Teaching Literacy in the Visible Learning Classroom, Grades 6-12

Book excerpt: It could happen at 10:10 a.m. in the midst of analyzing a text, at 2:00, when listening to a students’ debate, or even after class, when planning a lesson. The question arises: How do I influence students’ learning–what’s going to generate that light bulb Aha-moment of understanding? In this sequel to their megawatt best seller Visible Learning for Literacy, Douglas Fisher, Nancy Frey, and John Hattie help you answer that question by sharing structures and tools that have high-impact on learning, and insights on which stage of learning they have that high impact. With their expert lessons, video clips, and online resources, you can design reading and writing experiences that foster in your students deeper and more sophisticated expressions of literacy: Mobilizing Visible Learning: Use lesson design strategies based on research that included 500 million plus students to develop self-regulating learners able to "see" the purpose of what they are learning—and their own progress. Teacher Clarity: Articulate daily learning intentions, success criteria, and other goals; understand what your learners understand, and design high-potency experiences for all students. Direct Instruction: Embrace modeling and scaffolding as a critical pathway for students to learn new skills and concepts. Teacher-Led Dialogic Instruction: Guide reading, writing, listening, speaking, and thinking by using strategic questioning and other teacher-led discussion techniques to help learners to clarify thinking, discuss, debate, and goal-set. Student-Led Dialogic Learning: Promote intellectual, social, and creative growth with peer-mediated learning experiences that transfer to other subject areas, including history, science, math, and the visual and performing arts. Independent Learning: Ensure that students deepen learning by designing relevant tasks that enable them to think metacognitively, set goals, and develop self-regulatory skills. Tools to Use to Determine Literacy Impact: Know what your impact truly is with these research-based formative assessments for 6-12 learners. With Teaching Literacy in the Visible Learning Classroom, take your students from surface to deep to transfer learning. It’s all about using the most effective practices—and knowing WHEN those practices are best leveraged to maximize student learning.