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L I T E R A C Y , A N D L E A R N I N G I N C O N T E N T A R E A S
Literacy
Handbook
Kari
Williams
Kofi Annan
understand
and
comprehend
information
that
has
been
received
and
then
is
applied
to
any
given
situation.
What is reading?
What is a text?
LITERACY HANDBOOK
KARI WILLIAMS
Comprehension
Students
retain
information
when
it
is
used
often.
Teachers
can
use
before,
during,
and
after
activities.
This
allows
the
teacher
to
gather
previous
knowledge
from
students,
an
activity
to
build
their
understanding,
and
an
activity
to
formatively
assess
their
understanding
of
what
was
presented.
Effective
comprehension
instruction
builds
students
metacognition.
Metacognition
is
the
ability
to
actively
monitor
and
regulate
your
thinking
as
you
read.
Metacognitive
readers
tend
to
have
stronger
comprehension.
Strategies
may
include
guided
imagery,
scenarios,
list/group/label,
alphabet
brainstorming,
analogy
charting,
and
think-pair-share
activities.
These
activities
address
different
learning
strategies,
allow
for
individual
and
group
participation,
and
builds
on
past
knowledge.
As
students
read,
you
can
have
them:
predict,
infer,
summarize,
use
text
features
(i.e.
headings)
to
determine
importance,
ask
questions,
make
background
connections,
visualize,
re-read
to
further
comprehension.
Vocabulary
Instruction
Students,
and
people
in
general,
learn
vocabulary
best
when
it
has
been
presented,
explained,
and
used
frequently
in
its
context.
There
are
four
types
of
vocabulary
instruction:
Developing
in-depth
understandings
of
core
vocabulary
related
to
the
big
ideas
in
the
course
Teaching
students
strategies
for
approaching
difficult
or
unfamiliar
vocabulary
words
Teaching
vocabulary
necessary
for
understanding
individual
texts
Teaching
general
vocabulary,
such
as
those
seen
in
standardized
tests.
Vocabulary
instruction
is
both
direct
(meaning
you
are
explicitly
defining
words)
and
incidental
(meaning
words
are
naturally
acquired
through
well-planned
activities).
In
order
for
instruction
to
be
effective,
students
should
have
upwards
of
40
instuctional
encounters
with
terminology.
Examples
for
instruction:
word
webs,
analogy
charts,
possible
sentences,
semantic
feature
analysis,
teaching
connections
between
morphemes
(ex:
Latin
roots
and
meanings)
LITERACY HANDBOOK
KARI WILLIAMS
Writing
Instruction
Writing
should
never
be
used
as
punishment;
a
good
teacher
finds
ways
to
promote
writing
and
facilitate
positive
writing
experiences.
When
giving
a
writing
assignment,
include
a
rubric
and/or
writing
checklist
to
communicate
expectations.
Comments
on
writing
should
be
specific
and
concrete.
A
teacher
may
include
strengths,
insights,
and
improvements
to
help
the
student
improve
their
work.
Students
may
respond
to
writing
more
when
they
have
the
freedom
to
choose
what
they
write
about.
They
may
feel
engaged
more
when
the
writing
assignment
is
directed
toward
a
specific
audience.
Writing
should
have
before,
during
and
after
activities.
Before
activities
may
consist
of
brainstorming
ideas,
students
sharing
ideas,
or
listing
questions.
During
activities
could
include
annotating
text,
graphic
organizers
during
reading,
and/or
asking
questions
or
comments
on
sticky
notes.
After
activities
should
allow
students
to
respond
to
each
other
and
evaluate
their
work.
These
may
include:
annotating
their
own
texts
using
the
6
traits
of
writing,
evaluating
each
others
work
with
a
rubric,
writing
reflections
of
the
activity,
or
sharing
their
writing
with
others.
There
are
6
traits
of
writing:
1. Ideas
and
content:
What
is
the
central
idea?
What
is
being
shared?
2. Organization:
How
does
it
flow?
Does
it
have
a
beginning,
middle,
and
end?
3. Voice:
personality,
tone
for
the
occasion,
consistency
of
position
throughout
the
piece
4. Word
Choice:
each
word
and
phrase
is
carefully
chosen,
and
is
what
a
professional
practitioner
would
use.
5. Sentence
Fluency:
how
a
piece
of
writing
flows
when
read
aloud;
varied
sentence
structure,
length,
and
beginnings
6. Conventions:
The
icing
on
the
cake,
so
to
speak.
What
is
the
style
of
writing?
Levels
of
Writing:
1:
Informal
sketches,
to
be
responded
to,
not
evaluated,
daily
(i.e.
notes,
post-lesson
summaries)
2:
More
formal,
often
evaluated
on
one
characteristic,
once
or
twice
a
week
(i.e.
letter
based
on
concepts,
journal
entry)
3:
Formal
writing
that
has
been
revised
and
edited
for
several
characteristics,
one
per
term
(i.e.
safety
brochure
for
the
school,
imagined
article
for
journal
or
magazine)
Effective
Writing
Prompts:
specific
genre
(letter,
Facebook
page),
audience
(Congress,
newspaper,
parent),
subject
of
interest,
broad
enough
that
students
can
find
multiple
responses.
Critical Literacy
LITERACY HANDBOOK
KARI WILLIAMS
Oral
Language
Classroom
discussions
often
follow
the
IRE
model,
that
is,
Initiate-Respond-Evaluate.
These
discussions
are
considered
to
be
monologic,
meaning
the
teacher
is
the
one
that
is
primarily
speaking.
On
the
other
hand,
dialogic
discussions
involve
the
whole
class,
and
everyone
has
a
chance
to
speak.
Open-ended
questions
may
help
start
dialogic
discussions.
Teachers
can
change
whole-class
IRE
discussions
to
dialogic
through:
cognitively
challenging
questions
(What,
who,
where,
when,
what,
why,
how);
authentic
questions
(teacher
does
not
have
right
answer);
student-generated
questions,
higher-level
evaluations
(elaborating
on
student
answers
instead
of
saying
right),
and
teachers
and
students
building
on
each
others
comments.
Examples
for
instruction:
have
students
take
turns
reading
passages;
split
students
into
pairs
and
have
one
visualize
and
the
other
summarize
passages;
playing
cards
with
concepts,
such
as
in
a
matching
game
Digital
Literacy
Digital
literacy
is
usually
multimodal,
social,
mobile,
up-to-the-moment,
driven,
and
involvement.
It
allows
students
to
address
a
broader
audience.
It
requires
a
high
degree
of
critical
literacy.
It
strengthens
critical
thinking
skills
through
the
use
of
comprehension
strategies.
Students
need
pre-
writing
skills,
including
knowledge
of
the
six
traits
of
writing.
Students
will
be
able
to
use
the
Internet
to
locate
reliable
information.
English
learners
develop
basic
interpersonal
communication
skills
within
roughly
1
year.
However,
it
can
roughly
7
years
to
develop
cognitive
academic
language
proficiency
that
is
required
for
success
in
schools.
Some
can
read
and
write
English
better
than
they
can
speak
it,
and
vice
versa.
Some
ways
teachers
can
help
English
learners
could
include:
Allowing
journals
for
questions
to
review
Provision
of
adapted
or
easier
texts
Provision
of
bilingual
texts
or
text
in
their
native
language
Peer
tutoring
Inclusion
of
students
culture,
background,
familial
history
Creating
a
welcoming
environment
Use
of
graphic
organizers
Multiple
methods
of
assessment
(performance,
visual,
written,
oral)
Reading