Creating a Literacy VisionLiteracy Plan Year 2

Spearheaded By:Andrea Salem & Lisa Taylor

Developing a Written Vision Statement

Vision statement has four important purposes:

• It identifies beliefs and examines how they define literacy practice in various contexts.

• It clarifies a general direction for change over time.• It motivates people to reorient their actions toward

achieving the goal.• It coordinates the actions of different people in

egalitarian ways.

Instructional Decisions Shaped by Beliefs

Key Considerations:

Beliefs are powerful.

Shared vision requires agency of all teachers, even those who rarely share their opinions.

Divergent perspectives are honored in that they inform, influence, and shape the thinking of the

group.

Principal’s Role in Creating a VisionTaken from the “School Improvement in Maryland” website.

Key Questions:

• What does the principal plan for?• What does the principal monitor?• What does the principal model?

• What does the principal reinforce through recognition and celebration?

• What behavior is the principal willing to confront?

Literacy Plan ~ Year 2

Three Tasks in Developing a Literacy Vision Statement

Task 1Search for an Existing

Vision Statement

F ~ A ~ C ~ E

FocusedAttainable

ClearEngaging

Task 2Survey Cohort Groups

Key Questions:

1. The kinds of reading students are encountering in their classroom.

2. The literacy skills that are most important to learning.

3. The demand of texts specific to particular content areas in which they teach.

4. The kinds of agreement teachers are willing to make to ensure students have adequate reading and writing opportunities and instruction in every class.

5. The kinds of literacy students are using outside of the classroom that might be important to incorporate within the classroom.

6. Which literacies are most likely to grow in importance as these students become functional adults.

Task 3Dissemination the Vision Statement

• Presentation at a formal meeting of the school board.

• Publication in the school website, school newsletter, media center, resource room, and teachers’ lounge.

~ The Vision Statement ~

• The vision statement serves as a basis for the literacy program. Strive to keep the vision visible.

• All decisions about literacy curriculum, goal setting, methods, programs, and assessment are guided by this document.

Activities

Activity 1: Exercise for Identifying Core Beliefs

Activity 2: Key Action Checklist

Activity 3: Checking Out Your Team• Leadership• Data Utilization and Analysis• Managing Change and Measuring Progress• Strategic Planning and Follow-Through• Team Building• SCORE SHEET

Writing and Aligning Standards, Benchmarks, and Curricula

Literacy Plan ~ Year 2

Five-Step Process

• Write the standard or substandard.• List performance expectations for each

semester.• Describe formal and informal assessments

for the standard.• Identify sample activities used to teach the

strategy or skill.• List the resources or tools used to mediate

the learning activities.

Using the Continuum of Literacy Learning Four targeted categories to be included in individual

student’s multigenre portfolio:

Functional Genre and evidence in

writing

Informational Genre and evidence in

writing

Narrative Genre and evidence in writing

Poetic Genre and evidence in writing

References

Pinnell, G. S. & Fountas, I. C. (2011). The continuum of literacy learning Grades PreK-8: A guide to teaching. Portsmoutn, NH: Heinemann.

Romano, T. (2000). Blending genre, altering style: Writing multigenre papers. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook Publishers, Inc.

Vogt, M. & Shearer, B. A. (2011). Reading specialist and literacy coaches in real world. Boston, MA: Pearson.

School Improvement in Maryland [Online website]. Retrieved August 5, 2012 from http://mdk12.org.