Foundational Literacies

• Small set of skills used to comprehend information.
• Necessary when reading any type of text, online or "print on paper."
• Include:
  • activating prior knowledge
  • connecting
  • visualizing
  • inferring
  • questioning
  • synthesizing
• Strategies that can be taught through explicit instruction
• Research proven instructional models for teaching these strategies include Reciprocal Teaching and Questioning the Author

For more detailed information click on the Foundational Literacies link at the top of this page.

New Literacies

• Specific to text on the Internet
• Skills necessary, IN ADDITION to foundational skills, when the goal is to understand and communicate new information on the Internet
• Include:
  • Identifying a question to be answered
  • Searching for possible the answers on the Internet
  • Critically evaluating the information found
  • Synthesizing a variety of information
  • Communicating the new information to others
• Strategies that can be taught through explicit instruction
• Multiple instructional models through which these strategies can be effectively taught including:
  • Internet Reciprocal Teaching
  • Internet Questioning the Author
  • Internet Workshop, Internet Inquiry

For more detailed inforamtion click on the New Literacies link at the top of this page.