For the past 15 years, one of our significant research threads has been to design and test effective schoolwide literacy instruction in secondary schools. A series of studies focused on how to increase the success of high school students in rigorous academic courses revealed several factors that challenge secondary schools to make a dramatic shift in the way they organize and deliver instruction, if both content and literacy goals are to be realized. Only by adopting a schoolwide approach to literacy in which every teacher is committed, involved, and championing coordinated literacy improvement efforts can we make our secondary schools count for all students.
Additionally, it is clear that structural and systemic supports must be accompanied by improvement to the school's instructional core of the secondary school, including attention to an aligned instructional system that is based on standards-informed instruction, connected and coherent courses, engaging instructional materials and activities, and instruction that is informed by the knowledge and backgrounds of students to anchor relevant and meaningful learning. Furthermore, the instructional core must be centered on a view of secondary schools that is grounded in providing a continuum of literacy instruction that ensures the continuing development of those learning skills and strategies required for college readiness and postsecondary success.
Our Content Literacy Continuum describes five increasingly intensive levels of literacy support that should be in place in every school, underscoring that some students need increased intensity and explicitness of instruction to learn critical skills, strategies, and content in secondary classes.
The continuum calls for general education teachers to present content in learner-friendly ways at the first level and to embed strategy instruction into their core classes at the second level. At the third level, students receive specialized, intensive instruction from someone other than the general education teacher.
At the fourth level, reading specialists and special education teachers work together to provide specialized, direct and intensive instruction in listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills. The fifth level provides for speech-language pathologists to deliver curriculum-relevant language therapy to students with underlying language disorders and for other support personnel to teach literacy skills.
Articles
KU-CRL Online Resources
Other Online Resources
