By Barb Baltrinic and Angela Smith Powerful Literacy Practices An Instructional Framework for Implementing Literacy in All Classrooms By Barb Baltrinic and Angela Smith Introduce selves

Powerful Literacy Practices This concept, set forth by the Southern Region Education Board (SREB), is a plan for making students college and career ready. Every teacher is a literacy teacher! Barb

Why Literacy Across the Curriculum? Each discipline’s content is different, and the difference is reflected in the texts. General literacy strategies do not go far enough in preparing students for the complex reading and writing tasks required of them for college work or to address state literacy standards. Barb

Consider this video. Angela

Six Powerful Literacy Practices--the Nitty Gritty Literacy Assignments Lesson Sequence Learning Targets Literacy Strategies Student Discourse Assessment Angela

Literacy Assignments Planning a literacy-based assignment which includes an authentic written product reflecting evidence from reading complex texts that are both challenging and appropriate to course content. Barb

Literacy Assignments Before: The assignment requires students to learn content-based knowledge. After: The assignment is designed to engage students in mastering content knowledge by reading grade-level texts leading to a clear, authentic writing product that reflect, in their own words, their understanding of the academic or technical content. Barb

Lesson Sequence Planning a lesson sequence to support/scaffold the learning of literacy and content standards. Angela

Learning Targets Clear and measurable objectives and learning targets have been communicated to the students. Angela

Learning Targets: An Analogy The minimum number of legs to support a stool is three. Strong lesson design also has 3 legs: 1) A reading standard 2) A writing standard 3) A content standard In developing a strong literacy-based unit, start with the end product in mind: A product-based assessment that requires students to read rigorous materials on their content topic, then create a research-based product with a writing component. Barb

Literacy Strategies Literacy strategies (reading, writing, speaking and/or listening) are integrated into content-based instruction. Barb

Student Discourse The classroom environment promotes student discourse that supports ownership of learning and a deeper understanding of important concepts. “The person doing the most talking about the content is the person doing the most learning.” --Angela Smith Angela

Assessment Assessment is used in all aspects of the teaching and learning to inform the instructional process. Angela

How to Prepare for the Powerful Literacy Practices “Give the student something to do, not something to learn; and when the doing is of such a nature as to demand thinking; learning naturally results.” -- John Dewey Angela

Every Lesson Must Include These Learning Targets: One content standard One reading standard One writing standard Students need to know the standards for the lesson and be able to articulate them. Angela