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C1: As educators the onus is on us to provide clear and concise information for students to follow and teachers to learn from thus improving performance:
1. Clear assessments- being specific on what you expect in order to assess accurately
2. Identifying issues that hinder students learning gaps ex. vocabulary, comprehension etc.
3. Making connections using schema
4. Reinforcing student's learning using various methods of teaching ex. groups - assigning each student in a group to a task, graphs, political cartoons and maps
5. Using passages for students to read and restate rather than answering questions
6. Understanding that despite all the external issues students are capable of being reached by engaging them in what they are doing.

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C#1: Students often lack the ability to accurately comprehend texts with complexity due to a lack of metacognitive practice at reading strategies and a lack of grammatical/ syntactical training.

IS#1: Literacy is raising awareness in students about the need for accuracy, as well as giving them the tools and practice at protocols and procedures that they can use on the path to mastery of the skills we share as inductive readers.

II#1: Formative assessment of student progress with literacy is best done by backwards planning of highly scaffolded texts, where each juncture of the cognitive process is painstakingly made visible to raise metacognitive awareness in the student about each step in the literacy process, and allow for feedback and corrective instruction on the part of the teacher.

C#2: Student have a hard time understanding the importance of literacy: Why should my reading be accurate? Why do I have to comprehend the details of the texts? Why is an analytic comprehension any better than holistic?

IS#2: Using various texts from "real world" sources which directly address the crucial nature of these skills is important for illustrating the need to "buy in" to instruction: such as independently using feedback and protocols during summative assessments.

II#2: Having a work folder is a simple idea when coupled with the standards that students should reach in a given time. This tactic becomes especially beneficial when previous information in the course is synthesized into an end of term or end of year project. The students themselves realize the difference in their skill abilities when giving a "detached" reading of previous products.

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Conclusions

C#1 Students and teachers utilize the same strategies when they are looking to make meaning out of a text. Although the methods are similar, the background knowledge is different and the teacher needs to bridge any gaps and build the way to understanding.

C#2 The obstacles in making meaning can be different for each student, therefore the remedies have to be different as well. Identifying the root problems and workable solutions are difficult but essential.

Instructional Interventions

II#1 Providing specific unit objectives before the unit starts even if the students may not understand the content itself. By going from a big idea to a small idea to establish a general theme of the unit, the students will have a knowledge of what their goals are before acquiring the knowledge and the understanding of the content.

II#2 Being ready with a more accessible way of explaining tier 2 or 3 vocabulary for the students. When dealing with content specific expressions, the students might have a difficulty with unknown expressions which can hinder their understanding of a text.

Instructional Strategies

IS#1 Selecting texts that encompass the Zone of Proximal Development can be effective if available. However if there is no such text, then differentiating the text through appropriate scaffolding has to be done.

IS#2 Making sure that the stimuli follow a very consistent format throughout the entirety of the school year. This way the students will have a very clear understanding of the assignment expectations, which will make assessments easier.

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C1 - Teachers' reading processes differ from students in that students struggle to make meaning of text due to a lack of schema, specific vocabulary and the ability to link multiple pieces of information to generate inferences.

C2 - Relevant text in terms of length and content (vocabulary) should challenge students but also be within their ZPD.

C3 - To help students make meaning, we should ask students questions that are  similar to the ones we ask ourselves when we are reading to make meaning.

C4 - Making sure to chunk will allow students to work at a pace that is feasible for them and ideally increase their stamina for reading more lengthly passages as the year progresses.

IS1 - Modeling how I read out loud as well as the questions I ask myself during reading will ideally help students to work more independently to make meaning of texts.

IS2 - Providing students with definitions of vocabulary words is not enough.  Making sure to explain the words in terms of etymology, suffix and prefix, may help students internalize the meanings.

II1 - Providing students with images and video that go along with text can help students to make meaning though the activation of schema.

II2 - The use of labs and explorations with manipulatives can help in making meaning, creating information that is 'sticky' and provide a way for students to understand 'why' we're doing what we're doing in school/class.

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C1- We must have the ability to diversify the content being presented to students, this way we can develop an understanding of student needs and work to increase their independent problem-solving skills.
IS1- Modeling is an important strategy for increasing students' Literacy skills. Providing guidelines and criteria for students help them reach the expectation set for responses.
IS2-Making cultural and interdisciplinary connections to activate schema. Allowing students to see themselves in the work to spark interest and stamina.
II1- An important scaffolding strategy is chunking text for student understanding and stamina. This helps students to tackle information little by little and while being asked questions to experience higher level cognitive processes
II2-to increase vocabulary skills, providing the student with a glossary for the unit. The student will be encouraged to use these high-level words in their work throughout the Unit, holding them accountable for language.

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Conclusion- 1) Including interdisciplinary connections to the lesson, as well as

2) cultural connections so students know what they are working for, all while 3) using the Formative Assessment Recorder (FAR).

Instructional Strategy- T1) Teacher read alouds for the first stimulus text in the lesson, then student independent reading for the second text is striking a balance, 2) using visual aides in the classroom (Ex: literary devices/elements), 3) task questions that span the taxonomy of cognitive skills.

Instructional Intervention- 1) Through scaffolding students will build a stronger meaning of the text. This should be as visible as possible at every juncture: sentence, paragraph, page, chapter, section. 2) Vocabulary definitions with/vs vocabulary “banks” are also effective.

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C1--As educators it is our job to make our content area relatable to our students so that they can find purpose and “foster sincere engagement” (Ms. Cote).

C2-- We are the conduit to our students’ development of cognition and processes that will enable engagement and comprehension, as well as, connection to the real world they will face throughout life.

C3--It is through our pedagogy that students will develop the necessary skills needed for their high school and post secondary careers.

IS1-- Building schemata is a must as this will give students a deeper understanding and purpose of what it is to be learned.

IS2- Modeling and repetition of it. The end goal is that students will be able to use the skills and content taught in future lessons plus perform satisfactorily in the Regents exam, if applicable.

IS3-- The aforementioned will foster stamina in students, giving them the confidence to be able to perform within standards.

II1- Lots of posted classroom resources, as well as, individual binders holding their lessons with required vocabulary, grammatical rules and scaffoldings. This also gives students accountability for completing their work by knowing that I have access to their binders at all times.

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C1: Modeling how to read a text or a graph encourages independence and information processing to mid level and struggling students.

C2: The way to keep students engaged is to encourage them to find meaning in everything they learn. Student responsive teaching includes providing students with content that is both familiar and interesting to activate schema.

C3: Many students lose stamina and want to give up when they think something is too difficult. To ease this frustration, teachers can ask oral questions or scaffold materials in a way that allows students to think more independently when faced with new content. Teachers must maintain a balance of meeting the needs of their students while not making content too easy or too hard.

C4: Reading and writing are two different skills that can be both challenging and complementary to one another. It is essential to include activities that target both skills at the same time.

IS #1: Guided read-alouds to help enhance comprehension and aid in the fatigue students reading. This also models the way in which students are expected to read informational texts.

IS #2: Designing questions in a way that allows students to see this figurative flow of knowledge and how it all works into one another is key to allowing students to independently think through material and understand it successfully. If students don’t see the flow on their own, modeling and direct instruction is helpful to address misconception and show students how they could be looking at/thinking about the content differently.

II#1: Direct Instruction that is concise and engaging enough to help students to know and retain the main ideas and concepts within the lesson. Using diverse content like images, texts, videos keep students engaged.

II#2: It is important to assess to see if students were able to perform the lower tier cognitive functions before we assess to see if they can perform higher tier cognitive functions. By teaching and assessing these lower tier cognitive functions, students will be more prepared and equipped to perform these higher tier cognitive functions.

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C1: It is imperative to consider the difference between my schema and my students’. I must preemptively prepare instruction with regard to that difference, and think about what deposits of background information I’m personally drawing upon to make meaning of a text.

C2: Questions must be appropriate, rigorous, concise, and organized in a sequentially complex manner in order to facilitate the development of my student's thinking.

C3: While teachers and students are completing the same steps to make meaning of texts, teachers can do so with a level of automaticity, whereas students will need scaffolding.

IS1: Employing a gradual release strategy can facilitate student development of reading self-efficacy and autonomous literacy strategies

IS2: Modeling can be used to demonstrate how I move through cognitive processes related to literacy explicitly. This can benefit students by illustrating the break-down of steps they'll be tasked to take themselves when approaching texts.

II1: While employing text chunking can always be helpful, it's also important to think critically about how and why portions of the text are being chunked. Instead of relying solely on length as the primary determiner, characteristics of each ”chunk” of text like syntax complexity, conceptual knowledge, foreign context, figurative language + idiomatic language,  etc are also important to consider.

II2: Predetermined written and oral questions that increase by level of complexity will ensure we can appropriately assess not only what our students understand, but how they're thinking.

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C1: Literacy levels will vary between students and students may be struggling because they lack the skills or schema. There are a variety of literacy skills (vocabulary, syntax, structure, numerical, etc.) that students need to strengthen throughout the year in order to be successful.
C2: Assessment is key to determining student success. Without assessment we can not guarantee that a student understands the information we are trying to teach them. Assessment is a tool we can use to guide us.
IS1: Modeling procedures and concepts to students is key to being able to build skills and independence. Students won’t know how to do things in your classroom unless you show them what you are looking for.
IS2: Less is more. Think about the amount of text you are giving students and assess whether or not there are other vehicles you can teach this material through (videos, graphs, maps, etc.). Especially given that there is variety of literacy levels in students.
II1: Structured modeling in the beginning of the year demonstrating what is expected of students along with more scaffolds as they develop the skills you are looking for.
II2: Gradual release of supports throughout the year to help build independence in learning and stamina in completing tasks.

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C#1: Because the ability and processes of making meaning of texts are the foundation that supports all learning, and because students face a wide variety of different issues that can impede their literacy, teachers must take a holistic and multifaceted approach to addressing these issues.

IS#1: To address vocabulary issues that impede literacy, teachers can model then prompt students to independently use the command function on Google Docs (Cmnd + shift + Y). In circumstances where this is not the best approach, teachers can also embed synonyms for high-tier words in parentheses within the text.

IS#2: In lessons, teachers can alternate their approach to reading texts when there are more than one chunked texts. Teachers can use the “read aloud” method to model literacy and thinking while reading for one text, and then prompt students to practice reading independently to practice and refine their ability to make meaning of texts.

II#1: Teachers can assess and adjust to ensure students are working with appropriately leveled texts. They can start with relatively low-rigor texts and gradually increase the rigor and complexity of the texts students read when it is appropriate, based on FAR data and observation of mid-level students demonstrating understanding of the explicit and implicit ideas in these texts.

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C1. Students will come to school with a myriad of problems (social, emotional, physical) that can negatively affect their ability to make meaning from texts. Teachers should do their best to ameliorate high-leverage issues through culturally relevant scaffolds carefully crafted to meet the needs of most students without creating hurdles for others.

IS1. Teachers should use a "gradual release" strategy for instruction. At the beginning of the year, scaffolds and teacher-led activities (Models/read-aloud, sentence starters, etc.) should occur frequently. Over time, teachers should reduce instructor-led activities and scaffolds to determine the effectiveness of these strategies and students' independent capabilities.

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C1: Schema activation, which can take many forms prior to reading, provides a conceptual lens or means of access for students to more easily engage with complex texts.
C2: A teacher must be aware of the automaticity with which they engage with text, in order to better break down the steps students must engage with when encountering the same processes.
C3: Socioemotional responses to reading, such as frustration, present a hurdle to students when faced with challenging texts, highlighting the necessity of accessible points of access.

IS: The explicit teaching of the relationship between general and specific information can help students make meaning of content by drawing connections to other texts, life experiences, etc.
IS: Targeted modeling of the reading process is an effective approach to demonstrating mental steps students will engage with independently, provided this modeling is limited to specific sections of texts and focuses on particular literacy skills.

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C#1: Assessment is the key to monitoring the success of literacy instruction and is predicated on text-based questions involving higher order cognitive processes.

C#2: Literacy occurs at multiple levels of complexity (word, sentence, paragraph, concept, etc.) and requires a synthesis of different information into a cohesive understanding.

C#3: The teachers' reading processes are fundamentally the same as the students' reading processes except teachers can read for comprehension automatically, allowing us to think more analytically.

C#4: Literacy requires sufficient schema. If a student has no knowledge of what the text is about, they will not be able to read and comprehend the text.

IS#1: Modeling is an essential strategy to demonstrate the thinking process of reading so students can immediately emulate such an approach for themselves. Modeling literacy should be targeted to a specific skill and a short but important passage in the text.

IS#2: Assessment requires providing ample independent reading and writing time for students to make meaning and express their understanding in relation to rigorous questions.

II#1: Activating schema can be achieved by providing supplemental sources of information to which students can refer to help make meaning of the central text.

II#2: Employ scaffolding to provide questions, graphics, and supports such as chunking so that students are not overwhelmed by the difficulty level of the text.

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C#1 - It is important to consider a student's previous knowledge in comparison to your knowledge when teaching. Your schema holds a much wider and broader scope which can make understanding text easier than it is for students.

C#2 - Techniques that help reduce student fatigue in tackling more challenging texts can be extremely beneficial in reaching understanding.

IS #1 - Students should be provided scaffolds before reading (to activate prior knowledge), during reading (to assist in reading comprehension) and after reading.

IS #2 - Modeling a skill for students to help them to understand a text can help students feel that they are guided in their thinking and skill-building.

II #1 - In assessing, having clear and well-thought out questions and sample responses allow you to know if students have gained understanding of a topic and can complete a skill if their answer is what you are expecting.

II #2 - Written or oral questions can be used throughout the lesson in order to both assess students and guide them through understanding text. These can help students to identify where their focus can be and help them perform building cognitive processes.