Adolescent Literacy: Planning for Strategic Teaching Shape Questions & Map Content: Try It Shape Critical Questions Part 1 - Select Critical Content In this module, you have been introduced to how to get started in planning for a course where the goal is content literacy for all students. Now complete this activity to begin to plan for content literacy for all. This activity, which is designed to guide your overall thinking about one of your courses, can be compared to pre-writing brainstorming. Later, you will use this brainstorming to create planning organizers. Save/keep this document as you will refer back to it later in the module. 1. Choose a course 2. Brainstorm critical content for the course Ask yourself: Does it address the national, state, and local standards? Does it represent the essential concepts that all students must master? Critical content: (You may wish to highlight the critical content directly in your curriculum documents) 3. Draft course paraphrase Ask yourself: Does it capture the main ideas of the course? Does it distinguish the course from other similar courses? Does it clearly and meaningfully communicate course content? Does it provide an umbrella for all learning? My course is about... 4. Sort the critical content into units Units: 5. Think about the first unit you will teach in this course My unit: 6. Draft a unit paraphrase or jot down ideas about what this unit is about My unit is about... © 2008 KUCRL & Teachscape, Inc. Adolescent Literacy: Planning for Strategic Teaching Shape Questions & Map Content: Try It Shape Critical Questions Page 2 of 2 Part 2 - Develop Critical Questions 1. Using the first page of the activity as a launching pad, brainstorm your critical questions. While creating your questions, ask yourself:* Do they serve as the basis for many conversations with students? Do they include expectations related to how to learn or demonstrate competence? Do they identify ways in which students should think about the information to be learned? Do they lead students to do well on outcome measures? Do they enable students to monitor progress in learning? Do they help students identify the critical concepts or ideas to be learned? Do they help students think about the content and how it fits into other contexts? 2. Sort your questions by assigning a “C” for Course, “U” for Unit, and “L” for Lesson level. Use the Critical Questions Checklist to help you determine the level of a question. Critical Questions Level of Question (C, U, or L) *Refer to The Course Organizer Routine and The Unit Organizer Routine guidebooks for more detailed information about creating critical questions. © 2008 KUCRL & Teachscape, Inc.