Disciplinary Literacy

As students advance through middle and high school grades, the required level of literacy skills increases significantly to meet the growing demands of reading and writing in different content areas. Students need to be able to understand the language used in school texts that becomes increasingly complex and specialized. This post focuses on what is frequently described as disciplinary literacy – what it is, how it is different from basic reading skills and content literacy (i.e., general reading skills and strategies), and the role that content area teachers can play in helping students develop the literacy skills needed to support content learning.
Joan Sedita | November 12, 2024 | 0 Comments
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In Support of Main Idea and Comprehension Strategy Instruction

This post is focused on making the case for explicit instruction of comprehension strategies, including teaching students to identify and state main ideas. The growing awareness of the role of background knowledge in supporting reading comprehension has led some literacy professionals and journalists to proclaim that building background knowledge is the main solution to addressing students’ difficulties with reading comprehension. They posit that once students have learned decoding skills, having solid knowledge on the subject of the text is the key to comprehension; therefore, schools should spend less time on teaching comprehension strategies and more on teaching subjects such as science and social studies. In particular, they often identify teaching of main ideas as an instructional practice that should be abandoned. I disagree; students benefit from a combination of comprehension strategy band background knowledge instruction.
Joan Sedita | January 3, 2024 | 3 Comments
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Teaching With Challenging, High-Quality Text

All students across all grades should be provided access to complex, grade-level texts that offer opportunities to develop academic language (vocabulary and syntactic awareness) and acquire knowledge about the world, both of which contribute to development of reading comprehension.  High academic expectations for all students using challenging text is an important way to support students from multiple ethnic, linguistic, and cultural backgrounds.
Joan Sedita | November 2, 2023 | 0 Comments
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Motivating & Engaging Adolescents to Read

A significant number of the teacher trainings that Keys to Literacy delivers at schools and districts are focused on teaching reading comprehension, vocabulary, and writing to students in grades 5-12. A common question teachers ask us is, "How can I motivate students to read and stay engaged while they are reading?" This is not surprising given that there is strong evidence that students' motivation and interest in reading school-related texts declines after they move from elementary to middle school, and this is particularly true for students who have difficulty learning to read (Torgesen et al., 2007; Kamil et al., 2008). This post provides information about this topic and suggests instructional practices associated with improved motivation.
Joan Sedita | October 4, 2023 | 1 Comment
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Vocabulary Strategy: Use of Context

An important strategy to help students build their vocabulary is use of context – i.e., using the clues or hints provided in the text that surround an unfamiliar word to help guess the meaning without depending on a dictionary. This can include words, phrases, or sentences that appear before, after, or close to the word. It can also include visuals or headings embedded in the text – basically anything that helps a reader understand the meaning of an unfamiliar word. Expository, non-fiction text tends to offer more context clues than narrative text.
Joan Sedita | January 5, 2023 | 11 Comments
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The Science of Reading Comprehension

The term Science of Reading has been the focus of attention for several years (see my January, 2020 post). The term refers to the research that reading experts, especially cognitive scientists, have conducted on how we learn to read. This body of knowledge, over twenty years in the making, has helped debunk older methods of reading instruction that were based on tradition and observation, not evidence. Much of the discourse around instruction based on the Science of Reading tends to focus on the importance of explicit instruction for phonemic awareness, phonics and fluency. But what does the research tell us about effective instruction for comprehension?
Joan Sedita | October 3, 2021 | 1 Comment
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What are Cohesive Devices and how do they affect comprehension?

I was recently developing some PowerPoints and activities for a comprehension training session about the role that text structure plays in reading comprehension. One of the related topics that is unfamiliar to many teachers was Cohesive Devices (sometimes called Cohesive Ties, and also known as anaphors). I thought I'd devote this post to explaining cohesive ties and how they might affect reading comprehension, especially for younger students or English language learners.
Joan Sedita | August 19, 2020 | 18 Comments
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Close Reading: Elementary Grades K-5

I recently read two blog posts that address close reading of complex text in the elementary grades, including kindergarten and grade 1. The first was a piece by Tim Shanahan titled Complex Text for Beginning Readers... Good Idea or Not. Shanahan makes the case that, even for these early grades, teachers can begin to teach students how to tackle challenging text. Keys to Literacy provides professional development for close reading using our Keys to Close Reading one-day teacher training offering. We are often asked if this PD is appropriate for teachers in early primary grades. Our answer is, "Yes, but only if the teacher uses read aloud to give students access to the text."
Joan Sedita | July 10, 2019 | 1 Comment
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How to Teach Main Idea

The ability to identify and state main ideas and distinguish them from supporting details is a foundational comprehension skill. Instructional practices for this skill are an integral part of several Keys to Literacy professional development programs, including The Key Comprehension Routine and Keys to Content Writing. Its importance as a reading skill is highlighted as one of the 10 anchor standards in the Common Core ELA standards.
Joan Sedita | April 2, 2019 | 8 Comments
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Background Knowledge and Reading Comprehension

A recent article “Why American Students Haven’t Gotten Better at Reading in 20 Years” in The Atlantic addressed the critical role that background knowledge plays in the ability to comprehend. The article subtitle was “Schools usually focus on teaching comprehension skills instead of general knowledge – even though education researchers know better.”
Joan Sedita | May 22, 2018 | 6 Comments
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Teaching Reading for Understanding

In the November/December 2016 issue of Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, Goldman, Snow and Vaughn present the results of a three-year adolescent literacy project that focused on three projects that examined content literacy instructional approaches. While each project had its own model of building comprehension, all were successful in improving student outcomes. Three common practices to support content literacy instructional practices are: engaged reading, small and whole group work, and knowledge building. The findings of the study support a continuing body of research that supports the teaching, modeling, and practice of content literacy instructional strategies that are embedded in the disciplinary classroom using subject-area text. This is foundational underpinning of all Keys to Literacy professional development!
Joan Sedita | January 17, 2017 | 0 Comments
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Content Literacy Skills: Building a Stronger Plate

I recently read an article in the Washington Post about one school district’s plan to make an overhaul of literacy instruction a priority, especially in its high schools. The Prince George’s County School District in MD set a goal of ensuring that by 2020, 90 percent of its students graduating from high school will be prepared for college and the work force. The district decided to fully embrace the Common Core focus that instruction in reading, writing, speaking, listening, and language be a shared responsibility among all content teachers within a school – literacy instruction is being filtered into every subject classroom, including math, science, and health class....
Joan Sedita | June 21, 2016 | 2 Comments
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Teaching Grammar: What Works and What Doesn’t

I have been recently working with my Keys to Literacy colleagues to develop our new Keys to Early Writing professional development program -- we will pilot it next month. An important piece of comprehension and writing instruction for young children, (and also for older struggling writers) is teaching sentence structure. What’s the best way to teach sentences? A recent article by Lauren Gartland and Laura Smolkin in The Reading Teacher titled The Histories and Mysteries of Grammar Instruction presents some interesting history about grammar instruction and some suggestions for effective teaching, but first let’s address why students need explicit sentence instruction...
Joan Sedita | February 23, 2016 | 1 Comment
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Text Driven Comprehension and Close Reading Instruction

Basic comprehension strategy instruction, close reading instruction, and text-driven instruction are closely related. Comprehension strategy instruction provides the foundational, basic comprehension skills that students need to get “under their belt” in order to apply the more complex, critical thinking skills required to closely read challenging text. Basic comprehension strategy instruction should be text-driven -- i.e., taught and practiced using content-related text. Teachers will not be effective if strategies (such as main idea and summarizing skills) are taught and practiced in isolation. Likewise, close reading skills need to be text-driven – i.e., using challenging content-related text....
Joan Sedita | January 26, 2016 | 1 Comment
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What are you reading?

For nearly 30 years of doing professional development workshops in reading and writing, I have been asking this question. Madelyn Hunter told me once (yes, I am old enough to say this….) that trainers need to get participants talking in the first three minutes of a workshop. “What are you reading?” gets me started. Participants have suggested some of my best reads, and, for this reason alone, I doubt I will relinquish this practice. If I have a group that does not respond to this question, I revert to, “Tell me the title of a book that really impacted your life – even if it was when you were very young.” This always renders some reaction; participants readily respond with: To Kill a Mockingbird, The Giving Tree, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, The Outsiders, Harry Potter, Nancy Drew.....
Becky DeSmith | August 18, 2015 | 8 Comments
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Why Students Need to Read Challenging Text

Why do literacy standards focus so much on making sure students learn to read complex text? Common Core Appendix A: Research Supporting Key Elements of the Standards (2010, p. 2-4) provides some insight, summarized below.

The demands and complexity of reading in a college setting, in workforce training programs, and in civic life in general have either remained the same or increased over the last fifty years. However, K-12 texts have actually declined in difficulty and sophistication and become less demanding....

Joan Sedita | July 28, 2015 | 0 Comments
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Challenge Students With Challenging Text?

The title of a recent piece in The Hechinger Report caught my attention: ”Should we tailor difficulty of a school text to child’s comfort level or make them sweat?”

The author of the piece, Annie Murphy Paul, notes that the practice of leveling students’ reading material so that teachers can adjust the difficulty of text to suit the ability and skills of the reader is very popular and has been around for over sixty years....
Joan Sedita | June 16, 2015 | 2 Comments
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Informational Text at the Expense of Literature?

Will the Common Core emphasis on having students read greater amounts of informational text result in students reading less quality literature?

I am often asked this question as I deliver literacy professional development at schools across the country, especially from English and ELA teachers who are understandably concerned that they may not have the time to expose their students to classic literature. I recently ran across two articles that address this issue...
Joan Sedita | May 12, 2015 | 1 Comment
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What is Disciplinary Literacy?

The value of embedding literacy instruction in content teaching has been known for decades. Back in 1979 while studying for my Masters degree, one of my courses was titled Reading in the Content Areas. Since then, I have come across literally hundreds of books and courses with the same title. There has long been a consensus based on decades of research that content teachers can play an important role in teaching students literacy skills (Snow, 2002; Meltzer et al, 2003; Biancarosa & Snow, 2004). This is a major tenet of the Common Core State Standards, as evidenced in the title of the literacy standards: Standards for English Language Arts and Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects and highlighted in the introduction to the standards:......
Joan Sedita | April 21, 2015 | 3 Comments
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What Makes a Text “Complex”?

Many educators I meet while I am delivering literacy professional development ask this question:

“What makes a piece of text complex, and how can I determine if the text I use is complex?”

The Common Core literacy standards place significant emphasis on the need to teach students how to read challenging, complex text, as noted on pages 2-3 of Common Core Appendix A (Research Supporting Key Elements of the Standards).

This focus is driven by research showing that as demands that college and careers place on readers have either held steady or increased over the last fifty years, the complexity of K-12 reading texts have unfortunately trended downward in difficulty. The result is that there are too many students entering college or the work force without the ability to read and understand the text they will encounter...
Joan Sedita | April 7, 2015 | 0 Comments
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“Voice of Literacy” Podcasts

I’d like to share a resource I recently found that archives podcasts related to literacy. On the Voice of Literacy site, Dr. Betsy Baker (Associate Professor of Literacy studies at the University of Missouri) posts bi-weekly podcasts of interviews of researchers as they discuss the implications of their literacy research. Most podcasts range from 10 to 12 minutes long, and are archived back to 2008. I can’t believe I am just finding out about this resource!....
Joan Sedita | March 24, 2015 | 0 Comments
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Content Literacy Instruction for K-8 ELLs

Are you teaching and supporting English language learners (ELLs) as they acquire academic vocabulary, learn from increasingly complex informational texts, and tackle analytical writing?

If so, you will want to review the Institute of Education Science’s practice guide, Teaching Academic Content and Literacy to English Learners in Elementary and Middle School (Baker et al, 2014).

The guide is IES’s first upgrade for ELLs since 2007 and it is aligned to the Common Core literacy standards. It expands the scope to middle school and shifts the focus away from “beginning reading” and early reading intervention to academic language and academic vocabulary......
Joan Sedita | November 25, 2014 | 0 Comments
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Hot Topics in Literacy Education for 2015

For the past 20 years, Jack Cassidy, former president of the International Reading Association, has conducted a survey polling 25 leading literacy scholars and researchers to find out "what's hot and what's not" in the field of reading. “Hot” trends, as defined by survey respondents, indicate those receiving the most attention in a given year (not those that are most important). In this year's “What's Hot, What's Not” survey, which was published in the September/October 2014 issue of Reading Today, the following five topics were named “very hot” for the second consecutive year.......
Donna Mastrovito | October 8, 2014 | 1 Comment
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A Treasure Trove of Literacy Instruction Material

Achieve the Core provides tools and resources that teachers can readily use at every grade level and in all subject areas.

In case you have not already visited this website, I’m devoting this blog post to making you aware of what I consider a “treasure trove” of free instructional resources that are evidence-based and tightly aligned with meeting Common Core literacy standards.....

Joan Sedita | September 11, 2014 | 0 Comments
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ACCESSING KEYS TO LITERACY PD DURING SCHOOL CLOSURES

We are closely monitoring the COVID-19 situation and the impact on our employees and the schools where we provide professional development.

During this time period when onsite, face-to-face training and coaching is not possible, we offer multiple options for accessing our literacy PD content and instructional practices.

If you are a current or new partner, explore our website or contact us to learn more about:

info@keystoliteracy.com
978-948-8511