders, podcasts,
digital storytelling
Reader Discussions involv- http://sedl.org/cgi-bin/mysql/build- X X
Response ing students’ articu- ingreading.cgi?showrecord=27
lation of their reac- Suggested Resources:
tions (intellectual, blogs, wikis, discussion boards, interac-
emotional) to a text tive surveys and tools, word processing,
digital storytelling
Semantic Examining and http://www.readingrockets.org/ X
Feature analyzing structural strategies/semantic_feature_analysis
Analysis aspects of text, Suggested Resources: concept
including syntax, mapping software, interactive white-
diction, vocabulary, boards, document cameras
and dialect
Literacy Framework Page 52
Research-Based Reading Comprehension Strategies
Strategy What’s that? How do I find out more about it? Where does it fit in the
Show me an example! instructional sequence?
Pre During Post
Reading Comprehension Strategies
Summarizing Articulating the http://www.readingquest.org/strat/ X X
main or most sig- summarize.html
nificant ideas in a http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/
text or presentation resource/563/1/
Suggested Resources:
wordle.net, presentationsoftware, video
creation software
Text Structure Exploring and ana- http://forpd.ucf.edu/strategies/ X X
lyzing the strate- strattextstructure.html
gies and processes
http://www.thinkport.org/career/
used by authors
strategies/reading/preview.tp
within a particular
genre or category Suggested Resources:
of writing (e.g., interactive whiteboards,
online v. tradi- document cameras, drawing and
tional print, narra- painting software
tive v. expository v.
argumentative text
structure)
Literacy Framework Page 53
Research-Based Reading Comprehension Strategies
Strategy What’s that? How do I find out more about it? Where does it fit in the
Show me an example! instructional sequence?
Pre During Post
Cooperative Learning and Interactive Strategies to Promote Comprehension
Collaborative Reinforcing the http://wac.colostate.edu/intro/pop2l.cfm X X X
Writing concept of writing http://www.kolabora.com/
for an audience by news/2007/03/01/collaborative_writ-
engaging students in ing_tools_and_technology.htm
ongoing discourse
Suggested Resources:
with peers (usually
wikis, interactive whiteboards, learning
in short, informal
management software
formats)
JIGSAW A cooperative http://www.jigsaw.org/ X
learning process http://www.litandlearn.lpb.org/
in which students strategies/strat_jigsaw.pdf
form a base group,
Suggested Resources:
then move to an
online discussion boards, blogs,
expert group, and
wikis
then return to their
base to teach base
group members
about what they
learned as part of
their expert group
experience
List/Group/ A collaborative strat- List-Group-Label at Reading Rockets X X X
Label egy in which teacher List-Group-Label at AdLit.org
and students dis- List-Group-Label at Just Read Now!
cover classification
categories and Suggested Resources:
patterns (e.g., Interactive whiteboards, concept mapping
conflicts, themes, software, document camera, spreadsheet
character types). software
Literacy Framework Page 54
Research-Based Reading Comprehension Strategies
Strategy What’s that? How do I find out more about it? Where does it fit in the
Show me an example! instructional sequence?
Pre During Post
Cooperative Learning and Interactive Strategies to Promote Comprehension
Numbered After counting http://edtech.kennesaw.edu/intech/ X X
Heads Together off, students with cooperativelearning.htm
the same number
pair up and share
insights about a
text or discussion
topic.
Prediction A cooperative Prediction Relay at AdLit.org X
Relay learning game
strategy, with
students sharing,
extending, and
revising one an-
other’s predictions
about what will
occur within a text
Reciprocal A cooperative learn- Reciprocal Teaching at AdLit.org X
Teaching ing process in which Reciprocal Teaching at Reading
small groups of stu- Rockets
dents work through Reciprocal Teaching at Just Read Now!
a text excerpt
together, taking
turns as the
facilitator/
discussion leader
Literacy Framework Page 55
Research-Based Reading Comprehension Strategies
Strategy What’s that? How do I find out more about it? Where does it fit in the
Show me an example! instructional sequence?
Pre During Post
Cooperative Learning and Interactive Strategies to Promote Comprehension
Socratic A variation of the Socratic Seminar from Greece School X
Seminar Mortimer Adler District
“Paideia”/ Great Socratic Seminar from NBABR
Books seminar (PDF)
process: Students
debate and discuss
a key text selection,
responding to one or
more open-ended,
interpretive
questions designed
to reveal areas of
agreement and
disagreement
Literacy Framework Page 56
Research-Based Reading Comprehension Strategies
Strategy What’s that? How do I find out more about it? Where does it fit in the
Show me an example! instructional sequence?
Pre During Post
Visual/Non-Linguistic Representations of Information
Graphic A visual http://www.adlit.org/strategies/19769 X X X
Organizers, representation used http://www.readwritethink.org/class-
Concept Maps, to organize and room-resources/student-interactives/
and Story Maps show relationships compare-contrast-30066.html
between content http://www.readwritethink.org/class-
room-resources/student-interactives/
persuasion-30034.html
Suggested Resources:
concept mapping software, spreadsheet
software, interactive whiteboard
Guiding Engaging students in Guided Imagery from Learning Point X X
Imagery the use of their sen- Visual Imagery at Just Read Now!
sory imagination, with
imagesgenerated to Guided Imagery by Buehl (PDF)
reinforce associations
and memory patterns
Picture Books Large-size books http://www.storylineonline.net/ X X X
with engaging http://en.childrenslibrary.org/
illustrations, useful
in helping beginning http://www.readingrockets.org/
readers understand books/booksbytheme
text structure and Suggested Resources:
story sequence Interactive whiteboard, document
camera, digital storytelling
Word Splash A variation of word http://www.education.vic.gov.au/stu- X X
walls, key vocabu- dentlearning/teachingresources/english/
lary is identified and literacy/strategies/4codebreaktsl4.htm#3
organized informally, Suggested Resources:
with additions made Concept mapping software, interactive
as students progress whiteboard, document camera, word
through a text. processing, spreadsheet software
Literacy Framework Page 57
Research-Based Reading Comprehension Strategies
Strategy What’s that? How do I find out more about it? Where does it fit in the
Show me an example! instructional sequence?
Pre During Post
Metacognitive Strategies: Promoting Student Self-Regulation and Self-Assessment
Concept Sort As students and Concept Sorts at AdLit.org X X X
teacher identify Suggested Resources:
important and Concept mapping software,
recurrent concepts, spreadsheet software, interactive
they begin to sort whiteboard, document camera
them into
classification
categories.
Think Alouds Teachers (and Think Alouds at AdLit.org X X
students) verbalize (also has links to more resources)
how they are engaged Suggested Resources:
in a thinking process, Document camera, interactive
including articulated whiteboard, digital video recorder,
Storyline Online
steps in problem solv-
ing or decision
making or skills
applications
Literacy Framework Page 58
Research-Based Reading Comprehension Strategies
Strategy What’s that? How do I find out more about it? Where does it fit in the
Show me an example! instructional sequence?
Pre During Post
Note-Taking, Summarizing, and Paraphrasing Strategies
Double-Entry Note-taking strategies Double Entry Notes Lesson plan with X X X
Journals involving students’ templates from Oregon Department
(to include Cornell use of running notes of Education
Notes and complemented by Cornell Notes from JMU
Two-Column identification of big
Notetaking) ideas and important Suggested Resources:
Word processing, concept mapping
concepts—with software, interactive whiteboard,
parallel non-linguistic document camera
representations in
a second or third
column
Gist Summary A summarizing task in Gist Summary at Read-Write-Think X X
which students deter-
mine the “gist” or es-
sence of a text: What’s
its theme? Main idea?
Importance?
Power Notes A note-taking strategy Power Notes at AdLit.org X X
in which students
review and synthesize
previous notes, high-
lighting and accenting
major ideas, concepts,
and information
worth retaining
Selective Encouraging stu- Selective Highlighting at AdLit.org X
Highlighting dents to highlight or
underline important
concepts and main
ideas within a text
Literacy Framework Page 59
Research-Based Reading Comprehension Strategies
Strategy What’s that? How do I find out more about it? Where does it fit in the
Show me an example! instructional sequence?
Pre During Post
Note-Taking, Summarizing, and Paraphrasing Strategies
Structured Purposeful and Structured Note-taking at AdLit.org X
Note-taking deliberate note
taking in which
the teacher mod-
els note-taking
protocol and
students use paral-
lel structures (e.g.,
running notes,
summaries, visual
representations)
Sum-It-up Engaging students Sum-It-Up at AdLit.org X X
in paraphrasing
and summarizing
tasks at the conclu-
sion of key junc-
ture points within a
lesson or unit
Word Hunts Asking students to Word Hunts at AdLit.org X X
read and find key
vocabulary and
concepts within a
text being studied
Literacy Framework Page 60
Research-Based Reading Comprehension Strategies
Strategy What’s that? How do I find out more about it? Where does it fit in the
Show me an example! instructional sequence?
Pre During Post
Writing-to-Learn Strategies That Promote Comprehension
Paragraph An editing strategy, Paragraph Shrinking at AdLit.org X X
Shrinking students “down-size” Suggested Resources:
their own para- Word processing, wikis, interactive
graph (or another whiteboard
author’s), reducing
the number of words
and sentence com-
plexity, srressing a
main idea.
RAFT A writing assign- RAFT at AdLit.org X X X
ment that articulates Suggested Resources:
a clear role, audience, Word processing, publishing
format, and topic software, presentation software,
digital storytelling tools
Response Ongoing journal Response Journals at Florida Online X
Journals entries completed Suggested Resources:
by students as they Blogs, social networking sites
progress through a
text or unit—often
using technology-
based media
Story Chain A writing technique Strategy Description X X
in which students Story Chain Interactive
generate a narrative
sequence, taking
turns and adding
to previous story
sequence elements
Literacy Framework Page 61
Observing Student Decoding and Comprehension Behaviors in a Literacy-Rich
Learning Environment
Suggestions for Use:
After considering the principles and strategies for decoding and comprehension articulated in the previous sec-
tion of this framework, consider what we should be able to observe students doing when displaying
competency in key aspects of literacy. As you observe students engaged in reading in classrooms in your school,
to what extent do you observe them doing the following?
1. Adjusting reading rates to ensure comprehension of text.
2. Asking questions before, during and after reading.
3. Classifying and organizing information acquired during reading.
4. Comparing and contrasting ideas, determining the comparative value and truth of each.
5. Distinguishing facts from opinions and giving text-based evidence to support their conclusions.
6. Identifying and analyzing text structure, including assessing the clarity and effectiveness of the writer’s
organization and presentation of ideas.
7. Identifying and evaluating author’s purpose. (Why did the author write this selection? To what extent
does the author achieve his or her expressed or implied goals?)
8. Identifying author’s viewpoint/perspective. (What are the key characteristics of the author’s
perspective? How does he or she convey this perspective?)
9. Identifying and summarizing main ideas and important supporting details.
10. Making inferences and drawing conclusions. (What does the author state directly? What doe he or she
imply? What can we conclude about these ideas?)
11. Making generalizations (e.g., comparisons, analysis of themes, description and analysis of
recurrent patterns of language, ideas, motifs, etc.).
12. Making and refining predictions (including providing text-based evidence to articulate
predictions and modify them as new evidence is discovered in the text).
13. Summarizing and paraphrasing/retelling accurately in one’s own words.
14. Recognizing cause and effect relationships.
15. Sequencing events (including ensuring accurate identification of main v. secondary events).
16. Synthesizing new information (using it to generate original ideas, hypotheses, predictions, and work
products).
17. Using context clues and word analysis skills (e.g., roots, affixes) to decipher the meaning of
unfamiliar words.
18. Visualizing images from text (using the sensory imagination to make text “come alive”).
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Vocabulary Acquisition Strategies and Best Practices
Robert J. Marzano, an internationally-recognized researcher and educational theorist, emphasizes the
following key principles for effective vocabulary instruction in his best-selling book, Building Academic
Background Knowledge:
1. Teaching vocabulary through formal dictionary definitions does not promote students’ true under
standing of key academic vocabulary.
2. Learners must engage in informal and natural tasks and processes to acquire and internalize new
vocabulary.
3. A limited number of academic terms should guide and inform vocabulary instruction within a particular
content area and grade level. Teachers responsible for the same course or grade-level subject matter
should build consensus about the words and phrases students at that grade level should master and be
able to use spontaneously and automatically.
4. Effective vocabulary acquisition occurs when students are engaged in a six-step process. Steps 1-3
represent more formalized direct instruction, facilitated primarily by the teacher. Steps 4-6 provide
learners with ongoing opportunities to practice and reinforce their use of key academic vocabulary.
Step 1: The teacher gives a description, explanation, or example of the new term:
1. Present essential information about the term and its significance.
2. Pre-assess/diagnose: What do students already know about the term? How do they already use
it? What misconceptions or misunderstandings do they express?
3. Present explanations, examples, and descriptions—not definitions. Students need to work with
vocabulary acquisition as a natural process of language acquisition—not an abstracted or
formalized process of memorization.
4. If a proper noun is included as a vocabulary term, identify its key characteristics and significance.
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Step 2: The teacher asks the learner to give a description, explanation, or example
of the new term in his or her own words:
1. Encourage students to use their own words to describe, explain, and give examples of new
vocabulary (again, avoiding the “dictionary definition” approach).
2. Monitor students’ use of new terms to ensure their understanding and to help them overcome
misunderstandings.
3. As necessary, provide clarifying information (e.g., additional explanations, examples, and
descriptions).
4. Ask students to record their work with vocabulary (including their changing knowledge and
understandings) in the vocabulary section of their academic notebook.
Step 3: The teacher asks the learner to draw a picture, symbol, or located a
graphic to represent the new term:
1. Emphasize students’ use of right-hemisphere brain functions by encouraging them to create
non-linguistic representations of key academic vocabulary terms.
2. Encourage students to share with peers examples of their drawings and illustrations, including
opportunities to work in teams to help those who have difficulty drawing.
3. Reinforce the concept of “speed drawing” to avoid excessive amounts of time devoted to a single
drawing or illustration.
4. Provide opportunities for students to download visual representations of key terms as part of
on-line search activities.
5. Internet “clip resources” meta-tag terms include: “Madrid Teacher” and “Vocabulary Quiz Using
Images.”
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Step 4: The learner participates in activities that provide more knowledge of the
terms, with students recording their responses in a section of their
academic notebooks devoted to vocabulary:
1. Extend and refine students’ understanding of key terms and interconnecting patterns by
assigning tasks requiring the following cognitive skills: comparison, classification, generation of
metaphors, analogies, and pattern descriptions.
2. Use word walls as a visual representation of key academic vocabulary, encouraging students to
find and describe patterns and connections between and among key terms.
3. Ask students to reformat word walls as they discover categories and classification patterns to
unify and connect separate terms.
4. Encourage students to use their knowledge of prefixes, suffixes, antonyms, synonyms, and
related words to extend their understanding of academic vocabulary.
5. If English is a second language to the learner, provide opportunities for students to translate
terms into their native language (e.g., “BabelFish” website).
Step 5: The learner discusses the term with other learners in a variety of formal
and informal discussion activities:
1. Use the listen-think-pair-share strategy to help students discuss and compare understandings of
key terms.
2. THINK: Allow time for students to review their own explanations, descriptions, examples, and
illustrations of key terms.
3. PAIR: Pair up students and encourage them to share their descriptions, illustrations, and new
information they discover related to key terms.
4. SHARE: Provides opportunities for groups to share aloud and discussion emerging concepts
and misconceptions.
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Step 6: The learner participates in games and friendly competitions that reinforce
their use of key vocabulary terms:
1. A variety of electronic vocabulary games are available on the Internet, including: PowerPoint
Games, Word Game Boards, Excel Games, WORDO, Twister, and FlySwat.
2. Additionally, teachers can construct (or have student teams construct) competitions based upon
such popular television game shows as Jeopardy, The $25,000 Pyramid, and Family Feud.
3. The teacher should monitor and evaluate carefully students’ demonstration of understanding—
or misunderstandings—about key terms used in a particular game or competition.
4. As a culminating performance task (e.g., in preparation for a unit test), encourage individual
students or small teams to create games and related forms of friendly competition using key unit
vocabulary.
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Note-Taking Strategies
What Does the Research Tell Us About Note Taking and
Its Impact upon Student Achievement?
1. Teaching students a variety of strategies and goals for note taking is critical to helping them
learn to summarize key information and synthesize the relationships and patterns found in
the content they are studying.
2. Effective note taking is a critical thinking process requiring students to evaluate information
for its importance and levels of significance (e.g., essential or primary, secondary, or trivial).
3. Note taking activities and follow-up processing of those notes can enhance students’ ability
to identify and explain main ideas and supporting evidence.
4. The more students are given sustained coaching in summarizing and note taking, the more
they learn to use these processes as a part of their learning process, including their ability
to: (a) revisit and revise how they are overcoming misconceptions, (b) enhance
understanding, and (c) find interrelationships, themes, and patterns in information.
5. Students become more adept at note taking if they receive ongoing instruction in how to
do it and ways to use it, including: (a) sustained modeling of various models and
approaches, (b) shaping opportunities in which students rehearse and enhance their use
of key note taking strategies, and (c) confirmation of their ability to internalize their use of
note taking with growing levels of automaticity (i.e., spontaneous and independent use).
6. By engaging students in a variety of note taking activities as part of sustained formative
assessment, learners become increasingly metacognitive, i.e., self-reflective and
self-evaluative and regulating their own progress by engaging in the processes of revising,
rethinking, revisiting, and refining their understanding and work products.
7. According to Robert Marzano et al. (2001, P. 82), “Although note taking is one of the most
useful study skills a student can cultivate, often teachers do not explicitly teach note-taking
strategies in their classroom.”
8. As students become adept in using a variety of note-taking processes, they begin to formulate
a personal system for note taking that greatly enhances their ability to analyze key
information and self-monitor in relationship to their comprehension and use of that
information.
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9. Notes should be viewed by students as an active and ongoing process, not a static one.
Marzano (2001) and others emphasize the need to have students review their notes, identify
and modify errors and misconceptions, and share their notes-based insights with other
students.
10. Students need to understand that there is no single right way to take notes. Instead, they
should adopt the approach most appropriate for their goals, purposes, and the nature of the
information source they are summarizing (e.g., to determine key ideas, find main ideas, track
an argument or debate, analyze a conversation or dialogue).
11. Marzano (2001) recommends that students learn and apply a combination approach to
notetaking, similar to that referred to as the Cornell Notes model: (a) running notes, (b)
side-bar analyses and summaries of key ideas and questions raised, and (c) visual
representation of key information and concepts (e.g., pictographs, graphic organizers,
flow charts).
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A Self-Reflection Questionnaire
How Do You Currently Use Note Taking in Your Classroom?
Directions
Use the following rating scale to assess your current level of use for each of the
following strategies related to note taking. When you have finished, compare
your results with other educators in your school. What conclusions can you
draw? What patterns of use are evident?
3=Extensively:
This is a consistent practice in my classroom.
2=Periodically:
I sometimes use this strategy, but there are occasions when
I could use it with my students but do not.
1=Rarely:
I only use this strategy once in a while, but it is not a consistent
part of my teaching practice.
0=Never:
I never use this strategy
____ 1. I help my students to understand the purpose of note taking as an essential part of their
study of key information encountered in lectures, texts, and related information media.
____ 2. I coach my students to understand and apply the relationship between summarizing and note
taking, including using notes and summaries that I prepare as models.
____ 3. I consistently help my students to determine what is important about the knowledge they are
learning and evaluate what is essential, secondary, and trivial within that body of information.
____ 4. I explicitly and consistently teach students how to take notes and how to use those notes to
reinforce their learning process.
____ 5. Throughout units of study, my students are engaged in a variety of summarizing and note
taking activities that reinforce their understanding of the big ideas and essential information
of what we are studying in each unit.
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____ 6. I encourage my students to use their notes to monitor and track the essential ideas and
understandings that are at the heart of specific unit content.
____ 7. I help my students to identify connections and patterns that unify curriculum content across
units through the process of note taking and analysis and evaluation of the information in
their notes.
____ 8. We use a variety of note taking strategies and processes in my classroom, including running
notes, summarizes and syntheses of note information, and visual representations of core
information derived from running notes and summaries.
____ 9. I help my students to determine the purposes and goals for note taking in a particular
situation, based upon such issues as: (a) how the information is organized, (b) what the
essential purpose and goals of the information source are, and (c) related implications for
tracking and monitoring how the information is presented and developed by the author or
speaker.
____ 10. I teach my students to use a variety of informal and formal note taking processes, including:
(a) formal outlining, (b) informal outlines, (c) clustering and webbing, and (d) related
combination approaches.
____ 11. I encourage students to use digital tools for taking and revising notes by modeling a
wide-range of programs and templates.
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Writing-to-Learn Strategies
Writing-to-learn strategies can be used before-, during, and after reading and learning tasks. These
informal writing assignments should be integrated into students’ overall learning process—
reinforcing the value of writing as a tool for engaging student interest and deepening understanding
of a topic, concept, or thinking skill/process. The majority of these strategies can be conducted in a
digital or print format.
Such writing-to-learn strategies encourage discourse (with both self and others). Students can use
them to experiment with and try out ideas. Generally, students should receive credit for completing
such strategies and related tasks—but they should be used as formative assessment only. In other
words, no formal grade should be assigned. Ideally, writing-to-learn strategies help students to freely
generate ideas and make personal connections to the content they are studying.
Teachers can respond to students’ writing-to-learn activities in a variety of ways:
1. Providing on-the-spot feedback
2. Responding personally and positively to selected papers (including those selected by the
student for submission to the instructor)
3. Raising questions (verbally or on the paper itself)
4. Confirming and supporting students’ ideas and overall thinking processes
5. Periodically awarding points for completion of writing-to-learn tasks (or extra points for
exceptional responses)
6. Ensuring systematic review and feedback (without collecting and reacting to every assignment)
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Types of Writing-to-Learn Activities
The University of Kansas Writing Center emphasizes the value of writing-to-learn strategies as
tools for promoting students’ idea-generation potential. The center also stresses that using such
strategies will provide students with practice in the type of single-draft writing expected of them in
examination situations (i.e., constructed-response test items such as brief and extended-response
timed essays). The center identifies four categories for writing-to-learn tasks:
1. Focused Timed Writings: Students are given five to ten minutes in class to write about
a topic that will help them focus on the subject to be discussed in class that day. Such
focused timed writings can also emphasize a question from an assigned reading, an issue
or topic from yesterday’s class, a key term from an assigned reading selection, an issue or
topic representing a recurrent theme, or a concept to be explained.
2. Out-of-Class Writings: Students are asked to write summaries of lecture or textbook
material. Focus areas for out-of-class writing tasks can focus on the areas identified in the
“Focused Timed Writings” section above.
3. Journal Entries: At key juncture points (e.g., as a closure activity), students are asked to:
(a) summarize major ideas; (b) identify questions for which they need answers;
(c) delineate areas of confusion or misconception; (d) synthesize key conclusions and
ideas generated from assigned readings; (e) create non-linguistic representations (e.g.,
webs, graphic organizers) to highlight connections and patterns from readings or lectures,
with short written descriptions of identified patterns and connections discovered by the
student in print or digital format. Blogs and discussion boards can be excellent vehicles for
this strategy.
4. Preparatory Writings: As part of initial (and ongoing) student work with culminating
performance tasks and projects (e.g., research papers, simulations, case studies), students
can provide written updates to the instructor about his or her progress: e.g., (a) initial
proposals and theses; (b) status updates; (c) emerging questions and requests for coaching
and support; and (d) periodic status reports (aligned with student-generated goals and
timeline).
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Examples of Writing-to-Learn Strategies
1. Opposing Perspectives: Students briefly write in support of an idea or issue—and then
briefly write in opposition to it.
2. Absentee Postcards: As a warm-up activity, students write to a real or imaginary peer who
“missed” yesterday’s lesson, summarizing and highlighting its big ideas, major processes,
and sequence of skills/processes.
3. Analogical Reasoning: Students deepen their understanding of significant concepts and
ideas by creating metaphors, similes, and analogies to explain and illustrate them and their
key features.
4. Predicting the Future: The instructor stops at key points during a discussion or text
analysis—asking students to predict in writing what they think will happen next. Then,
students can pair up and share their conclusions about significant cause-effect relationships
they have discovered.
5. Round Robin Writing: Part I: Students explain a particular concept, process, or
vocabulary term. They then pose a question they still have about the topic(s). Part II:
Students exchange papers and answer the other author’s question—or suggest resources to
help him or her answer the question.
6. Getting the Last Word: A closure activity in which students write during the last ten
minutes of a class, expressing to the instructor a key question they need answered, some
thing about which they require help or clarification, or areas in which they need more in
formation.
7. Admit and Exit Slips: At the beginning of class, students give the instructor a brief
summary of their experiences with last night’s homework assignment or yesterday’s class
content and discussions (the Admit Slip). At the conclusion of class, students briefly state
two or three things they learned during the class session, or one or two questions they need
answered (the Exit Slip). Both forms of writing can provide valuable information to the
instructor concerning how to structure—or reorganize—students’ learning experiences.
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Questioning Strategies
(Promoting Higher-Order Thinking and Reasoning)
What Does Research Tell Us About Questioning?
According to the Maryland State of Department of Education publication Better Thinking and
Learning (1991), teachers who ask “higher-order” questions promote learning because these
types of questions require students to apply, analyze, synthesize, and evaluate information
instead of simply recalling facts.
A meta-analysis of 18 experiments by Redfield and Rousseau (1981) concluded that the
predominant use of higher-level questions during instruction yielded positive gains on tests
of both factual recall and application of thinking skills. Similarly, Andre (1979) reviewed
re search investigating the effects of having students respond to “higher-level” questions
inserted every few paragraphs in a text. He concluded that such a procedure facilitates better
textbook learning than do fact question inserts.
In spite of the obvious educational advantages of emphasizing higher-order questions, research
studies of classrooms conducted by Gall (1970) and Hare Pulliam (1980) confirm that only
20 percent of classroom questions posed by teachers require more than simple factual recall.
John Goodlad (1983) reports that only about one percent of classroom discussion invited
students to give their own opinions and reasoning. timed essays). The center identifies four
categories for writing-to-learn tasks:
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What Are the Types of Questions Teachers Can Use?
In order to elicit specific responses, a teacher may consider whether he/she is asking closed or
open questions. A closed question is one in which there are limited number of acceptable
answers, most of which will usually be anticipated by the instructor. An open question is one
which there are many acceptable answers, most of which will not be anticipated by the teacher
Higher-order questions encourage divergent thinking:
Application Questions:
These questions ask students to apply essential knowledge to new settings and contexts. For
example: How could you apply these grammar and usage principles to your essay? How could
you demonstrate the use of this concept? How would you illustrate this process in action?
What can we generalize from these facts?
Analytical Questions:
These questions ask students to dissect key information and analyze essential concepts themes,
and processes. For example: How are these characters alike and different? What is an analogy
that might represent this situation? How would you classify these literary works? What are the
major elements that comprise this sequence of events? What are the major causes of this situation?
Synthesis Questions:
These questions require student to formulate a holistic summary of key ideas, make references, or
create new scenarios. For example: What would you hypothesize about these unusual events? What
do you infer from her statements? Based upon these facts, what predictions would you make? How
do you imagine the space ship would look? What do you estimate will be the costs for the project?
How might you invent a solution to this ecological problem?
Interpretive Questions:
These are open-ended questions that require students to formulate opinions in response to ideas
presented in a print or non-print (e.g., art work, audio-visual) medium. Students must support their
opinions with direct textual evidence. For example: What does Frost mean when he says: “I have
miles to go before I sleep?” Why does the photographer emphasize only his subject’s eyes?
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Evaluative Questions:
These questions require students to formulate and justify judgments and criticisms based upon
clearly-articulated evaluative criteria. For example: Why did you decide to choose that course of
action? How would you rank these choices? How might you defend that character’s actions?
How would you verify that conclusion? What is your critique of that work of art?
What Is the Value of Wait Time?
“Wait Time” refers to that period of teacher silence that follows the posing of a question
(Wait Time I) as well as that following initial student response (Wait Time II). Extensive research
has consistently demonstrated that the quality of student verbal responses improves when teachers
regularly employ the “Wait Time” technique.
Rowe (1974) analyzed over 300 classroom tape recordings of classroom teachers and discovered
a mean Wait Time I of one second and a mean Wait Time II of .9 seconds. However, when the
average wait for both types was extended beyond three seconds, a variety of significant
improvements were observed. A synthesis of studies of Wait Time by Tobin and Capie (1980)
confirms the following benefits of Wait Time use by teachers:
1. The length of student responses increased.
2. More frequent, unsolicited contributions (relevant to the discussion) were made.
3. An increase in the logical consistency of students’ explanations occurred.
4. Students voluntarily increased the use of evidence to support inferences.
5. The incidence of speculative response increased.
6. The number of questions asked by students increased.
7. Greater participation by all learners occurred.
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Advantages of Wait Time
I. Wait Time - Before Calling on Student:
A. Gives the teacher time to count those students who have been answering questions
and those who have not.
B. Give the teacher time to assess which students might answer the question correctly.
II. Wait Time I – After Calling on Student:
A. Gives student time to frame an answer.
B. Gives teacher time to think of what a comprehensive answer could be.
III. Wait Time II – After Student Answer:
A. Gives the student time to elaborate on or complete an answer.
B. Gives the teacher time to think about whether the answer was correct, incorrect,
partially correct to evasive.
C. Provides time for the teacher to frame a response.
Questioning and Brain Research
One of the major focus areas in educational reform today is research related to the brain and brain-
compatible learning. Teachers’ effective use of a variety of higher-order questions can overcome the
brain’s natural tendency to limit information. In turn, students’ minds can become more open to
new ideas and creative mental habits.
Cadellichio and Field (Educational Leadership, March 1997) attach the label “neural pruning” to
our brain’s natural inclination to develop mental routines and patterns in response to critical
stimuli. These researchers suggest that teachers can extend students’ ability to attend to many
stimuli through the process of “neural branching.”
Current research indicates that the use of a variety of higher-order questions in an open-ended and
nurturing educational environment strengthens the brain—creating more synapses between nerve
cells—just as exercise builds muscle tissue.
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Teaching in the Interrogative
There are numerous strategies that teachers can use to make their classrooms less “imperative” and
more “interrogative, “ including:
1. The length of student responses increased.
2. More frequent, unsolicited contributions (relevant to the discussion) were made.
3. An increase in the logical consistency of students’ explanations occurred.
4. Students voluntarily increased the use of evidence to support inferences.
5. The incidence of speculative response increased.
6. The number of questions asked by students increased.
7. Greater participation by all learners occurred.
Using the Questioning Process to Promote Higher-Order Reasoning
The use of higher-order questions with appropriate follow-up probe questions (e.g., Why do you
think so? What evidence can you give us to support your claim?) and wait-time powerfully rein
force students’ deep understanding of essential declarative (facts, concepts, generalizations,
principles) and procedural (skills, processes, procedures) knowledge:
1. Comparison
• How are these things alike?
• How are they different?
2. Classification
• Into what groups could you organize these things?
• What are the rules for membership in each group?
• What are the defining characteristics of each group?
3. Induction
• Based on the following facts (or observations), what can you conclude?
• Based on this information, what is a likely conclusion?
4. Deduction
• Based on the following generalizations (or rules or principles), what predictions can
you make or what conclusions can you draw that must be true?
• If you know that ____________ has happened, then what do you know will have
to occur?
• What are the conditions that make this conclusion inevitable?
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5. Error Analysis
• What are the errors in reasoning in the following information?
• How is this information misleading?
6. Constructing Support
• What is an argument that would support this claim?
• What are the limitations of or assumptions underlying this argument?
• How is this information trying to persuade you?
7. Abstraction
• What is the general pattern underlying this information?
• To what other situations can this general pattern be applied?
8. Analyzing Perspectives
• Why would someone consider this to be good (or bad or neutral)?
• What is the reasoning behind the perspective?
• What is an alternative perspective and what is the reasoning behind it?
Decision Making:
What are your choices? How well will each of your choices help you get what you want?
Which choice will do the best job?
Investigation:
What do you want to find out? What disagreements or confusions do peoples have about it? How
can you support conclusions?
Experimental Inquiry:
What do you see or notice? How can you explain it? What if…? How can you test your
hypothesis? What happened?
Problem Solving:
What are some ways you can overcome what you can’t do? How do you make sure you do what
you have to do? What solutions will you try?
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Invention:
What do you want to make or make better? What is a model, sketch, or outline of your invention?
How can you make it or improve on it?
Systems Analysis:
What constitutes a system? How do the structures and processes comprising a particular system
interact and support the operation of the system? What are the implications if key elements of a
system change, diminish, or disappear?
Metacognition asks students to become self-reflective about their use of life-long thinking “habits,”
including the ability to be self-regulated, critical, and creative:
1. Are you aware of your own thinking about what you are trying to accomplish?
2. Have you made a plan for what you want to accomplish?
3. Have you collected all the resources for what you want to accomplish?
4. Are you aware of how well you are doing and if you need to change any of your actions or
attitudes?
5. Are you evaluating how well this is going and what you would do differently next time?
6. Are you actively seeking accuracy in the information you are receiving?
7. Are you actively seeking clarity in the information you are receiving?
8. Are you being open-minded about the information you are receiving?
9. Are you stopping to think before you speak or act? Are you resisting impulsivity?
10. Are you actively taking or defending position when such action is warranted?
11. Are you being sensitive to the feelings and level of knowledge of others?
12. Are you still engaging intensely when it becomes difficult, or are you withdrawing when
the task is hard?
13. Are you pushing yourself to your limits, or are you coasting?
14. Are you continually identifying standards you want to meet?
15. Are you continually trying to see the situation in new and unique ways?
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A Checklist for Effective Questioning
_____ 1. Do I make certain that all students develop a deep understanding of key declarative (i.e.,
facts, concepts, generalizations, and principles) and procedural (i.e., skills, processes, and
procedures) knowledge by emphasizing higher-order questioning?
_____ 2. Do I encourage discussion in my classroom by using open-ended questions?
_____ 3. Do I decide on the goals or purposes of my questions?
_____ 4. Do I choose important—rather than trivial—material to emphasize students’
in- depth exploration of essential/key questions?
_____ 5. Do I avoid “yes” and “no” questions?
_____ 6. Do I use “probe” questions to encourage students to elaborate and support assertions and
claims?
_____ 7. Do I ensure that students clearly understand my questions—and avoid a “guessing game”?
_____ 8. Do I avoid questions that “contain the answer”?
_____ 9. Do I anticipate students’ responses to my questions, yet allow for divergent thinking and
original responses?
_____ 10. Do I use purposeful strategies for helping students deal with incorrect responses?
_____ 11. Do I make effective use of Wait Time I and II?
_____ 12. Do I vary my question structure to include, where appropriate, the following:
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Questioning for Quality Thinking
Recalling
Who, what, when, where, how ____________________?
Comparing
How is _______ similar to/different from ___________?
Identifying Attributes and Components
What are the characteristics/parts of _____________?
Classifying
How might we organize into categories___________?
Ordering
How would you arrange ______ into a sequence according to___________?
Identifying Relationships and Patterns
How would you develop an outline/diagram/web of ________?
Representing
In what other ways might we show/illustrate _______?
Identifying Main Ideas
What is wrong with ____________________?
What conclusion might be drawn from ________?
Identifying Errors
What is wrong with ______________________?
Inferring
What might we infer from _________________?
What conclusions might be drawn from ___________?
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Predicting
What might happen if ________________________________?
Elaborating
What ideas/details can you add to ________________________?
What is an example of ________________________________?
Summarizing
Can you summarize _________________________________ ?
Establishing Criteria
What criteria would you use to judge/evaluate _______________ ?
Verifying
What evidence supports ______________________________?
How might we prove/confirm __________________________ ?
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Oral Language (Speaking/Listening) Strategies
Direct and ongoing coaching and instruction in processes of speaking and active listening can
greatly enhance students’ capacity for meaningful and sustained discourse. These processes can
also encourage students to express and support their own ideas, claims, and assertions.
A literacy-rich classroom emphasizes ongoing teaching-learning-assessment experiences related to
the following
1. Clear articulation of criteria for students to assess and evaluate their own speaking and
listening skills—as well as those of others.
2. Use of formal opportunities for speaking and listening, carefully woven into students’
exploration of key curriculum content.
3. Inclusion of informal opportunities for speaking and listening to reinforce students’
acquisition, integration, and application of key curriculum content.
4. Emphasis upon active and responsible listening processes as an essential part of building a
positive and inviting classroom community.
5. Use of technology to record formal and informal speaking opportunities to capture and
reflect on the growth of student skills in this arena.
Literacy Framework Page 84
Articulating Criteria for Effective Speaking and Listening
1. Verbal Presentation Skills:
• Appropriateness of content
• Clarity of purpose and presentation goals
• Elaboration and support of major ideas
• Use of relevant and reliable evidence
• Sensitivity to the background and needs of the audience
• Adjustment of presentation to meet on-the-spot reactions of audience members
• Use of humor, when appropriate
• Use of visual aids, including technology-based resources
2. Non-Verbal Presentation Skills:
• Effectiveness of vocal modulation, avoiding monotone and using emphasis at ap
propriate points in the presentation
• Appropriate projection to ensure audience attention and hearing
• Use of gestures for effective emphasis and reinforcement of key ideas
• Sensitivity to non-verbal cues and physical stance appropriate for the presentation
3. Active Listening Skills:
• Ongoing evidence of looking at the person and eliminating distractions
• Listening to both the overt and implied ideas (including “feeling content”) being
communicated
• Demonstrating sincere interest in what the other person is saying and
communicating
• Periodically restating (summarizing and paraphrasing) key ideas, reinforcing clear
tracking of what they are saying and how they are saying it
• Asking clarifying questions, when appropriate
• Monitoring your own feelings, reactions, and emerging opinions
• Stating your own views and perspectives only after listening to what the other
person is saying
• Using verbal signals to confirm active listening: “I’m listening” cues; disclosures;
validating statements; statements of support; reflections and mirroring statements
• Using non-verbal signals to confirm active listening: effective eye contact;
appropriate facial expressions; appropriat appropriate body language; silence
during the other person’s communication; other confirmatory evidence
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Formal Opportunities for Speaking and Listening
Formal Debates Technology-Assisted Presentations
Paideia Seminars Synthesis Presentations
Descriptive Speeches (e.g., at the conclusion of an extended project or
Explanatory Speeches research process—highlighting key
Demonstration (How-To) Speeches accomplishments and learnings)
Persuasive Speeches Reflection on results of recordings
Oral Presentations and tapings of the above activities
Informal Opportunities for Speaking and Listening
1. Listen-Think-Pair-Share 7. Peer Response Group Activities
2. Turn-to-a-Neighbor Debriefings 8. Peer Coaching and Feedback Opportunities
3. Pairs Summarize Activities 9. Informal Status Report Debriefings
4. Small Group Discussions (e.g., Where are we with our research projects?)
5. Reciprocal Teaching 10. Paired On-Line or Media Center Investigations
6. Numbered Heads Together
Reinforcing Rules and Policies for Active Listening in a Positive
Learning Community
1. Do we demonstrate respect for one another’s ideas and perspectives?
2. Are we attentive when others are speaking?
3. Do we make eye contact and avoid distractions and off-task behavior when others are speaking or
presenting?
4. Are we sensitive to both what people around us are saying—and the feeling content expressed in it?
5. Do we show sincere interest in what others are talking about—making our classroom a supportive,
inviting community of learning?
6. Can we accurately restate (paraphrase/summarize) what others are saying?
7. Do we ask appropriate clarifying questions to ensure that we understand what others are saying and
trying to communicate to us?
8. Do we use appropriate verbal and non-verbal signals to show others that we are actively listening to
them?
9. Are we aware of our own feelings and strong opinions—taking care to express them appropriately?
10. When we are engaged in presenting opposing opinions or points of view, do we do so after we have
truly listened and tried to understand others?
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Twelve Components of Effective Classroom Assessment:
The Skillful Teacher (pp. 433-435)
A Self-Reflection Questionnaire
Directions
Use the following rating scale to assess your perceived level of use of each of the
twelve components for effective classroom assessment identified in The Skillful
Teacher. Consider how each of these processes can reinforce students’ literacy
development.
4= This component is a consistent and effective part of daily
instruction in my classroom.
3= This component is sometimes a part of my daily instruction, but I
need to expand my use of it to make it a more consistent part of my
classroom.
2= This component occasionally occurs in my classroom, but I need to
make a concerted effort to use it much more frequently.
1= I rarely if ever implement this strategy
1. Determining the Assessment Task: Identifying the type of product or performance students
will be expected to produce and describing the standards of performance that should be
embedded in that product or performance.
2. Communicating Standards of Performance: Sharing with students the criteria for effective
completion of the product or performance—and ensuring that they understand them. This
process is reinforced by discussing with students model products/performances (exemplars)
exemplifying the standards. Ideally, students work with a clearly-articulated rubric or other
form of scoring guide.
3. Assessing Prior Knowledge: Pre-assessing/diagnosing where students are in relation to the
target objectives prior to beginning instruction. This process should include: (a) determining
students’ readiness to begin the lesson or unit; (b) discerning what needs to be addressed to
clarify student misconceptions; (c) scaffolding instruction for students who may lack requisite
knowledge and skills; and (d) differentiating learning experiences where necessary.
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4. Frequently Collecting Data and Keeping Records of Student Progress: Ensuring that
assessment is an ongoing process used to inform the teaching-learning process. Regular informal
assessments (e.g., observations of performance, short written or oral tasks) can yield on-the-spot
data about how students are doing in relation to the target performance.
5. Providing Frequent High-Quality Feedback to Students: Providing daily feedback to students
in relation to standards of performance and their progress toward achieving them. Feedback should
be descriptive, nonjudgmental, and helpful for improving student performance. Ensuring
immediacy and frequency of such feedback allows students to refocus and redirect their efforts
efficiently.
6. Encouraging Student Self-Assessment: Teaching students to regularly use criteria for
self-assessment and peer feedback. Applying these criteria to their own work encourages the
student to understand the criteria and to assume ownership for their own progress in learning.
7. Having Students Keep Records of Their Own Progress: Coaching students to record scores
they receive based upon identified evaluation criteria. This record keeping should be kept in their
academic notebook, with students conferencing with the instructor to discern patterns and
generate ideas for adjusting the learning process. The process makes students accountable,
allows them to see progress visually, and becomes motivational in a class culture where everyone
is accountable for monitoring their own learning process.
8. Frequent Error Analysis by the Teacher: The instructor should continually monitor student
performance data to discern areas in which individuals, small groups, or whole groups of students
display confusion, misconceptions, or gaps in learning. Error analysis is a key element of both
individual instruction and collaborative work review, lesson study, and scoring committee initiatives.
9. Error Analysis by Students: This post-summative assessment process involves students in using
the results of returned assignments, tests, and quizzes to discern gaps in their own learning relative
to evaluation criteria. Students are encouraged to reflect on what they understand, know, and are
able to do—as well as identify areas in which their understanding and knowledge may need
improvement. The resulting goal-setting process promotes student ownership, engagement, and
motivation.
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10. Planning and Implementing Reteaching: Using student performance data to plan re-teaching
loops for students who may not have gotten it the first time. Re-teaching must be done with verbal
messages and with positive affect to make this process a sign of good scholarship (i.e., when
students nominate themselves for re-teaching rather than a confirmation that they are “remedial”).
11. Goal Setting and Action Planning by Students: Having students use feedback and error
analysis to set SMART goals for learning and specify an action plan. According to Saphier
(et al., P. 435): “SMART goals are specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-based.” These
characteristics increase the chances that students will meet the goals they have identified.
12. Reporting Systems on Student Progress Including Three-Way Conferences: This approach
involves having students report on their goals—and their progress toward achieving them—during
three-way conferences with teachers and parents. When parents are included in the goal-setting and
report-out process, the stakes and rewards get even higher, according to Saphier (et al., P. 435).
Literacy Framework Page 89
Using a Balanced Approach to Assessing Students’
Literacy Development
1. Strive to capture a photo album—not just a “snapshot”—of what students accomplish and
achieve relative to a standards-based curriculum. Use a comprehensive approach to
assessment, ensuring that you capture the full range of what students have learned and
achieved, combining an appropriate “balance” of:
• Diagnostic/ Pre-Assessment: formal and informal assessments to determine
and address students’ varying readiness levels (i.e., their command of requisite
knowledge and skills); interests (i.e., their personal experiences, background
knowledge, and interests aligned with content to be studied); and learning profiles
(i.e., their cognitive styles, impact of personality and temperament, learning
modality preferences, etc.).
• Formative Assessment: ongoing and on-the-spot feedback given to students
to help them understand how they are progressing relative to identified desired
results (i.e., standards- based criteria). Effective formative assessment is immediate
and criterion-referenced—and ensures that students can revisit, revise, rethink,
and refine their own learning. Ultimately, students should be empowered to self-
monitor and self-regulate as a result of this formative assessment feedback.
• Summative Assessment: cumulative assessment tasks that are evaluated to
determine students’ “exit-point” levels of competency/proficiency relative to
articulated evaluation criteria. Ideally, every instructional unit should culminate in
some form of transfer task designed to evaluate the extent to which students have
genuinely understood key unit goals and objectives. Although tests can be used as a
form of summative assessment, they should not be the exclusive means of
determine student competency. Additionally, effective tests should include brief
and extended constructed-response performance tasks as part of test design.
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2. Include constructed-response items on your tests and quizzes:
• “Examine the solution presented below for this word problem. Identify the errors
in the student’s reasoning and suggest a way to correct each error.”
• “Observe this 10-minute video clip of an eco-system in Alaska. Based upon your
observations, write a paragraph description of the food chain in that system.”
3. Incorporate a range of reflective assessment tasks into your daily lessons:
• Reflective Journal/Blog Entries: “What questions do you have about today’s
lesson? Which aspects of the content we studied today do you really understand?
Which aspects would you like us to revisit and clarify?”
• Think Log/Blog Entries: “In this unit, we have been emphasizing the thinking
skills of drawing inferences and prediction. How would you define each? How
would you help another student understand these skills better?”
• Peer Coaching and Peer Response Groups: “Using our narrative writing rubric,
form groups of three. Listen as each student reads his or her narrative essay.
Provide praise for effective elements, ask questions for clarification, and then give
suggestions for polishing the writing.”
• Interviews (Formal and Informal): “As you are completing this experiment, I
will be walking around and asking informal questions to see how each of you is
doing, including how well you understand the key concepts involved here.” “During
this period, we will have five-minute meetings so that I can see how you are doing
and how I can help you with this project.”
• Informal Formative Assessment Activities and Tasks: e.g., Exit Slips, thumbs-
up and thumbs-down signals, class voting, student response systems etc.
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4. Reinforce students’ learning continuum by “scaffolding” assessments, using a range of
academic prompts that contain a suggested format, audience, topic, and purpose:
• Mathematics—Grade 5: “When contractors give us an estimate on home repairs,
how can we know if the cost is reasonable? A homeowner has asked you to review
a dry walling contractor’s proposal to determine whether the homeowner is
being overcharged. (Students are given room dimensions and cost figures for
materials, labor, and a 20% profit.) Examine the proposal and write a letter to the
homeowner providing your evaluation of the proposal. Be sure to show your
calculations so that the homeowner will understand how you arrived at your
conclusions.”
• Health—Grade 9: “Imagine that you are a fitness consultant for a local health club.
Your task is to design a fitness program for a client. (Students are given specifications
for the client—age, height, weight, fitness goals.) Use our fitness-planning format to
design a 16-week fitness program for strength, endurance, and flexibility. Explain how
your selection of aerobic, anaerobic, and stretching exercises will help your client
meet the identified goals. Be prepared to demonstrate the proper technique for all
exercises and stretches that you recommend.”
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5. Anchor key units around cornerstone “transfer tasks” modeled on the G.R.A.S.P.S. elements:
a. G.R.A.S.P.S. performance tasks and projects are authentic, “real-world” activities
that require true student understanding and independent transfer. They always
include:
(1) standards-driven goals;
(2) real-world role(s);
(3) an authentic audience;
(4) scenarios or situations that are authentic and realistic;
(5) products, performances, and presentations students are expected to
complete as part of the task or project; and
(6) standards for evaluating the products, performances, and presentations.
b. Eighth-Grade Geography: “You are an intern at our Regional Office of Tourism.
Your responsibility is to help a group of nine foreign visitors understand key historic,
geographic, and economic features of our region. The visitors speak English and come
from Shanghai, China. You are responsible for developing a written plan, including
a budget, for a four-day tour of the region. Plan your tour so that the visitors are
shown sites that best illustrate the key features of our region. You will need to prepare
a written tour itinerary and a budget for the trip. You should include an explanation of
why each site was selected and how it will help the visitors understand the features of
our region. Include a map tracing the route for your proposed tour. Your tour plan will
be evaluated for its completeness, accuracy, rationale, and appropriateness for your
specific visitors. You will present your plan to a panel of office supervisors for their
approval and feedback.”
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c. Ninth-Grade English Language Arts: “Your task is to select a mythic hero from the
literature we have read in this unit. Write a letter to that hero in which you apply for a job
as a crew member on his expeditions. In the letter, you must be specific about the
position for which you are applying, your qualifications for the job, and why you feel
you would be an asset to the crew. Be sure to make your letter persuasive by making it
clear that you understand the particular struggles and adventures the hero and crew
have already undertaken, and how you might be of value to them in handling such
situations and difficulties. Write in business-letter form, and include a resume. You will
then be required to complete a ten-minute interview with the hero and his crew. You
will be evaluated on the basis of the persuasiveness of your application materials, your
demonstration of an understanding of the hero and his exploits, and the quality of your
oral communication during the interview.”
6. Make certain that students understand from the beginning of your unit the evaluation
criteria for which they are responsible, using rubrics, checklists, and other tools. Ideally, use
an analytic rubric that weights your criteria.
7. Use assessment as a vehicle for promoting high levels of student understanding (i.e., their
ability to explain, apply, interpret, analyze perspectives, express empathy, and/or self-regulate).
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Assessment Strategies to Monitor Student Understanding
(from ASCD’s The Power of Formative Assessment to Advance Learning, pp. 78-79)
Using Oral Language:
• Accountable talk: Teach students to enrich their academic discourse.
• Notice non-verbal cues: Use student non-verbal gestures and expressions as clues to
understanding.
• Value Lineups: Have students line up according to their agreement with a statement;
then fold the line in half and have students discuss their position/point of view with
partners.
• Retellings: Ask students to summarize a text in their own words.
• Listen-Think-Pair-Share: Have students think about a question, discuss it with a partner,
and then share with the whole class.
• Misconception Analysis: Discuss and evaluate students’ preconceived notions about a
concept.
• Whip Around: Have students list three items in response to a question and stand up.
Call for one item at a time. Students must sit when all their ideas have been shared.
Implications for Your Classroom, Grade Level, Department, or School:
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Asking Questions:
• Construct effective questions: Prepare questions carefully. Choose who will respond
and how. Wait for answers and prompt if necessary. Give appropriate feedback and
evaluate student response patterns.
• Give non-verbal support: Pay attention as they answer. Maintain eye contact.
Don’t interrupt.
• Develop authentic questions: Use a taxonomy or framework to ensure that questions
require deep thinking, not just recall (e.g., analytical questions, evaluative questions,
prediction questions, interpretive/open-ended).
• Response cards: Use index cards, signs, and/or day-erase boards.
• Hand signals: Let students do thumbs-up/down, use fingers as rating scales (1-5), or
put hands up or down.
• Audience response systems: Use electronic response systems, especially with carefully
constructed multiple-choice questions.
• ReQuest: Set up reciprocal questioning about portions of a text. Teacher and students
take turns being the questioners.
• Socratic Seminar: Lead discussion based on open-ended questions about text or
audio- visual/multi-media presentation.
Implications for Your Classroom, Grade Level, Department, or School:
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Using Writing:
• Interactive writing: Have students take turns constructing a text.
• Read-Write-Pair-Share: Have students read a text, write a response, discuss with a
partner, and then share with the whole class.
• Summary writing: Ask students to summarize text in their own words
(similar to retelling but in writing).
• RAFT: Provide prompts for performance assessments requiring students to respond to
an identified role, audience, format, and topic.
Implications for Your Classroom, Grade Level, Department, or School:
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Developing Metacognition and Self-Reflection:
• Think Logs: Teach students how to use habits of mind such as self-regulation to foster
their self-awareness/comprehension monitoring: How am I doing? What do I need to
improve on? How well do I understand what I am being asked to do and why I am being
asked to do it?
• Peer response groups: Encourage students to discuss their work and thought
processes with one another in a constructive way.
• Teacher interviews: Probe students’ understanding by asking pertinent questions and
encouraging students to talk about what and how they have learned.
• Rubrics: Help students develop and apply appropriate rubrics for evaluating their own
and others’ work.
• Exit slips: Ask students to write a few brief comments reacting to how a particular
lesson or assignment has affected their progress toward the learning goal(s).
Implications for Your Classroom, Grade Level, Department, or School:
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Using Projects and Performances:
• Readers’ Theatre: Have students turn text into a script. Then, perform it as a reading
(with follow-up analysis and debriefing).
• Multimedia presentations: Let students summarize their own learning using text,
graphics, video, sound, individual and small group performance, etc.
• Electronic and paper portfolios: Ask students to choose evidence that demonstrates
their understanding of selected learning goals.
• Visual displays of information: Have students use graphic organizers, inspiration
software, foldables, and dioramas.
• Public performances: Allow students to have exhibitions, celebrations, and
demonstrations of their work.
Implications for Your Classroom, Grade Level, Department, or School:
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Using Tests as Formative Assessment:
• Multiple choice, short answer, dichotomous-choice (e.g., true/false) tests: Match
test item format with the instructional targets in both content and thought processes
required for students to master.
• Essays: Design prompts that match instructional targets in both content and
thought processes required.
• When test results have been handed back, ask students to reflect on statistical
patterns and attitudes:
(1) What do the aggregate results reveal about aspects of the content we all
understood—and other aspects with which we had trouble?
(2) What level of certainty did you have about each answer:
(a) High level of confidence;
(b) Some level of confidence;
(c) Not really certain about the answer;
(d) Didn’t really care.
Implications for Your Classroom, Grade Level, Department, or School:
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Differentiated Assessment to Promote Literacy
Tiered Lessons Interest Centers Complex Instruction
After diagnosing students’ readiness Center activities based upon student A classroom is organized to
levels, instructor emphasizes the interests (but aligned with unit and differentiate (whenever possible)
same standards for all students, but grade-level/course standards) allow content, process, and product to
differentiates the content (e.g., levels for independent inquiry and address readiness, interests, and
of reading and writing required), investigation. learning profiles. Tasks range from
process, or product. whole group to small group and
independent work.
Tiered Centers Interest Groups Aligning Products with
Tiered centers are aligned with your Students are grouped in Multiple Intelligences and
current unit standards and focus cooperative learning cohorts to Learning Styles
areas. They allow students to explore investigate a topic, issue, or process Performance tasks are designed to
parallel content via different read- aligned with unit standards—but accommodate a range of intelligences
ing selections, tasks, processes, and also focused upon shared group (e.g., visual, spatial, linguistic,
learning profiles. interests. mathematical) and styles.
Learning Contracts Varied Homework Cooperative Learning
Independent study options are Based upon diagnostic and
JIGSAWS
designed as a partnership between formative assessment within a lesson Students form base groups and
the learner and teacher, with goals, (or set of lessons), homework is expert groups. Expert groups
dead-lines, deliverables, and designed to maximize student become highly familiar with key unit
perform-ances clearly articulated. progress, including tutorials, content and then teach it to peers
remediation, and acceleration. within their base groups.
Orbital Studies Curriculum Compacting Anchored Activities
The core curriculum (and related Instructor diagnoses students at the Varied texts and materials (based on
standards) form the “sun” and beginning of a unit (or unit/lesson such issues as reading levels, interests,
independent investigations, projects, segments). Based upon their readiness and learning profiles) are available to
and performance form “planets.” levels (i.e., tiering), some students individual and groups of students,
Ideally, planet-based studies are shared receive more direct and intensive “anchored” to key curriculum
by students with other class members, tutoring while others accelerate toward standards for a unit, grade level, or
expanding curriculum focus. advanced or more independent study. course.
Independent Study Varied Journal Prompts R.A.F.T.S.
Students propose issues, topics, and Students are given a choice (or A variation of the academic prompt, a
processes that interest them (and are assigned—based upon readiness, inter- R.A.F.T. articulates a range of options
aligned with current unit standards). ests, and/or learning profiles) different for culminating performance assess-
They engage in independent study as journal entry prompts. These prompts ment tasks, including student choice
part of curriculum tiering, compacting, give the teacher ongoing feedback about (or teacher-assigned) roles, audiences,
and/or orbital studies. This process student progress and self-monitoring. formats, topics, and standards for
complements, but does not substitute They can be assigned at the end of a evaluation. The varying choices should
for, key unit content. lesson or key lesson segment. concentrate upon parallel standards.
Literacy Framework Page 101
Creating Scoring Scales/Rubrics to Monitor Student Progress
(Based on Robert Marzano’s The Art and Science of Teaching, pp. 21-22)
A Sample Scoring Scale (Generic)
Score 4.0:
In addition to score 3.0, student work demonstrates in-depth inferences and
applications that go beyond what was directly taught.
Score 3.0:
Student’s work contains no major errors or omissions related to any of the
information and/or processes (simple or complex) that were explicitly taught.
Score 2.0:
Student’s work contains no major errors or omissions related to any of the simpler
details and processes that were explicitly taught, but major errors or omissions are
present involving more complex ideas and processes.
Score 1.0:
With help, student demonstrates a partial understanding of some of the simpler de-
tails and processes and some of the more complex ideas and processes directly taught.
Score 0.0:
Even with help, student demonstrates no understanding or skill related to what was
directly taught.
Literacy Framework Page 102
A Sample Scoring Scale (Aligned with a Specific Learning Goal):
Learning Goal:
Demonstrate number sense when using arithmetic operations to order and compare
whole numbers, decimals, and fractions.
Score 4.0:
In addition to 3.0 performance indicators, student work demonstrates in-depth
inferences and applications going beyond what was directly taught about making
predictions and estimations involving ordering and comparing quantities expressed in
different numerical formats.
Score 3.0:
Student exhibits no major errors in what was explicitly taught and demonstrates
number sense by:
• Ordering and comparing whole numbers (millions), decimals
(thousandths), and fractions with like denominators.
• Converting between equivalent forms of fractions, decimals, and
whole numbers.
• Finding and representing factors and multiples of whole numbers
through 100.
Score 2.0:
Student exhibits major errors or omissions related to the more complex ideas
identified in Score 3.0, but no major errors or omissions regarding simpler details
related to number sense, including:
• Use of basic terminology (e.g., millions, thousandths, like denominator,
factor, multiple)
• Demonstration of basic solutions (e.g., 5.5 is greater than 5.005; ¾ is
the same as 0.75; 4 is a factor of 12.
Score 1.0:
With help, the student displays a partial understanding of some simpler details and
processes associated with Score 2.0 and some complex ideas and processes in Score
3.0, but does not demonstrate number sense independently.
Score 0.0:
Even with help, the student displays no understanding of number sense.
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A Sample Scoring Scale Aligned with the 21st Century Skill of
Creativity and Innovation:
Learning Goal:
Demonstrate creativity and innovation by thinking creatively, working creatively with
others, and implementing innovations.
Score 4.0:
In addition to 3.0 performance indicators, student demonstrates creativity and
innovation by going beyond what was directly taught, including:
• Using a wide range of idea creation techniques (e.g., brainstorming).
• Creating new and worthwhile ideas.
• Elaborating, refining, analyzing, and evaluating his or her own ideas in order to
improve and maximize creative efforts.
• Developing and communicating ideas to others effectively and productively,
including openness to new or alternative perspectives.
Score 3.0:
Student exhibits no major errors in what was explicitly taught and demonstrates the
ability to use some aspects of creativity and innovation by:
• Generating original ideas within the context of what was taught and how it was
taught.
• Elaborating, refining, analyzing, and evaluating his or her own work using
teacher-presented criteria (e.g., rubrics, checklists, analytical scoring guides).
• Working productively as part of a team or cooperative learning group to complete
teacher-assigned tasks requiring application, interpretation, and explanation.
• Describing and analyzing authentic or real-world applications and connections
of teacher-assigned tasks and content.
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Score 2.0:
Student exhibits major errors or omissions related to the more complex ideas
identified in Score 3.0, but no major errors or omissions regarding simpler details
related to creativity and innovation, including:
• Demonstrating difficulty in presenting original explanations, interpretations,
and applications of complex ideas and skills presented by the instructor.
• Thinking within the parameters of basic teacher-presented knowledge and skills.
• Following instructions and operating within the parameters of teacher-
delineated standards.
Score 1.0:
With help, the student displays a partial understanding of some simpler details and
processes associated with Score 2.0 and some complex ideas and processes in Score
3.0, but does not demonstrate creativity and innovation as a consistent or regular part
of his or her actions (using either complex or basic knowledge and skills presented by
the instructor).
Score 0.0:
Even with help, the student displays no understanding of complex or simple teacher-
presented knowledge and skills, with no demonstration of creativity and innovation.
Literacy Framework Page 105
Try Creating Your Own Scoring Scale for a Learning Goal You Will Be
Teaching in the Next Few Weeks
A Sample Scoring Scale (Aligned with a Specific Learning Goal):
Learning Goal:
Score 4.0:
In addition to score 3.0, student work demonstrates in-depth inferences and applications that go
beyond what was directly taught.
Score 4.0:
Score 3.0:
Student’s work contains no major errors or omissions related to any of the information and/or
processes (simple or complex) that were explicitly taught.
Score 3.0:
Score 2.0:
Student’s work contains no major errors or omissions related to any of the simpler details and
processes that were explicitly taught, but major errors or omissions are present involving more
complex ideas and processes.
Score 2.0:
Score 1.0:
With help, student demonstrates a partial understanding of some of the simpler details and processes
and some of the more complex ideas and processes directly taught.
Score 1.0:
Score 0.0:
Even with help, student demonstrates no understanding or skill related to what was directly taught.
Score 0.0:
Literacy Framework Page 106
Literacy Strategies for English Language Learners (ELL)
1. Levels of English Language Acquisition: According to Jane D. Hill and Cynthia L. Bjork
(in Classroom Instruction That Works with English Language Learners: Participant’s Work
book, Alexandria,VA: ASCD, 2008, P. 10), English Language Learners typically go through
five identifiable stages of language acquisition:
• Pre-Production: minimal comprehension; does not verbalize; nods “yes” and “no”;
draws and points.
• Early Production: limited comprehension; produces one- or two-word responses; uses
key words and familiar phrases; uses present tense verbs.
• Speech Emergence: good comprehension; produces simple sentences; makes grammar
and pronunciation errors; frequently misunderstands jokes.
• Intermediate Fluency: excellent comprehension; makes few grammatical mistakes.
• Advanced Fluency: near-native level of speech.
2. Key Principles of Effective ELL Literacy Instruction: According to the California Association of
Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages:
• It is desirable to develop literacy in the language used at home first, while beginning to
build students’ fluency in English.
• A good foundation in primary language literacy facilitates the later transfer of literacy
skills to English.
• Where primary language reading instruction is not provided, students should have
language-rich, developmentally appropriate programs of English language development
which include exposure to print.
• Ongoing assessment of literacy development is essential to ensure student success.
Before beginning literacy instruction for English learners, there should be a thorough
diagnosis by trained professionals—including oral proficiency and literacy in both
English and the primary language.
• This diagnosis, along with parent consultation and a study of the student’s school
history, should determine initial placement in a literacy program.
• An ongoing monitoring system is needed, with students assessed periodically for
development of oral English, literacy in their primary language and English, and
success with the mainstream curriculum. This assessment should be used to help
teachers plan effective instruction and to assist in the allocation of school and district
resources.
Literacy Framework Page 107
3. Key Literacy-Based Instructional and Intervention Strategies for ELL Students: The California
Association of Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages suggests that:
• ELL English language literacy instruction should be balanced, meaning-centered, and
contextualized.
• Instruction should include reading and responding to literature, writing, and the
development of essential skills (e.g., instruction in phonics, phonemic awareness, and
vocabulary).
• Beginning literacy instruction in students’ primary language should also be balanced and
meaning-centered.
• Knowledge and understanding derived from primary language literacy should be linked
explicitly to English.
• Younger students’ initial English reading experiences should be integrated with
continuing oral language development, which includes many opportunities to hear, read,
develop, and use new vocabulary and language patterns.
• Literacy programs for older students should build on their prior knowledge and
experiences.
• In addition to incorporating appropriate literature, instruction should help students read
academic texts, read for recreation and survival, and develop independent reading strategies.
• All English learners should have reading instruction tailored to the student’s level of English
proficiency, knowledge of English syntax and primary language fluency.
• Students should be helped to develop structure, clarity, spelling and mechanics in writing.
• Differentiation and similarities between the primary language and English will affect the
content of writing, phonics and spelling instruction.
Literacy Framework Page 108
4. Literacy-Based Cues and Questions: According to Hill and Bjork (2008), teachers of ELL students
should focus upon the following instructional interventions to promote their literacy development:
a. Cues and Questions:
• Provide ELL students with concrete, contextual cues so that they stay on target for
learning.
• Help ELL students access background knowledge and connect to cues and
questions more quickly by using real objects, pictures, and sketches as well as
shorter, simpler sentences.
• Engage all ELL students in higher order thinking with prompts and supports that
match their stages of language acquisition.
• Use wait time to help ELL students formulate responses in their second language.
b. Setting Objectives:
• Establish clear literacy objectives in addition to content objectives.
• Set specific literacy objectives that facilitate ELL students’ academic learning.
• Design academic opportunities that help ELL students build language proficiency.
• Set literacy objectives related to both language functions and language structures.
c. Providing Feedback:
• Ensure that feedback is timely and realistic in order for ELL students to know how
they are doing in the classroom.
• Use feedback that is appropriate for the language acquisition level of the ELL student.
• Use the Word-MES strategy to provide reinforcement and feedback:
(1) Provide feedback on word selection with pre-production students;
(2) Model for early production students;
(3) Expand what speech emergent students have said or written; and
(4) Help intermediate and advanced fluency students to “sound like a book.”
d. Summarizing:
• Use appropriate visuals and questioning strategies to promote the understanding
of ELL students.
• Asking ELL students to summarize helps them learn to analyze information at a
fairly deep level: i.e., When I summarize, what should information should I keep?
Which information should I abstract or present in a more general way? Which
information should I eliminate?
• Reciprocal teaching helps ELL students understand text. Model its key elements
and give sentence starters to guide students’ facilitation of text analysis.
• Use summarizing as a tool for helping ELL students become more aware of the
explicit structure of information.
Literacy Framework Page 109
e. Nonlinguistic Representations:
• Nonlinguistic representations promote ELL students’ understanding and literacy
development.
• They can include real objects, pictures, pictographs, diagrams, physical models,
video clips, recorded sounds, gestures, and movement.
• Use mental and sensory images to help ELL students understand new academic
language.
• Ask students to elaborate on new knowledge by providing explanations for
choices made.
f. Practice and Homework:
• Tiered literacy-based homework (based upon students’ varying readiness levels
and language acquisition levels) should be used to meet the language demands
required by the subject and language needs of ELL students.
• ELL students should have practice and homework focused on speaking and listening.
• Practice and homework should be geared to each ELL students’ stage of language
acquisition.
• Nonlinguistic tools such as photos, objects, visual organizers, and graphic repre
sentations should be used to support ELL students’ knowledge and language
acquisition.
• Allow time to explain homework to ELL students, showing clear examples of
expected outcomes.
g. Cooperative Learning:
• Using a range of cooperative learning structures and processes with ELL students
provides them with meaningful peer-based interaction and language modeling
opportunities.
• Remember that for students coming from outside the United States, cooperative
learning may be a new or unknown experience. Be sure to provide models and
explanations for specific cooperative learning strategies and tasks.
• Directly teach students how to help each other, establishing a culture in the
classroom of friendly and mutually supportive learning.
Literacy Framework Page 110
j. Note Taking:
• Teach ELL students to use a combination of note-taking strategies, including running notes,
summaries (e.g., main ideas, key vocabulary, generalizations), and visual representations of
key information.
• The more active the note-taking process, the more ELL students will be engaged in
generating and synthesizing key knowledge.
k. Reinforcing Effort:
• Encourage ELL students to believe that there is a direct relationship between their personal
effort and their achievement.
• Help ELL students to track and understand the relationship between their efforts and
achievement.
• Provide ELL students with reinforcement on a regular basis—especially in light of their
having to learn both new subject matter and a new language.
l. Providing Recognition:
• Provide criterion-based recognition and feedback to ELL students.
• Make praise and feedback as personal as possible for individual students.
• In addition to verbal praise, use concrete symbols such as stickers, awards, and coupons to
recognize ELL students’ achievements and accomplishments.
• Ensure that recognition provided to ELL students is culturally appropriate.
m. Generating and Testing Hypotheses:
• Encourage students to formulate predictions and hypotheses (e.g., What do you think will
happen next in this story?).
• When ELL students are asked to explain their hypotheses and conclusions, guide them with
sentence starters, key vocabulary, and graphic organizers).
• When generating and testing hypotheses, ELL students should receive reinforcement via
cooperative learning opportunities, non-linguistic representations, and Word-MES
strategies:
(1) Provide feedback on word selection with pre-production students;
(2) Model for early production students;
(3) Expand what speech emergent students have said or written; and
(4) Help intermediate and advanced fluency students to “sound like a book.”
Literacy Framework Page 111
Literacy Strategies for Special Education Learners
A wide range of literacy strategies have been proven in helping students with specific disabilities to
extend and refine their literacy skills and competencies. According to the British Columbia Ministry of
Education, these include:
Reading (Decoding and Comprehension):
1. Provide background experiences (e.g., field trips, critical-input previewing experiences) to
expose students to reading selection themes and new vocabulary.
2. Use pictures, models, and diagrams to reinforce key ideas and concepts.
3. Use story maps, webs, and related visual organizers to reinforce students’ conceptual under
standing of text.
4. Use art projects to make abstract concepts more concrete.
5. Interview, dramatize, or debate to clarify key points in written selections and to predict
outcomes.
6. Use guessing games to clarify character traits.
7. Have students create a different ending for stories.
8. Write a story from a different point of view.
9. Write or draw what you think will happen next.
10. Pair target students with strong readers to read difficult passages out loud to each other.
Encourage the stronger reader to read longer passages.
11. Read written directions orally to class before students proceed with an assignment.
12. Read written directions orally to class before students proceed with an assignment.
13. Provide a special copy of required reading material with the important points highlighted.
14. Provide an audio tape or DVD of essential reading material.
15. Select alternate materials with similar content at a lower reading level.
16. Provide summaries or simplified forms of novels or other reading material to augment
understanding.
17. Provide opportunities for student to predict, summarize, and paraphrase.
18. Model effective reading strategies such as previewing, highlighting, and note taking.
19. Encourage students to use visualization and verbalization to support comprehension.
20. Consider ways to alter the format of handouts and other print materials to reduce the
amount of material in students’ visual field.
Literacy Framework Page 112
Academic Vocabulary:
1. Teach students the meanings of common root words.
2. Find familiar “chunks” in multi-syllabic words (prefixes, suffixes, roots).
3. Decode the word from back to front (e.g., tion; vention; prevention).
4. Use context to determine the meaning of an unknown word (read up to the word, beyond the
word, rerun strategy, etc.).
5. Pre-teach key vocabulary concepts.
6. Encourage students to preview material to develop a list of words that may cause difficulty.
7. Provide students with a list of key vocabulary to be used in a lesson.
8. Help students develop note cards with a personal vocabulary list.
9. Teach key connecting words which cue relationships between ideas.
Writing:
1. Model and teach pre-writing activities such as brainstorming and freewriting.
2. Provide opportunities for students to discuss topics for assigned writings, including clear
criteria for completing the assignment.
3. Consider the communication of ideas as a primary goal of writing rather than its form or style
during initial stages of the writing process.
4. Allow for oral demonstrations of knowledge to complement students’ written expression.
5. Teach students to proofread in pairs, using rubrics or scoring guides to guide their revision
process.
6. Provide teacher consultation for revision stages of the writing process.
7. Encourage students to use the word processor to complete composition assignments.
8. Allow audio or video taped recordings of assignments as an alternative to written formats.
9. Encourage students’ use of electronic spell and grammar checkers.
10. Limit the weighting of spelling as part of writing evaluation.
11. Model and teach editing skills.
12. Establish and reinforce peer editing processes, norms, and protocols.
Literacy Framework Page 113
Literacy Strategies for Talented and Gifted Learners
1. Addressing Gifted Students’ Cognitive Needs: Dr. David Levine (Southern Connecticut
State University) in his article “Gifted Readers and Reading Instruction” identifies the following
cognitive needs of gifted children (Clark, 1983):
• To be exposed to new and challenging information about their environment and culture.
• To be exposed to varied subjects and concerns.
• To be allowed to pursue ideas as far as their interests take them.
• To encounter and use increasingly difficult vocabulary and concepts.
• To be exposed to ideas at rates appropriate to the individual’s pace of learning.
• To pursue inquiries beyond allotted time spans.
2. Suggested Guidelines: According to Dr. Levine, researchers (Bartelo & Cornette, 1982; Bagaj,
1968; Cornette & Bartelo, 1982; and Sakiey, 1980) agree on the following guidelines for
teachers working with gifted students:
• Instruction in basic word attitude skills should be kept to a minimum.
• Challenging materials should be made available, especially to young gifted readers.
• Instruction should facilitate critical and creative reading.
• Use of analogies should be studied, especially with older gifted students.
• Inductive (i.e., inquiry-based and experiential)—rather than deductive/lecture
instruction—should be emphasized.
• Flexibility in assignments should be stressed.
• Unnecessary repetition in instruction should be eliminated.
• Students’ divergent and diversified interests should be nurtured.
• Independent projects such as sociograms, time machine models, newscasts, games based
on story themes and simulation role-playing activities should be encouraged.
Literacy Framework Page 114
3. The Renzulli Enrichment Triad Model: Consider using a range of differentiated instructional
strategies in promoting gifted students’ literacy development. For example, the Renzulli
Enrichment Triad model encourages self-directed reading and independent study. In Renzulli’s
model, three types of interrelated activities are emphasized:
• Initial exploratory activities in which students investigate avenues of interest and then
decide on a topic or problem to study in depth;
• Activities in which students are provided with the technical skills and thinking processes
needed to investigate the research topic or problem selected in step one; and
• Investigative activities in which students explore their topic or solve their problem through
individual or small group work, with students then developing an end product that reflects
their learning.
4. Specific Literacy Strategies for Gifted Students: Although the following instructional strategies
can benefit all learners, they are especially useful in promoting the literacy development of gifted
students:
• Clearly articulate the purpose and goals of a lesson or unit, engaging students in activating
prior learning and reinforcing their sense of purpose and value.
• Collaborate with students to build a rubric or set of scoring guides to guide and inform their
self-monitoring during the unit.
• Introduce new knowledge and skills by establishing a relevant and authentic context and
purpose.
• Use critical-input experiences at the beginning of key instructional juncture points to engage
students with experience-based and inquiry-focused investigations.
• Engage students with pre-existing background knowledge in designing and presenting
previewing experiences for other students.
• Use a range of higher-order questions to provoke student inquiry, debate, and discourse: e.g.,
interpretive, analytical, evaluative, synthesis.
Literacy Framework Page 115
• Model and reinforce students’ use of a range of higher-order thinking skills as part of task
and assessment design: e.g., comparison, classification, inductive reasoning, error analysis,
and analysis of perspectives.
• Build culminating performance assessment tasks around meaningful and authentic
opportunities for student transfer.
• Design culminating tasks using one or more of the following complex reasoning processes:
problem solving, decision making, investigation, systems analysis, invention and creative
self-expression.
• Encourage students to be metacognitive, monitoring their use of such intellectual
dispositions as creative, critical, and self-regulated thinking.
Literacy Framework Page 116
The Role of Technology in Promoting Student Literacy
Toward a 21st Century Definition of Technology Literacy:
According to the North Central Regional Educational Laboratory in its article “Critical Issue: Using
Technology to Enhance Literacy Instruction
(http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/content/cntareas/reading/li300.htm):
Literacy instruction usually refers to the teaching of basic literacy skills—reading, writing, listening, and
speaking. In today’s digital world, however, technology has contributed to an expanded understanding of
literacy. Besides having basic literacy skills, today’s students also need technology skills for communicating,
investigating, accessing, and using information, computing, thinking critically about messages inherent in
new media, and understanding and evaluating data. As policymakers and educators ponder what it
means to be literate in a digitalized society, an array of literacy definitions is emerging.
NCREL identifies the following forms of technology-based literacy essential to the success of the 21st
century learner:
• Information Literacy: The ability to access and use information, analyze content, work
with ideas, synthesize thought, and communicate results.
• Digital Literacy: The ability to attain deeper understanding of content by using
data-analysis tools and accelerated learning processes enabled by technology.
• Computer Literacy: The ability to accurately and effectively use computer tools such as
word processors, spreadsheets, databases, and presentation and graphic software.
• Critical Literacy: The ability to look at the meaning and purpose of written texts, visual
applications, and spoken words to question the attitudes, values, and beliefs behind them.
The goal is development of critical thinking to discern meaning from an array of
multimedia, visual imagery, and virtual environments, as well as written text.
• Media Literacy: The ability to communicate competently in all media forms—print and
electronic—as well as access, understand, analyze, and evaluate the images, words, and
sounds that comprise contemporary culture.
Literacy Framework Page 117
A Self-Reflective Questionnaire:
How Does Your Classroom Align the Use of Technology and Students’ Literacy Development?
1. Do you use technology for more than skills reinforcement?
2. Do you model and encourage students to use technology as part of complex task completion (e.g.,
integrate technology into students’ ongoing work with research and report writing, including
using the Internet for research; word processing software to write and format the text; and
hypermedia software to add images)?
3. To what extent are you able to keep up with changes in technology and support students’ under
standing and responsiveness to these changes?
4. Do you use technology to help students construct meaning and extend and refine their learning?
5. Do you anchor students’ use of technology around spiraling assessment tasks that encourage them
to move from initial acquisition of knowledge and skills toward growing levels of constructed
meaning and independent application/transfer?
6. To what extent do you make use of technologies to help students develop critical and analytical
reading skills? (e.g., audiobooks, online texts, related forms of online books)
7. How do various electronic/technology-based resources and interventions in your classroom rein
force students’ sense of growth and control relative to their own learning process?
8. To what extent does your use of technology in the classroom reinforce students’ decoding and
comprehension skills during reading?
9. How do you use technology to enhance students’ ability to express ideas and creativity?
10. How extensively does your use of electronic books with students support reading instruction by
providing background information, extended response action opportunities, play actions, and
explanatory notes?
11. To what extent do you use technology (e.g., word processing, desktop publishing, multimedia
composing) to extend and refine students’ ability to use writing as a tool for communication?
12. How are you using technology to enhance and extend students’ work with research (e.g., Internet
search engines, online tools for evaluating web-based information, web sites that offer
collaborative activities)?
Literacy Framework Page 118
Literacy Framework Page 119
