Introduction
Leaders of Literacy
In its U.S. Adult Literacy Facts infographic, ProLiteracy (n.d.) highlights the summation of this long-standing literacy crisis by detailing the reality of literacy in the United States and the catastrophic impact that illiteracy has on a multitude of social and economic factors. For example, ProLiteracy (n.d.) finds more than thirty-six million U.S. adults cannot read, write, or do mathematics above a third-grade level. And 43 percent of adults with low literacy levels live in poverty. When parents have low literacy levels, their children have a 72 percent chance of performing at the lowest reading level, receiving poor grades, developing behavior problems, having high school absentee problems, and dropping out. More than 1.2 million students drop out of high school each year (one out of every six). These jarring statistics undoubtedly reveal a systematic divide between those who are literate and those who are not, consequently deepening the inequities already present in our social structures. Visit https://bit.ly/3hhCdHG to read all of ProLiteracy’s (n.d.) U.S. literacy facts, including statistics regarding English learners, unemployment, health literacy, and correctional facilities. Statistical results like these are a stark reminder that we need to focus our attention on the literacy development of students in every corner of our schools. As we note throughout this book, reading and writing strategies across disciplines often require differing instructional approaches. These approaches must be tailored to meet the needs of every student and demand innovative thinking. In this book, we offer suggestions focused on leading efforts to teach students intermediate literacy skills commensurate with secondary-level reading and writing standards. These are important skills to attain because students with strong intermediate literacy skills have essentially developed an awareness of their own active comprehension, and they know what to do when comprehension begins to feel shaky. It is vital that teachers within all disciplines don’t jump ahead of intermediate literacy but instead continually model this phase to students and provide opportunities for them to practice these skills in a constructive and guided manner independently and confidently.
Disciplinary Literacy Not only are general literacy skills vital to student success across all content areas but also each academic discipline requires and emphasizes a need for specific reading and writing skills. As your teachers gain confidence that students have a good grasp of basic, foundational literacy skills, and as collaborative team members begin to see students develop more intermediate and advanced literacy skills, your
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