Empowering Literacy for Students and Liking It: The NAF Learning Handbook

Andrew Rothstein, Ph.D.

Special Advisor, Educational Policy

NAF

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What Are Literacy Skills That YourStudents Struggle With the Most?

NAF Learning Handbook Strategy

List-Group-Label

Purpose: Brainstorming andCategorizing

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Free Literacy Resource: The NAF Learning Handbook

Research based and proven literacy strategies:

o Reading comprehension

o Vocabulary

o Writing Skills

o Note-Taking

o Active Listening

o Presenting

Finding The NAF Learning Handbook

5 Critical Experiences to Teaching Literacy

Responding to a variety of texts.

Composing in oral and written form.

Studying and mastering language patterns.

Sustained reading of a variety of self-selected books.

Learning how to learn.

Defining Format: Question, Category, Characteristics

Defining terms clarifies understanding.

Using the Defining Format makes it easier to

recall definitions coming from the dictionary.

Gets students out of the “thing” habit.

Prepares students to write what they know.

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Deep Understanding of Key Terms

NAF Handbook Strategy: The Defining Format

Question Category Characteristics

What is a ____?

A ________ is a(n) that 1)

2)

3)

Define a Key Term in Your Theme: Internet, money, motel, medicine, architecture

Write to a Martian

The Reading Comprehension Teaching Cycle

During reading

•Confirm/redefine

predictions

•Clarify ideas

•Construct meaning for

each segment of text

After reading

•Construct meaning

for a whole passage

•Assess achievement

of purpose

•Consolidate/apply learning

Before reading

•Preview Text

•Activate/access

knowledge

•Focus interest

&set purpose

How to Teach Summarizing

NAF Learning HandbookStrategy

Anticipation GuidesKey Word Notes

Metacognitive Statements

Anticipation Guide

Murfles, a long defunct word for freckles or pimples.

I don’t like it when people groak, but I have done it myself.

An ecdysiast is not one of the careers that NAF themes

encourages.

People used to sleep in their closets.

Teaching is a prestigious profession.

Shakespeare was so good at writing, he even made reeking

smell good.

How to Organize Words for Instruction

The Story of

Words

Categorizing

Taxonomies

List-Group-Label

Defining

Defining Format

History of Words

Etymology

Expanding Word

Meaning

Morphology

Word Play

Key Word Notes

Skills Addressed

o Reading with attention to meaning, not just “word calling”.

o Purposeful reading (rereading) of text (to tell partner what you learned.

o Self-monitoring of comprehension (“What do I really understand?”)

o Recalling what was read while not looking at text.

o Distinguishing more important from less important words and concepts.

o Writing information in own words rather than copying from text.

Key Word Notes: Prerequisites

Understanding that reading is more than pronouncing words.

Experience with thinking about the meaning while reading.

Willingness to talk to and listen to a partner.

Ability to express what one learned from a text orally and in writing.

Key Word Notes: Steps

Students work in pairs; each individual gets Key Word Notes form.

Everyone reads designated piece of text individually, silently.

Each student selects 3-4 words as memory aids, writes in Box 1.

Partners tell each other what words they selected and why.

Student repeat steps 2-4, completing all segments, using boxes

2,3,4.

Books closed, each student uses his/her Key Words to write a

summary in Box 5

Metacognitive Statements

As a result of this session, I will do the following

three things:

• First,

• And,

• Finally,