About This Model
The goals for students’ literacy skills in Grades 7-12 include building new knowledge through reading and using writing as a tool for learning. Understanding the Learner Factors and strategies that impact literacy and how they connect to each other can help you build tools and lessons that support all learners.
Our research highlights several key themes about teaching and learning Literacy at the 7-12 level
Students use foundational literacy skills to build knowledge.
Students’ Reading Fluency skills mature to become more automatic and accurate; however, students are still developing the ability to parse longer and more complex text.
Engagement with a variety of texts allows students to think critically.
Adolescents are gaining skills to engage more deeply with texts including making inferences using their Background Knowledge and developing their Argumentative Reasoning skills to understand and create persuasive texts.
Adolescents need to learn how to leverage technology effectively for learning.
Technology is ubiquitous for adolescents; however, new research suggests that more frequent media multi-tasking in adolescence may lead to increases in Attention problems.
Dive Into This Model
Literacy 7-12 Factors
Literacy 7-12 Strategies
The Research Behind This Model
To create each Learner Variability Project Learner Model, we follow a systematic methodology led by our expert researchers. The process is also overseen by an advisory board of leading content area and learning sciences experts.
Advisory Board for Literacy 7-12
Steve Graham, Ph.D.
Jaana Juvonen, Ph.D.
Sarah Levine, Ph.D.
Gholnecsar Muhammad, Ph.D.
Allan Wigfield, Ph.D.
Students use foundational literacy skills to build knowledge.
Students’ Reading Fluency skills mature to become more automatic and accurate; however, students are still developing the ability to parse longer and more complex text.
Reading aloud with students continues to help them understand how to process complex Syntax and read with the appropriate prosody and expression. Students in middle and high school must develop Disciplinary Literacy, or reading and writing conventions in different content areas, and strategies to learn content-specific Vocabulary. - Students can use mentor texts as models to understand the organization and structure of writing for different purposes and support Metacognition.Engagement with a variety of texts allows students to think critically.
Adolescents are gaining skills to engage more deeply with texts including making inferences using their Background Knowledge and developing their Argumentative Reasoning skills to understand and create persuasive texts.
Engaging students in verbal debate can help them learn how to frame an argument and justify their claims with evidence. Adolescents need strong Critical Literacy skills to consider issues of power and bias in the texts they encounter in school and beyond in a complex world. - To build these skills, students can create their own counter-texts, which may motivate them to give voice to perspectives that may not have originally been present in texts or historical accounts.Adolescents need to learn how to leverage technology effectively for learning.
Technology is ubiquitous for adolescents; however, new research suggests that more frequent media multi-tasking in adolescence may lead to increases in Attention problems.
Students may need support in learning strategies such as mindfulness that can help them manage distractions from technology. Technology can also expand learning opportunities for reading and writing; adolescents’ Literacy Environments include many types of digital media, which can be spaces to find and compose personally meaningful texts. - Educators can also use multimedia texts to layer different sources and prompt students’ awareness and information literacy skills.