Student-Centered Literacy

Topics:

• Student-Centered Literacy in a Flexible Learning Environment

• Tech Tools for Literacy

• Student-Driven Writing Systems

• Oral Language Skills in Early Literacy

Overview:

Student-centered literacy instruction is a skills-rich and text-robust approach to teaching literacy that emphasizes student choice and ownership of their reading, writing, speaking, and listening at all grade levels and subject areas. The use of structured phonics undergirds the acquisition of language in the early grades at a pace and through a process that is most appropriate to individual student needs and can also be used to identify and fill gaps in student reading in all grades. A student-centered approach to literacy instruction includes opportunities for students to read complex, engaging texts through exposure to a variety of texts that span socially relevant topics, cultures, and themes; to select the tools or skills they will use as they read texts; and to choose how to demonstrate their understanding of the texts or topics. It also supports students to acquire the skills to analyze those complex texts in writing while using textual evidence to support their claims. Additionally, students are provided with the tools and protocols to engage in  rich, text-based, student-driven discussions, which includes building students' listening skills through self and peer reflection and feedback.

What We Believe:

We believe that strong literacy instruction across content areas must be rooted in student-centered critical thinking, reading, and writing practices to prepare students for college and careers.

We believe that teachers need to be equipped with strategies and tools to create a student-centered literacy classroom that focuses on student choice, collaboration, and student ownership in order to increase student engagement in literacy activities.

We believe that it is important to empower students to practice literacy skills at a pace and rigor that is most appropriate for them in order to approach mastery of complex texts. This is essential to equity as it provides all students with clear, targeted literacy skills of focus and personalized support so that every student can become an adept reader, writer, and critical thinker.

We believe that students can own and drive the writing process with the use of teacher-created scaffolds, meaningful feedback, and collaboration.

BetterLesson Blog Posts

• Hawks, Natalee. Tech Supports for Authentic Language Development. March 21, 2019.
• Savas, Tori. Vocabulary Strategies to Promote Student Growth with English Language Development. December 6, 2018
• Fortin, Katie. Using Seesaw to Expand the Walls of the Classroom. June 12, 2018.
• Librizzi, Valerie and Pope, John Wesley. Five Things I Learned While Working with a PD Coach. April 23, 2018.
• Mason, Julie and Mueller, Darcy. Pulling Back the Curtain: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at Choice Board Management. March 27, 2018.
• Mason, Julie and Mueller, Darcy. To Shift, or Not to Shift: A Teacher's Progress Toward Using Choice Boards. February 15, 2018.

External Resources

• Davis, Laura. Toward a Lifetime of Literacy: The Effect of Student-Centered and Skills-Based Reading Instruction on the Experiences of Children. Literacy Teaching and Learning. Volume 15, Numbers 1 and 2. 2010.\
• Ippolito, Jacy and Fisher, Douglas. "Instructional Leadership for Disciplinary Literacy." Educational Leadership, March 2019 (Vol. 76, #6, p. 50-56).
• Lacy, Amanda. "Starting with Students: A Framework for High-School Reading." English Journal, March 2019 (Vol. 108, #4, p. 17-20).
• Liben, David and Paige, David D. "Why a Structured Phonics Program is Effective." Achieve the Core. April, 2016.