Literacy

Literacy includes reading text, writing, and discussion. Literacy begins with language as babies babble and listen and interact with the adults in their lives. As those adults read to their growing children and talk with them about anything and everything, they are helping children learn vocabulary, see how reading and writing fit into everyday life, and create warm memories that are associated with reading. That sets the stage for learning letters, learning the sounds represented by those letters, then putting those together into words, sentences, and stories.

Families are definitely partners in laying the foundations for literacy skills and continuing to support the growth of those throughout school. However the main work of teaching children to read happens at school with well trained teachers and leaders. It is the work of the Literacy Specialist within the State Support Team to assist teachers and administrators to do the best job possible for the students we all serve.

Literacy Services Available

1. Facilitation of the Reading–Tiered Fidelity Inventory (R-TFI)

When a district wants to examine how their systems support the literacy development of their students, one step in that process may be to conduct the updated Reading-Tiered Fidelity Inventory (R-TFI) to ensure their work is focused on the documented strengths and needs of each building for both Tier 1 prevention and higher tiers of intervention. The R-TFI is typically completed by a Building Leadership Team or a Building Literacy Team with facilitation by the RLS or another SST consultant, who has been trained by the publisher in this process.

2. Technical assistance and mentoring of district coaches to support instructional practices and literacy curriculum selection / implementation

Some pre-service teacher preparation programs do not focus time on how to improve the acquisition of early literacy skills. Students grow in literacy at widely varying rates, and some early literacy strategies have proven both necessary and helpful at older grade levels. The RLS would be happy to visit, observe in the classroom, and work with teachers and district coaches to plan refinements to help with literacy learning.

3. PD in various topics related to literacy

The RLS provides a variety of opportunities to study literacy-related topics. These opportunities include, but are not limited to:

- Book Studies

- Networking Events - Literacy Leaders Network Meetings (At least 3 times per year)

- On-Site Professional Development (As Needed)