An introduction to the Secondary Literacy Project

1. An introduction to the Secondary Literacy Project November 25, 2009 SLP National Training Day Aaron Wilson Woolf Fisher Research Centre The University of Auckland

2. Overview of the day • Aims • Adolescent Literacy • Project design • Effective intervention models Woolf Fisher Research Centre The University of Auckland

3. SLP overarching goal • To increase the achievement of underachieving Year 9 and 10 students in reading and writing, specifically targeting underachieving Maori and underachieving Pasifika students. Woolf Fisher Research Centre The University of Auckland

4. SLP aims to: • Raise student achievement in literacy; • Increase leaders’ & teachers’ knowledge of evidence-based practice; • Enhance leaders’ & teachers’ knowledge of effective adolescent literacy practice; • Develop effective professional learning communities. Woolf Fisher Research Centre The University of Auckland

5. Underlying assumption “Notwithstanding the influence of factors such as socio-economic status, home and community, student learning is strongly influenced by what and how teachers teach.” (Timperley, 2009) How might you rephrase this statement in conversation with teachers in your school about SLP? Woolf Fisher Research Centre The University of Auckland

6. Acceleration ‘average expected growth’ accelerated parallel low Entry Intervention Woolf Fisher Research Centre The University of Auckland

7. Acceleration and distribution logic • Acceleration is a developmental argument • A 1:1 early intervention programme must change the rate of acquisition / progress to faster than the cohort (Reading Recovery) • Over the brief but intensive period learner should come to function within the average bands required for their classroom • Same problem in schooling improvement but different outcome • Not all of the target students functioning within the average band, rather distributions becoming indistinguishable from the national distribution Woolf Fisher Research Centre The University of Auckland

8. Balancing act There are several potential tensions that need to be balanced within the context of limited resources • shared vs. individual needs • support vs. challenge • autonomy (at every level) vs. a more directive approach • planned vs. flexible approaches • addressing specific prioritised PD needs but within a broader programme of literacy PD Woolf Fisher Research Centre The University of Auckland

9. SLP: A garish world of abbreviations!

10. Intervention Layers Woolf Fisher Research Centre The University of Auckland

11. National Coordination • Design overall shape of SLP • Inquiry at national level, including analysis of student achievement data • Support RF/LF • Advise MoE • Develop key common tools and resources • SSS monitoring and feedback Woolf Fisher Research Centre The University of Auckland

12. Literacy & Regional Facilitator Roles • Collaborate with LL and SMT to support needs-analysis, plan professional learning, and evaluate intervention • Strengthen LLs’ literacy pedagogical content knowledge • Build capacity of LL to facilitate focus-group sessions. May lead some PD sessions for purpose of modeling effective facilitation. • Build capacity to observe and give feedback to focus-group teachers • Co-facilitate some whole-staff sessions in collaboration with literacy leader • Support school to meet data-gathering and reporting obligations • Plan and deliver regional hui Woolf Fisher Research Centre The University of Auckland

13. Literacy Leader Role LL will be supported by external facilitator and SMT to: • Support and challenge teachers and school leaders to implement more effective literacy practices • Carry out needs-analyses (at student, teacher and organisational levels) • Plan and deliver professional learning programmes • Facilitate focus-group sessions • Observe and give feedback to focus-group teachers • Lead whole-staff sessions • Ensure data-gathering and reporting obligations are met Woolf Fisher Research Centre The University of Auckland

14. School Leaders (SMT) • Promote and participate in the professional learning • Develop school structures and systems that support the ongoing effectiveness of the project • Assert the pivotal role of literacy learning in all aspects of the NZ Curriculum • Support and promote status of literacy leader • Ensure that SLP aligns with school strategic plan and all other initiatives • Ensure that all contractual obligations are met • Involve the BoT and school community in the project Woolf Fisher Research Centre The University of Auckland

15. Literacy Leader Learning Developed through: • National & regional hui • In-school facilitation 3 key themes • Adolescent literacy pedagogical content knowledge • Inquiry • Leading literacy professional development Woolf Fisher Research Centre The University of Auckland

16. Layers of intervention within school • Whole-staff PD – all teachers • Focus Group – about 12 teachers • Individual Focus Group teachers • School leadership & organisation Woolf Fisher Research Centre The University of Auckland

17. Adolescents entering the adult world in the 21st century will read and write more than at any other time in human history. They will need advanced levels of literacy to perform their jobs, run their households, act as citizens, and conduct their personal lives. They will need literacy to cope with the flood of information they will find everywhere they turn. They will need literacy to feed their imaginations so they can create the world of the future. In a complex and sometimes even dangerous world, their ability to read will be crucial. (Moore et al. 1999, p.99)

18. Focus of this project • Academic literacy • Reading and writing • Literacy in mainstream cross-curricular classrooms • Content-area discourse • Developing literacy skills students can use with increasing independence Woolf Fisher Research Centre The University of Auckland

19. We need to increase the: • Amount of reading and writing • Quality of reading and writing opportunities • Explicit teaching about reading and writing Woolf Fisher Research Centre The University of Auckland

20. Relationship of written to oral & visual language Woolf Fisher Research Centre The University of Auckland

21. Reading and writing float on a sea of talk (Britton,1993) Woolf Fisher Research Centre The University of Auckland

22. The New Zealand Curriculum Vision is for young people to be: • Confident • Connected • Actively involved • Lifelong learners Woolf Fisher Research Centre The University of Auckland

23. Key Competency: Using language, symbols, and texts • “Students who are competent users of language, symbols, and texts can interpret and use words, number, images, movement, metaphor, and technologies in a range of contexts. They recognise how choices of language, symbol or text affect people’s understanding and the ways in which they respond to communications” Woolf Fisher Research Centre The University of Auckland

24. Links to other key competencies • Thinking: using creative, critical and metacognitive processes to make sense of information, experiences and ideas • Managing self • Relating to others • Participating and contributing Woolf Fisher Research Centre The University of Auckland

25. Where are the links between SLP and NZC? • Vision • Principles • Values • ‘Learning Areas’ introduction (p.16) • ‘Effective pedagogy’ (p.34/35) Woolf Fisher Research Centre The University of Auckland

26. Features of adolescent literacy • Reading and writing demands are very different from those placed on students in primary schools • Texts increase in sophistication • Reading and writing demands in content areas become increasingly specialised • ‘Generalised’ literacy does not necessarily translate into content area/disciplinary literacy (McDonald & Thornley 2005,T. & C. Shanahan 2008) Woolf Fisher Research Centre The University of Auckland

27. What is ‘text’ in a secondary context? In content learning areas students need to be able to read texts such as: • information from subject textbooks • graphs, diagrams or tables • web pages • assessment tasks • extended texts • word problems in mathematics • sets of instructions Woolf Fisher Research Centre The University of Auckland

28. Secondary text • complex ideas and information • longer texts (or short & dense) • sophisticated themes, complex plots and relationships, unfamiliar settings • ideas and information written for a general adult (rather than specialist or technical) readership • academic and content-specific vocabulary that expresses abstract concepts Woolf Fisher Research Centre The University of Auckland

29. Secondary text contd. • terminology, text structures and conventions that may have different meanings or function differently in different curriculum areas • low-frequency vocabulary (words, phrases and expressions) e.g. glass ceiling, • non-sequential organisation that may include complex sections and graphics that are not clearly linked Woolf Fisher Research Centre The University of Auckland

30. Cross-curricular literacy texts • Read the extracts from Level 2 external NCEA assessments • Discuss the implications these have for effective literacy teaching in your school. Woolf Fisher Research Centre The University of Auckland

31. Inadequate responses • Leaving it to the English department • Minimising opportunities for students to read independently • Simplifying the texts that students read and write • Summarising the text for students e.g. providing notes to copy • Focus on (receptive) vocabulary only • Scaffolding ‘in’ but not scaffolding ‘out’ • Providing support - but not developing independence • Providing isolated activities without a clear purpose and without reference to evidence of need • Remedial withdrawal programmes that do not focus on content-area literacy demands • Not evaluating the impact of literacy activities on literacy learning.

32. English language learners learn best when: • They are provided with meaningful, high challenge/high support tasks; • Language learning is amplified rather than simplified; • They are engaged in long term projects that help them connect their funds of knowledge with newly acquired concepts and language over time. Based on Walqui 2003 Woolf Fisher Research Centre The University of Auckland

33. Students in a particular class begin the year with lower reading comprehension than their peers in another class In response, their teachers give them fewer opportunities to read, and when they do, the texts are simplified So, the gaps in reading comprehension between the two groups get even bigger Therefore, they get less exposure to rich and authentic texts than their peers

34. Scaffolding Scaffolding is placed around the outside of a new building to allow builders access to the emerging structure as it rises from the ground. Once the building is able to support itself, the builder removes the scaffolding. - Jennifer Hammond

35. Key Principles of SLP • Effective teachers have developed expertise. • Effective instructional decisions need to be based on quality evidence and ongoing inquiry. • Effective instruction provides a set of optimal conditions for content-area literacy learning. These optimal conditions are described in the guidelines below. Woolf Fisher Research Centre The University of Auckland

36. Literacy instruction is effective when it: • Provides students with extensive opportunities to engage with a wide range of appropriately challenging written text. • Is differentiated to address individual literacy needs, interests & experiences. • Clarifies and shares literacy learning intentions and criteria for success. • Provides students with specific feedback about the literacy aspect(s) of their learning. • Supports students to make effective use of how texts are organised (e.g. headings, different paragraph structures). • Develops students’ skills to make links to prior knowledge and/or build necessary background knowledge. Woolf Fisher Research Centre The University of Auckland

37. …and when it develops students’: • vocabulary and vocabulary-solving skills. • Use of key comprehension strategies. • flexible use and integration of written, oral, and visual modes. • receptive and productive language use. • skills to engage with text beyond a literal/factual level. Woolf Fisher Research Centre The University of Auckland

38. Recommended Reading: • McDonald,T. & Thornley, C., (2005). Literacy teaching and learning during the secondary years:Establishing a pathway for success to NCEA and beyond. Set:Research information for teachers 2:9-14 • McDonald,T. & Thornley, C.,(2006). Adolescent Literacy: A Review of Recent Literature. Dunedin: Education Associates • Shanahan, T. & Shanahan, C, (2007). Teaching disciplinary literacy to adolescents: rethinking content-area literacy. Harvard Educational Review, 78,(1) 40-59. Woolf Fisher Research Centre The University of Auckland