Creating Literacy-Rich Schools for Adolescents Douglas Fisher www.fisherandfrey.com

1. Creating Literacy-Rich Schools for AdolescentsDouglas Fisherwww.fisherandfrey.com

2. Three Big Ideas • Internalize an instructional framework. • Develop a level of instructional consistency. • Examine student work, with colleagues, on a regular basis.

3. Internalize an Instructional Framework • Do I know why I’m doing what I’m doing, or am I a “strategy junkie”? Thanks to P. David Pearson and Robert Pritchard

4. TEACHER RESPONSIBILITY “I do it” Focus Lesson Guided Instruction “We do it” “You do it together” Collaborative “You do it alone” Independent STUDENT RESPONSIBILITY A Structure for Instruction that Works (c) Frey & Fisher, 2008

5. In some classrooms … TEACHER RESPONSIBILITY “I do it” Focus Lesson “You do it alone” Independent STUDENT RESPONSIBILITY (c) Frey & Fisher, 2008

6. In some classrooms … TEACHER RESPONSIBILITY “You do it alone” Independent STUDENT RESPONSIBILITY (c) Frey & Fisher, 2008

7. And in some classrooms … TEACHER RESPONSIBILITY “I do it” Focus Lesson Guided Instruction “We do it” “You do it alone” Independent STUDENT RESPONSIBILITY (c) Frey & Fisher, 2008

8. TEACHER RESPONSIBILITY “I do it” Focus Lesson Guided Instruction “We do it” “You do it together” Collaborative “You do it alone” Independent STUDENT RESPONSIBILITY A Structure for Instruction that Works (c) Frey & Fisher, 2008

9. Aimee Chen: First year geometry teacher • How does she use “literacy” in her instruction? • How does the classroom structure facilitate understanding? • How might she improve her instruction?

10. Establishing Purpose • Why? • Focuses attention • Alerts learner to key ideas • Prevents “birdwalking” and maximizes learning time • Can be used in formative assessment • Types • Content goal (based on the standards) • Language goal (vocabulary, language structure, and language function) • Social goal (classroom needs or school priorities)

11. Samples • Language Arts • C: Describe how a character changes in a story. • L: Use sensory detail to give readers a clear image of the character and the changes. • Math • C: Determine reasonableness of a solution to a mathematical problem. • L: Use mathematical terms to explain why an answer is reasonable.

12. Samples • Science • C: Identify the steps in the life cycle of a frog. • L: Use signal words to describe the life cycle of a frog. • Social Studies • C: Identify the causes of the Revolutionary War. • L: Explain the meaning of “taxation without representation” to a peer and summarize the meaning in writing.

13. Three Types of Language Purposes • Vocabulary: (specialized, technical) • Structure: (the way the vocabulary is used in sentences to express ideas) • Function: (the intended use of those ideas) These language purposes build upon one another over a series of lessons.

14. Vocabulary • Specialized • Words whose meaning changes depending on the context (problem, simplify, value) • Multiple meaning words (run, place) These can be “brick” or “mortar” words • Technical • Words that represent one concept only (denominator, photosynthesis) These are the “bricks” of language

15. Language Structure • Grammar/syntax: rules for language use (e.g., plurals, noun/verb agreement) • Signal words: guideposts to support understanding of listener/reader (e.g., If/then, first, last, compared to) • Frames and templates: scaffolds for apprentice language users (“On the one hand, ________. But on the other hand, _______.”)

16. Language Function • Halliday identified 7 language functions (Instrumental, regulatory, interactional, personal, imaginative, heuristic, representational) • These are translated into classroom interactions (express an opinion, summarize, persuade, question, entertain, inform, sequence, disagree, debate, evaluate, justify)

17. The “big a-ha” • The same content objective can have many different language purposes! CO: Identify the phases of the moon. LP #1: Name the phases of the moon. (vocabulary) LP #2: Use sequence words (first, next, last) to describe the phases of the moon. (structure) LP #3: Explain how the moon, earth, and sun move through the phases. (function)

18. Modeling • Why? • Humans mimic or imitate • Students need examples of the type of thinking required • Facilitates the use of academic language

19. Modeling Comprehension Visualize Monitor Synthesize Evaluate Connect • Inference • Summarize • Predict • Clarify • Question

20. Word Solving • Context clues • Word parts (prefix, suffix, root, base, cognates) • Resources (others, Internet, dictionary)

21. Using Text Structure • Informational Texts • Problem/Solution, Compare/Contrast, Sequence, Cause/Effect, Description • Narrative Texts • Story grammar (plot, setting, character) • Dialogue • Literary devices

22. Using Text Features • Headings • Captions • Illustrations • Charts • Graphs • Bold words • Table of contents • Glossary • Index • Tables • Margin notes • Italicized words

23. What Happened to Phineas? Attend the tale of Phineas Gage. Honest, well liked by friends and fellow workers on the Rutland and Burlington Railroads, Gage was a young man of exemplary character and promise until one day in September 1848. While tamping down the blasting powder for a dynamite charge, Gage inadvertently sparked an explosion. The inch thick tamping rod rocketed through his cheek, obliterating his left eye, on its way through his brain and out the top of his skull. Discover Magazine

24. The rod landed several yards away, and Gage fell back in a convulsive heap. Yet a moment later he stood up and spoke. His fellow workers watched, aghast, then drove him by oxcart to a hotel where a local doctor, one John Harlow, dressed his wounds. As Harlow stuck his index fingers in the holes in Gage’s face and head until their tips met, the young man inquired when he would be able to return to work. Discover Magazine

25. Within two months the physical organism that was Phineas Gage had completely recovered - he could walk, speak, and demonstrate normal awareness of his surroundings. But the character of the man did not survive the tamping rod’s journey through his brain. In place of the diligent, dependable worker stood a foul-mouthed and ill-mannered liar given to extravagant schemes that were never followed through. “Gage,” said his friends, “was no longer Gage.” Discover Magazine

26. Questions • How did Phineas survive this penetrating brain injury? • For how much longer did he live?

27. Develop a Level of Instructional Consistency • Are all teachers teachers of reading? • Are schools building habits that are transportable and transparent? • As students develop habits, are discipline-specific practices taught?

28. “7 Literacy Strategies that Work” • Anticipatory activities (building background) • Read alouds / shared reading • Vocabulary development • Graphic organizers • Note-taking • Writing to learn • Reciprocal Teaching

29. Anticipatory Activities • KWL • Discovery • Anticipation guides • Questions • Quick writes • Discrepant events • Demonstrations

30. Read Aloud/Shared Reading • Good selections • Connected to the class • Access to text? • “Every day, every class” • Model thinking

31. Types of Vocabulary • General vocabulary • Words used in everyday language, with agreed upon meanings across contexts (e.g., pesky, bothersome) • Specialized vocabulary • Multiple meanings in different content areas (e.g., loom, in, expression) • Technical vocabulary • Specific to a field of study (e.g., concerto, meiosis) Vacca & Vacca, 1999

32. Catherine the Great, a minor aristocrat from Germany, became Empress of Russia when her husband Peter, the grandson of Peter the Great, was killed.

33. Vocabulary • Vocabulary Role Play • Language Charts • Multiple Meaning Word Study • Word Sorts and Making Words • Vocabulary Journals

34. Graphic Organizers • Concept maps • Diagrams • Text structure charts (cause/effect, temporal sequence, problem/solution) • Students’ #1 choice

35. Notetaking and Notemaking • Cornell notes • Text structures • Main ideas and details • Assessment of notes

36. Writing to Learn • Prompt or phrase • Yesterday’s news • Crystal ball • Best thing I learned • RAFT

37. Reciprocal Teaching • Students work in groups • Summarize, question, clarify, predict • Zinger questions

38. It sounds so easy, what gets in the way? • Hard Books • “Students must read books at their grade level” • Whole Class Texts • “Read chapter 4 tonight” • Choice?

39. Anxiety Flow Task Difficulty Boredom Apathy Competence or Skill

40. It sounds so easy, what gets in the way? • Interventions for Struggling Readers • “I’m working on fluency”

41. I’ll go back to school and learn more about the brain!

42. 400+ Page text “Somites are blocks of dorsal mesodermal cells adjacent to the notochord during vertebrate organogensis.” “Improved vascular definition in radiographs of the arterial phase or of the venous phase can be procured by a process of subtraction whereby positive and negative images of the overlying skull are superimposed on one another.”

43. Skills Versus Strategies?

44. I don’t know how you’re going to learn this, but it’s on the test.

45. Quick, Build Background!

46. Expand Understanding Through Reading

47. Reading Increasingly Difficult Texts

48. Read “Non-Traditional” Texts • To date, over 100 YouTube videos! • PBS (The Secret Life of the Brain) • Internet quiz sites about neuroanatomy • Talking with peers and others interested in the brain

49. But, the midterm comes 17 pages, single spaced

50. Besides Some Neuroanatomy, What Have I Learned? • You can’t learn from books you can’t read (but you can learn) • Reading widely builds background and vocabulary • Interacting with others keeps me motivated and clarifies information and extends understanding • I have choices and rely on strategies