Marylin Williams, Secondary Literacy Coordinator
Phone: (310) 354-3466
Janet Hironaka, Secondary Language Arts Specialist
Phone: (310) 354-3522
Email: jhironak@lausd.k12.ca.us
Description of the Program
The Standards-Based Secondary Literacy Plan calls for research-based, strategic literacy instruction to enable secondary students to meet, or exceed, California content standards. The Plan emphasizes effective teaching and understanding of literacy acquisistion. The plan was developed through the input of the Secondary Literacy Task Force, with members representing local districts, central office, United Teachers Los Angeles, and Associated Administrators of Los Angeles. The Board of Education adopted the Plan on January 24,2002, for all secondary students in the Los Angeles Unified School District.
Program Implementation
The Standards-Based Secondary literacy Plan is made up of two components: the Developing Readers and Writers Course (DRWC), a literacy intervention program, and Content Literacy, strategic reading and writing in the core content areas of mathematics, science, English, and social studies, using an apprenticeship model. Experts in the core areas (teachers) apprentice novices (students) to think like scientists, mathematicians, writers, and historians. The emphasis is on lifelong learning in a community of learners, with students and teachers learning together. The DRWC is taught by English and reading teachers who have received special training in Language! or Read 180, programs with explicit instruction in systematic, structured, and cumulative methods to develop fluency,comprehension,encoding ( spelling), vocabulary building,writing, and wide reading.
Main Components
the DRWC is a double period instructional block for students in grades 6, 7, 8, and 9 who are reading below the third grade level as determined by assessments. The course provides an intensive, comprehensive, integrated reasearch-based literacy intervention program to help students to fill in missing spaces in the mastery of identifying speech sound, spelling, word recognition, vocabulary development and reading fluency. The DRWC gives secondary students a second chance to master important literacy skills to become strategic readers and writers.
In each secondary school, the Content Literacy Cadre, made up of one teacher for each of the four content areas and a literacy coach, meets regularly to work on literacy skills across content areas. Teachers collaborate with colleagues to explore and expand effective practicies to support student achievement in literacy.
In Content Literacy, students enroll in content classes with teacher experts who model and engage in effective practices in the content area to meet content standards. Students build comprehension power and become actively engaged with text to process written language accurately, to build fluency through practice, and to construct meaning from text.
Information Necessary for Parents
Students enrolled in the DRWC use multiple methods to learn and master important literacy skills. Students practice with others in a group setting. Students invest two class periods daily in the DRWC class to develop and build critical reading and writing skills. And students record their own progress in the mastery of important literacy skills.
All students enroll in content classes. They learn to grow as strategic readers and writers in apprenticeship with content experts and practice the active learning behaviors modeled by their mentors. These behaviors help students to develop as lifelong learners in content areas.
Parents can support the Standards-Based Secondary Literacy Plan by ecouraging students to attend class regularly and to put forth genuine effort to master literacy skills. Parents can help students to see this literacy program as an important personal investment in lifelong literacy. Parents can discuss the importance of literacy in lifelong learning for living productive lives in an increasingly global society, And parents can model lliteracy skills for students by engaging in reading and writing ability.
