The Literacy Connection

Dear Educators,

I’m thrilled to welcome you to our 2025–2026 county-wide literacy newsletter series, where our focus for the year is vocabulary—the cornerstone of reading comprehension and academic success across all content areas. Over the course of four issues, we’ll dig deep into powerful strategies to build word-rich classrooms and support every student in becoming a confident, curious word learner.

For those just reading for the first time, my name is Joy Kamp, the Literacy Instructional Coach for Will County. I am passionate about supporting all of our incredible teachers, instructional coaches, and literacy leaders, as we work together to empower every student with strong literacy skills. If you’re wondering more about what I do, please check out the “Deliverables” section of this newsletter.

The purpose of this newsletter is to create a shared space and community where we can learn, grow, and celebrate literacy together. Each issue will offer practical strategies, highlight the amazing work happening in our schools, and feature a trivia question with a chance to win a $25 Amazon gift card—just a small way to say thank you for the big work you do every day.

This year’s theme is Vocabulary Matters, and we’ll spend our four main issues diving into these topics:

• September/October Issue: Launching a Word-Rich Year

Unpack the standards for foundational vocabulary knowledge and easy-to-implement routines for creating a classroom where words are seen, heard, and used.

• November/December Issue: Explicit Vocabulary Instruction

Strategies That Work – Best practices for teaching vocabulary directly and effectively.

• January/February Issue: Vocabulary in Context

Developing Word Learning Through Reading and Talk – How to grow vocabulary through reading, conversation, and morphology.

• March/April Issue: The Language of Learning

Teaching Academic Vocabulary Across the Day - How to create a culture of vocabulary through implementing vocabulary instruction throughout all content areas.

I’ll also wrap up the year with a brief final issue celebrating your dedication and sharing key takeaways.

Because I truly value this space to collaborate, I am always open for suggestions. If there is a research-based resource you have seen success with or other helpful recommendations, please don’t hesitate to reach out. Below you will find an easy suggestion form to fill out.

I look forward to partnering with you this year and celebrating the incredible literacy work happening throughout our county!

Happy Reading,

Joy Kamp

Literacy Instructional Coach

jkamp@willroe.org

Missed last month’s issue? Click here to read it.

Vocabulary is the collection of words we use to communicate—both in speaking and writing.

From our earliest conversations as children (our brains are wired for speech), vocabulary begins to grow through spoken interactions and continues to develop across all stages of learning.

Effective vocabulary instruction helps students not only learn new words but also understand their meanings, how to use them, and how they relate to other words.

A strong vocabulary is essential for reading comprehension, expressing ideas clearly, and engaging in higher-level thinking. It also supports the development of background knowledge and the ability to understand more complex texts.

Vocabulary should never be taught in isolation. Instead, it should be woven into what students are reading, writing, and speaking. We want to not only encourage students to be curious about words and their meaning, but also use those words in their everyday language through scaffolding and modeling.

But what does this look like in your classroom?

Integrate key vocabulary into daily learning through both teacher-led and child-centered activities.

Instruction Looks Like:

🔑Intentional Integration: Choose key vocabulary for each unit and weave it into both teacher-led and play-based activities.

🧑‍🏫 Scaffold Throughout the Day: Use visuals, technology, real objects, and gestures to support word learning based on student needs.

🏠 Partner with Families: Share focus words with families to encourage vocabulary practice at home and in everyday routines.

In the elementary years, vocabulary instruction should focus on building a strong foundation for language and literacy through meaningful interaction, direct teaching, and word exploration.

Instruction Looks Like:

🗣️ Build Through Interaction: Support vocabulary growth through conversation, reading, and active learning.

🔍 Deepen Word Knowledge: Teach word meanings and how to use them, making connections between familiar and new words.

🌎 Introduce Word Structure: Begin exploring prefixes, suffixes, and word origins to build a foundation for decoding and comprehension.

In middle school, vocabulary instruction deepens to include word structure, contextual learning, and exposure to a wide range of texts to support students’ growing comprehension and academic language skills.

Instruction Looks Like:

🔠 Advanced Word Knowledge: Focus on word origins, prefixes, suffixes, and basic morphology to build understanding of complex vocabulary.

🔍 Contextual Learning: Teach students to infer the meaning of new words using context clues to strengthen comprehension and word use.

📚 Diverse Reading: Provide a variety of reading materials across subjects to broaden vocabulary and content knowledge

High school vocabulary instruction focuses on refining advanced word knowledge, using context clues for complex texts, and applying sophisticated vocabulary to express nuanced ideas essential for college and career readiness.

Instruction Looks Like:

📖 Advanced Vocabulary Instruction: Engage with challenging texts and deliberate study of academic vocabulary.

🔍 Sophisticated Context Clues: Teach students to decode and understand complex words through context clues.

🗣️ Complex Idea Expression: Encourage the use of advanced vocabulary to communicate intricate concepts clearly and effectively.

Before we dive into explicit vocabulary instruction, it’s important to pause and look closely at our grade-level standards. Standards are broadly written and packed with academic language that often carries layers of meaning. If we don’t slow down to unpack them, it’s easy to miss the key words and concepts central to comprehension and mastery. Remember, it’s not about words in isolation, but rather the academic concepts students must truly understand.

When we take the time to unpack standards, we can:

• Spot the “must-know” words that unlock the standard.
  
  

• Connect vocabulary directly to the learning goal, so it’s not just word work—it’s meaningful word work.
  
  

• Make expectations clearer for students--turning big, complex language into student-friendly terms.
  
  

Quick Examples:

• 5th Grade Reading Literature Standard: Craft and Structure “Explain how a series of chapters, scenes, or stanzas fits together to provide the overall structure of a particular story, drama, or poem.” CC.5.R.L.5
  → Must-know vocabulary: chapter, scene, stanza, structure, overall, drama, poem.
  → Explicitly teaching these words gives students the language to analyze and explain texts with confidence.
  
  

• Science (6th Grade NGSS Standard): “Develop a model to describe the cycling of Earth’s materials and the flow of energy that drives this process.”
  → Must-know vocabulary: model, cycling, materials, energy, process.
  → Explicitly teaching these terms equips students to talk about scientific concepts using precise academic language.
  
  

The benefit? Vocabulary instruction feels purposeful, cross-curricular, and directly tied to the learning goals. Students gain the tools they need to read, write, and talk like experts in every subject.

Before asking students to write using new academic vocabulary, give them sentence frames to practice speaking the words in context. Speaking opportunities help students build confidence and fluency with the terms, which makes their writing stronger.

When having students talk in pairs or small groups, explicitly tell them what their conversation should look and sound like by using sentence frames:

• ELA Example: “The [chapter/scene/stanza] is important to the text’s structure because it [shows a new event, introduces a character, builds tension, etc.]. This helps the story [move forward/make sense/connect the parts together].”

  🔑 This makes “text structure” less abstract—students practice saying what the structure does in a story.

• Science Example: “The model shows that energy moves through the system by [cycling materials, transferring heat, etc.], which explains how [the Earth system continues to function/change over time].”
  
  

Giving students these supports creates a bridge between knowing a word and using it to communicate big ideas, so they can talk--and eventually write--about difficult concepts.

Next newsletter, we will focus on best practices, what to avoid, and how to effectively teach vocabulary to make it meaningful to our instructions and to our students.

ISBE released an article on Wednesday, August 13th, 2025. Here are the highlights:

What Changed:

• The Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) has adopted new, research-based proficiency benchmarks to better reflect students’ academic achievement and college readiness.
  

• Previous benchmarks were misaligned—too high in English/Math and too low in Science—leading to inaccurate labels of student performance.
  
  

Why It Matters:

• Old benchmarks mislabeled many capable students as “not proficient,” causing missed opportunities for advanced coursework and misrepresenting readiness for college/career.
  

• New benchmarks are aligned with real college and career success data (such as ACT placement and course completion).
  

• Families, educators, and policymakers will now receive clearer, more consistent, and more accurate data about student achievement.
  
  

Key Updates:

• Assessments themselves remain unchanged—only the cut scores (performance levels) were adjusted.
  

• New four-level system now used consistently across all state tests:
  

• Above Proficient
  

• Proficient
  

• Approaching Proficient
  

• Below Proficient
  
  

• Benchmarks align both horizontally (across subjects) and vertically (across grade levels) to give a clearer picture of learning progression.
  

• Proficiency rates will look different beginning in 2025 because of the recalibration.
  
  

How They Got There:

• 18-month statewide engagement process with educators, parents, policymakers, and experts.
  

• Involved conferences, listening tours, teacher input on test difficulty, and analysis of Illinois college data.
  

• Guided and validated by independent experts to ensure accuracy and fairness.
  
  

Impact Going Forward:

• School districts will preview how this impacts their 2025 testing data soon.
  

• Parents/guardians will see the new levels on spring 2025 score reports.
  

• Public reporting begins October 30, 2025, on the Illinois Report Card.
  

• The new system will launch in 2026.

You can read the full article here.

Written by Isabel L. Beck, Margaret G. McKeown, and Linda Kucan

This practical, research-based guide has helped hundreds of thousands of K–12 teachers build students’ vocabulary through engaging, effective instruction. It provides strategies for selecting words, teaching meanings, and designing activities that strengthen both word knowledge and reading comprehension.

With lessons, vignettes, literature suggestions, and a downloadable Study Guide, it serves as a valuable classroom, professional development, or course resource.

The new edition adds chapters on writing, assessment, and differentiated instruction for struggling readers and English learners, expands content-area and multiple-meaning word coverage, and includes updated examples and an instructional activities appendix.

Click here for link

Written by Maryanne Wolf

In this thought-provoking book, neuropsychologist Maryann Wolf explores how humans learn to read and write, tracing the evolution of written language alongside a child’s development. She examines why many struggle with literacy and how reading has reshaped both the brain and society.

Through vivid examples and personal anecdotes, Wolf contrasts the ancient brain that first read Sumerian tablets with today’s technology-driven mind, raising questions about the future of literacy in an increasingly visual world.

Click here for link

Written by Maryanne Wolf

In Reader, Come Home, Maryanne Wolf follows up her acclaimed Proust and the Squid with a powerful examination of how digital technologies are reshaping the reading brain and our capacity for deep thinking, empathy, and reflection.

Written as a series of letters, the book blends research, literature, and personal insight to explore the challenges of sustaining critical, reflective reading in a world of constant distraction. Wolf raises urgent questions about how children and adults alike can preserve deep reading processes while adapting to digital environments, ultimately proposing a vision for a biliterate reading brain.

Click here for link

Last school year, we featured some wonderful schools, districts, teachers, and leaders who are doing amazing work! We want to continue that same momentum this year.

Do you know a teacher, school, or district that’s doing amazing work to promote literacy? We want to celebrate and recognize those who are making a difference with reading and writing. Whether it’s innovative classroom strategies, a literacy event, creative student engagement, or data-driven results, we’re looking for inspiring examples to feature in our next issue.*

Submit your nominations by October 24th to be featured in the November/December issue.

Let’s shine a light on the incredible efforts happening across our community!

*Don’t worry, I will always ask for your permission before being featured.

My Mission

I believe in creating positive, collaborative, and trustworthy environments that support the unique needs of each district. My goal is always to do what’s best for students by providing continuous, purposeful support that empowers educators and strengthens literacy instruction at every level.

Here is a list of deliverables I offer to support schools, educators, and students across the county. From personalized professional development to curriculum audits and instructional coaching, my goal is to build capacity, strengthen literacy instruction, and improve outcomes for all learners. Please email me (jkamp@willroe.org) for more information or to schedule a meeting.

The county-wide Instructional Coaches Cohort will continue in the 2025–2026 school year. We will meet four times a year at no cost to participants.

This year we will kick off our time together with a dynamic keynote speaker from Brain Tracks! We look forward to diving into how to help with executive functioning skills.

Last year’s cohort of instructional coaches will meet TWICE throughout the year. In addition, we are opening a new section exclusively for first-year coaches, providing them with four tailored support sessions as they begin their coaching journey.

This cohort provides a collaborative space for instructional coaches to connect, share best practices, explore current research, and engage in professional learning aligned to district goals.

All sessions--old and new are designed to be practical, interactive, and responsive to the evolving needs of coaches across the county. Together, we work to strengthen coaching practices and improve instructional outcomes for all students.

See the flyer below for a breakdown of all meeting dates.

All meetings are held from 9 am to 11 am at the EISC suite #207

Click here to register for this free networking cohort.

It’s that time again! Put your literacy smarts to the test (or Google 😃) with the Brain Buster trivia question. Each issue features a fun and challenging question related to books, authors, or the wonders of language.

Participants will be entered into a random drawing for a $25 Amazon gift card (sent to the winner's email)!

Submit the Google Form below by October 24th to be entered into this issue's drawing:

Here’s this month’s question:

Q: What is the term for the complete set of vocabulary used in a language or by a particular person or group?

Good luck!

Joy Kamp: jkamp@willroe.org

Issue 1: January/February 2025

Issue 2: March/April 2025

Issue 3: May 2025