Project director: Stephanie Smythe

Primary program designers:

• Rick Dills, EdD
• Judson Odell
• Ioana Radoi
• Daniel Fennessy

Curriculum consultant: Nemeesha Brown

Contributing text specialist: Rosemarie Heinegg, PhD

Unit developers—Texts, notes, and questions:

• Reading Closely for Textual Details: “The wolf you feed”: Rick Dills, EdD
• Making Evidence‐Based Claims: “Connecting the Dots”: Rick Dills, EdD
• Researching to Deepen Understanding: “Prehistoric Cave Art”: Rosemarie Heinegg, PhD, and Luke Bauer
• Building Evidence‐Based Arguments: “Energy Crossroads”: Daniel Fennessy and Rick Dills, EdD

We are grateful for feedback we received on early versions of units from Achieve's EQuIP Review Process, under the direction of Christine Tell, Alissa Peltzman, and Cristina Marks.

We are also grateful for the students and teachers of the Bay Shore Schools who collaborated with us to pilot the curriculum. Thanks especially to LaQuita Outlaw, Elizabeth Galarza, Caitlin Moreira, and Jen Ritter (who personally renamed the Supporting Evidence‐Based Claims Tool).

We are especially grateful for New York State and the Regents Research Fund for funding the development of the earlier Open Educational Resource version of this curriculum. Without the support we received from Kristen Huff, David Abel, and Kate Gerson, none of this work would have been possible.

“Literacy is the ability to use printed and written information to function in society, to achieve one's goals, and to develop one's knowledge and potential.”

—Definition from the National Assessment of Adult Literacy

Becoming a Literate Person: Your school and teachers are trying to help you succeed in life—and to be the best you can be at whatever you choose to do. One of the ways they are doing this is by developing your literacy—but what do we mean when we talk about your literacy? A dictionary might simply tell us that developing literacy means building your skills as a reader, thinker, and writer—but it also might tell us that literacy is knowledge in an area of learning that is important to you. In addition, being literate involves ways of thinking and doing things—habits—that a person develops over time.

Being a literate person is even more important today—in our computer-driven world—than it was in the past, no matter what you want to do:

• Go to college and become a scientist
• Be a designer, artist, musician, or chef
• Own your own business
• Develop computer applications or video games
• Work in an industry or a construction field
• Seek a career in the military
• Just want to keep up with the news of the world

You will need to be literate whatever path in school and life you choose to follow. A recent study of the reading challenges faced by people in the United States found out that the textbooks students see in their first two years of college are much more challenging than the ones they use in high school—one reason so many new college students struggle. But the study also found that technical manuals, informational websites, and even newspapers demand a high level of reading and thinking skills as well as specialized knowledge and strategic habits—they demand literacy.

Core Literacy Proficiencies: The learning experiences you will discover in the Odell Education Program are designed to help you take control of your own literacy development and build the skills, knowledge, and habits you will need to be successful in life. They are also designed to excite your imagination and engage you in activities that are interesting and challenging.

The learning activities you will encounter will help you develop four key Core Literacy Proficiencies. What do we mean by this term? We've already discussed the importance of literacy. Core suggests that what you will be learning is at the center—of your literacy development, your overall success in school, and your future life. The word proficiency is also important, because being “proficient” at something means you can do it well, can do it on your own, and have the confidence that comes with being good at something. Developing proficiency takes time, practice, and determination. However, becoming proficient is one of the great rewards of learning—whether you are learning to read closely, to play a musical instrument, or to do a difficult skateboard trick.

Literacy Proficiency Units: The Core Literacy Proficiencies you will develop in each of four units are as follows:

1. Reading Closely for Textual Details: In this unit you will develop your proficiency as an investigator of texts. You will learn how to do the following:
   • Examine things closely (images, videos, websites, and texts)
   • Ask and use questions to guide your close examination
   • Find the key details—clues—that tell you something
   • Make connections among those details
   • Use those connections to develop an observation or conclusion
2. Making Evidence-Based Claims: In this unit you will develop your proficiency as a maker and prover of claims. You will learn how to do the following:
   • Use the details, connections, and evidence you find in a text to form a claim—a stated conclusion—about something you have discovered
   • Organize evidence from the text to support your claim and make your case
   • Express and explain your claim in writing
   • Improve your writing so that others will clearly understand and appreciate your evidence-based claim—and think about the case you have made for it
3. Researching to Deepen Understanding: In this unit you will develop your proficiency as a finder and user of information. You will learn how to do the following:
   • Have an inquiring mind and ask good questions
   • Search for information—in texts, interviews, and on the Internet—that can help you answer your questions
   • Record and organize the information you find
   • Decide what is relevant and trustworthy in the sources of your information
   • Come to a research-based position or solution to a problem
   • Clearly communicate what you have learned
4. Building Evidence-Based Arguments: In this unit you will develop your proficiency as a presenter of reasoned arguments. You will learn how to do the following:
   • Understand the background and key aspects of an important issue
   • Look at various viewpoints on the issue
   • Read the arguments of others closely and thoughtfully
   • Develop your own view of the issue and take a stand about it
   • Make and prove your case by using sound evidence and reasoning to support it
   • Improve your writing so that others will clearly understand and appreciate your evidence-based argument—and think about the case you have made for it

Materials to Develop Literacy Proficiency:

In each of the units, you will use the supporting materials organized in this Student Edition:

1. Texts Each unit includes a set of relatively short but challenging texts, which you will read, examine, and discuss.
2. Tools Each unit has its own toolbox—a set of graphic organizers that help you think about what you are reading or writing and record your thinking so you can discuss it with others and come back to it later.
3. Handouts Each unit has a set of handouts, some of which will help you understand important things you are learning and some of which will help you be successful in completing the assignments in the unit.
4. Literacy Skills and Academic Habits Throughout the units you will be developing Literacy Skills and Academic Habits. You will use these skills and habits to monitor your own growth and give feedback to other students when reading, discussing, and writing. Your teacher may use them to let you know about your areas of strength and areas in which you need to improve.