2. Ministry of Education’s Definition of Literacy
Literacy is the ability and willingness to make meaning from
text and express oneself in a variety of modes and for a
variety of purposes.
Literacy includes making connections, analyzing critically,
comprehending, creating, and communicating.
B.C. Ministry of Education, 2017
2
3. Story is at the heart of reading and
writing.
Reading and writing grow through
interaction with others.
We are all readers, writers,
thinkers.
4. “Every Child, Every Day” – Richard Allington and Rachael Gabriel
In Educational Leadership, March 2012
6 elements of instruction for ALL students!
5. 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 writing.
6. Every child listens to a fluent adult read aloud.
6. Beyond the Numbers: Using Data for Instructional
Decision Making
Literacy Leadership Brief, ILA, 2018
Rather than data driving the decision making, student learning goals
should drive what data are collected and how they are used.
*EPRA provides a situation for us to collect information about
students’ learning.
7. • Data provides insights about student learning by acting as
• A portrait
• Make decisions about placement and instruction based on numbers
• Make decisions based on information for instruction based on observations, oral reading,
student background, formative assessments, conferences
• A highlighter
• Of strengths and gaps – guides instruction
• Data gathered during learning activities, day by day, in the moment
• A springboard
• To ask more questions
• To investigate instructional gaps
8. Reading Fluently Does Not Mean Reading Fast
Literacy Leadership Brief, ILA, 2018
• Fluency
• Reasonably accurate reading, at an appropriate rate, with suitable expression,
that leads to accurate and deep comprehension and motivation to read
• Hasbrouck & Glaser, 2012, p.13
9. The Power and Promise of Read-Alouds and
Independent Reading
Literacy Leadership Brief, ILA, 2018
• Read alouds
• From a variety of genres
• Invitation into the world of text, building vocabulary and background knowledge,
modeling thinking and engagement with text
• Complex instructional interactions
• Independent reading
• Self-selected text
• Explicit instruction about what, why, and how readers read
• Teacher monitoring and support during the reading
• Authentic conversation about what the students are reading
• Build engagement, motivation and joy in reading.
• “…the best readers are those who read the most and the poorest readers are those
who read the least.”
10. National Reading Panel, 2000
• Phonics should not become the dominant component in a reading
program, neither in the amount of time devoted to it nor in the sig-
nificance attached. It is important to evaluate children’s reading
competence in many ways, not only by their phonics skills but also by
their interest in books and their ability to understand information that
is read to them. By emphasizing all of the processes that contribute to
growth in reading, teachers will have the best chance of making every
child a reader. (pp. 2-96–97)
11. Dsylexia – response to the IDA
Research Advisory Addendum, ILA, 2016
• …there is abundant research documenting that teachers, not
programs, are the most powerful in-school influence on student
success (e.g., Konstantopoulos & Sun, 2012; Nye, Konstantopolous, &
Hedges, 2004; Tivnan & Hemphill, 2005). Teachers need to know how
to teach literacy well and how to respond when students do not
develop literacy as quickly as expected. Teaching well requires being
able to plan and provide instruction that is responsive to what
students know and are able to do across the many aspects of literacy
learning.
12. • Listening to a child read should give you information to guide your
instruction.
• What patterns do you notice?
• What strengths/strategies does the reader demonstrate?
• Is the reader self-monitoring?
• Is the reader creating meaning?
13. Dsylexia
Research Advisory, ILA, 2016
• research indicates that most students who experience literacy
problems in their early years do not ultimately have long-term
difficulties when appropriate instruction and intervention are
provided. In fact, interventions that are appropriately responsive {and
engaging} to individual needs have been shown to reduce the number
of children with continuing difficulties in reading to below 2% of the
population (Vellutino et al., 2000).
14. Fountas and Pinnell – interviewed in the
School Library Journal, Oct 15, 2017
• It is our belief that levels have no place in classroom libraries, in
school libraries, in public libraries, or on report cards….
• We designed the F&P Level Gradient to help teachers think more
analytically about the characteristics of texts and their demands on
the reading process.
15. • The goal was for each teacher to learn about the characteristics of
each level to inform their decisions in teaching …
• We created the levels for books, and not as labels for children…