Literacy Newsletter
January
Monthly Newsletter
See the message below from John Wolf--IDOE Literacy Specialist--and please feel free to share this newsletter with any ELA specialists in your districts.
Message from John Wolf
On behalf of the Indiana Department of Education, I am pleased to release the first Literacy Focus of the Month Newsletter. Literacy is the capacity to construct and express meaning through reading, writing, and talking about texts. It is a prerequisite to the acquisition of new information and the formulation of new ideas (Bowman & Sadowski, 2005). The vision of the Indiana Department of Education is “to build an education system of equity and high quality focused on student-centered accountability." Strong literacy skills are critical for Indiana students to succeed academically as well as to prosper in the current global economy. Students must be able to read, write, and think at increasingly higher levels of complexity, creativity, and sophistication to prepare for college and career pathways.
The purpose the Literacy Focus of the Month Newsletter is to provide guidance to administrators and teachers for supporting a monthly, school wide instructional focus based on best practices and research-based strategies in literacy. This "user-friendly" guide and support tools will assist districts and schools in the implementation of reading instruction in classrooms across multiple grade levels, as well as different subjects/content areas. The topics in this newsletter range from policies and procedures to the five essential components of reading as identified by the National Reading Panel. The material is devoted to strengthen administration and teacher content knowledge by focusing on one topic each month. Although the monthly focus will highlight and supplement a specific procedure or skill, it is impossible to teach the components in isolation; therefore, the Literacy Focus of the Month Newsletter should serve to present a school-wide shared commitment to literacy.
I look forward to working with you to improve literacy outcomes for all Indiana students!
John Wolf
Elementary Literacy Specialist
Indiana Department of education
115 W. Washington St., Suite 600
Indianapolis, IN 46204
Email: jwolf@doe.in.gov
Direct Line: 317-234-6702
Indiana Academic Standards ELA 2014: http://www.doe.in.gov/standards/englishlanguage-arts
IREAD-3: http://www.doe.in.gov/assessment/iread-3
ISTEP+: http://www.doe.in.gov/assessment/istep-grades-3-8
Text Dependent Questioning Support for Elementary K-6: https://plus.google.com/communities/113957389427197016087?gclid=CIeMp8yEs8gCFZKBaQodl-sFHQ
Resources
Outreach-Region 6
Email: jkwiatkowski@doe.in.gov
Website: http://www.doe.in.gov/
Location: 115 W Washington St #600, Indianapolis, IN 46204
Phone: (317) 232-6610
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/educatein
Twitter: @educatein