Taking the Lead on Adolescent Literacy:

Action Steps for Schoolwide Success

Stage 1: Get Ready

Contributors: By: Judith Irvin, Julie Meltzer, Nancy Dean & Martha Jan Mickler
Book Title: Taking the Lead on Adolescent Literacy: Action Steps for Schoolwide Success
Chapter Title: "Stage 1: Get Ready"
Pub. Date: 2010
Access Date: January 15, 2019
Publishing Company: Corwin Press
City: Thousand Oaks
Print ISBN: 9781412979801
Online ISBN: 9781452219561
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781452219561.n3
Print pages: 38-51
© 2010 Corwin Press All Rights Reserved.
This PDF has been generated from SAGE Knowledge. Please note that the pagination of the online
version will vary from the pagination of the print book.
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Copyright © 2010 by Judith L

Stage 1: Get Ready

In Stage 1 of the literacy leadership process, you will complete the following:

• ?Build an effective literacy leadership team.

• ?Develop a common vision of a literacy-rich school.

• ?Use data to validate and communicate the need for literacy improvement.

You are now ready to get your literacy improvement effort underway. The groundwork for a successful literacy
initiative begins before goals are set and action plans developed. Whether you are an administrator, a literacy
coach, or a curriculum coordinator, someone has to begin the effort by assembling a team of people to work
on the initiative, developing a common language and vision with the faculty, and establishing the need for a
focus on improved literacy.
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We recommend completing the steps of Stage 1 in sequential order: building a literacy leadership team, cre-
ating a vision, and communicating the need for the literacy improvement effort. However, you may have good
reasons for completing the steps in a different order. If you have already begun a literacy initiative, you can
review the content of this stage to see if there are any valuable approaches or strategies that you want to use
to reenergize your initiative, increase buy-in, and/or bring new teachers, parents, and administrators on board
with the initiative.

Step 1: Build an Effective Literacy Leadership Team

This step is important because an effective literacy leadership team is instrumental in developing, im-
plementing, and monitoring a literacy action plan. When members of the team represent the entire
school community, the team can serve as a resource for the faculty and guide the direction of the
school's literacy improvement effort.

Taking the time to be certain that the right people are on the literacy leadership team is a wise investment. It
is this group of people who will lead the schoolwide literacy improvement effort. Strong administrative support
for the literacy leadership team's work is critical. Team members will need support to plan, vision, and dis-
cover how to build on the strengths of the school. The best efforts of team members can be derailed without
strong administrative representation on the team. (Some districts have a district-level literacy team. Much of
the material in Stage 1 can be carried out at the district level as well as at the school level. See Chapter 7 for
concrete suggestions about how to develop and implement a literacy action plan for an entire school district.)

Select Team Members

Your literacy leadership team should include 8 to 12 members, depending on the size of your school. Team
representation should be balanced by role in the school (e.g., administrator, support personnel, core content
areas, and grade level). It is essential that the principal or some other designated administrator be an active
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member of the literacy team. Some literacy leadership teams also include student and/or parent representa-
tion.

Teachers who have significant teaching experience, knowledge of their curriculum, strong interpersonal and
organizational skills, and respect from their colleagues make excellent literacy leadership team members. It is
also important to include teachers who are knowledgeable about and experienced with offering literacy sup-
port to students in their own classrooms. These teachers can share their expertise with other teachers in the
school. However, candidates, including new teachers, who lack some of these credentials but are enthusias-
tic learners and see literacy as a priority, should certainly be considered for team membership. Ideally, a team
would include all of these types of teachers, as well as individuals representing library media and technology.
You will want to include teacher leaders representing each of the core content areas, special education, Eng-
lish language learners (ELL), and at least one representative from the areas of world languages, health and
wellness, physical education, and the unified and allied arts (music, business, art, technology). You may want
to use the following criteria to create an initial list of likely teacher candidates to serve on the school's literacy
leadership team. Teachers who

• are strong proponents of literacy,

• are considered by their peers to be school leaders,
• are comfortable inviting colleagues into their classrooms during instruction, and
• have demonstrated interest in participating in study groups or other professional development activi-
ties.

Team Meetings

Once your team members have agreed to serve, it is time to meet. Focusing on four objectives will lay the
foundation for a successful team.

Objective 1: Get to know one another as team members. Building group cohesiveness is essential for the
smooth functioning of the team. Be certain to discuss the following questions:

• What would members like to accomplish this school year as a literacy leadership team?
• Who has strengths in literacy, and who needs to learn more about it?
• What support do team members need to learn more about literacy?
• What expertise does each member bring to the team?
• What concerns do members have?

Objective 2: Select the team leader. Although one person can function as both team leader and meeting fa-
cilitator, shared leadership can build the capacity and strengthen the impact of the literacy team. The literacy
team leader is responsible for the following:

• Scheduling and organizing meetings

• Communicating with team members about agendas and notes
• Communicating and representing the initiative to others
• Troubleshooting when the team needs outside support
• Advocating for the action plan with other leadership groups in the school and district
• Actively supporting team members and others working with the initiative

Objective 3: Select the meeting facilitator. Every meeting should have a designated meeting facilitator. This
person can be the same person as the team leader, a team member with exceptional facilitation skills, or

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someone different at each meeting. The meeting facilitator is responsible for the following:

• Making space for all voices to be heard

• Making sure multiple viewpoints are aired and a variety of possibilities are discussed before closure
on a given issue
• Bringing clarity to team decisions while avoiding simplistic answers
• Providing time and space for people to deal with difficult issues
• Turning a concern into a question
• Reminding the group that the agreed-upon ground rules are important and need to be honored

Real School Example

In the organizational meeting of a high school literacy team, most team members thought that the
principal, a strong leader with excellent interpersonal skills, would be the team leader. However, he
declined to play that role. Instead, he insisted that the literacy team be teacher-led. The team then
selected the literacy coach as its leader. The literacy coach was both knowledgeable and enthusiastic
about infusing literacy skills throughout the curriculum, and she had the deep respect of the faculty.
In addition, she was a hard worker and had excellent communication skills. In short, she was perfect
for the job! The principal did agree, though, to be the meeting facilitator. His ability to ensure that all
voices were heard and his skill at helping the team clarify difficult issues brought order and purpose to
the team. In addition, his agreeing to play a key role at literacy team meetings empowered the team
and validated its work.

Source: Thanks to Northeast High School in St. Petersburg, Florida, for this example. Used with per-
mission.

Objective 4: Decide basic logistics about how the team will function. Establishing ground rules and procedures
safeguards the smooth functioning of the literacy team. Your discussion should include the following:

Ground rules for team discussions. Setting ground rules for discussion prevents the voices of one to two peo-
ple from controlling the conversation. The following is a sample list of ground rules for discussion:

• Everyone has a right to share an opinion.

• All ideas are thoughtfully considered.
• Everyone participates.
• The facilitator moderates but does not dominate.
• Decisions are made by consensus, not majority rule.

Team norms. It is helpful to develop agreements about how documentation, communication, logistics, and
responsibilities will be handled. This discussion helps to avoid actions that default to the preferences of some
team members but do not meet the needs of others. By setting norms, members have recourse beside per-
sonal recrimination when the agreements are not followed. Here are some sample norms that a literacy lead-
ership team might set:

• Members will receive e-mail reminders of meeting dates, times, and locations.
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• Members bring materials to each meeting.

• A member takes notes at each meeting and sends meeting notes to team members. This task rotates
among team members.
• Members responsible for data collection should send information to the team leader at least two days
prior to the next meeting.
• The team facilitator solicits roundtable responses to make sure that everyone has a say before mak-
ing important decisions.
• Meetings always start and stop as scheduled.
• Refreshments are provided on a rotating basis by team members.

Meeting agendas. It is helpful to the meeting facilitator and to the team to have an agenda for each meeting.
This keeps the conversation on track and assists the team to remain focused, greatly enhancing the chance
that the meeting will be productive.

Communication with the faculty and the district. The team needs to decide how it will communicate with other
entities in the school and the district to keep people informed about activities related to the literacy initiative,
progress toward goals, ways that colleagues can be supportive or get more involved, and actions being taken
by the team. This ongoing responsibility can be facilitated by answering the following questions.

• How will the team connect with other entities in the school (departments, professional learning
groups, grade-level teams)?
• How will the team make the work public? (For example, who will post news about the literacy initiative
on the school's Web site?)

Now that you have a literacy leadership team and have made decisions about meetings, communication, and
logistics, the team is ready to begin leading a schoolwide literacy improvement initiative. The next step is to
get on the same page about what a schoolwide literacy initiative involves and why a schoolwide literacy ini-
tiative is important.

Step 2: Create a Vision of a Literacy-Rich School

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This step is important because many people do not have a clear vision of what a literacy-rich school
looks, sounds, and feels like. Teachers within a school may not even share a common definition of
literacy. Before you can expect to agree on your school's literacy goals, it is important to come to a
common understanding about literacy.

In the early stages of a literacy initiative, it is important to create a school-wide vision and understanding
about literacy and what your school would look, sound, and feel like if the literacy initiative were successful.
Developing a common language about literacy, exploring examples, and providing opportunities for structured
discussion will help people collaboratively develop a common vision of a literacy-rich school. This vision will
then help to guide the literacy improvement effort.

Develop a Common Language about Literacy among Literacy Team Members

In our experience, literacy leadership teams work most effectively when members share a common language
to discuss literacy and learning. Teams who develop and use a common vocabulary around literacy and learn-
ing can then extend these understandings to teachers and students throughout the school. This shared vo-
cabulary needs to include adherence to a common naming protocol for instructional strategies, student learn-
ing strategies, and collaborative routines. When all departments use the same name and procedures for a
particular literacy strategy or approach to learning, two important actions are made possible. First, students
can access and transfer their experience to their work in different classes across content areas. Also, when
a shared language for discussing literacy and learning is in place, all members of the school community can
support and assist each other in using effective literacy teaching and learning practices. Here are several ap-
proaches you can use to develop a shared vocabulary:

• Team professional development on a literacy topic (developing vocabulary, literacy support in differ-
ent content areas, writing to learn), either school, district, or conference-based
• A professional study group in which teachers select a literacy topic to research and apply to their
various content areas
• Use of the information in Resource C (Examples) and Resource F (Glossary) in this book as a basis
for study

For Discussion

How will the literacy leadership team help teachers and students develop a common language about
literacy and learning across the school?

Examine the Characteristics of a Literacy-Rich School

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Unless literacy is front and center in the minds (and actions) of the entire school community, it tends not be
emphasized in a way that benefits students.

A schoolwide culture of literacy encourages teachers to demonstrate their own enthusiasm for read-
ing, writing, communicating, and thinking as a stage of all aspects of classroom learning. When
every member of the school community takes responsibility for literacy efforts, a culture of literacy
becomes pervasive. (Irvin, Meltzer, & Dukes, 2007, p. 103)

Schools that implement successful literacy improvement initiatives actively build a culture of literacy.

The following examples are two activities that team members can use to develop a common vision of what
a school successfully focused on literacy development looks like. The team can repeat these activities with
other colleagues to help establish a schoolwide literacy vision.

For Discussion

Activity 1: Team members look through the following list of evidence that literacy development is a pri-
ority. Team members then individually rank each statement on a three point scale:

1 = we don't do this; 2 = we do this occasionally; 3 = we do this well

Following the rating, the team can discuss individual ratings, what the school already does well, and where
the school can improve.

_ A clear mission statement, including the importance of developing students as readers, writers, and
thinkers, is prominently displayed (posted on the wall, on the Web site or on newsletters).

_ Announcements are made frequently in school and on the school Web site about literacy-related events
such as poetry jams, book fairs, author visits, book commercials or outcomes of debate team, drama club,
and other competitions.

_ Posters throughout the school demonstrate expectations about student learning such as posted rubrics,
steps of the writing process, descriptions of literacy support strategies, motivational messages to “read, write,
think.”

_ Student writing is published in the school newsletter, local paper, or on the school Web site.

_ Student achievement as readers and writers is noted publicly.

_ Attractive displays of student work are on the school walls and in every classroom and office throughout the
building.

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For Discussion

Activity 2: Another way to develop a common language and vision is to read descriptions of schools
that have implemented literacy-rich practices. Resource A contains three descriptions of literacy rich
schools—one at the upper elementary, middle, and high school levels. Read the vignette that is
aligned with your school level and underline the practices that show how the school actively promotes
literacy development for all students. Write each practice on a separate sticky note, group the prac-
tices, and construct a concept map like the one in Figure 1.1.

Figure 1.1 One School's Map of a Literacy-Rich School

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Literacy leadership team members sometimes get discouraged by how far their own school is from im-
plementation of the activities portrayed in the vignettes. The team needs to remember that developing
and sustaining a successful literacy improvement effort is a multiyear process. The school's literacy
action plan will be revised and updated based on progress toward goals at the end of each school
year.

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Get Everyone on Board

One goal of a literacy improvement initiative is to get the entire school community involved. Everyone can
play an important role in promoting literacy and learning. No one would say that improving literacy is a bad
idea, but sometimes the team will meet with resistance. Some teachers may not participate because they re-
sent the perceived implication that they should become reading teachers. Veteran teachers, as well as less
experienced teachers, may feel overwhelmed or fearful that they do not know enough to effectively integrate
literacy learning into their content instruction. It is important for school leaders to understand the reasons for
teachers' reluctance to participate actively in a literacy improvement initiative so that these can be addressed
directly by the team. When literacy leaders address teachers' concerns, this reassures teachers that they are
not being asked to become reading teachers but are being asked to contribute their content expertise to the
important endeavor of improving students' abilities as readers, writers, speakers, and thinkers of their content
area.

The following are strategies for getting everyone on board. These strategies can be carried out in small
groups at faculty meetings, with literacy team members facilitating in each group, or in department or team
meetings with literacy team representation.

• Clarify teacher roles and the expectations for implementation of content area literacy support.
• Examine and discuss beliefs about literacy and learning.
• Communicate the professional development opportunities that will be in place to enhance teachers'
and administrators' current knowledge about literacy and learning.
• Clarify the structures, policies, and other support that will be put into place to support the literacy ini-
tiative.

For Discussion

Discuss as a team how you can employ the strategies listed above and brainstorm other approaches
you can use to get everyone on board with this literacy improvement effort.

Step 3: Use Data to Establish the Need for Literacy Improvement

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This step is important because some stakeholders do not see the need to embark on a literacy im-
provement effort. When confronted with the data on how students in your school are performing
against the demands of college, citizenship, and the world of work, this opinion often changes. Col-
lecting baseline data will help the team track progress toward your goal to have students improve as
readers and writers.

The team needs to document and communicate the need for a schoolwide literacy improvement initiative for
three reasons. First, documentation and communication open the way for dialogue and allow people to con-
sider what can be done. Second, data provides a context for goal setting and data-driven decision making. It
is critical to collect baseline data so you can document progress. Third, documentation can do much to bring
naysayers or reluctant colleagues on board by making a clear connection between the need for literacy im-
provement and what their role will be.

It is important to make the case that urgent collective action to improve student literacy is required. In some
school cultures, this is the galvanizer that gets teacher buy-in. Even if this is not the case in your school, you
will want to collect some baseline data so that you can gauge the impact of your literacy improvement initia-
tive over time.

Create a Map of Reading and Writing Assessments

To establish baseline data, begin by reviewing the reading and writing assessments given in your school.
What kinds of data about student performance as readers or writers are available? What does each assess-
ment tell you about your students as readers or writers? When is each given? To whom? With the team, use
Tool 1 (see Tool 1 in Resource B) to fill in the grid as shown in the following example with the aim of getting
as robust a view as possible of the data available about student performance.

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The team now has a picture of the baseline data it collects at the outset of the literacy initiative and can track
progress. Once the team has created or reviewed an assessment grid, the team can discuss if there are
gaps between what different assessments measure and what teachers need to know to help students grow
as readers and writers. Some questions include the following:

• What else would be good to know about students as readers and writers?
• Is there a way to get that information?
• Do all teachers know what tests are given to whom and how to read the reports associated with each
test?
• Do teachers understand what each assessment can tell—and might not be able to tell—about stu-
dents' performance as readers and writers?
• Do teachers know how to use this data to guide instruction?

Chapters 4 and 6 show a number of ways that data can be used effectively as part of a literacy improvement
initiative.

For Discussion

Do the data collected provide enough information about students as readers and writers? What ques-
tions are not answered? How do teachers currently use these data? How could they use the data more
effectively?

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Create a Data Overview

You can also create a data overview, which includes a summary of student data, analysis of the data, and
essential messages for the faculty. The purpose of a data overview is to display where the school strengths
and challenges are relative to literacy and learning. It can be as complex or as simple as the team wants to
make it. Multiyear or multigrade data can be especially useful to look for patterns and trends that give insight
into the strengths and weakness of the current program as opposed to the strengths and weaknesses of a
specific cohort of students.

Use the Steps for Creating a Data Overview described in the following box to make a data-driven case for
focusing on literacy at your school. The outline will also enable the team to establish a before and after picture
of literacy teaching and learning in your school. You can work on the data overview as a team, or you can ask
a small group of literacy leaders in the school to put the data overview together. You may also wish to ask
a district administrator to help you collect and analyze the data for your school. The literacy leadership team
will use the data overview to help establish literacy improvement goals and to help all stakeholders embrace
the need for the literacy initiative.

Steps for Creating a Data Overview

1. Summarize student performance data

a. Examine the data.

b. Decide on the essential messages of the data.

c. Determine current strengths and weaknesses for your students

as readers and writers.

d. Summarize the data using charts and text.

2. Share the Data Overview with the faculty.

3. Revisit the Data Overview in Stage 2 when you to develop your literacy action
goals.

Starting with Chapter 1 and continuing through Chapter 5, we provide you with one school's literacy action
planning process that we call Central School. While we also use actual examples throughout the book, we
thought it would be helpful to provide a continuing example based on the work of a fictional team to showcase
the stages of the literacy leadership process. You will find a Data Overview in PowerPoint for Central School
in Figure 1.2.

Figure 1.2 Sample Data Overview for Central School

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For Discussion

What are the key messages of the data that you want to present to colleagues? What do you hope to
achieve by presenting these data? How will the team present the Data Overview to the school? How
will you invite colleagues to engage with the data you present?

Next Steps

Your journey toward improved student literacy and learning in your school has begun. As you and your col-
leagues work together to build everyone's understanding about literacy and the need to focus upon it, you will
see enthusiasm growing. Students will become more engaged with reading and writing, and teachers and ad-
ministrators will be more willing to learn how to provide literacy support for students across the entire school
and community.

It is now time to move to Stage 2 where you will assess your school's strengths and areas of challenge in
more depth and begin the process of developing goals for your literacy action plan. The literacy leadership
team will work hard during Stages 2 and 3 to develop literacy action goals that are realistic yet make a differ-
ence for students.

• literacy
• team leadership
• teams
• literacy support
• culture and literacy
• facilitators
• work teams

http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781452219561.n3

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