Literacy Strategies in Every Middle and High School Classroom
by Cynthia Clingman, English Language Arts Consultant
Ottawa Area Intermediate School District, Holland, MI

Searching for strategies to support your goal of improving reading and writing across the curriculum? Explore the possibility of research-based literacy strategies for your adolescent readers and writers.

Literature, Initiatives, and Funding
Much of the current literacy literature and many literacy initiatives are focused on the adolescent. In 2001, the International Reading Association, in partnership with the National Middle School Association, published a position statement outlining schools' responsibilities for producing successful adolescent readers. In 2002, President Bush signed the No Child Left Behind Act providing additional focus on adolescent literacy needs.

The Alliance for Excellent Education, a national policy organization, offered impetus with its Adolescent Literacy Initiative. In 2004, the organization released the report, Reading Next: A Vision for Action and Research in Middle and High School Literacy.

Also in 2004, the Striving Readers Initiative, citing the findings in Reading Next, was proposed as federal legislation to fund research-based interventions for middle and high school students. In the summer of 2005, the legislation passed, providing $30 million dollars in the form of competitive grants to needy local districts who wish to implement these interventions. One highlight of the legislation is the provision of literacy coaches to work with teachers across the content areas.

Taking Action
Michigan educators, inspired by the findings in these initiatives, formed its own initiative resulting in a professional development course for teachers. The course, MI CLASS (Content Literacy: Assessment, Standards and Strategies), is a grassroots effort developed by statewide educators designed to help colleagues feel confident applying best practice literacy strategies in all content areas classes. It emphasizes the challenge that all teachers are teachers of reading.

Imagine seventh grade math students using SQ3R to help understand a section of an algebra book. Or sixth grade students using high level cooperative discussion techniques to discover the impact of historical events. Or eighth graders using a Frayer Model to understand environmental vocabulary. Teachers in the five-day MI CLASS, course learn strategies to replicate these scenarios in their classrooms. The participants learn a variety of vocabulary, reading, and writing strategies and how to apply the strategies to improve content area literacy. The array of strategies include: Collaborative Reasoning for discussion, Tear and Share for cooperative review, Marginalia for reading response, and quickwrites for writing. The strategies are discussed, modeled, and practiced then aligned to the Marzano research, Classroom Instruction That Works: Research-Based Strategies for Increasing Student Achievement.

Teachers in western Michigan are demonstrating success in this endeavor. The participants are collecting evidence of effective literacy strategy practice from their classrooms in Showcase Portfolios presented to colleagues. The portfolios serve as a way to collect text, student artifacts, and reflections about the learning experience. Teachers say this practice has made their own thinking as well as students' thinking more public and long lasting.

Where to Find out More
MiCLASS was initiated and developed by educators from Michigan under the leadership of Dr. Elaine Weber and supported by the Macomb Intermediate School District. Additional information about MiCLASS can be obtained from weber@misd.net.

To find out more about the teacher experiences in MI CLASS at Ottawa Area ISD in Holland, MI, contact Cynthia Clingman at cclingma@oaisd.org.

Where possible, we have created electronic links to the references made in the article. Many of the referenced organizations and websites provide a wide range of resources, articles, strategies, and even sample lesson plans.

Following is a brief summary of some of the reading strategies listed in the article:

• SQ3R is a reading comprehension framework (Robinson 1970) where students Survey the text, formulate Questions before reading the text, Read the text, Recall (sometimes referred to as Recite) what has been read, and the Review the text. A modification is SQ4R (Survey, Question, Read, Recite, Relate, and Review).
• Collaborative Reasoning invites students to use an array of questioning and response prompts called "argument stratagems" to clarify ideas and perspectives contained in text. The students work in discussion groups after reading or viewing an item that contains discrepant or controversial ideas.
• The Frayer model is a word categorization activity that helps learners develop their understanding of concepts. Two versions of the Frayer model can be used. In the first, students provide a definition, list characteristics, and provide examples and non-examples of the concept. In the second, students analyze a word's essential and nonessential characteristics and refine their understanding by choosing examples and non-examples of the concept.
• Tear and Share is a cooperative "hands-on" comprehension check-up. Students, in groups of four, review text by answering questions on a four-squared worksheet. The squares are torn and redistributed for synthesis and discussion.
• Marginalia is a tool that utilizes notes in the margins to enhance reading comprehension.
• Quickwrites engage students in brief writing activities on specific topics/questions. Usually five or ten minutes in length, quickwrites often begin with prompts provided by the facilitator such as, "What did you learn today?" "What questions do you still have?"
• Showcase Portfolios are portfolios that allow individuals (students or teachers) to showcase or demonstrate their work in a particular area.

The web links in this article, as well as the websites listed in the resources section of this e-News provide additional strategies and information on effective reading interventions.

About the author:
Cynthia Clingman conducts professional development for local teachers as well as state and national school improvement workshops. Her NCA workshops have been centered on reading and writing assessment models. As current president of the Michigan Reading Association, she communicates widely about the importance of literacy efforts within school and community settings.

Sources:

International Reading Association. Supporting Young Adolescents' Literacy Learning. www.reading.org.

Alliance for Excellent Education. Reading Next: A Vision for Action and Research in Middle and High School Literacy. www.all4ed.org

Marzano, Pickering and Pollock. (2001). Classroom Instruction That Works: Research-Based Strategies for Increasing Student Achievement ASCD. www.ascd.org.

Clingman, Cynthia. (2001) "Tear and Share: A Cooperative Comprehension Check-Up Based on the SQ3R Reading Strategy," in Michigan Reading Journal, Volume 33.3. www.michiganreading.org

Waggoner, M., Chinn, C., Yi, H., & Anderson, R. C. (1995). Collaborative reasoning about stories. Language Arts, 72, 582-589.

e-NEWS: October 2005 Issue