1. Literacy in the Secondary Schools 2006 - 2007 "Would you tell me please," asked Alice, "where I ought to go from here?" "That depends a good deal on where you want to get to," replied the Cat. -Lewis Carroll Half Hollow Hills Central School District

2. Literacy in the Secondary Schools GOALS To continue the initiatives started last year around data driven assessments and instruction To use the State ELA Core Curriculum as a guide in vertically aligning our own curriculum To foster collaboration among faculty in order to share best practices, and maintain a venue for discussion and application of professional learning methodologies.

3. Literacy in the Secondary Schools Where are we now? Focus on Using Assessment to Drive Instruction –Standardized Data (Reading Assessments, ELA, Regents, PSAT, SAT, AP Exams) –Student Work (Essays and Portfolio Pieces) –Baseline, Midyear, Formative, and Summative Assessments

4. Literacy in the Secondary Schools Where are we now? Focus on Curriculum and Planning Processes –UBD (Understanding by Design for planning and assessing student work) –Planning around text choices and literary elements and techniques

5. Literacy in the Secondary Schools Where are we now? Focus on Instructional Techniques and Strategies –Differentiation –Dialectical Journals –Cooperative Learning –Silent Sustained Reading

6. Literacy in the Secondary Schools Where are we going? Assessments –Using the State ELA Exam as the baseline for each grade in middle school –Offering a reading level assessment (such as the Gates-MacGinitie) to incoming ninth graders

7. Literacy in the Secondary Schools Where are we going? Curriculum –Curriculum Mapping –Units of Study planned around thematic connections between texts of various genres –Thematic Compliments to Social Studies

8. Literacy in the Secondary Schools Where are we going? Instruction –Modeling –Mentor Texts –Student Centered Learning –Year-long Independent Reading

9. Literacy in the Secondary Schools Instruction Assessment Curriculum

10. Literacy in the Secondary Schools Final Thoughts We want to “ get to ” a place where curriculum, assessment, and instruction are in constant motion; each an integral factor in the creation of the other.

11. Literacy in the Secondary Schools Comments/Questions?