What students do: Students learn critical content required in the core curriculum regardless of literacy levels.
What teachers do: Teachers compensate for limited levels of literacy by using Content Enhancement Routines to promote content mastery and by making the necessary modifications for students with learning problems.
What it looks like: For example, the history teacher introduces a unit on "Causes of the Civil War" by co-constructing with students a Unit Organizer that depicts the critical content demands of the unit. The organizer is used throughout the unit to link students' prior knowledge to the new unit and to prompt learning strategies such as paraphrasing and self-questioning. Other routines are used to ensure that critical vocabulary is developed.
Professional development: Core curriculum teachers learn and implement Content Enhancement Routines throughout every unit across the year.
What students do: Students are introduced to and learn to use key learning strategies for increasing literacy across their core curriculum classes.
What teachers do: Teachers directly teach and then embed instruction in selected learning strategies in core curriculum courses. Teachers use direct explanation, modeling, and group practice to teach the strategy and strategy steps and then prompt student application and practice in content- area assignments throughout the year.
What it looks like: For example, at the beginning of the year, the history teacher explains that being able to paraphrase the history text is important because paraphrasing is required to write reports, answer questions, and discuss ideas. The teacher shares the steps of the Paraphrasing Strategy (RAP) with students and models how to paraphrase history text to complete different types of learning tasks. Class activities and assignments are designed to require students to paraphrase text and use information. Both oral and written information is paraphrased. Paraphrased responses may take an oral or written format. The Unit Organizer is used to model and prompt paraphrasing of critical chunks of content. The teacher continually evaluates and provides feedback to encourage high-quality paraphrasing throughout the year.
Professional development: Content teachers learn selected learning strategies (e.g., paraphrasing, self-questioning, visual imagery, word identification, textbook usage, sentence writing, paragraph writing, theme writing, etc.).
What students do: Students who have difficulty mastering the strategies presented across courses by core curriculum teachers learn them through specialized, more direct, more explicit, more intense instruction delivered by support personnel.
What professionals do: Support personnel provide more intensive instruction via supplemental instructional sessions delivered in the general education classroom, in a pull-out program, through the offering of a separate course, or through beyond-school programs.
What it looks like: For example, the history teacher notices that some students in the class are struggling with paraphrasing. Support personnel develop a plan to reintroduce the steps of the Paraphrasing Strategy (RAP) to this group of students. Support personnel provide additional models and practice in paraphrasing text. The support personnel may guide the student through paraphrasing paragraph by paragraph, gradually encouraging students to paraphrase more independently. Explicit feedback and additional practice are provided. Support personnel may work daily for 15 to 20 minutes for three to four weeks or more until the student gains confidence and masters applying the strategy. As the student learns the strategy, the student sees that his history class and other classes require the strategy and gets the message that this is a valued skill that is worth learning.
Professional development: Support personnel and teachers learn more about specific learning strategies, how to provide more intensive instruction, and a process for providing more strategic tutoring.
What students do: Students develop decoding skills and increase reading fluency through specialized, direct, and intensive instruction in reading. Intensive instruction in listening, speaking, and writing is often a part of these services.
What professionals do: Teachers, reading specialists, special education teachers, speech-language pathologists, and other support staff team to develop intensive and coordinated instructional experiences designed to address severe literacy deficits. Reading specialists and special education teachers often deliver these services. They also assist content teachers in making appropriate modifications in content instruction to accommodate severe literacy deficits.
What it looks like: For example, some students appear to have significant difficulty comprehending because they do not have sufficient decoding skills or they have language problems. Sometimes, these problems are identified before strategy instruction begins and sometimes the problems emerge during strategy instruction. The staff as a team develop options for courses and support services that directly address deficits that cannot be addressed through less intensive efforts. However, the students still can participate in the history class because the teacher is presenting content in ways that take into consideration poor reading strategies. Intensive research-based programs—such as the Corrective Reading Program or Language!—typically are chosen as the curriculum to develop these types of services.
Professional development: Reading specialists and special education teachers learn approaches to teaching literacy skills and strategies to students with disabilities.
What students do: Students with underlying language disorders learn the linguistic, related cognitive, metalinguistic, and metacognitive underpinnings they need to acquire content literacy skills and strategies in intensive clinical one-toone instructional settings.
What professionals do: Speech-language pathologists deliver curriculum-relevant language therapy in collaboration with other support personnel teaching literacy. They assist content teachers in making appropriate modifications in content instruction to accommodate language disorders.
What it looks like: For example, students identified as language impaired may have difficulty learning the Paraphrasing Strategy (RAP) even when it is taught by learning strategists in a language-sensitive fashion. They may need therapeutic intervention delivered by a speech-language pathologist to address the linguistic and metalinguistic underpinnings of the strategy and the academic content.
Professional development: Speech-language pathologists learn curriculum-relevant approaches to language therapy that interface with other intensive interventions provided to students.
