“Every student deserves a great teacher,

not by chance, but by design” -Hattie

VISIBLE LEARNING FOR LITERACY

By: Ali Hendrickson
 10 MIND FRAMES FOR TEACHERS
1. I cooperate with other teachers
2. I use dialogue, not monologue
3. I set the challenge
4. I talk about learning, not teaching
5. I inform all about the language of learning
6. I see learning as hard work
7. Assessment is feedback about me
8. I am a change agent
9. I am an evaluator
10. I develop positive relationships

https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=49&v=5WSTcVDwH3s
CHAPTER 1: LAYING THE GROUNDWORK
FOR VISIBLE LEARNING FOR LITERACY
Effect Size: Represent the magnitude of the difference for many influences on
teaching.
An effect size of d=0.0 no change in achievement related to the intervention
An effect size of d=1.0 indicates an increase of one standard deviation on the
outcome (reading achievement) and is associated with advancing children’s
achievement by two to three years
LEARNING DEFINED: THE THREE PHASE MODEL
Transfer: Learning one concept and
applying it in another, applying new
learning to new situations
Deep: Learning in order to
understand; learning what the
“signs” signify
Surface: Learning in order to
reproduce; learning the “signs”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8QfkT8L9lo
LITERACY LEARNING PRACTICES
1 CHALLENGE
2 SELF-EFFICACY
3 LEARNING INTENTIONS WITH SUCCESS CRITERIA
1. Challenge: Students appreciate challenge. They expect to work hard to achieve
success in school and life. When tasks are too easy, students get bored. When tasks
become too difficult, students get frustrated. There is a sweet spot for learning, but the
problem is that it differs for different students.

•Learning Intention: Surface, Deep, or Transfer

•Student-to-Student Interaction
•Feedback
2. Self-Efficacy: belief in one’s capabilities to achieve goals.
Descriptors of students with high self-efficacy:
•Understand complex tasks as challenges rather than trying to avoid them
•Experience failure as opportunities to learn, which may require additional
effort, information, support time, and so on
•Quickly recover a sense of confidence after setbacks

Descriptors of students with low self-efficacy:

•Avoid complex and difficult tasks (seen as personal threats)
•Maintain weak commitment to goals
•Experience failure as a personal deficiency
•Slowly recover a sense of confidence after setbacks
3. Learning intentions with success criteria: Teacher clarity about learning
expectations including the ways students can demonstrate their understanding.
CHAPTER 2: SURFACE
Why is Surface Learning essential?
LITERACY LEARNING
Surface learning sets the necessary foundation for the deepening knowledge and transfer that
will come later. The caveat: teaching for transfer must occur. Too often learning ends at the
surface level, as up to 90% of instructional time is devoted to conveying facts and procedures.
Subphases: Acquisition and Consolidation
Acquisition: is to help students summarize and outline the topic of study
Consolidation: leads to a second facet of learning which is accomplished through practice
testing and receiving feedback.
Acquisition of Literacy Learning Made Visible
•Leveraging prior knowledge
•Phonics and direct instruction
•Vocabulary instruction
•Reading comprehension in context
 CHAPTER 3: DEEP LITERACY LEARNING
Moving From Surface to Deep
Surface learners are described as relying on memorization and concerned about failure, they
are risk-averse. Deep learners, seek to interact with content and ideas, and actively link
concepts and knowledge across content.
Two Periods: Deep Acquisition and Deep Consolidation
While the purpose of surface learning is to expose students to and embed knowledge, the
goal of deep learning is to foster self-regulation and self-talk. These two behaviors are
critical for anyone moving toward greater expertise.
Deep Acquisition of Literacy Learning Made Visible: Concept Mapping, Discussion and
Questioning, Close Reading
Deep Consolidation of Literacy Learning Made Visible: Metacognitive Strategies, Reciprocal
Teaching, Feedback to the Learner

“Learners who are resilient can come back from failures and incorporate challenges into their growing sense
of who they are.” -Hattie
 CHAPTER 4: TEACHING LITERACY FOR TRANSFER
Moving From Deep Learning to Transfer
Transfer means that we want students to begin taking the reins of their own learning as
they deepen their own knowledge. Transfer is also a mechanism for learning such that
students acquire, consolidate, and deepen their own knowledge as they move forward
and continue to learn. Transfer occurs through surface and deep learning.
Types of Transfer: Near and Far
Near Transfer: when the novel situation is paired closely with a learned situation. For
example, a young child learning sight words has been able to recognize these words in
isolation on flash cards, but now can identify specific words in running text.
Far Transfer: The learner is able to make connections between more seemingly remote
situations. For example, when a student is able to consistently and correctly use the word
where in their original writing.
CHAPTER 4 CONT.
The Paths for Transfer: Low-Road Hugging and High-Road Bridging
Low-Road Transfer: Growing automaticity and corresponding decrease in the amount
of conscious attention needed. In the earlier sight word example, the teacher
employed a “hugging” technique by staying close to the original target, allowing
students to see similarities of sight words across print.
High-Road Transfer: increased challenges by generalizing concepts, including spelling
and writing the word in isolation and later within sentences.
Setting the Conditions for Transfer of Learning
One major condition is relevancy. Learning becomes more meaningful when learners
see what they’re learning as being meaningful in their own lives.
Teaching Students to Organize Conceptual Knowledge: Students Identify
Analogies, Peer Tutoring, Reading Across Documents, Problem-Solving Teaching
Teaching Students to Transform Conceptual Knowledge: Socratic
Seminar, Extended Writing, Time to Investigate and Produce
CHAPTER 5: DETERMINING IMPACT
Responding When the Impact Is Insufficient, and Knowing What Does Not Work
1. Lessons should have clear learning intentions
2. Lessons should have clear success criteria
3. The success criteria indicate what quality looks like
4. Students should know where they stand in relation to the criteria for success

Determining Impact: Preassessment (determine if learning occurred and measured

over time), Postassessment (outcome measure)
•Determines effect size
Responding When There Is Insufficient Impact: Response to
Intervention, Screening, Quality Core Instruction, Progress Monitoring, Supplemental
and Intensive Interventions
Learning From What Doesn’t Work: Grade-Level Retention, Ability
Grouping, Matching Learning Styles With Instruction, Test Prep, Homework
REFERENCES
Fisher, D., Frey, N., & Hattie, J., (2016). Teaching literacy in the visible learning
classroom. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Literacy.