The 3rd in a series of presentations for school groups in Coquitlam. This session reviews key elements of effective literacy programming in schools and continues the conversation of running literature circles without roles or restrictions on how much is read.

1. Literacy Learning for All
Faye Brownlie and Leyton Schnellert
April 17th, 2009
Coquitlam

2. Learning IntenGons
•I can reflect on something I have tried and
describe its impact on student learning
•I can idenGfy powerful literacy pracGces
•I can idenGfy the 6 AFL strategies in acGon
•I can make a plan to use a powerful literacy
pracGce and an AFL strategy

3. It’s all about
Engagement &
Meaning Making

4. Keys to Literacy:
A strategic focus
•connect
•process
•personalize & transform

5. Teach Content to All
Learning in Safe Schools - Brownlie, King

6. GRADUAL
RELEASE MODEL
Model
Guided pracGce
Independent pracGce
Independent applicaGon
Pearson & Gallagher (1983)

7. ASSESSMENT FOR L E A R N I N G
PURPOSE: TO GUIDE
INSTRUCTION
AUDIENCE: TEACHER AND
STUDENT
TIMING: AT THE BEGINNING,
DAY BY DAY, MINUTE BY MINUTE
FORM: DESCRIPTIVE
FEEDBACK

8. The 6 big AFL strategies
criteria
intenGons
self and peer
descripGve
assessment
feedback
quesGons ownership

9. Descriptive Feedback
What’s working?
What’s not?
What’s next?

10. What have you tried?
How did it go?
Reflections and Questions
SUCCESSFUL MEANING
MAKING DEPENDS
ON THE COMPLEX
INTERACTION OF MANY
OVERLAPPING DIMENSIONS

11. • Literacy is about more than reading or wriGng –
it is about how we communicate in society. It is
about social pracGces and relaGonships, about
knowledge, language, and culture.
• Those who use literacy take it for granted – but
those who cannot use it are excluded from
much communicaGon in today’s world. Indeed,
it is the excluded who can best appreciate the
noGon of ‘literacy as freedom.’
• UNESCO, Statement for the UN Literacy Decade,
2003‐2012

12. QuesGoning
• Present a picture
• Ask students to pose quesGons about the picture,
answering the quesGons in their head, but not out loud
• Present a second picture
• NoGce how quesGons change as students link the
pictures
• Do a quick write – 5 min. or so – creaGng a text around
the thinking behind the pictures
• Present one more picture, conGnuing to quesGon.
• Do a 2nd quick write, adding on or starGng anew.
Student Diversity, 2nd ed. ‐ Brownlie, Feniak, Schnellert

13. S Choose a about every 2 weeks
class strategy
T
Based on a that will enhance their
R group goal
reading development
A Character Real life Influences
development applications of setting
T
Examples
E
G
Modeled using a common text
I
E Tapping into multiple intelligences
S

14. S Examples
T Tableaus
Characters
R Talk
shows
A Composing
Setting
a rap
T Comprehension
Strategies
E
G Mini-dramas
Reader’s
Theatre
I learning
journeys
Containers
E for
Venn
characters
diagrams
S

15. Comprehension Strategies can include:
Containers for Characters

17. Julianna – from Flipped
Hen House – Even though their backyard is extremely dirty, still she goes
out every day to feed and talk to the chickens. She didn’t abandon them
after she finished with her project; she kept them and raised them like they
were her own children. Just that alone tells you what kind of person she is.
It’s a shame that there aren’t more people like her nowadays.
Basket – Her thoughtfulness towards others really showed when she bided
on the basket boy when no one else would. To further boost his confidence,
she even got another person to help her increase the ‘going’ price. Now
that’s something.
Eggs – Into the egg carton, across the street, in Bryce’s hands, then
chucked into the garbage. When she found that out…well, you could say that
Bryce threw away a small part of a wonderful person with a big heart.
Painting – She’s able to tell her father just about anything. And even if she
doesn’t, he can sense it. This stands for how strong their father/daughter
relationship really is. To add to that, he even painted a picture of one of the
things she loves most, her sycamore tree.

18. Comprehension Strategies can include:
• Setting
• Venn Diagram
• Venn Diagram with 2 books
• Character Tree
• Hot Seat
• Tableau
• Readers’ Theatre

19. Character Tree
LiGle Willy From Stone Fox
• Brave • Liele Willy told Stone fox that he was
going to beat him in the race and Stone
Fox has never lost a race
• Liele Willy went to Stone Fox’s house
because he wanted to pet the dogs
• Polite
• Liele Willy always says Mam instead of
Dr. Smith, and he always says Yes
instead of saying ya!

20. Character Tree
3 characterisOcs 2 pieces of evidence for each
*what character says
*what character does
*what others say about the
character
*character’s inner voice

28. Grand ConversaGons, Thoughiul Responses ‐ a unique approach
to literature circles ‐ Faye Brownlie
Portage and Main Press, 2004
Student Diversity, 2nd ed ‐ Brownlie, Feniak and Schnellert
Pembroke Publishers, 2005

29. • Webcast:
• Literature Circles in the Middle Years
• www.bced.gov.bc.ca/literacy
• Webcast, part 2