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Elk Lake_ Building a Literacy Culture through Structured Literacy

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Instead of a one-size-fits-all approach to literacy practices across content areas, there are small, but effective shifts teachers can make to get students practicing the domain-specific skills they need.

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From setting clear goals to engaging families, discover how to create a culture of literacy in your district with these 18 effective strategies.

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"Literacy is the foundation of all learning. When students struggle with reading, they struggle with everything else in school," Dr. Katherine McKnight

This stark reality underscores the importance of robust literacy education in middle and high schools. With the right strategies and resources, educators can significantly improve reading comprehension and overall literacy among secondary students. We talked to a secondary literacy expert, Dr. Katherine McKnight, on the Schoolin' Around Podcast, and here are her expert tips to guide you in developing an effective literacy plan for secondary education.

1. Foster Higher-Order Thinking with Meaningful Questions

Many secondary classrooms rely heavily on literal comprehension questions that only address basic understanding, but this only scratches the surface. To build critical thinking skills, focus on incorporating more inferential and evaluative questions in literacy instruction. This might mean dusting off your Bloom's Taxonomy knowledge.

Emphasize Evaluative Questions: Questions that require evaluation-such as, "How can an individual inspire change?"-prompt deeper thinking and connection to the text. By engaging students in questions that ask them to apply concepts more broadly, educators help them develop skills that go beyond simple comprehension.

Integrate Questions Across Subjects: Encourage all content area teachers-not just ELA-to incorporate higher-level questions in their lessons. This approach engages students across disciplines, builds critical thinking, and counters the "stamina issues" many students face with lengthy readings.

Support with Inferential Scaffolding: For students struggling with complex texts, structure questions to build up to evaluative ones. This way, students can gain confidence through scaffolding that begins with simpler questions, gradually challenging them with deeper inquiries.

💡Tip: Shift from "find-the-fact" questions to those that encourage interpretation and critical thinking, helping students see the relevance of reading and literacy skills. Notice and Note developed by Kylene Beers is a great resource for building protocols for fiction and nonfiction reading.

2. Implement a Clear, School-Wide Literacy Plan

English Language Arts teachers should not be alone in a school's literacy work. A cohesive, school-wide literacy plan that provides structure and consistency across grade levels and subjects ensures that literacy skills are reinforced systematically.

Create a Comprehensive Literacy Scope and Sequence: Develop a well-defined literacy plan that all teachers follow. "If you don't have the plan written out and everybody's agreeing to it and adheres to it," Dr. Mcknight states, "there's going to be massive gaps."

Involve All Content Teachers in Literacy Goals: Literacy instruction is essential in every subject, not just ELA. All teachers, from science and history to math, should contribute to building students' literacy skills. Integrating discipline-specific texts and vocabulary instruction in each subject helps students become fluent in academic language across disciplines.

Standardize Literacy Evaluation and Training: By setting clear expectations for literacy instruction across subjects, administrators can help ensure a consistent approach to literacy that reinforces reading and writing skills throughout secondary education. This requires dedicated time for teacher learning and training.

This work will only be as successful as the support from leaders. Dr. McKnight states, "Leadership is the backbone of effective literacy instruction." School and district leaders can lead by providing resources, such as training and time, as well as modeling the importance of literature. What a great example it is when principals read books with classes or groups of students. Or even pop into a class during a discussion to participate or show support for the work.

Examples of school-wide literacy initiatives:

School initiatives such as One Book One School for middle schools are a fantastic way to engage every staff member and student in reading initiatives.

Building in cross-curricular planning time is ensures that different content areas can collaborate on literacy skills.

Consider implementing school-wide strategies for all teachers, such as close reading symbols for text analysis or common questioning strategies such as "Say Something."

3. Engage Students with Choice and Collaborative Learning

An engaging, interactive environment significantly strengthens secondary literacy skills. Incorporating both choice in reading materials and collaborative activities helps boost student engagement and improves reading comprehension.

Here are a few ideas for teachers to implement:

Offer Limited Choice in Reading Materials: Allowing students some choice in reading materials can make them more eager to engage. Even a small element of choice meets students at their level of interest, which helps cultivate a reading culture in the classroom. For example, use interest surveys to offer choices of articles with different topics to practice different reading skills.

Use Literacy and Learning Centers for Small Group Work: A "center rotation" model allows middle and high school students to work in small groups, where they can discuss their readings and collaborate on writing projects. Small group work encourages peer learning and helps build essential reading and writing skills.

Focus on Discussion-Driven Activities: Discussion-based learning, where students analyze and debate content in small groups, deepens comprehension and creates a supportive environment. When students can collaborate and talk through their learning, literacy skills grow quickly.

➡️Check out Dr. Knight's website for great literacy resources.

Real World Example:
As a middle school teacher, I encountered diverse interests and abilities among my eighth graders. For a semester project, I provided students with a curated list of books to choose from, along with a menu of activities to complete. Each activity was assigned varying point values, requiring students to select enough tasks to accumulate 100 points. This flexibility allowed students to demonstrate their understanding of the books in different ways, fostering high engagement and appreciation for the process. The approach enabled differentiation based on individual abilities and interests. Some students opted to create videos or artistic works, while others preferred to write essays.

These strategies from Dr. Katherine McKnight help schools create robust literacy plans that engage students and build essential skills. Educators and school leaders who commit to these methods will support students' growth in reading, comprehension, and critical thinking-equipping them with the literacy foundation needed for academic and personal success!

Learn more about how to utilize Branching Minds for insights into secondary reading! 📚

About the author

Larissa Napolitan

Larissa Napolitan is the Content Marketing Manager for Branching Minds and the host of Branching Minds' podcast "Schoolin' Around." As a former middle school English teacher and instructional coach, she has over 13 years of experience building systems for improvement, training and coaching teachers in new technology and instructional methods, and leading efforts to build curriculum and literacy initiatives. She holds Masters's degree in Curriculum and Instruction and Education Administration from Emporia State University. She is passionate about telling the stories of educators and all that they do to support students.

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