Tuesday, November 22, 2005

Examining adolescent literacy

Standards for middle and secondary school literacy coaches

Faced with an influx of needy readers whose skills are inadequate forcontent mastery, teachers in middle and secondary schools need help. Adolescents today require high degrees of literacy in order to understand complex texts in a variety of media, covering a range of topics and subject areas.

One possible solution is to use a literacy coach. Literacy coaching, a model adopted by many successful Reading First programs, is highly targeted professional development.

Supporters say such coaching can be a very effective vehicle for improving reading skills. Educators identify literacy components in language arts, mathematics, science and social studies - in other words, across the curriculum.

Standards for Middle and High School Literacy Coaches provides a guide for a complex intervention aimed at a new level of students.

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3 comments:

Deb Sistrunk Nelson said...

Malik, thanks for stopping by and weighing in on this topic. Hopefully, we will see more and more instances of innovative instruction.

Deb Sistrunk Nelson said...

It's great to hear from you on this one, Jaimie. It gives us a clearer picture of how literacy coaches work with classroom teachers. It sounds as if they always have a full plate, just as teachers do. Somewhere out there, literacy coaches are thankful for the comments you and Malik posted!

Deb Sistrunk Nelson said...

Amen, Ruben! Maybe you can help us spread the word about the importance of parent involvement. Many parents fail to see that they are their children's first teachers. At the same time, I encourage schools to embrace parent engagement and to be more creative in defining what parent involvement is.