Literacy+Groups

Watch this video on "The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us" and reflect on the implications on student learning, particularly with the Common Instructional Framework in mind: collaborative learning groups, literacy groups, low-stakes writing, scaffolding, questioning, and classroom talk. Also, consider how you could assign the literacy group roles for viewing: @http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc Literacy Group Roles

__ Summarizer: __ The Summarizer’s job is to note the main idea of the reading, with a few key details. S/he begins the discussion by sharing a summary of the text, to which others may add.

__ Literary Luminary: __ The Literary Luminary focuses on new or important vocabulary used in the reading. His/Her job is to investigate the meaning of those terms in the context of the reading (using a dictionary, if it helps).

__ Passage Master: __ The Passage Master marks three or four sections from the reading that express significant or intriguing ideas. S/he reads each passage to the group and comments on why it seems important.

__ Artful Artist: __ The Artful Artist takes an idea from the text and presents it in a visual way. S/he may choose to do a drawing or to organize new informational graphically (e.g., a flow chart, diagram, etc.).

__ Discussion Director: __ The Discussion Director generates three or four questions about the text that are likely to spark a discussion. The Discussion Director maintains the flow of the entire discussion by making sure that each of the other participants presents his/her role with time for follow-up questions and comments. The discussion questions are usually discussed last.

__ Vocabulary Connector: __ Your job is to find words that are interesting, new, important, or used in unusual ways. Remember to indicate where these words can be found in the text so we can discuss how they are used in context.

Here are the literacy groups in "worksheet form": http://blogs.stonecreekschool.org/gutmann/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Lit-Roles-6th-graders.pdf

Here are the key principles of literacy groups:

Login to http://ncnewschools.org/ go to the library and open the folder "Powerful Teaching and Learning". Peruse the sample lesson plans for ideas using the Common Instructional Framework, particularly Literacy Groups, in your core subject.