Oregon Literacy Plan Birth through Grade 12

Introduction

The Oregon Literacy Plan is designed to ensure that in their first 18 years, young Oregonians will develop strong literacy skills that will prepare them for school, college, and career.

To learn and achieve, students need well-developed literacy skills. Implementing the Oregon Literacy Plan ensures that young Oregonians will develop strong reading and writing skills to prepare them to succeed in school, college, and career—without need for remediation.

Why does Oregon need a Birth to Grade 12 Literacy Plan?

Attending to children’s physical, social, emotional, and cognitive well-being during the birth to five-period has life-long implications (Shonkoff & Phillips, 2000).

Where the Oregon Literacy Plan is implemented, Birth through Grade 12 children are more likely to:

Receive integrated services from Birth to Five to ensure school readiness
Enter school with a strong foundation to support learning to read and write
Learn to read and write at grade level or above by end of first grade
Develop Common Core State Standards grade-level reading and writing skills or above every year
Receive strong differentiated instruction to help them learn to read and write at grade level, if they are below
Earn an Oregon Diploma and be College and Career-ready without need for remediation.

Introduction to the Oregon Literacy Plan

Birth to Five

A top priority for our state is to prepare young Oregonians to be proficient readers, with the skills to perform successfully in school, college, and the work place. We know...

Proficient readers aren't created in high school or middle school
The foundation for literacy acquisition is not even laid in kindergarten or first grade

Rather...the stage for reading acquisition is set in the years between birth and entry into kindergarten (Dickinson, McCabe, & Essex, 2006). Birth to five is a critical period during which brain development is rapid and extensive with lifelong implications for the child’s physical, social, emotional, and cognitive well-being (Shonkoff & Phillips, 2000).

That is why the Birth to Five section of the Oregon Literacy Plan is designed to

Provide school readiness through integration of services for young children
Ensure all children enter school ready to learn to read.

Birth to Five Narrative

This narrative provides an overview of what is necessary to ensure Oregon’s very young children are ready for school. It introduces and explains the three levels of early childhood infrastructure—State, Regional, and Center-based—and the six components of a comprehensive pre-literacy program—Goals, Assessment, Instruction, Leadership, Professional Development, and Commitment.

Birth to Five Self-Assessments

Self-assessments are designed to gather information about practices and strategies currently in place. The self-assessments at each level of support—State, Regional, and Center-based—are organized around the six components of the Framework explained in the Birth to Five Narrative. Each item on the self-assessment has a rating scale —not in place, partially in place, or fully in place—to determine the level of implementation.

Implementation Guide

The Birth to Five Implementation Guide describes steps for using the information from the Self-Assessments to determine the current level of implementation of the Birth to Five Oregon Literacy Plan.

Oregon Literacy Plan - K-12 Reading

"Reading is the gatekeeper skill"… Oregon’s Reading Plan opens the gate for each student.

Similar to a comprehensive insurance policy, Oregon’s K-12 Reading Plan is a comprehensive reading program that covers a range of student needs. It makes good sense for schools to have one because it ensures students will

Learn to read well
Experience success in school
Graduate college and career-ready

Unlike content that changes over time, the skill of reading doesn’t change; when students learn to read well, they can study and train for jobs of the future.

Introduction

Oregon K-12 Literacy Framework - Reading

The Framework, the centerpiece of the Plan, was adopted by the State Board (2009) to guide the state, districts and schools in implementing a comprehensive reading program.

K-12 Reading: Common Core Instruction

Overview of Common Core Instruction
K-5 Teachers: Laying Foundations for the Common Core Presents the Common Core Foundational Skills, the first steps in learning to read

K-12 Teachers: Building Comprehension in the Common Core Provides information and illustrations for English language arts and content-area teachers on how Common Core instruction, supported by the Framework, looks at the classroom-level

K-12 Self-Assessments aligned to Common Core Reading

Tools to help districts and schools turn high-quality planning for teaching reading into high-quality implementation

K-12 Implementation Guides aligned to Common Core Reading

Tools to gauge implementation progress

Oregon Literacy Plan - K-12 Writing

K-12 Writing—also part of the Oregon K-12 Literacy Framework—provides guidance to districts on knowing

What to teach for students to become effective writers and how to teach it
How to identify students who are struggling and what to do to support their improvement
How to determine whether students have responded well or poorly to a school’s efforts to support their writing progress.

Aligned to the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), it provides a roadmap for districts and schools to ensure students meet or exceed the CCSS for Writing at each grade level and in each content area, experience success as writers each year in school, and graduate from high school prepared as writers for college and career…because writing well matters.

Introduction

Oregon K-12 Literacy Framework - Writing

These five chapters complete Oregon's Literacy Plan and are designed to assist schools and districts in implementing a comprehensive writing program.

School Self-Assessment

A tool to help districts and schools turn high-quality planning for teaching writing into high-quality implementation

School Implementation Guide

A tool for gauging implementation progress