Secondary Literacy Instructional Strategies

Literature Circles

Overview

This video provides an overview of literature circles and provides some ideas for how to create them in a classroom. The purpose of literature circles is for students to be immersed in text, think analytically about their reading, and engage in discussion with their peers. 

Literature Circles

Introducing Structure and Roles

The purpose of literature circles is for students to be immersed in text, think analytically about their reading, and engage in discussion with their peers. Literature circles can be done with or without roles. This teacher models how to introduce roles.

Close Reading

In close reading, students analyze a challenging short text in order to understand its deeper meaning. While the teacher in this video centers the lesson around preparing for college-level reading, this strategy is also important in analyzing technical texts that students may encounter in their careers. 

Debate

Debate integrates analytical reading skills through research, writing skills through formulating an argument, and communication skills in preparing to convey points and rebuttal. Students also learn to think on their feet and the importance of preparation for a task.

Vocabulary

Notice how the teacher uses Robert Marzano's Six Steps Process for teaching vocabulary words and how the teacher has carefully selected high-utility words that students may not be familiar with.

Mentor Texts

Mentor texts are crucial for modeling what strong writing looks like and teaching students how authors integrate specific techniques into their writing. Mentor texts can be whole bodies of work, such as reading a chapter from Hatchet by Gary Paulsen to see how the author describes scenes, or reading specific sentences from Hatchet to see how the author uses sentence formations or specific words to create an effect.

Shared Writing

In shared writing, the class and teacher compose a short piece together, with the teacher gradually releasing control of the writing decisions to the students. In shared writing, the teacher is holding the pen, literally and figuratively. The teacher is able to correct and redirect errors so misconceptions can be discussed before they go into the writing product. Students would independently write using the featured skill after a shared writing lesson occurs.

Interactive Writing

In interactive writing, the students and teacher compose a sentence together with the students making writing decisions, heavily guided by the teacher. This strategy is especially beneficial in small groups when students are grouped according to common needs. Ideally, the students would write the information they provide orally to the teacher. Although this video shows younger students, older students who struggle with writing often need this type of support, as well.

Teaching Grammar in Context

Teaching grammar in context better facilitates student understanding of the conventions and is less likely to produce students who strongly dislike writing. Check out Dr. Sean Ruday's work on teaching grammar in the context of writing for more.

Why Spelling Matters

Writing

Students should understand why correct spelling is important, instead of just expecting that "this is what we do in school." While this video was created for older students and adults, its message can be adapted for younger learners to introduce word work.

Why Spelling Matters

Reading Connection

Students should learn phonetic features for reading and spelling side-by-side so they have a complete understanding of that feature. Often, a student's spelling errors highlights a misunderstanding in reading that they may be compensating for in other ways.