Secondary Literacy: Overarching Outcomes
In middle school and beyond, students’ ability to succeed in nearly all of their classes will hinge on their ability to learn content through reading and share their perspective through writing. As such, secondary literacy students must understand that reading is more than pronouncing words on a page correctly and fluently. Instead, they must believe that reading provides opportunities to discover and consider other ideas and perspectives that help shape their understanding of themselves and their world. In addition, they must understand that authors expect them to “read between the lines,” moving from what’s explicit to deeper, implicit themes and meanings within a text through textual analysis.
As writers, secondary literacy students should continue to develop their unique voice to communicate their ideas and opinions in a compelling way. They must understand why writing matters and how it opens doorways of opportunity and influence within our society. In addition, they must develop and possess the knowledge, skills, & habits necessary to communicate for a variety of purposes across genres. While students must write across genres, the Common Core places emphasis on students’ ability to write sound arguments given its importance for college and career readiness.
However, many students enter middle/high school with insufficient reading comprehension and writing skills that make textual analysis and complex writing difficult for students. As such, students face the task of building their “basic” reading and writing skills as well as those that are more complex. To do both, students must develop a belief in literacy’s importance and love for reading and writing that inspires them to read and write obsessively outside of school as well as to commit to difficult textual analysis with teacher support.
What Research Tells Us about the Most Transformational Secondary Literacy Classrooms:/ Tons of Reading & Writing
- Students spend the majority of their time reading and writing both inside and outside of class.
- Students engage with a diverse range of texts (across genres, topics, and levels) and intensive writing at high levels of reasoning (both in response to texts and not).
/ Rigorous Text Analysis
- All students, regardless of reading level, have opportunities to read, discuss, and analyze complex texts with adequate support from the teacher &/or peers.
- This is particularly true for struggling readers, who are disproportionately & negatively impacted as readers by not being held accountable to reading & engaging with complex texts.
Video Example: Whole-class textual analysis of symbolism & theme (password: tal/talrubric)
/ Real and Meaningful Conversations
- Students have ample time to discuss their reading and writing in ways that require them to engage with each other around a text or piece of writing.
- Students bare the burden of thinking in these collaborative discussions, and receive support from the teacher as necessary.
/ Explicit Skills Instruction & Coaching
- Students have opportunities to develop reading & writing strategies, which are explicitly modeled by the teacher through brief and focused whole-class lessons.
- Students also receive targeted support or coaching through one-on-one or small-group interactions.
How these principles contribute to classroom culture:
In many ways, culture in a literacy classroom is a direct result of the way in which a teacher strives to build his/her classroom with the above principles in mind. When these principles are present in a classroom, they create a culture of achievement in which students are working urgently, passionately, and joyfully toward a destination that matters to them. We see students who truly develop a love and passion for reading & writing and build an understanding of who they are as readers & writers and how they can use literacy to better understand themselves and influence the world around them. Because students develop both the skills, mindsets & habits they need along with a deep love for and understanding of why reading & writing matter to them, they strive both inside and outside of the classroom to fuel their growth & development. As such, in the TAL Impact models below, we have focused on the following cultural characteristics that we see in the strongest literacy classrooms: high student-engagement, a love for literacy, and a drive to improve.