Literacy for ME - Resources

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Literacy Campaigns

  • Read to ME Challenge
    Read to ME Challenge raises awareness campaign to promote childhood literacy in Maine.

  • Summer Literacy - Read to Ride
    To keep Maine kids learning throughout the summer, the Maine Department of Education has teamed up with a variety of partners to offer exciting and fun resources to help students retain the literacy skills they gained this past school year while ramping up their skills for next fall.
    Go to the Summer Literacy web page

Literacy for ME Brochures & Info Sheets

This collection of brochures describes literacy development at different points in time along the birth-to-adult continuum and provides suggestions for ways in which parents and community members can support literacy learning. The brochures include a space for community literacy teams or organizations to include their contact information. The age spans of the brochures include:

Literacy for ME Informational Videos
Overview

Video: Literacy for ME: An Investment In Maine. This is a one-minute video that provides an overview of the Literacy for ME initiative and its importance to Maine’s well-being.

Supporting Literacy 

Three-part series of informational videos (3 min. each) that describe literacy development at different times and present ways parents and community members can support literacy education efforts.

Community Literacy Team Resource Collection

A cornerstone of the Literacy for ME plan is the Maine Department of Education's commitment to assisting local Maine communities in developing their comprehensive literacy plans. 

The first step is for communities to establish their literacy planning teams. The Maine DOE encourages Maine schools or school systems to take the lead by forming a team representative of their community.  Community partners are urged to contact school systems if interested in serving on or leading a team. 

    Community Literacy Planning Tool Collection

    To assist Community Literacy Teams with constructing and implementing a comprehensive literacy plan, the Maine DOE has compiled a collection of tools to support the different phases of the planning process. The tools are organized by phase and include a brief description of their use. 

    Comprehensive Community Literacy Planning Guide

    • Literacy for ME Regional Community Literacy Workshop. The PowerPoint used in workshops presented to introduce the Literacy for ME initiative and to assist communities in beginning to develop comprehensive literacy plans. (PPT, 7.85MB | PDF, 1.1MB) 
    • Literacy for ME Workshop Materials Packet (DOC) is a collection of activities utilized in the regional workshops for community literacy teams.
    • 2012 Legacies Now Community Literacy Planning Guide is a comprehensive community literacy planning guide based on the 2010 Legacies Now Community Literacy initiative in British Columbia, Canada.
    • Simple Steps: A Workbook to Help You Plan a Community Literacy Project (PDF) is a workbook that walks through the steps involved in planning a specific community literacy project. Concepts can be easily transferred to community literacy plan development.

    Literacy Team Formation

    View this web page which covers the following topics: 

    • Potential Community Literacy Team Members. A list of ideas for potential community members to include on a Community Literacy Team. 
    • Norms for Team Work. A list of generic norms for Community Literacy Team work. 
    • Initial Meeting Guidance. A list of key questions to address during the initial Community Literacy Team meetings as well as a planning checklist for these meetings.
    • Literacy Reflections Introductory Activity. An opening activity for team members that encourages them to connect with a quote about literacy and share that connection with other team members.
    • Spheres of Influence. This activity helps team members define their individual roles related to the Literacy for ME initiative and how their roles can contribute.

    Developing a Vision

    • View this link to a list of 4 activities teams can use to develop their vision for community literacy. 

    Community Literacy Profiles & Inventories

    • Literacy for ME Needs Assessment (DOC, 269 KB). A comprehensive tool for conducting a community literacy profile and inventory of literacy resources. 
    • 2010 Legacies Now Asset Inventory (XLS). Tools for organizing literacy assets and for examining them to determine literacy strength and needs within the community.

    Goal Setting

    • Consensus-Building Activity (RTF, 84KB). This activity helps teams determine the priority goals for their community literacy plan.
    • Mind Maps (PDF, 95KB). This activity is a process for developing objectives that support the goals of the community literacy plan.

    Action Planning

    • Literacy for ME Community Literacy Action Planning Template (DOC). An action planning template for community literacy teams to use to craft their plans.
    • Literacy for ME Community Literacy Matrices. A tool that maps out key steps to engage in across the development and implementation of a comprehensive literacy plan. The matrices are organized by essential components of comprehensive literacy planning.
    • Decoda Literacy Solutions. A wide range of community literacy team planning resources developed in British Columbia, Canada. Sample community action plans can be viewed.

    Additional Resources for Community Literacy Teams/Community Members

    • Community Literacy Partners. (RTF, 130KB) This is a listing of organizations in Maine that can serve as partners on community literacy teams and/or provide support to community literacy teams.
    • Literacy Resources Guide for Parents and Community. Listing of online links to literacy-related organizations at the state and national level. Through these organizations, a variety of literacy-related information and resources can be obtained.

     

    General Literacy Resources

    High-Quality, Evidence-Based Literacy Instruction (PDF, 309KB) is a guidance document for Maine school administrative units that outlines the tenets to which high-quality early literacy programming (Pre-k to Grade 3) should be aligned.

    By the Numbers (PDF, 508KB) is a collection of Maine-related literacy data and data resources organized by age/grade spans. 

    Sample Literacy Learning Targets

    Progression of literacy learning targets for age/grade spans from birth to adult, written in less technical terms than standards documents.