Early Literacy: Birth to Five Years of Age

The district worked hard to align early literacy in ISD with literacy instruction at the elementary level. The early literacy components are as follows: Comprehension, Phonological Awareness, Letter and Word Knowledge, Print Concepts, and Emergent Writing.

Comprehension.

Students should develop metacognition by using schema, visualization, inference, determining importance, asking questions and synthesizing to develop strategies necessary to understand and interpret what is being read.

During the planning of comprehension instruction, the following questions and considerations are made.

• Before instruction
  • What do I want students to learn/ know?
• During instruction
  • Present and engage students in meaningful activities specific to phonological awareness.
  • Support individualized learning.
• After instruction
  • Check for student understanding.

Teachers often consider items from the following list of instructional practices to support learning during comprehension.

• Think-alongs
• Repeated Read-alouds
• Expansive vocabulary building
• Supplements class readings with class discussions and activities
• Intentional selection and preparation of high-quality texts from a variety of genres

Phonological Awareness.

Phonological Awareness (Strong phonological awareness provides the foundation for success in reading.) is the ability to notice the sound structure of spoken words, such as syllables, rhyming parts, and individual phonemes. Phonemic awareness is the ability to identify, isolate, and manipulate individual phonemes in spoken words.

During the planning of phonological awareness instruction, the following questions and considerations are made.

• Before Instruction:
  • What do I want students to learn/know?
• During instruction
  • Intentional higher-order questions such as “Tell me about…”, “What do you think?”, “I wonder…”, “What would happen if…”, “Why do you think…”
• After instruction reflection
  • How meaningful was the learning objective/experience to the students?

Teachers often consider items from the following list of instructional practices to support learning during phonological awareness.

• Experiences that attend to:
  • Rhyming
  • Syllables
  • Compound Words
  • Onset and Rime
• Whole and small group experiences

Letter and Word Knowledge.

Letter and Word Knowledge is the ability to recognize letters, their relationship to sound*, and understand that letters make up words. *Phonics is the study of the relationships between sounds and written language. Students need to develop strong phonics and word study skills in order to read and write unfamiliar words independently.

During the planning of phonological awareness instruction, the following questions are considered.

• Before instruction
  • What do I want students to learn/ know?
• During instruction
  • How am I scaffolding individualized learning?
• After instruction
  • How meaningful was the learning objective/experience to the students?

Teachers often consider items from the following list of instructional practices to support learning during letter and word knowledge.

• Provide oral language experiences.
• Provide meaningful writing opportunities.
• Alphabet book read-alouds to build exposure and connections to letters.
• Read-alouds that focus on building word knowledge.
• Provide sensory exploration of the alphabet.

Print Concepts.

Print Concepts is the understanding that print carries meaning and that it is organized and read in a particular way.

During the planning of print concepts instruction, the following questions and considerations are made.

• Before instruction
  • What do I want students to learn/know?
• During instruction
  • Notice and provide quality feedback
• After instruction reflection
  • How meaningful was the learning objective/experience to the students?

Teachers often consider items from the following list of instructional practices to support learning during print concepts.

• Model and map conventions of print when reading.
• Model and map conventions of print when writing, including an awareness of the difference between writing and drawing.
• Intentionally create and use a print-rich environment.

Emergent Writing.

Emergent writing is the knowledge and ability to use symbolic representations to convey the meaning of information, ideas, and emotions through markings, pictures, letters, and words.

During the planning of emergent writing instruction, the following questions and considerations are made.

• Before instruction

  • What do I want students to learn/ know?

• During instruction

  • Match student’s enthusiasm and developmental skill levels by providing responsive and specific feedback.
  • Support individualized learning in teachable moments.

• After instruction

  • Analyze students’ work to identify developmental progressions.

  Teachers often consider items from the following list of instructional practices to support learning during emergent writing.

• Provide a variety of age-appropriate writing utensils and materials

• Incorporate opportunities for daily writing

• Modeled, shared, and interactive writing

Elementary Literacy: Kindergarten to Fifth Grade Students

As laid out in the National Reading Panel (2000), ISD literacy instruction at the elementary level consists of five components: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. ISD’s curriculum has been developed with an explicit and systematic approach, which has been described as one of the best tools available to teachers (Archer & Hughes, 2012) to help students break the reading code.

Phonological Awareness.

Phonological awareness refers to an individual’s awareness of the sound structure of a spoken word (Gillon, 2017). It has been linked to the reading process because students who understand a word’s sound structure are typically able to decode better than those who do not. Phonological awareness is a skill comprised of breaking down words into smaller parts. Some of the ways to break words into smaller components include breaking words into syllable sounds, onset and rhyme sounds, and phonemes.

Students being able to break words down into phonemes, or individual sounds that make up a word, is known as phonemic awareness. Phonemic awareness is a skill that falls under the umbrella of phonological awareness and is considered to be the most difficult of the phonological awareness skills (Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, 2022). Phonemic awareness was been shown to be the best predictor of whether a student will become a skilled reader (Yopp, 1995).

During the planning of phonological awareness instruction, the following questions are considered.

• What is the purpose of this lesson? (Today, we will be learning…)
• How will these phonological skills connect with today’s phonics lesson?
• How will I ensure all students are able to work with today’s skills successfully?

Teachers often consider items from the following list of instructional practices to support learning during phonological awareness.

• Rhyming
• Onset Fluency
• Blending
• Isolating Final or Medial Phonemes
• Segmenting
• Adding/Deleting/Substituting Phonemes

Phonics.

The primary aim of phonics instruction is to help students read words (Ehri, 2003). Phonics teaches the relationship between written letters (graphemes) and spoken sounds (phonemes), helping students to read and spell effectively. Understanding the importance of phonics means recognizing its role in giving students the tools to become skilled readers and writers (Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary, 2022).

The ISD acknowledges the importance of providing systematic and explicit phonics instruction to all students. Research from the National Reading Panel (2000) underscores the significance of comprehending the purpose behind learning letter sounds, which is essential for achieving accuracy and fluency in reading and writing.

Systematic phonics instruction teaches students how letters in written words correspond to the sounds they represent (Ehri, 2003). This method involves teaching letter-sound connections in a clear sequence, helping easier learning of reading and spelling. By breaking down words into sounds, students develop crucial skills for reading and spelling. Given the complexity of English spelling, systematic phonics is especially important for helping students navigate the language and become skilled readers.

During the planning of phonics instruction, the following questions are considered.

• What is the main purpose of this lesson? - State goal and purpose (Today, we will be learning…)
• What new phoneme-grapheme correspondence or letter pattern will be taught?
• What guided practice will students engage in?
• What extended practice will students engage in?
• What dictation sounds, words and sentences will students practice?

Teachers often consider items from the following list of instructional practices to support learning during phonics.

• Elkonin boxes
• Word Chains
• Decoding
• Word Sorts
• Timed reading of learned words
• Dictation
• Grapheme mapping/Heart Words
• Trace and Say

Fluency.

Reading fluency refers to the accurate and automatic decoding of words and the proper use of expression to achieve comprehension (Rasinski, 2004). Fluent readers decode words accurately and automatically, without (or with minimal) use of their limited attention for word decoding, so those resources are available for use in comprehension.

Using expression in reading, often referred to as prosody, is another important aspect of fluency (Rasinski, 2004). Prosody, including elements like tone and phrasing, acts as an essential link between automatic word recognition and comprehension. This connection occurs through the integration of appropriate volume, emphasis, and other expressive components during oral reading, allowing readers to interpret and derive meaning from the text.

Fluency, just like the other components of reading, needs to be explicitly taught and monitored (Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary, 2022). According to Foorman et al. (2016), teachers can support students in their developing fluency in various ways:

• Allow students to practice oral reading, making sure to provide feedback on skills such as reading accurately and expression.
• Model strategies and scaffold instruction to help students read accurately and have efficient word identification.
• Teach students to self-monitor their understanding of the text and to self-correct when comprehension breaks down or word-reading errors occur.

During the planning of fluency instruction, the following questions are considered.

• What is the main purpose of this task?
• What texts are appropriate for students?
• How will students provide evidence of their fluency?
• How will I monitor student progress in fluency?

Teachers often consider items from the following list of instructional practices to support learning during fluency.

• Repeated Reading
• Choral Reading
• Partner Reading
• Independent Reading
• Reader’s Theater

Vocabulary.

Understanding word meaning is essential for ongoing reading growth (Whipple, 1925). Vocabulary instruction can be categorized as receptive or expressive.

Teacher read-alouds develop the ability to understand or ‘receive’ language through oral vocabulary. This oral vocabulary instruction must be developmentally appropriate to the reader’s age (National Reading Panel Report, 2000). The ISD CLP encourages and provides opportunities for all educators and students to engage in oral vocabulary development through student and teacher classroom discussions.

Expressive vocabulary is the ability for students to use appropriate and precise words to communicate orally or in writing. The ISD CLP plans for purposeful instruction in both oral and print formats that are developmentally appropriate.

The ISD grade and course curriculums provide educators with planned vocabulary words that fall into Tier Two and Tier Three levels, as outlined by Beck et al. (2013).
During the planning of vocabulary instruction, the following questions are considered.

• What is the purpose of this lesson?
• What Tier Two vocabulary words are relevant to the current learning?
• How will students show their understanding of the vocabulary?
• How will students use the word parts(prefixes, suffixes, and Greek or Latin roots) to know what the word means?

Teachers often consider items from the following list of instructional practices to support learning during vocabulary instruction.

• Frayer Model
• Synonyms/Antonyms
• Analogies
• Use the word in context
• Prefix.Suffix/Greek and Latin Roots

Comprehension.

The main purpose of reading is to comprehend and construct meaning from text (Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary, 2022). Gough and Tunmer (1986) shared a framework known as the Simple View of Reading to help students become skilled readers. The framework presents that reading comprehension is the product of two main components: word recognition and language comprehension (see Figure 4).

 

Reading comprehension strategies are incorporated into the ISD curriculum based on recommendations from the National Reading Panel (2000). These strategies, such as using graphic organizers, understanding story structures, and asking and answering questions, are built into weekly instruction.

During the planning of comprehension instruction, the following questions are considered.

• What is the main purpose of this lesson?
• What comprehension strategy is the focus of the lesson?
• What texts will be used in this lesson?
• What evidence will we have to indicate student understanding?

Teachers often consider items from the following list of instructional practices to support learning during comprehension instruction.

• Mini Lesson
• Teacher Read aloud
• Teacher Think aloud
• Graphic Organizers
• Independent Reading
• Debrief

Secondary Literacy: 6th to 12th Grade Students

Transitioning from foundational to advanced literacy skills is vital for students as they progress to higher grade levels. With skills and concepts growing more intricate, students’ proficiency levels can often vary significantly. Therefore, it is imperative for teachers to maintain intentional instruction in reading and writing to navigate this heightened complexity effectively. Secondary schools focus on the elements of literacy detailed in the upper half of Scarborough’s Reading Rope while offering targeted interventions to those students needing additional support with the lower half of the rope. The strong focus on comprehension and increased complexity of skills is detailed in the following section.

Comprehension.

Students should read daily (both independently and with explicit guidance from their teacher) in order to continue to build comprehension skills. It is critical for students to continue building background knowledge, vocabulary, and knowledge of syntax and semantics. Students should read diverse genres, including both informational and narrative texts that cover a wide range of topics and content.

With each text, teachers should plan to:

• Establish the purpose for reading
• Identify the text genre and structure
• Prepare to build background knowledge
• Select vocabulary to teach explicitly
• Identify and teach challenging syntax and semantics
• Ask questions that require varying depths of knowledge
• Develop activities that require summary, analysis, and synthesis of material

Motivation plays a critical role in literacy acquisition. Teachers must recognize that “[the] dispositions toward reading, or what we call will, must be taught with the same intention and vigor as the skills of reading comprehension” (Fisher et al., 2016, p 67).

As noted by the authors of Comprehension, “This aspect concerns motivation and engagement. We all know people who can read but don’t. They have developed the skills necessary to read yet not the will to do so. There is a lot of evidence for the value of attending to the will of reading as well as evidence about how to develop this aspect” (Fisher et al., 2016, p 18).

Vocabulary.

Secondary schools utilize a tiered approach to vocabulary instruction as described by Beck et al. (2013). Teachers design instruction based on the following understanding of each tier. Curriculum writing groups develop tiered vocabulary lists for each unit of instruction.

Definition of Tiers.

Teachers differentiate their instruction and employ a variety of strategies aimed at enhancing vocabulary acquisition. Below, as defined by Beck et al. (2013), is a definition of each tier, followed by examples of strategies teachers might use to support vocabulary instruction in each tier.

Tier One Vocabulary.

These words are used in everyday language. English Learner students might benefit from direct instruction of these words but typically rarely require instructional attention (i.e., big, clock, talk, baby).

Tier Two Vocabulary.

Words in this tier occur in text but rarely orally. Students will not encounter these terms enough for teachers to assume they understand the meaning or can derive it from context. A good anchor text will include many Tier Two words. Teachers prioritize these words by focusing on the words most important for understanding a text (e.g., nimble, scrawny, dexterity).

• Refer to and develop pre-reading word lists for mentor texts
• Introduce these throughout the unit as they appear in texts
• Options for explicit instruction:
  • word study-etymology, phonetic and morphological breakdown
  • meaningful sentence crafting
  • examine affixes and roots
  • word web
  • classification of terms
  • create metaphors or analogies
  • all or parts of Marzano’s 6-step Process

Tier Three Vocabulary.

These highly infrequent words are critical to understanding subject-matter knowledge. They are necessary for understanding academic content (e.g., schema, figurative language, symbolism).

• Refer to curriculum lists.
• Introduce discipline-specific terms throughout the unit.
• Some terms will be included in the unit’s common assessment.
  • Use Marzano’s (2020) six-step Process worksheets with Tier Three vocabulary
  • Rely on incidental and review strategies to address the blue review section of the Tier Three Vocabulary document.

Diverse and Complex Texts

Students should be exposed to texts that cover a range of readers. Texts should be evaluated both quantitatively and qualitatively to ensure student needs are met. Exposure to diverse texts in terms of cultural representation, perspectives, genres, and formats enriches students’ learning experiences. This contributes positively to their motivation to learn and their disposition toward learning in general.

Readers are more motivated to read material that is relevant to them personally. There is great value in texts that affirm students’ identities, cultures, and languages while also exposing them to new perspectives and experiences. When choosing texts to study as a whole group as well as providing choice texts, teachers should take this into account. “The need for culturally sustaining literary and informational texts cannot be overstated” (Fisher et al., 2016, p 95). In addition, teachers should strive to provide diversity in types of texts–print, digital, and multimedia.

Secondary curriculum and teachers provide students the opportunity to grapple with challenging and complex texts. To ensure that texts appropriately challenge students while meeting their instructional needs, teachers should evaluate them quantitatively and qualitatively. Both quantitative measures, such as readability, and qualitative measures, such as levels of meaning and purpose, structure, language conventionality and clarity, and knowledge demands, should be considered as teachers choose texts to study with and alongside students. By considering both quantitative and qualitative measures, teachers can gain a comprehensive understanding of a text’s complexity and its potential impact on student learning.

Writing for Content & Composition

In secondary education, writing instruction is pivotal in cultivating students’ ability to effectively communicate for diverse purposes and audiences. Secondary writing as laid out by the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. (2020) instruction encompasses three key categories: approaching writing as a researcher, as a reader, and as a writer.

• Approaching writing as a researcher entails teaching students the skills necessary for conducting thorough research, evaluating sources, and effectively integrating evidence into their writing.
• Approaching writing as a reader focuses on nurturing critical reading skills, understanding various writing styles, and empowering students to develop their unique voices as writers.
• Approaching writing as a writer emphasizes fostering creativity, honing writing skills across genres, and encouraging self-expression.

Throughout these categories, writing serves multiple purposes, including understanding and retaining content, processing complex concepts, communicating persuasively, and engaging in creative expression (Hochman & Wexler, 2017). For instance, students might write summaries, argumentative essays, or creative narratives to achieve these goals.

Central to this approach is the integration of model pieces and a focus on the writer’s craft (Gallagher & Kittle, 2018; Hochman & Wexler, 2017). By studying exemplary texts, students can identify effective writing techniques, analyze different writing styles, and apply these insights to their own writing projects. This not only enhances their understanding of the writing process but also fosters greater engagement and proficiency.

Secondary writing instruction plays a vital role in developing students’ critical thinking, communication, and lifelong learning skills. By embracing these principles and practices, educators can empower students to become confident and proficient writers across various contexts.

Disciplinary Literacy

Students engage in reading and writing across all content areas. Each content area requires discipline-specific reading and writing skills, which is often referred to as disciplinary literacy. Disciplinary literacy is widely understood as the confluence of content knowledge, experiences, and skills merged with the ability to read, write, listen, speak, think critically, and perform in a meaningful way within the context of a given field.
Our partners, AVID, define and approach disciplinary literacy in the following way:

An emphasis on the shared ways of reading, writing, speaking, and thinking within a particular content area or academic field. Disciplinary literacy practices are cultural constructions that are not learned simply by observation. It is AVID’s philosophy that educators need to make explicit the discipline-specific literacy practices of their content area in order for students to know how to read, write, speak, and think like mathematicians, historians, scientists, and any other content expert (Allen, 2019, p 315).

All teachers are not necessarily reading and writing teachers, but they should intentionally guide their students to comprehend and think critically about the material unique to their discipline. In Developing Readers in the Academic Disciplines, Doug Buehl states,

Reading through a disciplinary lens involves immersion into the discourse of a discipline. Students gain experience with reading, writing, hearing, and speaking the talk of academic discourse and gradually adjust their thinking to correspond to the way scientists, historians, mathematicians, fiction authors, and other disciplinary experts think when engaged in reading and learning in their respective disciplines (Buehl, 2017, p 74).