This document discusses strategies for teaching literacy across grades and subjects. It emphasizes the importance of high engagement learning environments that provide meaningful activities and opportunities for collaboration. Specific strategies discussed include teaching reading strategies through shared texts, formative reading assessments to identify student strengths and areas for growth, and ensuring every student reads accurately, understands what they read, writes about meaningful topics, and discusses their reading and writing. The document also provides examples of literacy activities and writing lessons incorporating student choice, criteria, and feedback.

1. It’s All about Thinking:
teaching reading and writing
across the grades, within
different disciplines, throughout
the day
Borderland K-8
April 18, 202216
Faye Brownlie
www.slideshare.net/fayebrownlie/borderland3

2. Learning Intentions
• I have a beBer idea of what counts in K-8
literacy teaching.
• I have a plan to try something that is different
for me.
• I know the assessment FOR learning strategies
and can find evidence of them in my teaching.

3. Features of High-Engagement Learning
Environments
• available supply of appropriately difficult texts
• opQons that allow students more control over
the texts to be read and the work to be
accomplished
• the collaboraQve nature of much of the work
• the opportunity to discuss what was read and
wriBen
• the meaningfulness of the acQviQes
• Allington & Johnston, 2002; Presley, 2002; Wigfield, 1997; Almasi & McKeown, 1996;
Turner, 1995

4. Find someone who…
Explicitly taught reading strategies
through a shared text.
Tried a reading or wri7ng strategy that
was new to them this year.
Can describe one waythey have to listen
to kids read each day.
Remembers Allington’s list of 5 pracQces
‘every child, every day’ to ensure that all
kids learn to read.

5. “Every Child, Every Day” – Richard Allington and
Rachael Gabriel
In EducaQonal Leadership, March 2012
6 elements of instrucQon for ALL students!

6. 1. Every child reads something he or she chooses.
2. Every child reads accurately.
3. Every child reads something he or she
understands.
4. Every child writes about something personally
meaningful.
5. Every child talks with peers about reading and
wriQng.
6. Every child listens to a fluent adult read aloud.

7. Reading Assessment
• The goal of teaching reading is to create
readers who read with understanding and
who choose to read.
• The goal of a formaQve reading assessment is
to determine the strengths and areas to
strengthen of a student’s reading with
understanding.

8. Is your data collection counter-
productive to good instruction?

9. Fountas & Pinnell
• Measure accuracy, fluency, comprehension,
independent reading level, instrucQonal
reading level
• Goal: instrucQonal reading level

10. • Some districts measure all students in the fall
and in the spring, some measure 4 Qmes a
year.
• Is there too much measuring and not enough
response to the informaQon? Are we sekng
teaching/learning goals from this data – or
simply collecQng levels/numbers?

11. • If we want to change
achievement, we must change
instruction.

12. Some points to consider:
• It is not the accuracy that is so important it is
what you noQce in terms of reading behaviour so
you can use this informaQon to teach with.
• M – meaning
– Did that make sense?
• S – sound, syntax
– Did that sound right?
• V – visual
– Did that look right?

13. • Self correcQon
– “In the highly proficient reader around the middle of grade
2, we would not expect to hear a great deal of overt self-
correcQon if the reading is taking place with ease.”
• Is the student monitoring for sense?
• Students before Level L (mid grade 2) need 90%
accuracy; aper need 95%
– As texts become longer, readers need to accurately process
in order to maintain the meaning and have built up more
automaQcity with recognizing words.

14. • Comprehension conversaQon
– 3 levels of quesQons
• Within the text
• Beyond the text
• About the text
Are these levels of quesQons reflected in
your on-going reading with the students?

15. • The structure of the small group needs to
change as children become more wide range
readers
• Guided Reading is not a Qme for round robin
reading.
• Do all students need to be assessed to
ascertain their level?

16. Support for Vulnerable Students
• Good classroom teaching
• Daily 1:1 or small group teaching
– Word work
– Reading of just right or instrucQonal text
– WriQng about reading
Fountas & Pinnell

17. In the last term…
• Aper the data collecQon and student reading levels have
been established, how is the data analyzed?
• Strengths and areas to strengthen for the class?
• Strengths and areas to strengthen for the small groups?
• Strengths and areas to strengthen for each student?
• Who analyzes the informaQon?
• How is it shared?
• How do you know that your teaching is making a
difference?
• When you analyze how a student spends Qme during the
day, in literacy situaQons, what is the focus of the Qme?

18. 1. Learning Intentions
“Students can reach any target as long
as it holds sQll for them.” - SQggins -
2. Criteria
Work with learners to develop criteria so they know what quality looks
like.
3. Questions
Increase quality quesQons to
show evidence of learning
Whose quesQons? Who answers?

19. 4. Descrip7ve Feedback
Timely, relevant, personal, descripQve
feedback contributes most
powerfully to student learning!
5. Self & Peer Assessment
Involve learners more in self & peer assessment
6. Ownership
Have students understand their
learning and
Communicate It with others

20. Grade 1/2, Sunshine Coast
• The strengths:
– ChaBy, love to share ideas, take risks with their
spelling
• The challenge:
– Very diverse group
– Some resistant to wriQng, others write pages
• The goal:
– Teaching wriQng in a fun and inclusive way to help
everyone grow

29. Cellphones
• 35%
• 51%
• 79%
• 270 M
• Digital World Issues 21

30. • In 2013, the United NaQons revealed that
more people worldwide own cellphones than
have access to toilets!

31. Literacy Centres, Gr 1/2
with Lisa Schwartz
• Begin with whole class modeling of flexible
use of strategies
• OpportuniQes for guided pracQce – 10
minutes per centre
• Reflect, whole group: something you learned
or a challenge you solved in reading/wriQng

41. Read to a Stuffie

45. Reading Train
• Kindergarten
• Louesa Byrne, Thompson Elementary,
Richmond SD38

48. Creating an Inquiry Classroom
- increasing engagement and
thinking
• With Angela Curle, grade 5/6
• Lakeview Elementary, Quesnel

49. Goal: create curiosity and
questioning, deepen thinking
• Model ‘noQce’, ‘think’, ‘quesQon’ with a picture
• Students, in groups of 3, ‘noQce’, ‘think’,
‘quesQon’ with another picture
• Students move to add on to a 2nd picture
• Model ‘explode the sentence’
• Students, in groups of 3, ‘explode the sentence’
• Begin to read the text. NoQce engagement and
thinking.

56. Dear Mrs. La Rue,
How could you do this to me? This is a PRISON,
not a school. You should see the other dogs.
They are BAD DOGS, Mrs. La Rue! I do not fit
in. Even the journey here was a horror.

59. A writing sequence
• Gallery Walk
• Write
• Build criteria
• Self assess and apply criteria
• Ownership

60. • Place a series of pictures around the room
• Students in groups of 3
• 3 minutes per picture
• Chat – How could you use this image in your
wriQng?
• Build on one another’s thinking
• View 4 pictures

64. • Eagle Dreams - WriDen by Sheryl McFarlane ;
Illustra7ons by Ron Lightburn;
• ISBN: 1-55143-016-9

65. • Task: a piece of wriQng, choose your genre,
think about the criteria
• As you are moving to your desk, keep walking
unQl you have your first line in your head
• 12 minutes to write
• As students are wriQng, move about the room,
underlining something powerful (criteria
connected) in each person’s wriQng

66. • Each student shares what was underlined
• Listen to hear something you might want to
borrow
• As a class, decide on why each was underlined
• Create the criteria:
– Words that are WOW
– Details that showed emoQon or made a picture
– Hook – first line made me want to keep reading

67. Sample 1
One cool and breezy night, in a prairie, a boy sat
on the rim of his open window, looking out at
the moon, hoping for something to happen.
Aper a few minutes, he went back in and close
his window. Robin sighed. “I wished my life
has more excitement in it, “ he thought,
before he turned off his light and went to bed,
he took one quick look at his kite on top of his
bed that’s shaped like an eagle, and went to
sleep.

68. Sample 3
Once upon a Qme there was a boy that was facinated by eagles, he
asked his father to get one for him but he couldn’t. Then the boy
thought about a way to catch an eagle and then a different gender
one for more eagles. Delighted with his idea that he thought of last
night, he conQnued his plan. He put 3 fishes in the open with a
trap, and went to bed. Then he heard a noise that sounded like an
eagle. When he had checked the trap, he found an eagle that was
in his trap. Happily jumping around, the eagle made him inspired to
make a home for the eagle. He created a bond with the eagle. He
remembered how much his father despised eagles. He lead the
eagle to a secret place in the forest where his father never went.
He came downstairs and his father was in a rage. He threatened to
ground his son if he didn’t kill the eagles. Shocked, the boy asked
why he told him so. The father said they …

69. Sample 4
At Sunday, the Ximing and his father mother go
travel. On, Ximing say “I’m see a eagle!” His
father and his mother is going to his. And his
mother say “Oh, Help it!” OK. It was heal. OK.
We are go back home!
At home:
Today is very funning. Because we are helpa eagle!
I’m so happy now! Ximing is Qme to eat a dinner
say mother say …

70. • Kids can add/edit/conQnue to work
• Set up for next class
– Work on same criteria
– Hear again, pieces that work
– Move to where kids can idenQfy criteria in their own
work and ask for help with criteria that are struggling
with
• Aper repeated pracQce, students choose one
piece to work up, edit, revise, and hand in for
marking
• Feedback is conQnuous, personal, Qmely, focused

71. Resources
• Assessment & Instruc-on of ESL Learners – Brownlie, Feniak,
& McCarthy, 2004
• Grand Conversa-ons, Though<ul Responses – a unique
approach to literature circles – Brownlie, 2005
• Student Diversity, 2nd ed. – Brownlie, Feniak & Schnellert,
2006
• Reading and Responding, gr. 4,5,&6 – Brownlie & Jeroski,
2006
• It’s All about Thinking – collabora-ng to support all learners
(in English, Social Studies and Humani-es) – Brownlie &
Schnellert, 2009
• It’s All about Thinking – collabora-ng to support all learners
(in Math and Science) - Brownlie, Fullerton & Schnellert, 2011
• Learning in Safe Schools, 2nd ed – Brownlie & King, Oct., 2011