Grade level focus for mastery- 2018/19 school year
Department Dedication to Independent Reading
As an ELA Department, we are dedicated to creating and maintaining a community of readers. Research has shown that there are essential components in a successful reading program, and we are excited to provide this opportunity to our students and celebrate their reading throughout the year.
Time: Students need time to read in class in order to create a habit of reading and to build stamina. In addition, students need time to discuss choices with classmates, time to analyze their progress, and time to practice fluency & comprehension strategies under the direction of the teacher.
Choice: Students need to make choices in reading that reflect their interests because interest drives engagement. Students should challenge themselves to read books of increasing complexity from a range of genres.
Response: Students will reflect on reading in writing (themed notebooks & writing notebooks), facilitate discussions in small groups and respond regularly to other readers.
Vision: Classroom book talks present a wide range of voices, styles of text, categories of interest, etc. and are essential for helping students develop their own ‘to read next’ lists. We must commit to helping students define themselves as readers.
Expectations: All readers will develop the stamina to read longer and with greater fluency with daily practice. In order for this practice to take place, students should come prepared with something to read each day in class. All readers will set goals and read regularly each week, both in class and at home.
The inspiration for our philosophy is best explained by nationally recognized teacher, literacy coach, and author Penny Kittle: “There is a strong correlation between reading regularly for pleasure (any reading...really, ANY reading, as long as it’s a habit) and academic success, including building vocabulary, an understanding of sentence structure, and an increase in stamina for reading harder texts. It is also clear that the more you read, the better you write” (Kittle 2014).
Reading makes a difference…
20 minutes/day-- 1,823,000 words/yr--90% ranking
5 minutes/day--282,000 words/yr--50% ranking
1 minute/day-- 8,000 words/yr--10% ranking
It about developing the whole child... not just test scores.
1. Reading is social and emotional learning. It improves relationships. Reading together helps parents and kids connect, but it also help teens navigate their peer relationships. Reading FICTION increases empathy for others.
2. Reading helps develop concentration. Many students avoid reading because they can’t concentrate, then they never get better. Start out small and work up 5 minutes at a time. It doesn’t happen overnight. Don’t be afraid to use audio WITH text.
3. Reading builds neural pathways in the brain, which make a healthier brain and can raise IQ levels. Reading is your brain’s exercise. It actually changes the way a brain is structured and how a person connects information. Reading builds bridges in the brain; this can happen at any age. This can help if a person recover in the future more quickly from an injury or brain disease. Reading is preventative care.
4. Reading teaches language and writing. There is a high correlation between strong readers and strong writers. A person’s ability to communicate grows as reading grows.
5. Reading naturally develops creative problem solving skills. Readers try to solve problems and make connections while they read. Being able to process and synthesize information from multiples sources is what employers are looking for-- they are also the happiest employees.
Adapted from several books and research by: Sally Shaywitz, Penny Kittle, Kelly Gallagher, Linda Gambrell, Lesley Mandel Morrow, Donalyn Miller, and various publications through the National Council of Teachers of English
Time: Students need time to read in class in order to create a habit of reading and to build stamina. In addition, students need time to discuss choices with classmates, time to analyze their progress, and time to practice fluency & comprehension strategies under the direction of the teacher.
Choice: Students need to make choices in reading that reflect their interests because interest drives engagement. Students should challenge themselves to read books of increasing complexity from a range of genres.
Response: Students will reflect on reading in writing (themed notebooks & writing notebooks), facilitate discussions in small groups and respond regularly to other readers.
Vision: Classroom book talks present a wide range of voices, styles of text, categories of interest, etc. and are essential for helping students develop their own ‘to read next’ lists. We must commit to helping students define themselves as readers.
Expectations: All readers will develop the stamina to read longer and with greater fluency with daily practice. In order for this practice to take place, students should come prepared with something to read each day in class. All readers will set goals and read regularly each week, both in class and at home.
The inspiration for our philosophy is best explained by nationally recognized teacher, literacy coach, and author Penny Kittle: “There is a strong correlation between reading regularly for pleasure (any reading...really, ANY reading, as long as it’s a habit) and academic success, including building vocabulary, an understanding of sentence structure, and an increase in stamina for reading harder texts. It is also clear that the more you read, the better you write” (Kittle 2014).
Reading makes a difference…
20 minutes/day-- 1,823,000 words/yr--90% ranking
5 minutes/day--282,000 words/yr--50% ranking
1 minute/day-- 8,000 words/yr--10% ranking
It about developing the whole child... not just test scores.
1. Reading is social and emotional learning. It improves relationships. Reading together helps parents and kids connect, but it also help teens navigate their peer relationships. Reading FICTION increases empathy for others.
2. Reading helps develop concentration. Many students avoid reading because they can’t concentrate, then they never get better. Start out small and work up 5 minutes at a time. It doesn’t happen overnight. Don’t be afraid to use audio WITH text.
3. Reading builds neural pathways in the brain, which make a healthier brain and can raise IQ levels. Reading is your brain’s exercise. It actually changes the way a brain is structured and how a person connects information. Reading builds bridges in the brain; this can happen at any age. This can help if a person recover in the future more quickly from an injury or brain disease. Reading is preventative care.
4. Reading teaches language and writing. There is a high correlation between strong readers and strong writers. A person’s ability to communicate grows as reading grows.
5. Reading naturally develops creative problem solving skills. Readers try to solve problems and make connections while they read. Being able to process and synthesize information from multiples sources is what employers are looking for-- they are also the happiest employees.
Adapted from several books and research by: Sally Shaywitz, Penny Kittle, Kelly Gallagher, Linda Gambrell, Lesley Mandel Morrow, Donalyn Miller, and various publications through the National Council of Teachers of English
District Philosophy on Literacy
Preparing Students for the Changing Literacy Landscape
Students “entering the adult world in the 21st century will read and write more than at any other time in human history. They will need advanced levels of literacy to perform their jobs, run their households, act as citizens, and conduct their personal lives. They will need literacy to cope with the flood of information they will find everywhere they turn. They will need literacy to feed their imaginations so they can create the world of the future. In a complex and sometimes even dangerous world, their ability to read will be crucial” (Moore, et al 3).
Eanes ISD is committed to the literate lives of our students. Our educators use creative approaches and adapt their methodologies to respond to individual learners. We respect diversity in teaching styles and expect pedagogy that exemplifies sound theory and effective practices. In support of that expectation, teachers have access to ongoing professional learning to improve their craft. According to the International Literacy Association, “Teachers of all disciplines ‘must know how to create a classroom culture of engaged academic literacy’ for student success” (“Collaborating for Success,” 5). Although literacy practices vary depending on the academic discipline and teacher, all disciplines, at every grade level, can develop students’ literate lives through reading, writing, listening, and speaking. In a broad sense, literacy in the 21st century can be defined as the ability to
In Eanes ISD, our goal is to ensure every student has not only the capacity to proficiently perform these actions but also the depth of understanding and skill to be innovative and iterative.
The Eanes ISD Graduate Profile outlines target skills and characteristics for our students. Descriptors in four of the five areas of the profile closely mirror the National Council of Teachers of English definition of 21st Century Literacies.
While descriptors of success guide our work in Eanes ISD, careful planning for student growth over a thirteen-year educational career and beyond makes achievement of the profile possible. That planning entails creating a guaranteed and viable curriculum, a key characteristic of successful schools identified through the research of Dr. Robert Marzano. “There are two distinct components in the concept of a guaranteed and viable curriculum: The fact that it is guaranteed assures us that specific content is taught in specific courses and at specific grade levels, regardless of the teacher to whom a student is assigned. The fact that it is viable indicates that there is enough instructional time available to actually teach the content identified as important” (Marzano, Dufour, 90). Eanes’ educators design our curriculum documents beginning with the end, the Graduate Profile, in mind. The documents that capture the planning of Eanes’ educators include a scope and sequence for the year’s instruction and individual unit plans that provide deeper detail. A vertical alignment document maps informational and persuasive communication tasks representing key state standards (Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills). This document provides a clear picture of student’s journey to become an Effective Communicator.
However, literacy does not spring from documents, no matter how thoughtfully designed. Delivering that curriculum through the best instructional practices and assessing student growth along the way are the craft of the classroom teacher. In order to build this craft, professional learning in our district has been focused on backward curriculum design, best instructional practices for student-centered learning and effective assessment to inform instruction and provide students feedback. All of this work is vital; transfer of literacy skills and understandings from kindergarten through graduation is no small task; however, success is non-negotiable since “literacy soon becomes the currency for all other learning” (Fisher, Frey, Hattie, 3).
Designing Literacy Learning Experiences
The key to designing a powerful curriculum is to begin with the end in mind as outlined in Understanding by Design by Wiggins and McTighe. Literacy work is anchored in the Graduate Profile’s Effective Communicator, one who “exchanges ideas and information through multiple forms of expression.” We are charged with designing a scaffold of opportunities for our students to explore the work of others, critically analyze craft, create original products, and hone their art in response to effective feedback. Backward design means sequencing those opportunities from the last in 12th grade down to the entry point in kindergarten, and designing those activities with a consideration for where we want students to end in 12th grade.
Across grade levels, disciplines, and genres, teachers can vary content to challenge students in a developmentally appropriate way in order to build their confidence. The balance between challenge and self-efficacy is crucial to vertically articulating the learning experiences of our students; therefore, design of reading, writing, speaking, and listening tasks is complex and recursive. A plan must be flexible enough to be responsive to student needs while ensuring learning experiences across a breadth of literacy skills and understandings. The Eanes ISD Oral and Written Communication Vertical Articulation document not only outlines guaranteed learning experiences but also reinforces continual growth in a workshop setting where students can study the work of others, create their own work, collaborate as apprentices, share their pieces with others and reflect on feedback in a safe environment. It is through this full process that transfer or long-term understanding occurs, and the goal of graduates who are effective communicators is realized.
Delivering Literacy Learning Experiences
The best curriculum plans will fall short if not delivered through the best instructional practices. These instructional practices affect student achievement—in this case, achievement in the craft of literacy. Consider how craft in any area is developed. Artists grow their craft through the study of others’ work, experimentation in the studio and feedback from colleagues and patrons. Artists spend endless hours in their studios, practicing techniques; in museums, copying works of masters to uncover how visual effects were created; in labs, experimenting with their media and tools, or using technology to create their work. They can be found at galleries, fairs, and exhibitions simultaneously “publishing” works and gathering feedback from patrons and colleagues for revision. The instructional practices for developing literate readers, writers, speakers and listeners parallel the development of the artists’ craft. For this reason, Eanes ISD has adopted the genre-based workshop model of instruction best described in Study Driven by Katie Wood Ray (80).
Time A regularly scheduled, healthy chunk of time when students work on pieces of writing and develop stamina for the process.
Talk A predictable time and space where students talk with others about their writing.
Expectation An expectation that students will regularly finish pieces of writing.
filling a portfolio by year’s end.
Vision An expectation that students will write with vision and that for their finished
pieces of writing they can answer the question, “What have I read that is
like what you’re trying to write?”
Through the workshop model, our students engage in literacy practices through regular cycles of inquiry, collaboration, communication, and production and performance tasks. During these cycles, students learn that reading supports writing, and writing supports reading. Teachers “have a responsibility to share with students how to read, write, speak, listen, research, and think like experts in subject areas. In this model, students act as apprentices to a content area expert as the teacher helps students through their struggle with complex materials in ways that are relevant to the discipline” (Greenleaf et al., 2014). In order to successfully fulfill this responsibility, teachers participate in professional learning structured as a workshop, experiencing “challenge, self-efficacy and clear learning intentions with success criteria…the global factors that impact understanding.” (Fisher, Frey and Hattie 21). Teachers who have been able to grow their teaching craft through ongoing workshop-based professional learning are successfully providing Eanes’ students a similar setting in which to learn, grow and transfer the necessary literacy skills and understandings they must have in the 21st century. It is an Eanes ISD expectation that all teachers will participate in the professional learning within three years of joining the district.
Assessing Literacy Growth
Assessment is essential to inform instruction, adjust the curriculum plan, and, most importantly, encourage student growth. A continuum of assessment strategies provides data which guides both teachers and students through the grade levels. The most public yet sporadic assessment is the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR). On this assessment, our students perform well and demonstrate growth in tested areas. Literacy instruction is key to this trend, and our teachers and students recognize this measure as meaningful; however, due to the nature of changing students, tasks and passages, and large gaps in time between writing assessments, it is very difficult to be confident about growth from year to year.
Other assessment practices include district common assessments designed by our teachers. These designated assessments are connected to the literacy tasks outlined in the course scope and sequence and the unit plans, and are designated in the vertical alignment document. Common assessments provide more valuable information for teachers and students than state testing because they can be compared across campuses and from year to year due to consistency of content and expectations.
At the district level, common assessments inform iterations of planning for a guaranteed and viable curriculum. At the campus level, our teachers collaborate through professional learning communities, asking themselves four key questions:
The most important assessments conducted in the workshop setting are formative in nature. Because of meaningful and timely feedback at key points in the reading and writing processes, students can respond immediately to improve their craft and understanding. Students use writer’s notebooks and reading journals to collect ideas and learning as well as portfolios to collect process work and completed pieces. Both writer’s notebooks and portfolios are resources for self-reflection on individual pieces or on trends over time. Self-reflection is a vital habit of an effective communicator and life-long learner.
Developing the Graduate: Effective Communicator and Life-long Learner
Literacy practices in Eanes are guided by a belief that learning to read and learning to write are lifelong processes. We approach learning these processes in both intellectual and practical ways, particularly focusing on eight habits of mind that are essential to life-long learning and effective communication. These habits of mind are defined in the Framework for Success in Postsecondary Writing:
In order to develop these habits of mind and 21st century literacy skills, our students need learning environments that cultivate an open mind set. In response to clear learning intentions with success criteria, they need opportunities to make choices about their own learning. In each field of study, such choices include the ability to use individual approaches to the processes of the discipline as well as literacy strategies anchoring their understanding. “The teacher does not hold any instructional strategy in higher esteem than his or her students’ learning.” (Fisher, Frey and Hattie, pg. 41)
Our students also need time to pursue their interests and time to talk about their studies and productions with others. This talk is part of collaborative time for producing together and receiving feedback on individual and collaborative work. For this talk to have the desired effect, students need a safe environment where they can take risks in their learning. The outcome is engagement driven by authentic desire to meet a challenge; it is in this realm that a true workshop setting nurtures creativity and ensures individual growth.
Students need strategies for adapting their work and ideas to address challenges they face in reading and writing. Finally, and related to these strategies, students need time to reflect on their own learning, how and why the processes they are using are or are not working. This reflection will help them transfer their learning from one context to another. In a larger sense, this work develops a sense of self-efficacy, which Hattie (2012) defines as “the confidence or strength of belief that we have in ourselves that we can make our learning.” (p. 45)
Overall, in Eanes ISD, we believe in the importance of literacy education for all students as life-long learners. Thoughtfully planned and vertically aligned literacy tasks guarantee a sequence of learning experiences designed to develop effective communicators (Oral and Written Communication Vertical Alignment). To that end, our philosophy is to grow together through the workshop model, carefully balancing opportunities to read, write, speak, listen, and most importantly develop effective communicators (Eanes’ Reading and Writing Philosophies).
Valerie Taylor
Humanities Instructional Partner
Westlake High School
Amanda O’Daniel
Assistant Principal
Eanes Elementary
Beth Keith
Director of Humanities
Eanes ISD Reading Philosophy
In Eanes, we believe that the purpose of reading is not only to comprehend and learn but also to apply what is read to real-world experiences. Reading is the active and cognitive process of making meaning from print. It is a process that includes relevant literacy experiences before, during, and after reading.
In English Language Arts classes, teachers design reading instruction to guide students to become readers who can independently determine the message and value of the texts they read. We want to develop readers who make critical decisions about their own reading and have an appreciation for reading that will last throughout their lives.
Over their first few years in our district, our students move through a continuum of phonemic awareness (sounds in English), alphabetics (letter symbols), and phonics (sounds combined with symbols) as concrete skills. Fluency develops as these skills are applied with increasing automaticity. Once these foundational skills are learned, students continue to grow throughout their years in middle school and high school and into their adult lives, acquiring vocabulary and comprehending more and more complex texts. Vocabulary and comprehension are the keys to any discipline for a life-long learner; therefore, we have the following goals for our Eanes’ students:
Eanes’ students
Goals for Teachers of Student Readers in Eanes
Eanes’ Teachers:
Eanes ISD Writing Philosophy
In Eanes, we believe that each writer has important ideas to communicate with the world and that each writer can use writing as a tool for thinking and learning about his/her world. In English Language Arts classes, teachers will fully engage students in writing processes, using a research-based writer’s workshop model. We want to develop writers who make critical decisions about their own writing and who create authentic texts that connect their ideas with the ideas of others.
Goals for Student Writers in Eanes
Eanes’ students
Goals for Teachers of Student Writers in Eanes
Eanes’ Teachers
Resources:
A Call to Action: What We Know About Adolescent Literacy and Ways to Support
Teachers in Meeting Students’ Needs. Rep. National Council of Teachers of English, May 2004. Web. 20 June 2016. <http://www.ncte.org/positions/statements/adolescentliteracy>.
Blake Yancey, Kathleen. Writing in the 21st Century. Rep. National Council of Teachers of English, Feb. 2009. Web 20 June 2016. <http://www.ncte.org/library/NCTEFiles/Press/Yancey_final.pdf>.
Dufour, Richard, Dufour, Rebecca, Eaker, Robert, Many, Thomas. Learning by Doing: A Handbook for Professional Learning Communities at Work. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree, 2006. Print.
Dufour, Richard, and Robert J. Marzano. Leaders of Learning: How District, School, and Classroom Leaders Improve Student Achievement. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree, 2011. Print.
"Excellent Reading Teachers." Literacy Worldwide. International Literacy Association, Jan. 2000. Web. 20 June 2016. <https://www.literacyworldwide.org/docs/default-source/where-we-stand/excellent-reading-teachers-position-statement.pdf?sfvrsn>.
Fisher, Douglas, Nancy Frey, and John Hattie. Visible Learning for Literacy, Grades K-12: Implementing the Practices That Work Best to Accelerate Student Learning. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Literacy, 2016. Print.
Fletcher, Ralph. A Writer’s Notebook: Unlocking the Writer Within You. New York: Harper Collins, 2003. Print.
Fletcher, Ralph. Breathing In, Breathing Out: Keeping a Writer’s Notebook. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 1996. Print.
Framework for Success in Postsecondary Writing. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Council of Writing Program Administrators, National Council of Teachers of English, and National Writing Project, Jan. 2011. Web. 20 June 2016. <http://wpacouncil.org/files/framework-for-success-postsecondary-writing.pdf>.
Greenleaf, C., Schoenbach, R., & Murphy, L. “Building a Culture of Engaged Academic Literacy in Schools.” In Literacy Practices That Adolescents Deserve [IRA E-ssentials series]. Newark, DE: International Reading Association, 2014. Retrieved from www.reading .org/general/Publications/e-ssentials/e8066.
Hattie, John. Visible Learning: A Synthesis of over 800 Meta-analyses Relating to Achievement. London: Routledge, 2009. Print.
Marzano, Robert J. What Works in Schools: Translating Research into Action. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 2003. Print.
Moore, David et al. “Adolescent Literacy: A Position Statement. ” The Commission on Adolescent Literacy of the International Reading Association, March 18, 1999, p. 3.
http://www.reading.org/downloads/positions/ps1036_adolescent.pdf, accessed on 1/31/07.
"On Reading, Learning to Read, and Effective Reading Instruction: An Overview of What We Know and How We Know It." National Council of Teachers of English, May 2004. Web. 20 June 2016. <http://www.ncte.org/positions/statements/onreading>.
The Common Core State Standards Committee (2014–2015) of the International Literacy Association. "COLLABORATING FOR SUCCESS The Vital Role of Content Teachers in Developing Disciplinary Literacy With Students in Grades 6–12." International Literacy Association. International Literacy Assocation, 2015. Web. 20 June 2016.
Wiggins, Grant, and Jay Mctighe. Understanding by Design, Expanded 2nd Edition. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 2005. Print.
Wood Ray, Katie. Study Driven: A Framework for Planning Units of Study in the Writing Workshop. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2006.
Zygouris-Coe, Vicky. "Balanced Reading Instruction in K-3 Classrooms."Florida Literacy and Reading Excellence Center. University of Central Florida, 2001. Web. 27 June 2016. <http://www.education.ucf.edu/mirc/Research/Balanced%20Reading.pdf>.
Students “entering the adult world in the 21st century will read and write more than at any other time in human history. They will need advanced levels of literacy to perform their jobs, run their households, act as citizens, and conduct their personal lives. They will need literacy to cope with the flood of information they will find everywhere they turn. They will need literacy to feed their imaginations so they can create the world of the future. In a complex and sometimes even dangerous world, their ability to read will be crucial” (Moore, et al 3).
Eanes ISD is committed to the literate lives of our students. Our educators use creative approaches and adapt their methodologies to respond to individual learners. We respect diversity in teaching styles and expect pedagogy that exemplifies sound theory and effective practices. In support of that expectation, teachers have access to ongoing professional learning to improve their craft. According to the International Literacy Association, “Teachers of all disciplines ‘must know how to create a classroom culture of engaged academic literacy’ for student success” (“Collaborating for Success,” 5). Although literacy practices vary depending on the academic discipline and teacher, all disciplines, at every grade level, can develop students’ literate lives through reading, writing, listening, and speaking. In a broad sense, literacy in the 21st century can be defined as the ability to
- Gain proficiency with tools of technology
- Develop relationships with others and confront and solve problems collaboratively and cross-culturally
- Design and share information for global communities to meet a variety of purposes
- Manage, analyze, and synthesize multiple streams of simultaneous information
- Create, critique, analyze, and evaluate multimedia texts
- Attend to the ethical responsibilities required by these complex environments.
In Eanes ISD, our goal is to ensure every student has not only the capacity to proficiently perform these actions but also the depth of understanding and skill to be innovative and iterative.
The Eanes ISD Graduate Profile outlines target skills and characteristics for our students. Descriptors in four of the five areas of the profile closely mirror the National Council of Teachers of English definition of 21st Century Literacies.
While descriptors of success guide our work in Eanes ISD, careful planning for student growth over a thirteen-year educational career and beyond makes achievement of the profile possible. That planning entails creating a guaranteed and viable curriculum, a key characteristic of successful schools identified through the research of Dr. Robert Marzano. “There are two distinct components in the concept of a guaranteed and viable curriculum: The fact that it is guaranteed assures us that specific content is taught in specific courses and at specific grade levels, regardless of the teacher to whom a student is assigned. The fact that it is viable indicates that there is enough instructional time available to actually teach the content identified as important” (Marzano, Dufour, 90). Eanes’ educators design our curriculum documents beginning with the end, the Graduate Profile, in mind. The documents that capture the planning of Eanes’ educators include a scope and sequence for the year’s instruction and individual unit plans that provide deeper detail. A vertical alignment document maps informational and persuasive communication tasks representing key state standards (Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills). This document provides a clear picture of student’s journey to become an Effective Communicator.
However, literacy does not spring from documents, no matter how thoughtfully designed. Delivering that curriculum through the best instructional practices and assessing student growth along the way are the craft of the classroom teacher. In order to build this craft, professional learning in our district has been focused on backward curriculum design, best instructional practices for student-centered learning and effective assessment to inform instruction and provide students feedback. All of this work is vital; transfer of literacy skills and understandings from kindergarten through graduation is no small task; however, success is non-negotiable since “literacy soon becomes the currency for all other learning” (Fisher, Frey, Hattie, 3).
Designing Literacy Learning Experiences
The key to designing a powerful curriculum is to begin with the end in mind as outlined in Understanding by Design by Wiggins and McTighe. Literacy work is anchored in the Graduate Profile’s Effective Communicator, one who “exchanges ideas and information through multiple forms of expression.” We are charged with designing a scaffold of opportunities for our students to explore the work of others, critically analyze craft, create original products, and hone their art in response to effective feedback. Backward design means sequencing those opportunities from the last in 12th grade down to the entry point in kindergarten, and designing those activities with a consideration for where we want students to end in 12th grade.
Across grade levels, disciplines, and genres, teachers can vary content to challenge students in a developmentally appropriate way in order to build their confidence. The balance between challenge and self-efficacy is crucial to vertically articulating the learning experiences of our students; therefore, design of reading, writing, speaking, and listening tasks is complex and recursive. A plan must be flexible enough to be responsive to student needs while ensuring learning experiences across a breadth of literacy skills and understandings. The Eanes ISD Oral and Written Communication Vertical Articulation document not only outlines guaranteed learning experiences but also reinforces continual growth in a workshop setting where students can study the work of others, create their own work, collaborate as apprentices, share their pieces with others and reflect on feedback in a safe environment. It is through this full process that transfer or long-term understanding occurs, and the goal of graduates who are effective communicators is realized.
Delivering Literacy Learning Experiences
The best curriculum plans will fall short if not delivered through the best instructional practices. These instructional practices affect student achievement—in this case, achievement in the craft of literacy. Consider how craft in any area is developed. Artists grow their craft through the study of others’ work, experimentation in the studio and feedback from colleagues and patrons. Artists spend endless hours in their studios, practicing techniques; in museums, copying works of masters to uncover how visual effects were created; in labs, experimenting with their media and tools, or using technology to create their work. They can be found at galleries, fairs, and exhibitions simultaneously “publishing” works and gathering feedback from patrons and colleagues for revision. The instructional practices for developing literate readers, writers, speakers and listeners parallel the development of the artists’ craft. For this reason, Eanes ISD has adopted the genre-based workshop model of instruction best described in Study Driven by Katie Wood Ray (80).
Time A regularly scheduled, healthy chunk of time when students work on pieces of writing and develop stamina for the process.
Talk A predictable time and space where students talk with others about their writing.
Expectation An expectation that students will regularly finish pieces of writing.
filling a portfolio by year’s end.
Vision An expectation that students will write with vision and that for their finished
pieces of writing they can answer the question, “What have I read that is
like what you’re trying to write?”
Through the workshop model, our students engage in literacy practices through regular cycles of inquiry, collaboration, communication, and production and performance tasks. During these cycles, students learn that reading supports writing, and writing supports reading. Teachers “have a responsibility to share with students how to read, write, speak, listen, research, and think like experts in subject areas. In this model, students act as apprentices to a content area expert as the teacher helps students through their struggle with complex materials in ways that are relevant to the discipline” (Greenleaf et al., 2014). In order to successfully fulfill this responsibility, teachers participate in professional learning structured as a workshop, experiencing “challenge, self-efficacy and clear learning intentions with success criteria…the global factors that impact understanding.” (Fisher, Frey and Hattie 21). Teachers who have been able to grow their teaching craft through ongoing workshop-based professional learning are successfully providing Eanes’ students a similar setting in which to learn, grow and transfer the necessary literacy skills and understandings they must have in the 21st century. It is an Eanes ISD expectation that all teachers will participate in the professional learning within three years of joining the district.
Assessing Literacy Growth
Assessment is essential to inform instruction, adjust the curriculum plan, and, most importantly, encourage student growth. A continuum of assessment strategies provides data which guides both teachers and students through the grade levels. The most public yet sporadic assessment is the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR). On this assessment, our students perform well and demonstrate growth in tested areas. Literacy instruction is key to this trend, and our teachers and students recognize this measure as meaningful; however, due to the nature of changing students, tasks and passages, and large gaps in time between writing assessments, it is very difficult to be confident about growth from year to year.
Other assessment practices include district common assessments designed by our teachers. These designated assessments are connected to the literacy tasks outlined in the course scope and sequence and the unit plans, and are designated in the vertical alignment document. Common assessments provide more valuable information for teachers and students than state testing because they can be compared across campuses and from year to year due to consistency of content and expectations.
At the district level, common assessments inform iterations of planning for a guaranteed and viable curriculum. At the campus level, our teachers collaborate through professional learning communities, asking themselves four key questions:
- What is it we want our students to learn?
- How will we know if each student has learned it?
- How will we respond when some students do not learn it?
- How can we extend and enrich the learning for students who have demonstrated proficiency? (Dufour, et al. 119)
The most important assessments conducted in the workshop setting are formative in nature. Because of meaningful and timely feedback at key points in the reading and writing processes, students can respond immediately to improve their craft and understanding. Students use writer’s notebooks and reading journals to collect ideas and learning as well as portfolios to collect process work and completed pieces. Both writer’s notebooks and portfolios are resources for self-reflection on individual pieces or on trends over time. Self-reflection is a vital habit of an effective communicator and life-long learner.
Developing the Graduate: Effective Communicator and Life-long Learner
Literacy practices in Eanes are guided by a belief that learning to read and learning to write are lifelong processes. We approach learning these processes in both intellectual and practical ways, particularly focusing on eight habits of mind that are essential to life-long learning and effective communication. These habits of mind are defined in the Framework for Success in Postsecondary Writing:
- Curiosity – the desire to know more about the world.
- Openness – the willingness to consider new ways of being and thinking in the world.
- Engagement – a sense of investment and involvement in learning.
- Creativity – the ability to use novel approaches for generating, investigating, and representing ideas.
- Persistence – the ability to sustain interest in and attention to short- and long-term projects.
- Responsibility – the ability to take ownership of one’s actions and understand the consequences of those actions for oneself and others.
- Flexibility – the ability to adapt to situations, expectations, or demands.
- Metacognition – the ability to reflect on one’s own thinking as well as on the individual and cultural processes used to structure knowledge.
In order to develop these habits of mind and 21st century literacy skills, our students need learning environments that cultivate an open mind set. In response to clear learning intentions with success criteria, they need opportunities to make choices about their own learning. In each field of study, such choices include the ability to use individual approaches to the processes of the discipline as well as literacy strategies anchoring their understanding. “The teacher does not hold any instructional strategy in higher esteem than his or her students’ learning.” (Fisher, Frey and Hattie, pg. 41)
Our students also need time to pursue their interests and time to talk about their studies and productions with others. This talk is part of collaborative time for producing together and receiving feedback on individual and collaborative work. For this talk to have the desired effect, students need a safe environment where they can take risks in their learning. The outcome is engagement driven by authentic desire to meet a challenge; it is in this realm that a true workshop setting nurtures creativity and ensures individual growth.
Students need strategies for adapting their work and ideas to address challenges they face in reading and writing. Finally, and related to these strategies, students need time to reflect on their own learning, how and why the processes they are using are or are not working. This reflection will help them transfer their learning from one context to another. In a larger sense, this work develops a sense of self-efficacy, which Hattie (2012) defines as “the confidence or strength of belief that we have in ourselves that we can make our learning.” (p. 45)
Overall, in Eanes ISD, we believe in the importance of literacy education for all students as life-long learners. Thoughtfully planned and vertically aligned literacy tasks guarantee a sequence of learning experiences designed to develop effective communicators (Oral and Written Communication Vertical Alignment). To that end, our philosophy is to grow together through the workshop model, carefully balancing opportunities to read, write, speak, listen, and most importantly develop effective communicators (Eanes’ Reading and Writing Philosophies).
Valerie Taylor
Humanities Instructional Partner
Westlake High School
Amanda O’Daniel
Assistant Principal
Eanes Elementary
Beth Keith
Director of Humanities
Eanes ISD Reading Philosophy
In Eanes, we believe that the purpose of reading is not only to comprehend and learn but also to apply what is read to real-world experiences. Reading is the active and cognitive process of making meaning from print. It is a process that includes relevant literacy experiences before, during, and after reading.
In English Language Arts classes, teachers design reading instruction to guide students to become readers who can independently determine the message and value of the texts they read. We want to develop readers who make critical decisions about their own reading and have an appreciation for reading that will last throughout their lives.
Over their first few years in our district, our students move through a continuum of phonemic awareness (sounds in English), alphabetics (letter symbols), and phonics (sounds combined with symbols) as concrete skills. Fluency develops as these skills are applied with increasing automaticity. Once these foundational skills are learned, students continue to grow throughout their years in middle school and high school and into their adult lives, acquiring vocabulary and comprehending more and more complex texts. Vocabulary and comprehension are the keys to any discipline for a life-long learner; therefore, we have the following goals for our Eanes’ students:
Eanes’ students
- use reading as a tool for thinking and communicating.
- find and pursue their own ideas and purposes (researching, thinking, learning, communicating, enjoyment) for reading.
- read a wide variety of texts (level of difficulty, form/genre, length, topics) to develop and expand their rhetorical knowledge and their understanding of their world.
- critique, analyze and evaluate a variety of texts.
- reflect on and understand their individual processes for constructing meaning from texts.
- use a repertoire of skills and strategies that are most appropriate to their purposes.
- construct knowledge collaboratively in conferences with peers, teachers, and other readers, in person and digitally.
- respond to texts, making connections between and among texts, between themselves and texts, and between texts and the world around them
- read independently.
- transfer their knowledge of reading to all areas of study/academic disciplines.
Goals for Teachers of Student Readers in Eanes
Eanes’ Teachers:
- expect all students to read.
- create a safe environment to encourage students’ risk taking.
- provide multiple opportunities for students to read – informally and formally, for a variety of authentic purposes.
- provide balanced literacy instruction, including systematic and explicit instruction in phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension skills and strategies.
- create opportunities for students to talk about their reading.
- use flexible grouping strategies to differentiate instruction for individual students.
- allow readers to use processes that fit their individual styles and purposes.
- provide opportunities for student choice (for example, topics, genres, structures, lengths, etc.).
- use a variety of assessment tools (such as self-assessments, conferences, and diagnostics) to decide what and how to teach readers.
- understand that growth of fluency and comprehension may not occur at the same time.
- embed language study within authentic reading experiences.
- know a variety of ways to teach reading, when to use each method, and how to combine the methods into an effective instructional program.
Eanes ISD Writing Philosophy
In Eanes, we believe that each writer has important ideas to communicate with the world and that each writer can use writing as a tool for thinking and learning about his/her world. In English Language Arts classes, teachers will fully engage students in writing processes, using a research-based writer’s workshop model. We want to develop writers who make critical decisions about their own writing and who create authentic texts that connect their ideas with the ideas of others.
Goals for Student Writers in Eanes
Eanes’ students
- use writing as a tool for thinking and communicating.
- understand their individual processes.
- analyze others’ writing (texts) to learn how to create authentic products (genre, structure, craft).
- construct knowledge collaboratively in conferences with peers, teachers, and other writers, in person and digitally.
- find and pursue their own ideas and purposes (researching, thinking, learning, communicating) for writing.
- generate multiple texts that reflect their rhetorical knowledge and their understanding of their world.
- prepare their writing for a variety of audiences, adapting and shaping their forms for the audience’s expectations for conventional use of language.
- use a variety of tools and modalities (stylistic and technological) that are most appropriate to their purposes and audiences.
- reflect on their own processes and products.
- transfer their knowledge of writing to all areas of study/academic disciplines.
Goals for Teachers of Student Writers in Eanes
Eanes’ Teachers
- expect all students to write.
- create a safe environment to encourage students’ risk taking.
- provide multiple opportunities for students to write – informally and formally, for a variety of authentic audiences
- guide student writers to read like writers – how to study others’ texts.
- create opportunities for students to talk about their writing.
- prepare units of study for both process and product (genre-based).
- allow writers to use processes that fit their individual styles and purposes.
- understand the difference between genre and mode (or purpose) - for example, teaching students to write a feature article, not an expository piece
- provide opportunities for student choice (for example, topic, genres, structures, audiences, etc.).
- use a variety of assessment tools (such as self-assessments, student-generated rubrics, conferences, and technologies) to decide what and how to teach writers.
- understand that growth of fluency and control of conventions may not occur at the same time.
- embed language study, including the teaching of conventions (grammar and mechanics) within genre studies.
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