The Literacy Club (Effective Instruction and Intervention for Linguistically Diverse Learners)

An Asset-Based Approach
This step-by-step guide prepares teachers to support the literacy development of linguistically diverse learners at school. The Literacy Club provides effective instruction and intervention for language learners in English and/or Spanish. K-5 teachers learn to use a wide range of tools, resources, and strategies that accelerate literacy development, and to continuously monitor their students’ progress in oracy, literacy, and metacognition.

The Literacy Club is a Tier 2 or intermediate intervention for small groups of language learners who struggle with literacy, and it has been field-tested in English as an additional language (EAL) and dual language/bilingual contexts. The Literacy Club draws on elements from Reading Recovery (Clay, 2013), Guided Reading (Fountas & Pinnell, 2010), Literacy Squared (Escamilla et al, 2014), and the SIOP model (Echevarria, Vogt, & Short, 2012), and it addresses state content and English language development standards. Henn-Reinke and Yang show teachers how to adapt and implement the Literacy Club for K-5 students in their schools.

Three Strands for Diverse Language Learners

• The advancing bilingual strand is for students in bilingual programs who have a strong foundation in Spanish oracy.
• The emerging bilingual strand is for students in dual language programs who are just developing Spanish oracy.
• The English as an additional language strand is for students in English-medium classrooms who are learning English as an additional language for academic purposes at school.

Schools/districts may choose to implement any or all of these strands, depending on their student needs and instructional resources.