Literacy Development in Elementary & Middle School

Week 6Course 05:300:495

Joseph Campisi

Week 6

“Developmentally Appropriate Literacy

Implementation”

Assessment of Week 6 – Assigned Reading

• Please complete:– the Assessment of the Week 6 Assigned

Reading.• If you have the article with you or on your

laptop please feel free to use it.• This will count as part of your participation &

reading response grade.

Discussion of Week 6 Assigned Reading

• Literacy Continua…–Basic Format ?

• Planning…–”Ballpark”?

• Differentiated Instruction…–Conducive?

Literacy Continua

• Looking at the Literacy Continua from the article by Steklova (2005) can we use assessment as a manner of developing your class-specific rubrics (instead of creating your own)?

• Key Point – develop, age, and grade don’t always correlate all at the same time…

Knowledge of Variance

K – 6 months K + 6 months

1st grade – 1 yr 1st grade + 1 yr

2nd grade – 1.5 yrs 2nd grade + 1.5 yrs

3rd grade – 2 yrs 3rd grade + 2 yrs

4th grade teachers have to prepare for a span of students that are developmentally 2 years below through 2 years above grade level (and the lower end aren’t usually learning disabled)…

Formative Assessments @ different points of time

• Looking at a model of daily or every other day assessment (in a rotation fashion) to drive the next day’s instruction?– Depending on the development of the students in

your class – – Quick assessments that can be done to gather

data to drive instruction at the students’ appropriate development level -

7. Make Inferences Then Draw Conclusions

8. Summarize and Synthesize

9. Check Your Understanding

10.Build Fluency

1.Connect to the Text

2.Ask Questions3.Expand

Vocabulary4.Predict &

Prove5.Sense It6.Decide What’s

Important

What Good Readers Do…

• Make Connections• Visualize• Infer• Determine Importance• Synthesize

A key instructional construct:Te

ach e

r R

e spo

n sib

il ity

100

00

100Student Responsibility

With any luck, we move this way (----->) over time.But we are always prepared to slide up and down the diagonal.

Gradual Release of Responsibility

Presentation of Mini-Lessons

• Shelly

• Alyssa

Developmentally Appropriate Practices

• Research shows that middle school students (ages 10-14) need to have instruction, curriculum and assessment aligned to their psychological and physical development in order to be successful in school.

Middle School Educators

• Middle school educators need to be, not only well versed in human development, but they must know how to respond accordingly to their students in the continually shifting and changing years of young adolescent development…

However

• Research shows that only one out of five middle level teachers receive any specialized young adolescent training and, therefore, many middle school educators consider themselves to be poorly trained in this area (Scales, 1996)

Teaching is a Science…

• It is only in the last thirty or so years that we have begun to systematically break down our ways of teaching and how children learn and are now looking at education “more of a science than an art” (Marzano, Pickering and Pollock, 2001, p. 156).

Important Factors for Developmentally Appropriate Literacy Implementation

• We must create Response Ecologies– Basically, knowing why young adolescents do the

things they do, even simple acts, will enable educators to be more effective.

– See…• Jean Piaget (developmental)• Erik Erikson (developmental)• Howard Gardner (multiple intelligences)• Carol Gilligan (developmental) • Lawrence Kohlberg (moral development)

Did you know…

• One study reported that restroom breaks were significantly lowered, simply by placing mirrors in all of the middle school classrooms (Knowles and Brown, 2000). It is believed this is due to young adolescents being overly concerned with their appearance and requiring the continual need of reassurance that the mirror provided.

Did you know…

• According to Scales (1996), group work - “socializing has been called the primary work of early adolescence in much the same way that the primary work of early childhood is playing” (p.229).

Developmentally Appropriate Implementation with Curricula

• Developmentally appropriate curriculum that is integrative, and allows for team teaching of themes will enable students to make connections in their learning.

• 1. Lecture less, coach more.• 2. Provide exploratory options.• 3. Initiate upgraded mini courses.• 4. Encourage learning for “the sake of learning.”• 5. Explore grand themes, such as love, justice and

money.• 6. Develop service projects.

Your Task

• Using the Writing Continuum from your assigned reading:– You are a 7th grade Language Arts Literacy Teacher• 7 students – “fluent”, 7 students – “proficient” & 7 students – “Connecting” in Writing… • You have 80 minute class periods…• Develop as many strategies as you can in order to help

each group of students advance to the next level– Describe the strategies you would employ in your learning

centers that you will create – – The goal is to advance them to the next level in 8 weeks

Exit Card/AssessmentYour exit assessment this week is to list any 3 interventions that you would employ to help a 6th grade student that is on a 3rd grade literacy level (both in reading & writing).

Please put these interventions on out wikispace…