The document outlines a literacy-focused initiative involving 15 school teams in Coquitlam aimed at improving effective literacy instruction for all learners. It emphasizes the importance of personalized goals, differentiated strategies, and teacher collaboration in fostering student engagement and confidence in reading and writing. Key instructional elements include choice, peer discussion, and writing about meaningful topics, alongside reflections on teaching effectiveness and student progress.

1. School Teams:
a literacy focus
Coquitlam: Central, Mundy Road, Pinetree Way – 15 school teams
Jan 27, 2020
Faye Brownlie
www. Slideshare.net/fayebrownlie/coquitlamliteracyteams.jan2020

2. Learning Intentions
• I am deepening my understanding of ‘what counts’ in effective
literacy instruction, and making strides at more balanced
programming for all my learners.
• Every Child, Every Day
• CR4YR
• I have a plan for more deliberate work in feedback, including student
goal setting.
• I have a plan for a strategy sequence to try.

3. “Every Child, Every Day” – Richard Allington and
Rachael Gabriel
In Educational Leadership, March 2012
6 elements of instruction for ALL students!

4. 1. Every child reads something he or she chooses.
2. Every child reads accurately.
3. Every child reads something he or she understands.
4. Every child writes about something personally
meaningful.
5. Every child talks with peers about reading and
writing.
6. Every child listens to a fluent adult read aloud.

5. Teachers’ Reflections
• What made a difference for vulnerable learners
(CR4YR, 2012-2013)
• 1:1 support
• Relationship
• Choice
• Focus on meaning

6. • As the new year begins,
• What are the current strengths of your learners?
• What are the stretches for them?
• What evidence are using to determine these strengths and stretches?
• How has this changed since September?
• For which learners do you need more information?
• What is your plan?
• How will you determine your impact?

7. Class Profile – Literacy
Interests
Classroom Strengths Classroom Stretches
Individual Concerns
(adapted from Brownlie &
King, 2011)
Goals Decisions and Strategies/Structures
Comprehension Vocabulary/BK Fluency/Decoding Other

8. Lisa Warner, Gr K/1, Mundy Road
• Goal:
• Take a risk with writing
• Increase confidence in writing
• Enjoy writing
• Read morning message and circled known words
• Read ‘Just Like Grandma’
• Co-created a picture response to text
• Wrote under the text
• Students drew and wrote what they liked to do with their ‘person’

14. Kirk Deutschmann, Gr. 4/5 Mundy Road
• Web on renewable/non renewable resources.
• Discussed BC map and our Golden Triangle.
• Kirk and I wrote in front of the students, he as a mining executive, I
was a farmer: ‘Should we begin a mine here or not?’ (2 min.)
• Students noticed what worked well in our writing – created a list.
• Students chose a stakeholder position, then wrote in response to
“Imagine a mine is being created in our playground. What
stakeholder are you? Will you support it or not?” (5 min.)
• Very engaged and on task.

15. Low Expectation
Effects: -.03 - .20
High Expectation
Effects: .50 – 1.44
Expect low performance, see low
performance, and this reinforces their
views about low performance
Expect improvement, see the errors, and
seek negative evidence to enact
improvement
Sees role as facilitators, constructivists,
socializers
See role as director, active change agent,
academic instructor
Sees great differences between students
in class
Sees lower differences between students
in class
Argues that some are expected to
improve
Argues that all are expected to improve
Has more differentiated activities in class Has less differentiated activities in class
Comments on low effort, class behavior,
in-class relationships
Comments on developing confidence,
motivation, persistence, and attitude to

16. “...the design of reading lessons differs for
good and poor readers in that poor readers
get more work on skills in isolation, whereas
good readers get assigned more reading
activity.”
(Allington, 1980; 1983; 2002; Allington & McGill-Franzen, 1989; Collins, 1986; Cummins, 2007; Valli &
Chambliss, 2007; Vaughn & Linan-Thompson, 2003).

17. What strategies did you use – and why does it
matter?
• Thinking about meaning.
• Thinking about parts of speech.
• Thinking if the word would sound right.
• With the ‘initial’ you now had visual information to add in.
• Meaning
• Syntax and sound
• Visual
• Children who are struggling with reading, often have trouble using all
sources of information and tend to rely on just one…their easiest one!

18. Strategy Sequence
• Connecting
• Building motivation, accessing and building background knowledge, asking
questions, setting a purpose for reading
• Processing
• Making sense of new text, linking old information to new
• Transforming and personalizing
• Showing what you know

19. A grade 4 sequence to encourage thinking about
decoding unknown words, building fluency,
deepening understanding, personal le:er wri;ng
Thanks to Janet Smith, teacher librarian
c̓əsqənelə Elementary
Maple Ridge, BC

20. Shooting at
the Stars
A follow-up to
Remembrance Day in
preparation for writing
Christmas cards to our
Canadian Armed Forces
overseas.

21. Plan for Grade 4
• Using 1 page
• Covering 5 words
1. Read it with a partner showing missing words
2. Read it out loud whole class
3. Partners record possible words they can think of
4. Whole group recording of possible words
5. Try each word suggested crossing out words that don’t
make sense.
6. Notice and name the strategies that were used to
determine the author’s words

22. After the sun went down, we decided to
chance a fire outside the _______, but when
we stepped outdoors we heard the sounds
of _______! I looked down the line to find
out who was foolish enough to give away his
_______to the enemy. But the noise wasn't
coming from our ______at all.
As I________stuck my head over the edge of
the trench, I couldn't believe what I saw!

23. After the sun went down, we decided to
chance a fire outside the (thing), but when
we stepped outdoors we heard the sounds
of (action)! I looked down the line to find
out who was foolish enough to give away his
(place) to the enemy. But the noise wasn't
coming from our (thing) at all.
As I (describe) stuck my head over the edge
of the trench, I couldn't believe what I saw!
Give a clue

24. After the sun went down, we decided to
chance a fire outside the b______, but when
we stepped outdoors we heard the sounds
of s_______! I looked down the line to find
out who was foolish enough to give away his
p______to the enemy. But the noise wasn't
coming from our t_____at all.
As I c_______stuck my head over the edge
of the trench, I couldn't believe what I saw!
Add Initial Sound

25. After the sun went down, we decided to
chance a fire outside the bunker, but when
we stepped outdoors we heard the sounds
of singing! I looked down the line to find
out who was foolish enough to give away his
position to the enemy. But the noise wasn't
coming from our trench at all.
As I cautiously stuck my head over the edge
of the trench, I couldn't believe what I saw!

26. Page 13
• Bunker
• Singing
• Position
• Trench
• Cautiously

27. AAS
wePart 2
Intro the
writing
activity:
Focus on what the soldier has
written to his mother
What are soldiers feeling
while they are away? What
would they most like? What
would they most like at
Christmas 9me?
Read the rest of the book
using the document camera

28. Part 3
Write a
Christmas
postcard to
members of
the armed
forces.
Who is in the armed forces?
What are possible roles in the
armed forces
What is peace keeping?
Where are our armed forces
stationed in the world?

30. Deployment injuries 2005

32. Part 3: Wri*ng
• Draft copy
• Conference
• Good copy for the post
• Draw/decorate the front of the
postcard

41. Teacher reflections:
• High student engagement
• Individual conferences were possible, supportive, connection-based
with 2 teachers in the room
• Students who needed more support were easily supported within the
context of rich classroom literacy work

42. Think Aloud
• Read slowly, making your thinking visible.
• Have students notice the strategies that you use.
• In pairs, students slow their thinking down, and read to their
‘coaching’ partner who notices the strategies that were used.
• Reverse roles and repeat the process.
• Keep track of the strategies used.
• Use small pieces of text.
• Continue reading aloud or independently.

43. Sea Otter Pup

44. Sea Otter Pup - Victoria Miles (Orca)
There is a forest of seaweed in the ocean.

45. It is a forest of kelp. At the bottom of the
kelp forest, Mother sea otter searches for
food.

46. High above, her pup is waiting. He is
wrapped in a piece of kelp so he can’t
drift away while Mother is down
below.

47. • “…if you want to revolutionize your reading
instruction, invite writing back into the fold. Give
your students time to write during class, and give
them feedback that responds to their craft and their
composition. Great writing is a communication of
great thinking, so strengthen reading and writing in
tandem, not in isolation.”
• Bambrick-Santoyo & Chiger, “”Until I Write It Down”,
EL, Feb 17

48. Quick Writes – Grade 3
Robin Martens, Altona
• 15 seconds to think about how they would start
• 3-4 minutes to write
• Wrote for an hour with different prompt words
• Pizza, soaring, puddle
• Kids highlighted their gems after each write and shared them with the
class
• Created criteria:
• Using our senses to describe what was happening
• Using descriptive words

49. Robin’s Reflections
• Kids loved this
• Very focused on their writing
• Some of the developing writers listened to what others shared as
their gems, then incorporated these into their own writing
• The next day in Work on Writing time, several asked for a ‘word’

52. Student Goal Setting in Writing - Grade 1/2

62. Write in front of your students!

67. Lit Circle Response Writing
University Highlands, Burnaby
• Christine Yee, Gr. 4/5
• Kristina Carley, Gr. 4/5
• Michelle Van-Balkom, ELL
• Combine 2 classes twice a week with Michelle and introduce a lesson
• Sometimes 5 adults: also LST and 2 EAs (autism, hard of hearing)
• Meet with each book twice a week
• Collaborative planning!!!!
• Choose the weekly lesson focus in response to students strengths and
stretches

68. • Noticed:
• Eager to read and share their books
• Could retell much of what was read
• All were included
• In full class discussion, all could participate
• In small group discussion, with teacher scaffolding, students built on one and
other’s ideas
• Need:
• More depth in their written responses
• More evidence from the text and their experience to support their opinions –
in small group conversation and in written response

69. Gradual Release of Responsibility
• Ac#on:
• Direct teaching and modeling of response
• Co-create criteria for powerful response
• Prac#ce in small groups, the process that was modeled
• Individual response write
• Individual student reflec#on on their wri#ng, using the criteria

70. Gradual Release of Responsibility
• Model
• I do, you watch
• Guided practice
• We do, you do with others
• Independent practice
• You do, I coach as needed
• Independent application
• You do without guidance – or set-up – from me

71. • Buffalo Hunt
• Terror in the Harbour
• A Mighty Big Imagining
• Camp X
• Ghost Train
• After Peaches
• When the Cherry Blossoms Fell
• The Gnome's Eye
• Flood Warning
• Drita My Homegirl
• Moses, Me & Murder
• Jo's Journey
• Novels are themed on Canadian history and immigration

72. • Previously read ‘Roses Sing on New Snow’
• Focus on making inferences
• Chose a sentence to ‘explode’ from the text.
• Each of we 4 teachers, wrote a response to the line to
show our understanding and interpretation, in front
of the students.
• Students noticed what worked in our writing.
• Each lit circle group chose a sentence (with help).
• Each lit circle group ‘exploded’ their sentence, then
wrote in response.
• We circulated, monitored the groups, extended the
thinking.

74. • The guests were astounded to hear that a woman had cooked the
dish.

89. Eyes on Print
At least 30 minutes a day…
ALL KIDS!!!!!