Oklahoma Striving Readers
February 2020/March 2020
Thank you to all who attended our annual meeting! We are excited to see new collaborative relationships beginning across our OSRCL districts. Below you will find an electronic version of the OSRCL book we handed out at the meeting. We hope this resource will help in the further creation of our Striving Readers network. Our monthly zoom calls and every other month vocabulary calls are also a great place for you to connect with other districts. Please mark your calendars and plan to attend. The information for those calls is listed below.
We are planning to either visit or schedule a phone call with all of our districts this spring. Please let us know if there is any specific way we can support the work you are doing.
Disciplinary and Secondary Literacy
Supporting secondary students is an area of focus for schools across the country. In December, researcher Timothy Shanahan spoke to SRCL states about promoting secondary and disciplinary literacy.
His research describes 8 strategies that increase the literacy skills of secondary students. These strategies include providing 1) vocabulary instruction, 2) comprehension strategies, 3) knowledge building through reading, 4) oral reading fluency practice, 5) time to write about text, 6) appropriate remedial instruction, 7) disciplinary literacy, and 8) complex text. Additional information on these strategies can be found in Promoting Secondary Literacy and https://shanahanonliteracy.com/.
Dr. Shanahan took a deeper dive into Disciplinary Literacy by describing how we read and write in science, history, math, and ELA. Disciplinary literacy focuses on the specific aspects of literacy within each discipline. This is a different idea than content-area literacy which focuses on using similar ELA strategies across subject areas. Take a look at the Teaching Disciplinary Literacy presentation for more information. This chart entitled, What are Literacies within the Disciplines? The book Disciplinary Literacy: A Shift that Makes Sense by Eleah Lent provides an overview of how one reads, writes, and thinks in each discipline. Doug Buehl’s Classroom Strategies for Interactive Learning, 4th Edition includes a variety of teaching strategies, text frames, and focusing questions for each discipline.
For additional resources on supporting adolescent literacy see the following practice guides from What Works Clearinghouse and the Secondary Literacy section on the OSRCL HUB.
Teaching Secondary Students to Write (Nov. 2016)
Improving Adolescent Literacy: Effective Classroom and Intervention Practices (Aug. 2008)
Sustainability Resources
Evidence-Based Practices
The OSRCL Evidence-Based Practice Documentation form can be used to create district procedures to determine if programs, interventions, instructional strategies, and supplementary materials are supported with evidence and research.
Programs of Excellence
Zoom Meetings
Our next Zoom meeting will be February 11, 2020 at 10:00 am. Our topic will be Secondary and Disciplinary Literacy. We hope you are able to join us.
Register for the February Zoom meeting at this link.
https://zoom.us/meeting/register/uJ0pc-2hqDgvJ3REJYTUildS526HwcZHmg
Upcoming OSRCL Zoom Meeting Dates and Topics
February 11, 2020 Secondary Literacy
March 10, 2020 - TBA
April 14, 2020 - FY21 Goals and Local Literacy Plans
Notes and resources from past calls:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/10l3WMDvv91rf3hAQnOqv5FT_7ncvsPG2xPzEmsXZ4xk/edit?usp=sharing
Virtual Vocabulary Book Study
OSRCL Virtual Vocabulary Book Study
Teachers, district leaders, instructional coaches, reading specialists, and grant coordinators are invited to join us for our OSRCL Vocabulary Book study. We will be reading and discussing the following books:
Bringing Words to Life (2013)
by Isabel Beck, Margaret McKowen, and Linda Kucan
Teaching Basic and Advanced Vocabulary (2010)
By Robert Marzano
The book study will be done through Zoom at 3:45pm. Dates and meeting registration links are below. Additional details can be found here.
We would love for you to join us! If you missed the first call that is not a problem! Notes from the first call can be found here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pnvT5Y_2rkl9oGGyoY-1GBBthWrp7HX8Ij0chOmjGH0/edit?usp=sharing
Upcoming Calls
Thursday 3.12.20
3:45 pm
Chapters 5-8 Beck
Chapters 5-6 Marzano
https://zoom.us/meeting/register/8928d4bee244eaf266858a512be5123a
Thursday 5.14.20
3:45pm
Chapters 9-10 Beck
Chapter 7 Marzano
https://zoom.us/meeting/register/523c4043bf44fc3b66858a512be5123a
PD Survey- To Do or Not To Do
As part of our federal grant requirements we must collect professional development information from our districts. Please keep the following guidelines in mind when planning for professional learning and the OSRCL pd survey:
Is the professional learning 3 hours or longer? Do the OSRCL PD survey.
Is the professional learning less than 3 hours? The OSRCL PD survey is optional.
Please keep in mind that you will receive a pd survey feedback report after participants have taken the survey. PD feedback reports are made when there are more than 5 participants. If you don’t have a pd feedback report for professional learning that has already taken place, please let Michelle Seybolt know.
Evidence Based Practices
This short guide, ESSA and Evidence Claims: A Practical Guide to Understanding What "Evidence Based" Really Means, is an excellent resource providing an overview of the tiers of evidence and provides 5 questions to ask when evaluating claims of evidence. It is a helpful resource to use when considering the materials, programs, and personnel purchased with your Striving Readers grant.
As you plan next year’s OSRCL budget, please remember that OSRCL grant funds can only be used on activities and programs that meet moderate to strong levels of evidence according to ESSA. Click here for an overview of the levels of evidence.
The Evidence for ESSA or What Works Clearinghouse websites can be used to determine levels of evidence. The Practices Guides describe instructional recommendations that can be implemented with existing standards or curriculum. If you are looking to adopt a program or attend professional learning, you can align them with the practice guide strategies that meet strong to moderate evidence. Click here for a list of literacy practice guides and an overview of the recommendations.
Tweet what's happening in your district using #OSRCL!
Professional Development Survey
The Oklahoma Striving Readers Team
Project Director
(405) 522-0285
@bmeiller
Sharon Morgan,
Program Manager
(405) 522-3241
@jskamorg
Michelle Seybolt
School Improvement and Data Specialist
(405) 522-2214
@MichelleSeyb0lt