Teaching Literacy in the Visible Learning Classroom, Grades K-5

It could happen at 10:10 a.m. in the midst of interactive writing, at 2:30, when listening to readers, or even after class, when planning a lesson. The question arises: How do I influence students’ learning–what’s going to generate that light bulb Aha-moment of understanding?

In this sequel to their megawatt best seller Visible Learning for Literacy, Douglas Fisher, Nancy Frey, and John Hattie help you answer that question by sharing structures and tools for effective literacy instruction that have high-impact on learning - and insights on which stage of learning they have that high impact.

With their expert lessons, video clips, and online resources, you can deliver sustained, comprehensive experiences in phonics, guided reading, interactive writing, content-area discussions - in virtually all you teach:

• Mobilising Visible Learning: Use lesson design strategies based on research that included 500 million plus students to develop self-regulating learners able to “see” the purpose of what they are learning - and their own progress.
• Teacher Clarity: Articulate daily learning intentions, success criteria, and other goals; understand what your learners understand, and design high-potency experiences for all students.
• Direct Instruction: Embrace modelling and scaffolding as a critical pathway for students to learn new skills and concepts.
• Teacher-Led Dialogic Instruction: Guide reading, writing, and thinking by using questioning and other teacher-led discussion techniques to help learners to clarify thinking, disagree respectfully, and reach consensus.
• Student-Led Dialogic Learning: Foster cognitive growth with peer-mediated learning - reciprocal teaching, QAR, fish bowl, and more.
• Independent Learning: Ensure that students deepen learning by designing relevant tasks that enable them to think metacognitively, set goals, and develop self-regulatory skills.
• Tools to Use to Determine Literacy Impact: Know what your impact truly is with these research-based formative assessments for K-5 learners.

With Teaching Literacy in the Visible Learning Classroom, take your students from surface to deep to transfer learning. It’s all about using the most effective practices - and knowing WHEN those practices are best leveraged to maximise student learning.

Table of Contents

Introduction

• Chapter 1. Mobilizing Visible Learning for Literacy
• Visible Learning for Literacy
• Components of Effective Literacy Learning
• Knowledge of How Children Learn
• Developmental View of Learning
• Meaningful Experiences and Social Interaction
• Surface, Deep, and Transfer Learning
• Phases of Reading Development
• Phases of Writing Development
• Formats and Scheduling
• Time Organization
• Across a Week
• Across Content Areas
• Spotlight on Three Teachers
• Conclusion

Chapter 2. Teacher Clarity

• Understanding Expectations in Standards
• Learning Intentions in the Language Arts
• Student Ownership of Learning Intentions
• Connecting Learning Intentions to Prior Knowledge
• Make Learning Intentions Inviting and Engaging
• Social Learning Intentions
• Success Criteria in Language Arts
• Success Criteria Are Crucial for Motivation
• Conclusion

Chapter 3. Direct Instruction

• Relevance
• Teacher Modeling
• Pair With Think-Alouds
• The “I” and “Why” of Think-Alouds
• Students Should Think Aloud, Too
• Checking for Understanding
• Use Questions to Probe Student Thinking
• Guided Instruction
• Formative Evaluation During Guided Instruction
• Independent Learning
• Fluency Building
• Application
• Spiral Review
• Extension
• Closure
• Conclusion

Chapter 4. Teacher-Led Dialogic Instruction

• Effective Talk, Not Just Any Talk
• Foster Deep Learning and Transfer
• Listen Carefully
• Facilitate and Guide Discussion
• Teacher-Led Tools for Dialogic Instruction
• Anticipation Guides
• Guided Reading
• Write Dialogically With Shared Writing
• Language Experience Approach
• Interactive Writing
• Close and Critical Reading
• Conclusion

Chapter 5. Student-Led Dialogic Learning

• The Value of Student-to-Student Discussion
• The Social and Behavioral Benefits of Peer-Assisted Learning
• Fostering Collaborative Discussions
• Teach Children to Develop Their Own Questions
• Student-Led Tools for Dialogic Learning
• Fishbowl
• Collaborative Reasoning
• Gallery Walks
• Literature Circles
• Readers Theatre
• Reciprocal Teaching
• Peer Tutoring
• Conclusion

Chapter 6. Independent Learning

• Finding Flow
• Learning Words Independently
• Independently Working With Words
• Open and Closed Concept Word Sorts
• Vocabulary Cards
• Spelling Words
• Acquisition
• Retention
• Automaticity
• Word Games
• Building Fluent Readers
• Reading Into Recorder
• Neurological Impress Model
• Independent Reading
• Independent Writing
• Power Writing
• Extended Writing Prompts
• Big Ideas About Independent Learning
• Does It Promote Metacognition?
• Does It Promote Goal-Setting?
• Does It Promote Self-Regulation?
• Conclusion

Chapter 7. Tools to Use in Determining Literacy Impact

• Do You Know Your Impact?
• Do You Know Your Collective Impact?

ASSESSING READING

• Assessing Emergent and Early Readers
• Language Comprehension
• Decoding
• Early Language Learning Assessments
• Concepts About Print
• Yopp-Singer Test of Phoneme Segmentation
• Sight Words
• Retellings
• Decoding Assessments
• Letter Identification
• Phonics
• Assessing Reading of Meaningful Text
• Miscue Analysis
• Assessing Developing Readers
• Assessing Reading Comprehension
• Informal Reading Inventories
• Cloze Procedure
• Reading Fluency
• Metacomprehension Strategies Index
• Assessing Attitudes Toward Reading
• Elementary Reading Attitude Survey

ASSESSING WRITING

• Assessing Spelling
• Assessing Writing Fluency
• Assessing Writing Holistically
• Literacy Design Collaborative Student Work Rubrics
• Assessing Writing Attitude and Motivation
• Writing Attitude Survey
• Why Assess? Know Your Impact

Conclusion

Compendium of Assessments

• Appendix: Effect Sizes
• References
• Index