Literacy-Based Intervention Examples: Strategy Focused

Professionals working with older students with language/ literacy-based disorders often use the term “strategy” (or “strategies”) to define what they do with their students. One often hears remarks like: “My clinical strategy is to…” or “The strategies I use to motivate students include...” Indeed, there is an understanding among professionals that there is an organized “method” to how they approach students in their care. But beyond intuition and good intentions, what are the research-based components to “strategic language intervention" and how are they operationalized? For course three, we will review the distinctions among language knowledge, skills, and strategies from chapters one and two with examples of the interactions that occur. We will provide an in-depth look at three research-based strategy categories: (1) Goal-directed strategies, (2) Monitor and repair strategies, and (3) Packaging strategies. Throughout the discussion, the role of strategic abilities will be discussed within the context of spoken and written comprehension and the disciplinary literacies of academic subjects. Examples of specific techniques will be provided in each area (mentioned above) with a focus on helping students become independent learners. The role of self-talk, and the importance of language competence in this process of becoming an independent learner, will be explored. We will highlight ways of helping students utilize and apply strategies learned to different situations (or content-area subjects). The overriding importance of metacognitive ability, introduced in the previous chapter, will be addressed.