Literacy Links
	
December 2012
Volume 9, Number 5	Monthly E-Newsletter of 
Maine Department of Education	

“The more you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go.”
~Dr. Suess

“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.”
~Gandhi

“It is not enough to simply teach children to read; we have to give them something worth reading. Something that will stretch their imaginations--something that will help them make sense of their own lives and encourage them to reach out toward people whose lives are quite different from their own.”

~Katherine Patterson

UPCOMING
EVENTS

USM Professional Development Center

Annual Conference on Teaching Reading: Building on the Five Pillars of Reading Instruction

January 11, 2013 

Information Available at: http://usm.maine.edu/pdc/teaching-reading-building-five-pillars-reading-instruction 

5th Annual Literacy Connections Conference

Literacy for ME

April 4, 2013
Thomas College

Sponsored by the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy

Registration and Information available in January 2013

	
       This month’s edition of Literacy Links examines the third of the six critical instructional shifts required of the Common Core State Standards for ELA—Knowledge in the Disciplines.
Spotlight on…

Knowledge in the Disciplines

The global society of the 21st century requires higher levels of literacy than have ever been needed before.  The occupations of today, the sophisticated forms of technology, the critical decisions required of citizens, and the plethora of verbal, written, and visual communication surrounding us all point to the need to insure that our students are not only literate, but also knowledgeable.   Carnevale, et al (2007) found that “nearly 60 percent of all job openings in 2007 required some postsecondary education and that postsecondary education requires students to comprehend and produce the kinds of complex text found in all disciplines.”  This research points to the economic imperative of insuring that our students demonstrate both strong disciplinary knowledge and literacy skills.  

An interdependent relationship exists in all disciplines—literacy is integral to attainment of content knowledge and content is essential background knowledge for literacy development (Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, 2011).   The CCSS for ELA and Literacy in Science, Social Studies, History, and the Technical Subjects reflect this interdependent relationship.  Reading, writing, speaking, listening, and critical thinking must be integrated into each discipline across all grades so that students gradually build knowledge and skills toward college, career, and citizenship readiness (Wisconsin DPI, 2010).   Several foundational concepts support this approach:

•	Academic learning begins in early childhood and develops across all disciplines. Each discipline has its own specific vocabulary, text types, and ways of communicating.  Children begin learning these context and content specific differences early in life and continue through adulthood. 
 
•	Content knowledge is strengthened when educators integrate discipline-specific literacy into teaching and learning.  Deliberate use of literacy strategies helps students unlock content knowledge by making “thinking” visible.   An example of discipline-specific literacy strategies can be found in the area of reading.  To effectively navigate discipline specific texts, students need to apply both generic reading strategies that are used across any text along with discipline-specific reading strategies.  The chart below details some of reading strategies found in these two critical categories (Carnegie Report, 2010):  

Generic Reading Strategies	
Discipline Specific Reading Strategies	

Monitor comprehension

Pre-read

Set goals

Monitor understanding

Ask questions

Make predictions

Re-read

Summarize 	
Build prior knowledge

Build specialized vocabulary

Learn to deconstruct complex sentences

Use knowledge of text structures to predict and summarize main and supporting ideas

Map graphic representations again written explanations

Use reasoning within the discipline to evaluate claims

Compare claims and propositions across texts

•	The literacy skills of reading, writing, listening, speaking and critical thinking improve when content-rich learning experiences motivate and engage students.  “Research tells us that practicing new strategies and skills within the context where they are expected to be performed is most effective. Content teachers are the best people to provide this instruction, because they are the ones who know the types of reading, writing, and thinking needed in the disciplines they teach” (Meltzer and Phillips, 2008).

•	Students demonstrate their content knowledge through reading, writing, listening, and speaking as part of a content-literate community.  To be successful at learning the content in a discipline, students must be able to read, write, and speak about that content, as well as listen to and think critically as other communicate about that content within the learning community.  

Supporting the inter-relationship of literacy and knowledge building needs to begin early in children’s school careers.  At the elementary level, when students are engaged in experiences connected to informational texts, vocabulary, and writing for content-specific purposes, they build background knowledge across disciplines.  This serves as a foundation for later interaction with more rigorous content study as students progress through the secondary grades.  At the secondary level, specific attention to instruction that targets the CCSS literacy standards for the disciplines will build on the elementary foundations and better enable students to gain knowledge in the disciplines.  

To view an explanation of how the CCSS for ELA address knowledge in the disciplines, follow this link from the Hunt Institute that features the CCSS authors:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zHWMfg_8r0&list=UUF0pa3nE3aZAfBMT8pqM5PA&index=11. 

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Online Resources…
This month’s online resources feature websites that contain tools for integrating disciplinary literacy strategies into content area study.  

The Maine Content Literacy Project 
http://mainecontentliteracyproject.org/index.html

The Maine Content Literacy Project makes use of Open Educational Resources (OERs) to improve content area literacy and learning.  The website provides exemplars of literacy-rich, technology rich, and content rich units of study.

Wisconsin’s Approach to Disciplinary Literacy
http://standards.dpi.wi.gov/stn_disciplinaryliteracy 

The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction has developed a wealth of resources support disciplinary literacy across the K-12 span.  The site provides a detailed guide to disciplinary literacy as well as a “Disciplinary Literacy Suitcase” which is a collection of resources for professional learning related to disciplinary literacy that educators can utilize for ongoing study.  

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Summary of Professional Texts…
This month we feature two professional texts that focus on aspects of utilizing literacy strategies to promote knowledge across the disciplines.  
Thinkquiry Toolkit 1
By Julie Meltzer and Dennis Jackson
PCG Educatoin, 2011 

Thinkquiry Toolkit 1 is a collection of teacher instructional practices, student learning strategies, and collaborative routines that improve reading comprehension and vocabulary learning in grades 4-12. To be selected as a Thinkquiry tool, the practice, strategy, or routine had to be research-based, high impact, and multi-purpose. The authors also verified with teachers that each Thinkquiry tool works with students in multiple content areas to improve reading and learning (Amazon Review). 
Content Counts!  Developing Disciplinary Literacy Skills, K-6
International Reading Association, 2011
By Jennifer Altieri  

With so much emphasis on literacy in the elementary grades, how do you give math, science, and social studies the attention they deserve? How do you make content count without sacrificing the precious time spent on nurturing literacy development?  This book’s innovative approach to disciplinary literacy shows you the way. Chock-full of fun and engaging hands-on activities to teach essential content material, the strategies will help students: 
* Meet comprehension demands through the grades
* Communicate content knowledge orally
* Create content connections through writing
* Develop viewing skills for content reading 
The activities can be modified for a range of ages, grades, and abilities. Activity extensions and adaptations help you adjust instruction as needed (Amazon review). _____________________________________Children’s Literature…
This month we feature a text pairing, one literary and one informational, about a topic near and dear to students in the winter months—snow!
Snow
By Cynthia Rylant
Harcourt Children’s Books, 2008

Cynthia Rylant’s lyrical descriptions of the sights and feelings evoked by falling snow blend gorgeously with the rich and beautiful world created by Lauren Stringer’s illustrations, in which a young girl, her friend, and her grandmother enjoy the many things a snowy day has to offer (Amazon Reviw).
The Secret Life of a Snowflake:  An Up-Close Look at the Art and Science of Snowflakes
By Kenneth Libbrecht
Voyageur Press, 2010
Before a snowflake melts on your tongue, it makes an epic journey. This is the beautiful, full-color story of that journey, step by step, from a single snowflake’s creation in the clouds, through its fall to earth, to its brief and sparkling appearance on a child’s mitten. Told by a scientist who knows snowflakes better than almost anyone, the story features his brilliant photographs of real snowflakes, snowflakes forming (in the author’s lab), water evaporating, clouds developing, ice crystals, rain, dew, and frost--all the elements of the world and weather that add up, flake by flake, to the white landscape of winter (Amazon Review).
News from Maine’s English Language Arts Team…
Literacy for ME Webinar Series

In an effort to support the ongoing planning work of community literacy teams, the MDOE is providing a series of webinars focused on various aspects of community literacy planning.  Two webinars were provided in December and the archived versions can be found at:  http://www.maine.gov/doe/literacy-for-me/webinars2012-13.html.   The next webinar in the series is:  

January 29, 2013 from 3:30-4:30
Early Childhood Community Partners and Connections
https://stateofmaine.adobeconnect.com/_a827390218/pk20212913a/

This webinar will examine foundational literacy learning and practices for early childhood and community literacy resources that focus on the early childhood years.  

Grant Opportunity

Community literacy teams may be looking for grant funds to assist with literacy plan implementation.  The following grant opportunity may be useful: 

Pathways Within Roads to Reading

The Pathways Within Roads to Reading Initiative donates books to literacy programs in small and rural low-income communities. Maximum award: 200 books appropriate for readers age 0 to young adult; English only. Eligibility: 501(c)(3) organizations that run school, after-school, summer, community, day-care, and library reading and literacy programs; must have an annual operating budget of less than $95,000 (schools and libraries are exempt from this budget requirement) and be located in an underserved community with a population of less than 50,000. Deadline: March 30, 2013.
http://www.pwirtr.org/annual_donation_prog.html

            	
For additional information about any of the items in this newsletter or to sign up to receive this e-newsletter, please email Leeann.Larsen@maine.gov

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The professional development opportunities and materials are listed in Literacy Links for informational purposes only and are not necessarily endorsed by the 
Maine Department of Education.