The Vermont Reads Institute at UVM is pleased to announce openings for the 2007-08 school years in the Vermont Adolescent Literacy and Learning Initiative (VALLI). Formerly
the Vermont Strategic Reading Initiative (VSRI), VALLI is specifically designed for middle and high school teachers. This newly revised program works with content-area and language arts teachers to help them embed within existing curriculum the very strategies that successful learners use when confronted with difficult material. For more information, please see the enclosed description of the program.

Schools accepted into the VALLI’s three-year program make a substantial commitment to
a literacy focus in their professional development plans. Each participating school sends a literacy leadership team to a three-day summer institute (tentatively scheduled this year
for the last week in June), hosts regular visits by VALLI consultants (a minimum of two,
day-long visits each month), provides release time for members of its literacy leadership team, and engages in a school-wide literacy audit in the fall of its first year within the program. With a generous grant from the Vermont Department of Education, the cost of
this project to a school is only $16,000.

As in the past, VALLI will focus attention on a set of critical cognitive strategies. You may
be familiar with Reading to Learn, a guidebook the VSRI published in 2004 to introduce its nine reading strategies: Imagine; Make Connections; Analyze Text Structure; Recognize Words and Understand Sentences; Explore Inferences; Ask Questions; Determine
Important Ideas and Themes; Evaluate, Summarize and Synthesize; and Reread and Adjust.

Although important, strategies may not be enough. Recent research suggests a more comprehensive approach is needed in middle level and high schools for adolescents to acquire the highest possible levels of literacy achievement. Our revised model includes information about and support for teaching: higher order thinking skills, learning with
texts in the content areas, vocabulary development throughout the curriculum, and strategies for creating self-regulated readers and writers. In addition, alignment of
content expectations, assessment, and instruction will be addressed.

Participating Schools:

• Middlebury Union Middle School
• BFA Fairfax Middle School
• Barre Town School
• Colchester Middle School

View/Download/Print VALLI Invite, Description & Application

Copyright © Vermont Reads Institute at UVM. Site designed & hosted by Earthlogic.