Adolescent literacy · leadership · disciplinary learning
Building a Literacy Culture for Older Students
Three professional learning videos on what secondary literacy work requires: a clear leadership rationale, cross-content principles that respect disciplinary differences, and intervention decisions grounded in evidence, need, and implementation reality.
These resources were originally developed for the Ohio Literacy Academy. This augmented version keeps the Ohio source visible while making the videos, transcript-informed summaries, and companion classroom tools easier to access in one place.
Playable video sequence
Building a Literacy Culture
Use the three sessions as a coherent sequence: leadership rationale, disciplinary literacy, then intervention selection and implementation.
The Role of the Administrator
15:24This session argues that leaders have to make the rationale for secondary literacy visible: struggling students need to read, write, and work independently with disciplinary texts, while advanced students benefit from richer text sets, discussion, multiple perspectives, and more demanding academic reasoning.
- Names four school-wide literacy look-fors: literate disciplinary thinking, academic language, rich debate and discussion, and use of multiple texts.
- Frames the leadership conditions needed for implementation: expert coaching, capacity building, adaptable resources, and clear expectations.
- Positions literacy as a whole-school improvement priority, not a remedial add-on or an ELA-only responsibility.
Team reflection
- What are some ideas in this presentation you agree with?
- What assumptions should your team question?
- What do you want to argue with?
- What do you aspire to in this work?
Cross-Content Principles and Disciplinary Literacy
18:51This session uses the Simple View of Reading to explain why older students need support beyond word reading: academic vocabulary, polysemy, morphology, connectives, complex syntax, discussion, debate, text sets, and the discipline-specific ways readers work in history, science, literature, mathematics, and other content areas.
- Distinguishes cross-content literacy principles from disciplinary literacy demands.
- Names academic vocabulary, connectives, Core Academic Language Skills, debate, discussion, and text sets as visible classroom practices.
- Emphasizes that content-area teachers need adaptable strategies that preserve the goals and reasoning practices of their disciplines.
Team reflection
- Reading is hard for middle and high school students because ___, but ___, so ___.
- Which literacy demands are shared across departments?
- Which demands are truly disciplinary and need subject-area expertise?
- Which strategy is flexible enough for teachers to adapt without losing the purpose of the routine?
Intervention and Secondary Literacy Systems
16:46This session distinguishes evidence review from implementation decision-making. It explains how IES and the What Works Clearinghouse evaluate studies, why there are fewer reviewed secondary interventions than elementary interventions, and why schools still need to make careful decisions based on evidence, student need, schedule, motivation, training, technology, capacity, and fit.
- Explains why “evidence-based” does not remove the need for local needs assessment and implementation judgment.
- Connects intervention selection to academic vocabulary, comprehension, discussion, motivation, and intensive individualized support.
- Frames secondary intervention as an instructional leadership problem involving scheduling, teacher buy-in, student motivation, progress monitoring, MTSS, and coaching.
Team reflection
- What excites you about the use of interventions in your school or district?
- What worries you about these or other interventions?
- What additional information is needed for a good decision?
- What is your current stance, and how might you move forward?
Direct resource bank
Google Docs, Word, and PDF versions where available.
These links go to individual files rather than enclosing folders. Use the Google Doc for collaborative planning, the Word version for local adaptation, and the PDF for quick sharing or printing.
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Official Ohio sequence
Building a Literacy Culture Viewing Guide
Viewing guide for the three Ohio Literacy Academy videos.
Official Ohio sequence
Building a Culture of Literacy Handouts
Supporting handouts connected to the leadership, disciplinary literacy, and intervention sequence.
Leadership walkthrough
Literacy Instructional Goals Walkthrough
A leader-facing walkthrough document for taking stock of the dimensions discussed in the administrator video: disciplinary comprehension, academic language, discussion and debate, and multiple-text use.
Research summary
The Simple View of Reading and Disciplinary Literacy
A one-page summary of how the Simple View of Reading helps explain adolescent literacy: skilled reading requires both word recognition and language comprehension, but language comprehension demands change sharply across science, math, literature, history, and other disciplines. The summary connects the administrator walkthrough to disciplinary literacy by showing why leaders should look for vocabulary, syntax, background knowledge, source evaluation, discussion, and multiple-text use in content-area classrooms.
Reasoning routine
Because–But–So
Turns a claim into causal, contrastive, and consequential reasoning across disciplines.
Word knowledge
Morphology Organizer: Template and Discipline Prefix/Suffix Lists
Use the organizer for word-part analysis, then pair it with discipline-specific prefix and suffix lists so teachers can choose examples from their content area.
Connectives
Connectives Chart
Supports attention to logical relationships among ideas in reading, discussion, and argument writing.
Vocabulary and concepts
Word Map
Supports precise academic vocabulary learning, word relationships, examples, and use in context.
Vocabulary and examples
Frayer Model: Template and Disciplinary Examples
Use the blank Frayer template for local adaptation, then review discipline-specific examples to show how vocabulary work changes across content areas.
Comprehension structure
Text Structure Overview
Helps teachers and students name how information is organized in complex texts.
Shared meaning making
Text Rendering Experience
Surfaces key words, phrases, and sentences so teams can build shared language from a source text.
Questioning and inference
QAR Questions
Helps students distinguish text-explicit questions, inference questions, and questions that require broader knowledge.
Argument writing
Argumentation Sheet
Supports claim, evidence, reasoning, and elaboration in disciplinary writing and discussion.
Intervention evidence
IES Practice Guide: Improving Adolescent Literacy
Research companion for intervention selection, vocabulary, comprehension, discussion, motivation, and intensive support.
Intervention review
Dan Reynolds Review of the IES Practice Guide
Companion review resources referenced in the intervention video.
Source credit: Ohio Literacy Academy / ReadOhio / Ohio Department of Education and Workforce. This page embeds or links to public source materials and companion resources rather than hosting mirrored copies. Resource links point to individual files rather than enclosing Google Drive folders.