Gain a greater understanding of the NAF Learning Handbook and why it is important. This session provides an overview of how the handbook is organized and explains key literacy strategies embedded in the NAF curriculum. Participants will learn how to use the handbook to further academy growth. Presenter: Laura Fidler, National Academy Foundation

2. The New and Improved NAF
Learning Handbook
Laura Fidler, Instructional Manager laura@naf.org

3. #nafnext
What is the NAF Learning Handbook?
• Think of it as a ‘users guide’ to
the NAF Curriculum
• The handbook shows you how
to engage students through tried
and true strategies that help meet
new common core standards
• Acclimates academies to the
NAF curriculum in order to
implement in its full capacity

4. #nafnext
The goal of the handbook is to make
teachers more confident and effective in the
classroom

5. #nafnext
What’s new?
• Organization
– Foundations of NAF
Curriculum
– Orientation to NAF
Curriculum Online
Library
– Course Structure
– Key Activities and
Strategies
– Strategies for
Improving Vocabulary
• Literacy Strategies
added:
– Debate
– Four Corners
– Vote with your feet
– Multi-pass Method
– Panel Discussion
– True/False
– Venn Diagrams
– Sticky note review
– Peer review prompts (with
rubrics)
– Thumbs up/Thumbs down
What’s new?

6. #nafnext
Curriculum Online Library

7. #nafnext
• Anticipation Guide
• Debate
• Composing with Key
Words
• Cornell Notes
• Defining Format
• Four Corners
• Four Corners
• Gallery Walk
• Key Word Notes
• K-W-L (Know, Want to
Know, Learned
• List, Group, Label
Key Activities and Strategies
• Multi-Pass Method
• Panel Discussion
• Peer Review Prompts
• Peer Review Using a Rubric
• Reading Jigsaw
• Sticky Note Review
• SQ3R
• Taxonomy
• Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down
• Think, Pair, Share
• True or False
• Venn Diagram
• Vote with Your Feet

8. #nafnext
Some Literary Genres That Students
Could Write in NAF Courses
• Memoir
• Biography
• Comedy
• Diaries & Journals
• Essays
(Personal, Explanatory, P
ersuasive
• Research Report
• Resumes
• Business Letter
• Photo Essay
• Brochure
• Skit
• Media Reviews
• Articles
• Editorials
• Post Cards
• Advertisements
• Project Proposal
• Personal Letter
• Pamphlet

9. #nafnext
Some Literacy Stats in
America….DoSomething.org
• 1 in 4 children in America grow up without learning how to read.
• As of 2011, America was the only free-market OECD (Organization for
Economic Cooperation and Development) country where the current
generation was less well educated than the previous.
• Literacy is a learned skill. Illiteracy is passed down from parents who
can neither read nor write
• 75 percent of Americans who receive food stamps perform at the
lowest 2 levels of literacy, and 90 percent of high school dropouts are
on welfare
• Teenage girls ages 16 to 19 who live at or below the poverty level and
have below average literacy skills are 6 times more likely to have
children out of wedlock than the girls their age who can read
proficiently.
• Reports show that low literacy directly costs the healthcare
industry over $70 million every year.

10. #nafnext
What are some of the ways you teach
literacy in your Academy classes
already?

11. #nafnext
With which literacy skills do your
students have the most difficulty
grasping?

12. #nafnext
Key-Word-Notes: note taking activity
• helps students
organize their
thoughts during
longer or more
difficult readings.
• serve as a formative
assessment for
you, allowing you to
see how well
students grasp the
material based on
the terms they
choose and the
summaries they write

13. #nafnext
5. Summary Sentence
1. 2.
3. 4.
Key Word Notes: graphic organizer

14. #nafnext
Key Word Notes: Steps
• Students work in pairs; each individual gets Key Word
Notes form.
• Everyone reads designated piece of text
individually, silently.
• Each student selects 3-4 words as memory aids, writes in
Box 1.
• Partners tell each other what words they selected and
why.
• Student repeat steps 2-4, completing all segments, using
boxes 2,3,4.
• Books closed, each student uses his/her Key Words to
write a summary in Box 5

15. #nafnext
Strategies for Improving Vocabulary
• Comparison
Matrix
• Frayer Model
• Mystery Word
• Possible
Sentences
• Semantic
Mapping
• Vocabulary
Bingo

16. #nafnext
How do I use this to further my
academy’s growth?
• Instructional strategies implemented across
entire academy
• Further work-based learning integration
• Use common planning time to share
strategies used/model strategy
• Engage Advisory Board
• Build academy culture

17. #nafnext
Metacognitive Statements
• As a result of this session, I will
do the following three things:
• First,
• And,
• Finally,