LiteracyLiteracy Strategies and Tools to help students with high incidence reading and writing challenges become more successful and independent.

“…the instinct to write down everything from mundane commercial transactions to routine daily occurrences to the most transcendent ideas - and then have others read them, as well as to read what others have written - is not simply a way of transferring information from one person to another, one generation to the next. It is a process of learning and hence, education.” - Vartan Gregorian President, Carnegie Corporation of New York Forward in Writing Next

Have students write about the texts they read Write personal reaction Write summaries Write Notes Answer questions about a text in writing Teach students the writing skills and processes that go into creating text Teach the process of writing, text structures, paragraphs Teach spelling and sentence construction Increase how much a student writes According to Graham and Hebert in Writing to Read, and Graham and Perin in Writing Next, “Teaching writing not only improves how well students write; it also enhances students’ ability to read a text accurately, fluently, and with comprehension.”

Why is Reading and Writing so Important? Somewhere between one half to two thirds of new jobs in the future will require a college education and higher level literacy skills (Carnevale and Derochers, 2004; Kirsch, Braun, Yamamoto, and Sum, 2007) Forty percent of high school graduates lack the literacy skills employer seek (National Governors Association, 2005)

What are some strategies and tools that can help with reading and writing?

Teach Specific Writing Strategies Clicker 6 Write online Read Write Gold Inspiration Spell Checker Co-Writer 6 Planning Revising Editing

Word Processing Built in spell checkers Word prediction Text to speech Speech to text Dictionary. Use computers and word processors as instructional supports for writing assignments

Pre-Writing Engage students in activities designed to help generate or organize ideas Draft Builder Inspiration Kurzweil Read, Write, Think (on-line)

Sentence Combining Co-Writer Write out Loud Clicker 6 Paper Rater (on-line) Grammarly (on-line) Grammar is learned better when taught using sentence combining. Teach grammar within the context of writing. Teaching students to construct more complex and sophisticated sentences and paragraphs = improved quality of writing. Grammar is learned better when taught using sentence combining. Teach grammar within the context of writing.

Process Writing  Create extended opportunities for writing  Emphasize writing for real audiences  Create extended opportunities for writing  Emphasize writing for real audiences  Create extended opportunities for writing  Emphasize writing for real audiences  Create extended opportunities for writing  Emphasize writing for real audiences  Create extended opportunities for writing  Emphasize writing for real audiences  Encourage cycles of planning, translating, reviewing  Self-reflection  Personalized instruction and goals

Use technology for teaching reading because it….  Allows for individualization  Can be customized  Allows for repetition  Computers are forgiving and non-judgmental  Provides data Lexia Start-to-finish books Thinking reader Solo: Read aloud Read Out Loud

“Learning to write teaches skills and processes of writing such as handwriting, spelling, vocabulary, punctuation, capitalization, word usage, and grammar” (Needels and Knapp 1994) “Writing to Learn uses writing as a means to extend and deepen students knowledge” (Keys, 2000; Shanahan, 2004; Sperling and Freedman, 2000)

SPND 456 Strategies and Tools to help students with high incidence reading and writing challenges become more successful and independent Staci Darragh October 12, 2012