This document summarizes strategies for improving literacy skills in elementary school students. It discusses the "Every Child, Every Day" framework which focuses on ensuring that every student reads something they choose, reads accurately, reads for understanding, writes about something meaningful, talks with peers, and listens to an adult read aloud each day. Specific strategies are provided, such as shared reading, guided reading, literacy centers, building connections to texts, and creating an inquiry-based classroom to increase student engagement and thinking. The goal is to ignite a passion for literacy in all students.

1. Igniting a Passion for Literacy:
what works?
Saanich
Dec 7, 2015
Faye Brownlie
www.slideshare.net/fayebrownlie/
saanich.elementaryliteracy.dec

2. Learning Intentions
• I understand the framework of ‘Every Child, Every
Day’ and can find evidence of this in my prac>ce.
• I have a plan to incorporate a whole class
reading/wri>ng/thinking sequence that is
different to me.
• I have a plan to work with others.
• I am leaving with a ques>on.

3. CR4YR
Goals:
• to increase the number of BC children who are engaged,
successful readers
• increase the number of young readers who acquire skills to
be proficient readers and who experience the joy of reading
• increase collabora>on: a focus on support (LA/resource,
teacher-librarian, Aboriginal Support) teachers working in
the classroom, with the teacher
• Target Group: K-3
• Format: Spiral of Inquiry and case study

4. CR4YR : Changing Results for Young Readers Report 2012-2015

5. The teeter totter
kids
kids curriculum

6. How does this connect to the
redesigned curriculum?
• A focus on BIG IDEAS
• Increased teacher autonomy and
responsibility
• Increased personaliza>on/choice for learners

7. curriculum.gov.bc.ca
• Research in behavioural science and
neuroscience supports the view that learning
results from the interac>on of
– mo>va>on,
– emo>on,
– cogni>on.

8. • 6-7 Big Ideas/grade
• Curricular Competencies
– Comprehend and Connect (reading, listening,
viewing)
– Create and Communicate (wri>ng, speaking,
represen>ng)
• Content
– Story/text
– Strategies and processes
– Language features
• Learning Standards

9. We CAN teach all our kids to read.
• Struggling readers need to read MORE than
non-struggling readers to close the gap.
• Struggling readers need to form a mental
model of what readers do when reading.
• Struggling readers need to read for meaning
and joy ☺
• Struggling readers do NOT need worksheets,
scripted programs, or more skills prac>ce.

10. The Balance
• Whole class reading is thinking instruc>on
• Shared reading – modeling strategies and co-
crea>ng meaning
• Small group/guided reading
• 1:1 conferences – oral reading,
comprehension, feedback
• Choice and independent prac>ce
• Daily wri>ng

11. “Every Child, Every Day” – Richard Allington and
Rachael Gabriel
In Educa>onal Leadership, March 2012
6 elements of instruc>on for ALL students!

12. 1. Every child reads something he or she
chooses.

13. 2. Every child reads accurately.
-intensity and volume count!
-98% accuracy
-less than 90% accuracy, doesn’t improve
reading at all

14. The struggling reader, no maier what grade the
child is in, has not built an efficient reading
process system to make meaning from texts or
help him or her solve problems when stuck…
For teachers, that means learning how to teach
in support of the child as he or she gains more
control of strategic ac>ons.
-Johnson & Keier

15. M – meaning
Does this make sense?
S – language structure
Does this sound right?
V – visual informa>on
Does this look right?
How did you figure that out?

16. 3. Every child reads something he or she
understands.
-at least 2/3 of >me spent reading and
rereading NOT doing isolated skill prac>ce or
worksheets
-build background knowledge before
entering the text
-read with ques>ons in mind

17. Literacy Centres, Gr 1/2
with Lisa Schwartz
• Begin with whole class modeling of flexible
use of strategies
• Opportuni>es for guided prac>ce – 10
minutes per centre
• Reflect, whole group: something you learned
or a challenge you solved in reading/wri>ng

23. snow
cocoa
outside
slide

31. 4. Every child writes about something
personally meaningful.
-connected to text
-connected to themselves
-real purpose, real audience

32. Building Deeper Connections
• Grade 2 with Kinder Mann, Burnaby
• Explain how connec>ons help us deepen our understanding
of a story.
• Make connec>ons with the cover
• Give kids a post-it note with their name
• Read the story as kids silently place their post-it notes when
they make a connec>on.
• Reread the ‘improved’ story now that it is richer with all our
connec>ons.
• Write about your connec>on with the story – one that
really helped you think more deeply about the story.

38. 5. Every child talks with peers about reading
and wri>ng.

39. Creating an Inquiry Classroom
- increasing engagement and
thinking
• With Angela Curle, grade 5/6
• Lakeview Elementary, Quesnel

40. Goal: create curiosity and
questioning, deepen thinking
• Model ‘no>ce’, ‘think’, ‘ques>on’ with a picture
• Students, in groups of 3, ‘no>ce’, ‘think’,
‘ques>on’ with another picture
• Students move to add on to a 2nd picture
• Model ‘explode the sentence’
• Students, in groups of 3, ‘explode the sentence’
• Begin to read the text. No>ce engagement and
thinking.

47. Dear Mrs. La Rue,
How could you do this to me? This is a PRISON,
not a school. You should see the other dogs.
They are BAD DOGS, Mrs. La Rue! I do not fit
in. Even the journey here was a horror.

49. • Mrs. LaRue didn’t have enough >me to train
him.
• Mrs. LaRue is the dog’s master.
• It is not a school.
• Did the dog write the leier?

50. • Mrs. LaRue sent him there.
• What did the dog do?
• How did the dog get a typewriter?
• The other dogs are mean.
• Dogs can’t hold pencils.

52. 6. Every child listens to a fluent adult read
aloud.
-different kinds of text
-with some commentary

53. 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
wri>ng.
6. Every child listens to a fluent adult read aloud.

54. “Know thy impact.”
Visible Learning for Teachers
Maximizing Impact on Learning
John Hate, 2012
Is what you are doing,
getting you what you want?

55. • Brownlie, Fullerton, Schnellert – It’s All about Thinking –
CollaboraHng to support all learners in Math & Science, 2011
• Brownlie, King - Learning in Safe Schools – CreaHng classrooms
where all students belong, 2nd ed, Pembroke Publishers, 2011
• Brownlie, Schnellert – It’s All about Thinking – CollaboraHng to
support all learners in English & HumaniHes, 2009
• Brownlie, Feniak, Schnellert - Student Diversity, 2nd ed., Pembroke
Pub., 2006
• Brownlie, Jeroski – Reading and Responding, grades 4-6, 2nd edi>on,
Nelson, 2006
• Brownlie - Grand ConversaHons, Portage and Main Press, 2005
• Brownlie,Feniak, McCarthy - InstrucHon and Assessment of ESL
Learners, Portage and Main Press, 2004