An Action Plan for Authentic Literacy

his students. The previously uninspired high school seniors in Charles’s classroom started to regain a love of reading and a real purpose for writing. Some even found this love and purpose for the first time ever. And Charles celebrated these successes just like an excited football coach from the sidelines.

I personally observed the changes in this teacher. Charles will tell you the change he saw in his students came because he knew he could effect change if he walked the walk—and taught— as a reader and writer himself. And as Charles shifted his instructional practice, his identity as a reader and writer continued to grow—the exact effect he expected in his students.

If Charles’s story ended there, I would still call it a win as an instructional leader, but since he started on this journey into authentic literacy learner, Charles has also become a contributing writer on Amy’s blog, served in leadership for the Texas Council of Teachers of English Language Arts, completed his master’s degree in education, and served as a district-level instructional coach. Charles no longer coaches football players. He coaches teachers and cheers them on as they embrace authentic literacy practices.

An Action Plan for Authentic Literacy

In Visible Learning for Literacy, Fisher and his colleagues (2016) begin, “Every student deserves a great teacher, not by chance, but by design” (p. 2). Authentic literacy work, however, does not come easy. It’s an individual teacher’s work, and it cannot be purchased as a unit or copied from a textbook—that would negate what it means to be an authentic literacy teacher who understands and practices becoming an expert reader, writer, and communicator in his or her own life. What works for you may not work for others. When it comes to literacy instruction, then, instruction must be personal to the teacher and flexible to meet the needs of diverse students.

As you transform your teaching, you will put research into practice by planning and implementing authentic literacy actions. The following list outlines our authentic literacy action plan in its simplest form. These practical steps open up time and space for actions to become daily routines, and those routines become personal habits for individual learners. Chapters 2–7 each provide more detail on one of these action steps. 1. Own your literacy expertise: Focus on and practice becoming the best reader, writer, and communicator in the room. As you internalize this selfdevelopment, plan instruction that shares your personal literacy practices with students. Make connections with other educators who stay current in literacy best practices. 2. Create an optimal environment for readers and writers: The classroom community welcomes trust, vulnerability, risk taking, and honest feedback and is steadfast in high expectations. Provide opportunities for individuals to share their wants, needs, desires, and motivations. Surround students with books they want to read, and provide comfortable spaces for them to write and collaborate.