District Literacy Plan

Todd County School District Literacy Plan
(Please scroll down to download the plan in PDF format)
A Summary of Recent Changes

This summer our District Literacy Plan underwent some important changes that were approved by the District Literacy Committee. This letter briefly summarizes and explains those changes.

The plan was expanded to include a section on speaking and listening. Speaking and listening skills were neglected in the original plan, and these additions are intended to make clear the expectation that those skills be addressed through explicit daily instruction. (See pages 2, 27-28).

Some changes have been made on page three of the document, in particular to bullet points 1-3, to address changes in assessment expectations throughout the district. (See page 3)

The Conditions of Learning cited in the original document is not reflective of Dr. Brian Cambourne’s most recent thinking and has been revised to include engagement. (See page 5)

As originally written, the plan revolved around the expectation that all teachers would use a literacy center-based approach (see page 7) while our professional development and unwritten attitudes have recognized, valued and encouraged the establishment of workshop approaches to both the teaching of reading and writing. Prior to recent revisions, this plan—intended to be a K-8 plan—was not entirely workable in our intermediate and middle school classrooms. These changes will give teachers more options, while defining expectations clearly. (See pages 9-10, 19-21)

As students progress through the stages of literacy acquisition, becoming more fluent, the nature of small group work can change and include other options such as strategic reading groups, book clubs and literacy circles. These options are included in the plan for the first time, and are defined for teachers. (See pages 9, 15-17).

An addendum to the plan includes references for research sources to support specific sections of the plan. Over the course of the coming year, research will be reviewed and cited more specifically. (See pages 28-20)

The Literacy Committee also felt it might be helpful for teachers to have a section which suggested some basic resources to support developing or expanding their knowledge base with regards to specific strategies and sections of the literacy plan. (See pages 31-33)

Remaining changes were minor and designed to address inconsistencies in formatting, changes in some language and correction of some grammatical errors in the original plan.

Should you have any further questions, please feel free to visit with any member of the Literacy Committee (Dottie LeBeau, Lori Jackson, Pat Burnette, Patrice Wright, Deb Lucas, Linda Bordeaux, Peggy Diefhoff, Deb Boyd, Eustace Nightpipe).