Literacy News You Can Use - October 2017

Literacy News You Can Use

RESEARCH

New WWC Report: Leveled Literacy Intervention Has Positive Impacts for Beginning Readers
The What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) recently reviewed the research on Leveled Literacy Intervention and its impacts on the reading achievement of beginning readers (students in grades K–3). Leveled Literacy Intervention is a short-term, supplementary, small-group literacy intervention designed to help struggling readers achieve grade-level competency. The intervention provides explicit instruction in phonological awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, reading comprehension, oral language skills, and writing. Based on the research, the WWC found that Leveled Literacy Intervention has positive impacts on general reading achievement, potentially positive impacts on reading fluency, and no discernible effects on alphabetics.

Iowa Reading Research Center: Critical Elements of Implementing Small-Group, Skills-Based Instruction
Read a Q & A blog post with Sioux City Community School District Associate Superintendent Dr. Kim Buryanek about how the district is implementing small-group, skills-based instruction in 12 elementary schools, serving almost 7,000 students in 2017-18.

WWC: Teaching Academic Content and Literacy to English Learners in Elementary and Middle School Practice Guide
Provides four recommendations that address what works for English learners during reading and content area instruction. Each recommendation includes extensive examples of activities that can be used to support students as they build the language and literacy skills needed to be successful in school, including examples of how the recommendations align with Common Core and other contemporary state standards.

INSTRUCTIONAL PRACTICE AND RESOURCES

Resources from Achievethecore.org:

• The Instructional Practice Toolkit: An Introduction - What does a standards-aligned lesson look like? How do I know if my students and I are doing work worth doing; work that will support their progress toward college and career readiness? The Instructional Practice Toolkit is a professional development resource that helps shed light on those very questions.
• Limiting “Teacher Talk,” Increasing Student Work - A team of teachers share strategies to increase student ownership in literacy.
• Blended Learning: The Station Rotation Model - Find out how a blended learning station-focused model can help you differentiate instruction and give ALL students the support they need to tackle grade-level work.
• Read Aloud Project (Grades K-2) - Are you looking for resources for complex texts that are appropriate for early elementary? The Read Aloud Project (RAP) lessons include text-specific questions and highlight key academic vocabulary for grades K, 1, and 2. The RAP page at Achieve the Core now includes a link to purchase the texts at a discount.

Supporting Excellence: Real Support for Teachers Starts with the District’s Curriculum
Use the Council of Great City Schools’ new Supporting Excellence Framework to learn 7 key features of good curriculum and explore annotated examples from real curricular materials. Read a blog post on a new framework for developing and implementing clear district-wide support for teaching and learning.

Great Schools Milestones Videos on Proficient Writing
Explore a free online collection of videos aimed at helping teachers and parents understand grade-level expectations in grades K-12. Milestones show students demonstrating what success looks like in reading, writing and math, grade by grade. High school Milestones shows some real-world skills kids should know as well as the academic ones.

NEWS

School Library Journal: Thinking Outside the Bin: Why Labeling Books by Reading level Disempowers Young Readers
This article talks about the damage that can be done to readers when you restrict all of their reading to their "just-right" level, and how librarians can be partners in supporting students with independent reading that allows them to pursue their interests and be successful readers.

Find more ELA/Literacy resources on the Literacy Resources Subject Pages at IowaCore.gov.

Read about how Iowa educators are implementing the Iowa Core Standards on the Voice From the Field monthly blog.

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Destiny Eldridge
Education Consultant (Literacy)
Iowa Department of Education
400 E 14th St
Des Moines, IA 50319
515-281-6235 (office)
515-822-2554 (cell)
destiny.eldridge@iowa.gov

Literacy on www.EducateIowa.gov
Literacy Resources on www.IowaCore.gov
ELA/Literacy Standards