The Content Literacy Continuum: A

Framework for Implementing Literacy

Supports in Secondary Schools

Don Deshler
University of Kansas
Center for Research on Learning
Suzanne Robinson
Executive Director
Strategic Learning Center
 Powerpoints and handouts at

http://www.kucrl.org/library/presentations.shtml
 The
Challenge of
Adolescent
Literacy
 The Performance Gap

Skills/
Demands

Years in School
 Reading Component Profile

Proficient
 ASRS
115





110




105


Mean Standard Scores

100


95
90  ** 
85
   * 
*
80

 * 

75
70
ALPHABETICS FLUENCY VOCABULARY COMPREHENSION
Word ID-Word Att Rate-Accuracy-SWE-PDE List Comp Pass Comp-Rdg Comp
PPVT-WLPB Rd-Vocab-L

Scores from the WLPB-R, GORT, TOWRE, PPVT, Sub tests

* Statistically Different
 2005 NAEP Reading Results
Below Basic Basic Proficient Advanced

• Below the Proficiency level

– 69% of 4th graders
Only 30% of–all70% of 8th graders
secondary – 64% of 12th graders (2002)
students are 89% of Hispanic
proficient readers & 86% of African
• Below the Basic level
– 37% of 4th graders American
– 27% of 8th graders students read
below grade level
– 26% of 12th graders (2002)
 One year of a
science textbook introduced

more vocabulary words

than an introductory class in
a foreign language (Yeager, 1993).
The Performance Gap
2013-2014

2Yrs

2 1/2Yrs

Skills and
Demands 1 1/2Yrs

1Yr
9 th
The “Gap”

5 th

Years in School 9 th
Everyday…….
• More than3000 adolescents
dropout of school……that’s

540,000+ per year!

And this number is
growing!!!
 KU-CRL mission is to
help improve . . .
• The performance of struggling adolescent
learners
• How teachers instruct academically diverse
classes
• How secondary schools can be structured to
improve outcomes
• How our validated practices reach tens of
thousands of practitioners in the field
• How public policy initiatives are crafted to
support struggling learners
• $165 million R & D
 Strand
Roadmap
Session #1 (8:30 – 9:30 a.m.)
Content Literacy Continuum
(CLC) for Striving Readers:
Overview
Don Deshler
University of Kansas, Center for
Research on Learning
Suzanne Robinson
Strategic Learning Center
Session #2 (9:45 – 10:45 a.m.)
Literacy Leadership: District &
Building Support of CLC
Suzanne Robinson
Strategic Learning Center
Ann Southworth
Assistant Superintendent,
Chief Academic Officer
Ann Ferriter
Striving Readers Implementation Officer
Springfield Public School District,
Springfield, MA
Session #3 (11:00 – Noon)
Improving Literacy Outcomes
by Planning with Course & Unit
Organizers in Content Classes
Michael Faggella-Luby
University of Connecticut
Colleen O’Connor
Sci-Tech HS, Springfield MA
Session #4 (1:15 – 2:15 p.m.)
Using Content Enhancement
Routines to Ensure Mastery of
Critical Content
Dottie Turner
SIM Professional Developer, NY
Pam Leitzell
SIM Professional Developer, TN
Kris Theriault
Chicopee HS, Chicopee MA
Session #5 (2:30 – 3:30 p.m.)
Intensive Instruction: Xtreme
Reading & Writing Interventions
Nanette Fritschmann
Lehigh University
Neil Rosario
Chicopee Comp HS, Chicopee MA
Session #6 (3:45 – 4:45 p.m.)
Program Evaluation of School-
wide Literacy Initiatives: Using
Data to Determine Direction
Suzanne Robinson
Strategic Learning Center
and University of Kansas
Session #1 (8:30 – 9:30 a.m.)
Content Literacy Continuum
(CLC) for Striving Readers:
Overview
Don Deshler
University of Kansas, Center for
Research in Learning
Suzanne Robinson
Strategic Learning Center
Session #1 Roadmap
• The Striving Readers
Initiative
• A Continuum of Literacy
Supports
• Promoting Change in
Secondary Schools
Session #1 Roadmap
• The Striving Readers
Initiative
• A Continuum of Literacy
Supports
• Promoting Change in
Secondary Schools
 Striving Readers Initiative
• Raise literacy achievement in middle
& high school struggling readers
• Help build a strong, scientific
research base around specific
strategies
– Supplemental reading classes
– School-wide literacy interventions
– Capacity building
Session #1 Roadmap
• The Striving Readers
Initiative
• A Continuum of Literacy
Supports
• Promoting Change in
Secondary Schools
 The listening, speaking,
reading and writing skills and
strategies necessary to learn
in each of the academic
disciplines.
is the door to content
acquisition & higher
order thinking.
 Begin by….

Getting a profile of the

literacy performance of
students in your school
 Screen for…..

• Word analysis skills

• Fluency
• Comprehension
• (Progress monitoring throughout year)
 Then ask….
Five questions
about literacy
supports currently
in place.
 5 Questions
1. What’s in place in core classes to ensure that students
will get the “critical” content in spite of their literacy
skills?
2. Are procedures for teaching powerful learning
strategies embedded in courses across the
curriculum?
3. What happens for students who know how to decode
but can’t comprehend well?
4. What happens for those students who are reading
below the 4th grade level?
5. What happens for students who have language
problems?
 Finally….
Use a “content
literacy” framework
to determine an
action plan
Building Blocks for
Content Literacy
HIGHER
ORDER

SUBJECT MATTER

STRATEGIES

SKILLS

LANGUAGE
 HIGHER ORDER

A Continuum of Literacy Instruction

(Content Literacy Continuum -- CLC)
SUBJECT MATTER
Level 1: Enhance content instruction (mastery of critical
content for all regardless of literacy levels)

STRATEGIES
Level 2: Embedded strategy instruction (routinely weave
strategies within and across classes using large group
instructional methods)

Level 3: Intensive strategy instruction (mastery of specific

strategies using intensive-explicit instructional sequences)
SKILLS
Level 4: Intensive basic skill instruction (mastery of entry
level literacy skills at the 4th grade level)
LANGUAGE
Level 5: Therapeutic intervention (mastery of language
underpinnings of curriculum content and learning strategies)
 Content Literacy “Synergy”

CONTENT CLASSES
CONTENT CLASSES Level 2. Embedded
Level 1. Enhanced Strategy Instruction
Content Instruction

Level 3. Intensive
Strategy Instruction
• strategy classes
• strategic tutoring

Improved
Level 4. Intensive Basic
Literacy Level 5. Therapeutic Skill Instruction
Intervention
Foundational language competencies

KU-CRL CLC- Lenz, Ehren, &Deshler, 2005

 Intense-Explicit Instruction (RTI)
LEVEL 1
LEVEL 3/4/5
• Cue • Pretest
• Do • Describe
• Review – Commitment (student &
teacher)
– Goals
– High expectations
LEVEL 2
• Model
• “I do it!” (Learn by watching)
• Practice and quality feedback
• “We do it!” (Learn by sharing) – Controlled and advanced
• “Ya’ll do it!” (Learn by sharing) • Posttest & reflect
• “You do it! (Learn by practicing) • Generalize, transfer, apply
 The CLC says…
• There are unique (but very important) roles for each
member of a secondary staff relative to literacy
instruction
– While every content teacher is not a reading teacher,
every teacher needs to teach students in how to read
content.
– Literacy coaches may be necessary but aren’t sufficient
• Some students require more intensive,
systematic, explicit instruction of content,
strategies, and skills
 Additionally, the CLC .…..
• Is a framework for guiding
– Staff dialogue around literacy
– Professional development
– Resource allocation
– Decision making
• Integrates instructional programs
– From silos to synergy
Session #1 Roadmap
• The Striving Readers
Initiative
• A Continuum of Literacy
Supports
• Promoting Change in
Secondary Schools
 Build Ownership & Capacity
 Literacy Leadership Teams

Driver of literacy work in school

Distributed leadership

 Work on Leadership Practice

Organize/supervise work around key instructional activities

Observe, describe, analyze instructional practice

Create internal accountability mechanisms

Build common language and expectations

 Work on Instructional Practice

Observe models of practice

Develop protocols for observing practice

Rotation of observations in teams

Focus on observing, describing, analyzing instructional practice

Build common language and expectations
 Necessary Conditions
• Sustained investments in professional
development programs.

• Engaged administrators who set expectations for

adoption and proper implementation

• District level support to hire teachers who

embrace principles of the initiative and possess the
skills

• Willingness to stay the course

 Necessary Conditions

• A willingness to redefine roles

• Staff given sufficient time to “make sense of” and

accommodate CLC into their instructional framework,
and have their questions and concerns addressed

• The degree to which decisions regarding the adoption

of CLC is perceived as being one in which their voice
has been heard
 THE WORK OF IMPROVEMENT:
FROM TECHNICAL TO CULTURAL CULTURAL

TECHNICAL

©Richard Elmore – Use by permission only

 THE WORK OF IMPROVEMENT:
FROM TECHNICAL TO CULTURAL

TECHNICAL CULTURAL

• Schedules • Beliefs about student

• Structures learning
• Roles • Pedagogical content
• Types of professional knowledge
• Norms for group work
development, when • Discourse about
• Protocols, rubrics practice
• Assessments • Mutual accountability
• Accountability systems • Distributed leadership
• Protocols, rubrics
• Assessments
• Accountability systems
©Richard Elmore – Use by permission only
 LETTING THE CULTURE
DRIVE THE WORK
THE WORK OF IMPROVEMENT:
CULTURAL

FROM TECHNICAL TO CULTURAL

USING THE WORK

TO CHANGE THE
CULTURE

LEARNING THE
WORK

TECHNICAL
© Richard F. Elmore Use by Permission only
 Time
©Richard Elmore – Use by permission
only
Attempt, Attack, Abandon Cycle

Attempt

Abandon Attack