Section A: Fund Use Overview, Third Bullet Point
Ways in Which Keys to Literacy PD supports the Conditions for School Effectiveness
Keys’ PD specifically supports the following Conditions for School Effectiveness:
II. Effective school leadership: For our professional development to be successful and impact student
literacy levels, the school leadership team must be committed to supporting the program. We provide
Administrator Training to introduce program strategies and to show administrators how to recognize
classroom usage and support their building-based facilitators/coaches. Our advanced training for
building coaches/facilitators is designed to build capacity internally for long term peer support of the
programs. In these trainings, we recommend activities Administrators and Coaches can undertake to
show their active commitment to the professional development.
III. Aligned curriculum: Our professional development supports curricula that are aligned to the MA
State Frameworks. During training, teachers learn how our programs are tightly aligned to the reading,
writing, speaking & listening, and language standards. Our programs are developed to provide a
consistent set of instructional practices as students move from grade to grade and subject to subject.
This vertical articulation enables teachers across a school building or district to address curriculum
frameworks in a consistent manner. Teachers are given tools to implement the frameworks along with a
common language to use with students.
IV. Effective instruction: Keys to Literacy professional development programs draw extensively on the
research about effective literacy instruction. All training content and the training books include reviews
of this research and how teachers can deliver evidence-based best teaching practices. During training,
teachers receive extensive resource/reference lists. In addition, all KTL trainers are highly-qualified in
the field of literacy, having at least a Master’s degree in literacy or a related field and experience as
teachers and/or administrators in schools.
V. Student assessment: A number of the instructional strategies used in our comprehension, vocabulary,
and writing programs can be used as informal assessment tools to support formative assessments of
student literacy skills on an ongoing basis. For example:
 Key Comprehension Routine: topic web graphic organizer, student notes from reading, student
summaries, student generation and answers to questions at multiple levels of thinking.
 Key Vocabulary Routine: student word knowledge checklists, semantic mapping, semantic
feature analysis, Frayer and Concept Definition Maps for vocabulary words, and student
generated definitions.
 Keys to Writing: notes, graphic organizers, rough and final drafts, feedback checklists and rubrics
VII. Professional development and structures for collaboration: The focus of Keys to Literacy
professional development is to train teachers to incorporate research-based, effective literacy
instructional practices into their existing classroom teaching. During initial training, teachers bring
reading material from their classrooms to use as they practice generating lessons and activities that
teach the literacy skills of the routine. This practice continues during follow up sessions.
KTL incorporates proven principles of adult and student learning. In particular, the training is hands-on
and includes ample practice time. The PD employs the “I, We, You” model of instruction, also described
as a gradual release of responsibility model. It incorporates explicit instruction, modeling by the trainer,
group guided practice, and eventual independent use. Trainers also show teachers how to use these
principles when they are teaching students the literacy strategies.
Keys to Literacy programs are highly collaborative. During initial training, teachers work in pairs and
small groups to complete activities. They also work together to develop sample class lessons and
activities that incorporate the training’s instructional components. These activities are shared for group
feedback. The follow up training is also designed to foster collaboration, where teachers meet in small
groups that are facilitated by the Keys to Literacy trainer. They share classroom lessons and student
work and give each other feedback and suggestions for improvement. Also, KTL trains building-based
facilitators/coaches to continue to facilitate small-group sharing sessions after the formal training is
completed.
VIII. Tiered instruction and adequate learning time: Keys to Literacy professional development is
designed to be used with all students regardless of skill level. It is used by general education teachers of
all subject areas as Tier I literacy instruction. During training, teachers learn how to scaffold and
differentiate their instruction and Keys to Literacy strategies in order to meet a range of student needs.
Intervention educators learn how to use Keys to Literacy programs for Tier II support by providing more
explicit instruction and additional guided practice for struggling learners.