Literacy Team September 2015

Introductions and Roles • Literacy Coach Roles• Providing and demonstrating a variety of new

literacy strategies monthly • “Test driving” the strategies • Maintaining a “living resource” online for teachers

to access examples and templates of strategies• Being open for observation in my own classroom• Supporting teachers in and out of the classroom

with ideas and resources• NOT an evaluator; just a resource

Introductions and Roles

• Literacy Team Role• Brainstorming and “test driving”

strategies in their content-specific classrooms to share with PLC• Leading PLC literacy meetings • Being an additional resource to faculty

Introductions and Roles

• Faculty Role • Trying at least one new strategy per

month (multiple times) • Offering feedback to coach and team

about strategies and how they did/didn’t work in the classroom• Being conscientious about using a

literacy strategy with every text for the students’ benefit

The Plan – What to Expect

• Two meetings per month• New Strategies (First Wed. of Month) • Reflections/Samples (Last Wed. of Month

• Coach visits to at least one different PLC classroom per month• To promote idea-sharing during PLC

reflection time.

“Reading for Meaning” September Strategy

• Making sure to always set a clear PURPOSE or FOCUS for reading.

• Planning for a Before, During, and After reading activity with a text:

- Before – Engages Prior Knowledge - During – Keeps them focused, active - After – Asks them to reflect/

synthesize, etc.

“Reading for Meaning” September Strategy

In a nutshell – The definition of the “Reading for Meaning” Strategy:

“In a Reading for Meaning lesson, students are provided with simple statements that help them preview and predict before reading, actively search for relevant evidence during reading, and reflect on and synthesize what they have learned after reading.”

Please find the green handout that looks like this for a quick example!

The Basic Steps • Present students with a list of ‘agree or

disagree statements’ about an assigned text. • Have students preview the statements and

then begin reading the text. (Before Reading)• Ask students to indicate whether they agree or

disagree with the statements based on what they read. (During Reading) • Have students justify their agree/disagree

positions by finding and recording appropriate evidence from the text. (After Reading)

* Take a brief look at some of the examples in your packet.

* Also, check out the pale yellow handouts on your PLC tables for more samples.

*Pick the Lit. Team leaders’ brains – they have been brainstorming for the past week on this strategy!

Take about 5 minutes and chat as a PLC . . .

Strategy Tips and Pitfalls

Tip: This strategy can be tweaked to work with almost anything—even non-text items! The number of simple statements can vary too.

Pitfall: You want to avoid simple, “search and find” answers. Think of open-ended questions that force them to make a claim that they can support with evidence.

*Check out the green handout again for tips on how to create

GOOD “RFM” sentences!

I hope I didn’t go over time . . .