On August 30, 2001, the teachers worked on the "Schoolwide Literacy Improvement Plan", Standards-Based Instruction to Promote Content Literacy. The Departments chose the following strategies to help students comprehend their textbooks:
Essential Standards Reading Strategies Vocational/Technical Arts English/Language Arts Mathematics Science Foreign Language Health
In determining Content Literacy Strategies, teachers Focused on Essential Standards drawn from the High School Exit Exam and the CA Content Standards in Language Arts. They are as follows:
#1 IDENTIFY LITERAL AND FIGURATIVE WORD MEANINGS
· Identify idioms, analogies, metaphors and similes in prose and poetry
· Identify synonyms and words with multiple meanings
· Consider purpose in word choice, logic and tone
#2 DISTINGUISH CONNOTATIVE, DENOTATIVE WORD MEANING
· Use Greek, Latin and Anglo-Saxon roots and affixes to figure out the meaning of new content words
· Distinguish between the denotative and connotative meaning of words
#3 COMPREHEND CONSUMER MATERIALS AND ANALYZE WORKPLACE DOCUMENTS
· Analyze the structure and critique functional reading materials (workplace)
· Compare/contrast features of consumer materials (warranty, contract, manual)
#4 PREPARE A BIBLIOGRAPHY; USE CLEAR RESEARCH METHODS AND PRESENT EVIDENCE; USE QUOTES, CITES IN WRITING
· Prepare a bibliography of a variety of reference materials: identify manuscript form (citation, pagination, etc.)
· Elaborate on and extend ideas in primary and secondary sources
· Locate information from a thesaurus, Reader's Guide, index, atlas, dictionary
#5 GENERATE QUESTIONS FROM READING
· Generate relevant questions about readings on issues that can be researched
#6 SYNTHESIZE CONTENT FROM SEVERAL SOURCES, SINGLE IDEA, AUTHOR
· Synthesize content of several works by a single author or on a single issue
#7 EXTEND IDEAS PRESENTED IN PRIMARY OR SECONDARY SOURCES
· Develop main idea with supporting evidence
· Establish coherent thesis and maintain consistent tone and focus
#8 CRITIQUE LOGIC OF DOCUMENTS
· Evaluate information from various sources
· Critique the logic of functional documents
· Make inferences and draw conclusions from materials read
#9 EVALUATE CREDIBILITY OF AUTHOR'S ARGUMENT OR DEFENSE OF A CLAIM
· Evaluate the credibility of an author's argument or claim
· Consider purpose in word choice, logic and tone
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Reading StrategiesSchool-wide, teachers and students are continuing to work on reading comprehension strategies to help students understand their textbooks. Each teacher is addressing the following questions.
For the students who are currently meeting or exceeding standards:
What extension and enrichment activities will support their continued growth in the next 5 weeks?For the students who are partially meeting or are close to meeting the standards:
What are the common areas of deficiency? How will they receive additional support in the next 5 weeks?For the students who are far from meeting the standards:
What alternative instruction and/or extra help will they receive in the next grading period?
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Vocational/Technical Arts(Essential Standards # 3 and # 8)
Graphic Outlining: a method of representing information from a text so that the organizational pattern of the text is highlighted. It helps students understand what they read by leading them to predict and organize information they encounter.
Collaborative Strategy Instruction: an approach in which teacher and student collaborate by discussing and evaluating strategies they use for understanding prose. It highlights collaboration, strategy combining and reading as problem solving.
Interactive Journals: a strategy that encourages students to take notes primarily on informational texts or lectures and to add their own reflections in response to prompts.
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English/Language Arts(Essential Standards # 1 and # 2)
Semantic Word Map: allows students to conceptually explore their knowledge of a new word by mapping it with other related words or phrases similar in meaning to the new word.
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Mathematics(Essential Standards # 1 and # 2)
Rating Vocabulary: an activity in which students rate their knowledge of words before they read, after they read, and after they discuss the words. This strategy encourages students to think metacognitively about their conceptual background for each word being used.
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Science(Essential Standards # 5)
Reciprocal Teaching: an instructional approach characterized by an interactive dialogue between the teacher and students in response to segments of a reading selection. The dialogue is based on four processes: questioning, summarizing, clarifying and predicting.
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Foreign Language(Essential Standards #1, # 7, and #9)
Anticipation Guide: a series of teacher-generated statements about a topic that students respond to before reading about that topic. A prereading discussion of student responses to the statements elicits preconceived ideas that students have about topics and encourages students to consider those ideas in relation to the information presented in the reading.
Working Through Reading Stances: an approach to guiding students through literature and into critical analysis. It involves 4 major recursive stances: 1) responding initially; 2) extending understanding; 3) reflecting on previous knowledge; and 4) developing an extended interpretation or analysis.
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Health(Essential Standards #3 and # 4)
Anticipation Guides: a series of teacher-generated statements about a topic that students respond to before reading about that topic. A prereading discussion of student responses to the statements elicits preconceived ideas that students have about topics and encourages students to consider those ideas in relation to the information presented in the reading.
Graphic Outlining: a method of representing information from a text so that the organizational pattern of the text is highlighted. It helps students understand what they read by leading them to predict and organize information they encounter.
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Social Science(Essential Standards #2, #6, # 7, and # 9)
The Research Process: a library research inquiry process that begins when a student first identifies a need for information and continues to access, evaluate and use the information. Information literacy is achieved when the student analyzes and evaluates the results of the process and internalizes it for future application.
Proposition/Support Outlines: an organizational system that teaches students how to support an argument with evidence. Students find this format useful for organizing information in reading assignments and prewriting activities.
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Maintained By: Stephanie Lo
Last Updated: December 20, 2001