Secondary Literacy Session: Overview Here you will find a brief overview of the Secondary Literacy sessions; PowerPoints slides available at end of descriptions.
SLIT 1: Secondary Texts
Session 1: Why Are Secondary Text Difficult?
This session is dedicated to investing CMs in the fact that teaching literacy is their job because the achievement gap is a literacy gap. We want CMs to understand that all secondary teachers, regardless of content area, must equip students to meet the demands of the specific types of text used in their discipline.
• Big Idea: Teaching literacy is my job.
• Journals are introduced to CM
SLIT 2: Reading Strategically
Session 2: Reading Purposefully & Strategically
In this session CMs will see how setting a purpose and picking appropriate comprehension strategies based on that purpose can make a huge impact on the effectiveness of the lesson. We will reflect on the processes and strategies that we use to understand difficult discipline-specific texts, and learn that teaching these strategies happens over the course of the entire instructional year as the teacher gradually releases responsibility and students become more independent readers. We will also practice communicating teaching these key reading strategies through think-alouds. CMs leave the session with a think-aloud script for a text they can use in their class this summer.
• Big Idea: Teaching reading comprehension explicitly is my job.
• Setting a purpose for reading is crucial to good reading.
SLIT 3: Comprehension
Session 3: Building Comprehension: Before, During and After Reading Strategies
This session offers both ideas and practice in integrating before, during and after reading strategies. CMs will learn about incredibly powerful activities that can increase comprehension and build understanding in all content area, including anticipation guides and text coding systems. The idea here is that CMs will begin incorporating strategies in their lessons that will lead to increased student comprehension.
• Big Idea: Teaching reading comprehension explicitly is my job.
• Reading strategies are tools that lead to reading comprehension.
SLIT 4: Informal Writing
Session 4: Informal Writing
Teachers in all content areas are interested in ways to prompt strategic thinking and deepen understanding; in this session, CMs will learn the principles of informal writing and see how the incorporation of informal writing tasks in lesson plans can accomplish both of these goals. Again, CMs will get concrete ideas and strategies, and will have the opportunity in session to integrate informal writing into their own lesson plans.
• Big Idea: I believe that writing is important to all disciplines/subject areas.
• Writing can build comprehension and deepen understanding in content areas.
SLIT 5: Vocabulary
Session 5: Teaching Vocabulary
Research clearly indicates that the achievement gap is a word gap, and secondary teachers in all content areas must grapple with teaching general academic and content-specific vocabulary. This session provides instruction on the principles of effective vocabulary instruction, including how to select words to teach and how to ensure that students truly internalize those words. As in other sessions, CMs will have the opportunity to produce a meaningful output in the session by incorporating vocabulary instruction into draft lesson plans.
• Big Idea: Specifically, the achievement gap is a word gap.
• Creating meaningful interactions with words that lead to deep processing.
SLIT 6: Fluency & Decoding
Session 6: Fluency & Decoding
All teachers, as a matter of professional responsibility, need to understand the building blocks of reading. This session breaks down the components of reading that lead to the ability to fluently and accurately read text. The majority of the CMs will encounter students who struggle with fluency, so this session emphasizes that fluency is necessary, though not sufficient, for comprehension. CMs will learn techniques for building fluency and teaching decoding, and how these techniques can be used as scaffolding whenever students read in class.
• Big Idea: Knowledge of the building blocks of reading is an important part of the professional knowledge that all teachers should have.
• Students must be able to decode texts fluently enough to free up the mental resources for comprehension.
Secondary Literacy Session: PowerPoints
Differentiated Session: Math Literacy
Here you will find the PowerPoint slides: math literacy.ppt
Differentiated Session: Structural Analysis
For further research and information, please check out the following:
Unlocking Literacy: Effective Decoding & Spelling Instruction, by Marcia K. Henry, 2003.
Secondary Literacy Session:
Background Information
For Informal Writing & Building Comprehension
Bloom's Taxonomy (remember: Knowledgeable CAASE)
Bloom identified six levels within the cognitive domain, from the simple recall or recognition of facts, as the lowest level, through increasingly more complex and abstract mental levels, to the highest order which is classified as evaluation. A description of the six levels as well as verb examples that represent intellectual activity are listed here.
Knowledge is defined as remembering of previously learned material. This may involve the recall of a wide range of material, from specific facts to complete theories, but all that is required is the bringing to mind of the appropriate information.
Knowledge represents the lowest level of learning outcomes in the cognitive domain.
Verbs: arrange, define, duplicate, label, list, memorize, name, order, recognize, relate, recall, repeat, reproduce state.
Comprehension is defined as the ability to grasp the meaning of material. This may be shown by translating material from one form to another (words to numbers), by interpreting material (explaining or summarizing), and by estimating furture trends (predicting consequences or effects). These learning outcomes go one step beyond the simple remembering of material, and represent the lowest level of understanding.
Verbs: classify, describe, discuss, explain, express, identify, indicate, locate, recognize, report, restate, review, select, translate.
Application refers to the ability to use learned material in new and concrete situations. This may include the application of such things as rules, methods, concepts, principles, laws, and theories. Learning outcomes in this area require a higher level of understanding than those under comprehension.
Verbs: apply, choose, demonstrate, dramatize, employ, illustrate, interpret, operate, practice, schedule, sketch, solve, use, write.
Analysis refers to the ability to break down material into its component parts so that its organizational structure may be understood. This may include the identification of the parts, analysis of the relationships between parts, and recognition of the organizational principles involved. Learning outcomes here represent a higher intellectual level than comprehension and application becasue they require an understanding of both the content and the structural form of the material.
Verbs: analyze, appraise, calculate, categorize, compare, contrast, criticize, differentiate, discriminate, distinguish, examine, experiment, question, test.
Synthesis refers to the ability to put parts together to form a new whole. This may involve the production of a unique communication (theme or speech), a plan of operations (research proposal), or a set of abstract relations (scheme for classifying information). Learning outcomes in this area stress creative behaviors, with major emphasis on the formulation of new patterns or structures.
Verbs: arrange, assemble, collect, compose, construct, create, design, develop, formulate, manage, organize, plan, prepare, propose, set up, write.
Evaluation is concerned with the ability to judge the value of material (statement, novel, poem, research report) for a given purpose. The judgements are to be based on definite criteria. These may be internal criteria (organization) or external criteria (relevance to the purpose) and the student may determine the criteria or be given them. Learning outcomes in this area are highest in the cognitive hierarchy because they contain elements of all the other categories, plus conscious value judgements based on clearly defined criteria.
Verbs: appraise, argue, assess, attach, choose compare, defend estimate, judge, predict, rate, core, select, support, value, evaluate.
Reference: Major categories in the cognitive domain of the taxonomy of educational objectives (Bloom, 1956).