Featured Articles

The Writing Rope: The Strands That Are Woven Into Skilled Writing by Joan Sedita. A description of a model for organizing the components and skills that must be integrated for skilled writing.

The Essentials of Effective Writing Instruction by Joan Sedita is a 39-page booklet designed to help educators incorporate evidence-based practices for teaching writing across all grades and integrate writing into all subject areas. Topics include: an overview of The Writing Rope framework and current writing research; writing teaching principles; stages of the writing process; suggestions for early writing in grades K-2; formative assessment for writing; and numerous teaching suggestions for use in all grades. Explore the guide: View the Digital Version / Download the PDF.

Adolescent Literacy: A Guide by Joan Sedita is a 35-page booklet that explores the unique issues related to literacy instruction for students in upper elementary through secondary classrooms. Adolescent literacy is defined and related research is shared. Additional topics include: levels of literacy instruction; content and disciplinary literacy; a secondary literacy instruction model; the science of reading and writing applied to secondary learners; interventions for struggling older readers; and a secondary reading assessment framework. Numerous links to additional resources are provided throughout the guide. Explore the guide: View the Digital Version | Download the PDF

Keys to Literacy: Comprehensive Literacy Solutions. Keys to Literacy offers comprehensive literacy professional learning grounded in the science of reading and research-based writing instruction, helping educators and leaders strengthen literacy instruction and improve outcomes for students from early learning through secondary grades.

How Strategic Planning Delivers Results for Your District: An Ebook for Superintendents (K12 Coalition). This ebook for superintendents outlines a practical framework for building or refining a district strategic plan, with case studies from Jackson Public Schools, the School District of Philadelphia, Waukee CSD, and Gainesville ISD showing how strategic planning has driven gains in graduation rates, stakeholder trust, talent retention, and instructional quality.

High-Quality Instructional Materials Aren’t Enough: Teachers Need Literacy Professional Learning by Joan Sedita. In this article, Joan makes the case that effective literacy instruction (ELI)—the kind that leads to strong literacy achievement—requires both high-quality instructional materials (HQIM) and high-quality professional learning (HQPL).

Disciplinary Literacy: Integrating Literacy Instruction in All Subjects, Grades 6-12. (27 pages) This Keys to Literacy white paper, authored by Joan Sedita, describes 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.

Writing Instruction in the Age of AI (16 pages) This Keys to Literacy article, authored by Joan Sedita, describes how educators must consider how AI will impact writing instruction and the role of writing in their classrooms.

Culturally Responsive Literacy Instruction. (18 pages) This Keys to Literacy white paper explains culturally responsive instruction for teaching literacy and includes implications for literacy instruction.

Background Knowledge and Reading Comprehension by Joan Sedita, Houston Branch of the IDA, 2019 Resource Directory (5 pages). After a review and discussion of the role of background knowledge to support comprehension, this article presents suggestions for teaching a question-generation strategy.

Orthographic Mapping by Joan Sedita, Houston Branch of the IDA, 2022 Resource Directory (4 pages). Summary of the orthographic mapping process and the role in developing fluency.

Adolescent Literacy: Addressing the Needs of Students in Grades 4-12 (23 pages). This book chapter defines adolescent literacy, summarizes what we know about the literacy skills of adolescents and adults in the U.S., and presents a review of the research on effective literacy instruction for students in grades 4-12. It also presents a model for literacy planning model that addresses six components.

Accommodations, Modifications and Assistive Technology for Students with Dyslexia (5 pages). This article explores the educational supports that help students with dyslexia succeed academically, focusing on accommodations, modifications, and assistive technology (AT).

Research Supporting Keys to Literacy PD (18 pages). This article for educators and administrators includes information about the history of reading comprehension research, research-based reading comprehension instruction, strategy instruction for adolescent readers, teaching reading comprehension strategies in the content classroom, the need for professional development in strategy instruction, and more.

Learning to Write and Writing to Learn (19 pages). This book chapter covers the following topics: (1) the difference between teaching students how to write and how to learn content; (2) review of research about most effective writing instruction practices; (3) what students need to be taught about writing, including the stages of the writing process, specific writing strategies, text structure, and types of writing; (4) how assessment can be used to determine writing ability and student knowledge.

Teaching Comprehension and Text Structure in the Content Areas (3 pages). The Common Core standards place significant emphasis on comprehension and text structure instruction for increasingly more complex text that is both narrative and informational (Common Core, 2010). The adoption of these standards by most states has drawn attention to the need for all teachers to explicitly teach text comprehension.

Helping Your Child with Organization and Study Skills (12 pages). An article for parents that includes information that will help you improve your teen’s study skills. Helpful tips are provided for: creating a study space; helping your teen manage his/her time and tools; strategies for improving study skills, organization, and note taking skills.

Effective Vocabulary Instruction (10 pages). This article for educators offers ideas for effective vocabulary instruction, including: direct and indirect instruction; analyzing word structure; selecting vocabulary words. Learn about the connection between vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension and the difference between the vocabulary of good and weak readers.

Middle and High School Reading Achievement: A School-Wide Approach (7 pages). An effective, school-wide model for teaching reading should include a two-prong approach: a plan for providing reading instruction to good readers and a plan for providing reading instruction to struggling readers. This article for educators presents ideas for achieving school-wide reading comprehension for both audiences.

Adolescent Literacy: School-Wide Literacy Planning (3 pages).  This article for educators and administrators reviews the importance of developing a school-wide approach to teaching literacy skills.  Joan Sedita recommends developing this approach by using Keys’ proven Literacy Planning Model.  The Model addresses six components in the planning process.