Oral Language As the Foundation for Literacy: Building Teacher Capacity

Build the educator capacity that strong literacy implementation requires.

District leaders have invested significantly in evidence-based literacy instruction. The next challenge is ensuring those investments translate into stronger teaching across classrooms and schools. An effective, sustainable literacy program depends on educator knowledge. Literacy experts including Dr. Louisa Moats have looked at the various roles professional learning can play as districts move from adoption to implementation.

This white paper explores why language development deserves greater attention within literacy implementation. Readers will examine the relationship between decoding and language comprehension and gain a better understanding of how language knowledge and language development instruction can help teachers build proficient readers and make stronger instructional decisions.

District leaders also will find a six-part framework for strengthening implementation capacity in their school systems. The framework addresses shared instructional understanding and aligned professional learning. It shows how leaders can ensure professional learning aligns with classroom instruction and materials usage. It also offers a process for moving professional learning into classroom application.

The paper also identifies signals of language-rich instruction and common implementation risks. Leadership questions can help guide district teams as they reflect upon their current strategies and identify where additional capacity may help.

Evidence-based literacy materials provide an important foundation. Teacher knowledge determines how to use those materials to best meet students’ needs and what else needs to be added to fully teach the skills students must attain. By connecting the two, district leaders can create effective, sustainable literacy systems that impact student learning.

Download the white paper to see why increasing your team’s implementation capacity can play a key role in your literacy strategy.