Teaching Secondary Reading

A Resource for Improving Academic Literacy with Adolescents ©2015

Planning

The acquisition of academic English is a complex and time-intensive task. It does not happen naturally, in the course of instruction. Students do not acquire academic English through contact with teachers in schools. Building academic English must be a conscious, intentional process. Teachers must carefully plan in order for adolescents to improve in academic English.

 

This section offers resources and tools to assist teachers in that planning process. See the tabs below for more on the Common Core, backwards design and cognitive rigor.

Effective instructional planners always answer these three questions in their lesson plans:

  1. What are you teaching, and why are you teaching it?
  2. How are you teaching, and why are you teaching it that way?
  3. How will you know whether and how well students are "getting it"? How will students know whether and how well they are "getting it?"

TSR Performance Task

The Teaching Secondary Reading Performance Task is designed to be completed over a period of weeks. You will pre-assess student strengths and weaknesses in content-related literacy, conduct a survey to learn more about your students' interests and experiences, and use the Common Core Literacy Standards to design an academic literacy task that is integrated into a content area lesson. Directions are below. Here is the rubric used to score the performance task.

Performance Task: Step 1- Survey Student Interests and Experience

Create a survey of your students' interests and experiences both in and out of school. Your goal to develop empathy and understanding of your students that can inform your instructional design.

  • Write 5-7 questions you have about your students' interests and experience. Click here for a sample.
  • As you design your survey, remember that you will summarize the information you collect. Consider using multiple-choice responses with space for writing.
  • Administer the survey to at least one full class of your students.
  • Write a summary of the data you collect (both quantitative and qualitative).

 

Performance Task: Step 2- Pre-Assess Student Content Literacy Strengths and Weaknesses

Create a Content Literacy Pre-Assessment for  your students.

  • Click here for instructions and samples.

 

Performance Task: Step 3- Discuss Your Findings

Examine your findings from both the Survey and the Pre-Assessment. Write a summary and an analysis using the prompts below.

  • Summary: Describe how and to whom you administered your survey and pre-assessment. List or briefly describe what you found out about your students.
  • Analysis: What do your students already know and know how to do that will help them to be successful in your content literacy lesson? What are specific knowledge and/or skills that your students need more practice with? How might you help them accomplish that practice? What do your findings suggest to you about your literacy lesson planning?
  • Submit your work for Steps 1-3 according to your instructor's directions.

 

Performance Task: Step 4- Write a Content Literacy Lesson Plan

Use the insight you gained about your students, as well as what you have learned about content literacy instruction to design an academic literacy task that is integrated into a content area lesson.

 

Performance Task: Step 5- Write a Commentary Addressing the Prompts

Use the prompts below to write a commentary on your content literacy lesson plan:

  • Given the description of students that you provided in Step 3 above, how do your choices of instructional strategies, materials, technology, and the sequence of learning tasks reflect your students’ interests, and needs in academic literacy development?  Be specific about how your knowledge of your students informed the lesson plans, such as the choice of text or materials used in lessons, how groups were formed or structured, using student learning or experiences (in or out of school) as a resource, or structuring new or deeper learning to take advantage of specific student strengths. (TPEs 4,6,7,8,9)
  • Consider the language demands of the oral and written tasks in which you plan to have students engage as well as the various levels of English language proficiency among your students related to classroom tasks.
  • Identify words and phrases (if appropriate) that you will emphasize in this learning segment.  Why are these important for students to understand and use in completing classroom tasks in the learning segment?  Which students?
  • What oral and/or written academic language (organizational, stylistic, and/or grammatical features) will you teach and/or reinforce?
  • Explain how specific features of the learning and assessment tasks in your plan, including your own use of language, support students in learning to understand and use these words, phrases (if appropriate), and academic language.  How does this build on what your students are currently able to do and increase their abilities to follow and/or use different types of text and oral formats?
  • Describe any teaching strategies you have planned for your students who have identified educational needs (e.g., English learners, GATE students, students with IEPs).  Explain how these features of your learning and assessment tasks will provide students access to the curriculum and allow them to demonstrate their learning.

 

Performance Task: Step 6- Teach Your Lesson Plan and Write a Reflection

Teach your lesson plan and make copies of any work students turn in. Write a reflection on your teaching of the lesson.

  • To what extent did your students meet your academic literacy objective?
  • What is your evidence?
  • How do you explain the lesson outcome?

 

Submit the documents for your Performance Task according to your instructor's directions. Include the following:

  1. Blank copy of your Survey of Student Interests and Experience.
  2. Summary of student responses to your Survey of Student Interests and Experience.
  3. Blank copy of your Content Literacy Pre-Assessment.
  4. Summary of student scores on your Content Literacy Pre-Assessment.
  5. Summary of findings and analysis of survey and pre-assessment.
  6. All drafts of your Content Literacy Lesson Plan.
  7. Your Commentary on your Content Literacy Lesson Plan.
  8. Your Reflection on teaching your Content Literacy Lesson Plan.

 

 

The views and opinions expressed on unofficial pages of California State University, Dominguez Hills faculty, staff or students are strictly those of the page authors.

The content of these pages has not been reviewed or approved by California State University, Dominguez Hills.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed on unofficial pages of California State University, Dominguez Hills faculty, staff or students are strictly those of the page authors. The content of these pages has not been reviewed or approved by California State University, Dominguez Hills.