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• Iowa D.E. - Model Core Curriculum

Literacy

NOTE: The information included in this site include ONLY essential concepts and skill sets for grades 9-12.

Complete downloadable Literacy Model Core Curriculum document [ .pdf ]

Literacy - defined by Meltzer, Smith, and Clark as the ability to read, write, speak, listen, and think effectively - enables adolescents to learn and to communicate clearly about what they know. Being literate gives people the ability to become informed, to inform others, and to make informed decisions (2001). Literacy is synonymous with learning. The partnerships between reading, writing, speaking, listening, and viewing, connecting with the ever-increasing knowledge base for each content area, provide the means for thinking among and between concepts and ideas. It is an active process.

Increasingly sophisticated levels of literacy are required to negotiate the world as one matures. Because of the recursive nature of learning in English language arts, students at every grade level apply fundamentally the same language concepts and skills. But as they learn and mature, students are asked to adapt these skills and concepts in new, more complex ways. In the process of adapting these skills and strategies to new situations, students gain independence and sophistication.

By its nature, literacy is social. In being effective critical members of a literacy community, students collaborate with others. Whether it be engaging the ideas of an author who lived centuries ago or actively debating issues about their contemporary lives with their peers, this collaboration helps students gain an appreciation of themselves, others, and the world. There is a cumulative advantage to the reciprocity of sharing ideas. The more students engage in literacy tasks, the deeper becomes their conceptual understanding and motivation to learn.

The interdisciplinary nature of literacy is also an important consideration when reviewing these essential skill sets. Literacy skills need to be developed across the curriculum, not simply in an English/Language Arts classroom. Students expand their range when applying literacy skills to a variety of content areas because the academic discourses and disciplinary concepts in those require different approaches to reading, writing, speaking, viewing, and listening. It is through applying literacy skills in a number of content areas that students learn to integrate these skills and strategies into life experience. Teachers who make literacy a priority understand that learning involves making meaning.

Because literacy is fundamental to learning, support for literacy development at the secondary level is key to students' success (Meltzer, et al, 2001). Prominent throughout the literature on secondary school reform is the importance of literacy development in ensuring one's success in high school, post-secondary education, the workplace, and in life. A student who becomes thoughtful and deliberate in his or her approach to a specific learning experience is said to be "a strategic learner" (Irvin, et al, 1995). Strategic learners are actively engaged in using literacy strategies to process information, construct knowledge, and make judgments. Effective and efficient application of literacy strategies increases students' ability to internalize content knowledge and develop conceptual understanding of all subject matter.

A number of documents were significant resources in developing these Essential Concepts and Skill Set of the Model Core Curriculum in Literacy:

• International Reading Association/National Council of Teachers of English Standards for English Language Arts. These standards were developed through a collaboration of these two significant professional organizations in the field of English Language Arts and represent the current consensus among literacy teachers and researchers about what students should learn in the English language arts.
• New Standards Performance Standards. New Standards is a collaborative project between the Learning Research and Development Center at the University of Pittsburgh and the National Center on Education and the Economy. New Standards, founded by Lauren Resnick, Director of the Learning Research and Development Center, and Marc Tucker, President of the National Center on Education and the Economy, are a set of internationally competitive performance standards.
• National Assessment of Educational Progress' Reading Framework and Writing Framework. The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), also known as "the Nation's Report Card," is the only national representative and continuing assessment of what America's students know and can do in various subject areas. Reviewed were the most recent framework's available, the 1998 NAEP Writing Framework and the 2009 Reading Framework.
• Reports from the Alliance for Excellent Education. Two reports, Reading Next: A Vision for Action and Research in Middle and High School Literacy and Adolescents and Literacy: Reading for the 21st Century were used in defining the essential concepts and skill sets in a reading curriculum.
• Other state curriculum strands and frameworks and local district standards and benchmarks. States with high performance in NAEP assessments in reading and writing were reviewed, particularly the Massachusetts English Language Art Framework. Also reviewed were the standards and benchmarks developed by a number of Iowa districts.
• Research and best practice information. The Literacy Work Team also reviewed a number of research articles that had been identified as part of the curriculum for an in-depth study to be conducted next year by the Statewide Adolescent Literacy Research and Development Team.

© Iowa Department of Education - 2006