Your learning journey
About this course
Most students don’t struggle with reading because they can’t read—they struggle because they don’t know how to approach complex texts. In this course, you’ll learn how to teach students to read strategically, so they can navigate nonfiction texts with purpose, confidence, and clarity. By moving beyond merely assigning texts, you will learn to provide the direct, systematic teaching students need to bridge the gap between their current abilities and the skills required by content-area standards. You will introduce strategies as temporary scaffolds—practical, transferable “how-to” actions that demystify the reading process until they become an automatic part of a student’s internal thinking.
You’ll encounter practical, research-backed strategies that help students identify and use text features—like headings, images, captions, and structure—as tools for comprehension. We will focus on how vocabulary, structure, and ideas act as interconnected elements, teaching students to navigate the “blueprints” of a text to reduce cognitive overwhelm. Along the way, we’ll focus on making thinking visible by fostering metacognition, encouraging students to “think about their thinking” so they can monitor their own understanding and solve reading problems independently. This approach moves students beyond literal retelling toward active meaning-making and deeper inference.
By the end of the course, you’ll have ready-to-use strategies and resources that help students read more intentionally, understand more deeply, and actually get something out of the texts you assign.
And remember, every teacher has the power to be a literacy teacher!
Details
Includes
Shareable PD Certificate
Aligned With
Assessment Types
Course accessibility
What you’ll learn
Master Core Concepts
- Define nonfiction with a focus on classroom application.
- Explain the benefits of integrating reading comprehension into your teaching practice.
Develop Skills
- Evaluate a range of literacy frameworks and protocols.
- Acquire hands-on experience through practical exercises designed for your classroom context.
Apply Your Skills in Context
- Design impactful lessons that support reading comprehension.
- Learn how to implement and assess reading comprehension in line with curriculum goals and learning objectives.
Demonstrate Your Learning
- Complete assessments that demonstrate your new capabilities and document your progress.
- Receive feedback from your peers and leverage a diverse range of supplementary resources.
Skills you’ll gain
Strategies & frameworks you’ll encounter
Reflection moments
Our moments echo our methodology—these are a ‘pause’, and take the focus temporarily away from the core content of the course to think deeply on the details—but are nevertheless connected to the subject matter.
Think²
Pause and examine your assumptions. These moments encourage you to question what you think you know and consider alternative perspectives on the topic.
Think² Shared
Consider your students’ perspectives and experiences. These moments focus on understanding how learners process and engage with civil discourse concepts.
Literacy
Connect course content to broader reading and research. Literacy moments bridge theory and practice through curated texts and scholarly resources.
Ready to transform the way students engage with nonfiction texts?
Join educators building the skills to strengthen literacy and primary source analysis in their classrooms.
Modules
This introductory module orients you to the course’s main objectives, which include shifting from simply assigning texts to providing direct, systematic teaching of reading strategies. You will meet your host, experienced educator, Rebekah O’Dell, explore accessibility features like audio versions and closed captions, and understand how to navigate the course content.
This module establishes the rationale for strategy instruction by distinguishing between skills and strategies. You will explore how simple, transferable strategies act as temporary scaffolds to demystify the reading process and strengthen student meta-cognition.
Focused on practical application, this module teaches you to evaluate text accessibility based on content relevance, reading level, length, and student engagement. You will learn how to enhance less-than-perfect texts through differentiation, audio supports, and in-text modifications like chunking and adding definitions.
Recognizing that vocabulary is the best predictor of comprehension, this module addresses the spectrum of word knowledge students possess. You will master three specific strategies—Brainstorm Key Words, Peruse Proper Nouns, and Collect + Explore Word Gaps—to help students move from basic recognition to nuanced understanding.
This module teaches students to read the “blueprints” of a text to reduce cognitive overwhelm and anticipate an author’s argument. You will implement strategies like Use Text Structure Clues, Map the Structure, and DTR (Define the Relationship) to help students use signal words and headings as navigational guides.
In this module, you will learn to help students move beyond literal retelling to active meaning-making and inference. By using strategies such as Reading with Questions, Topic → Main Idea, and Most Important Sentence, you will provide students with tools to distinguish major concepts from minor supporting details.
The final module addresses the unique hurdles of primary sources, including archaic language, missing context, and writer’s bias. You will practice specialized strategies like Build a DEEP Context Collection, Process Perspectives, and Translate Language, culminating in a final project where you create a comprehensive Text Guide for your own classroom.
Here you will prepare for the narrative assessment, which is the final step before course completion.
Course resources
Course Feedback Survey
Help us improve! Please complete this anonymous survey once you have finished the course. We’d love to hear from you!
A microcourse is a short, focused learning experience designed to be completed in manageable segments — so you can fit professional development into your actual schedule, not just your PD days.
Course length varies, but most microcourses are designed to be completed in five hours — and you can pause and return whenever it works for you.
All courses are developed by teachers in collaboration with William & Mary faculty researchers, museum professionals, and other experts. Courses are grounded in learning science and backed by William & Mary’s decades of leadership in civic education. Content is designed to be rigorous and immediately applicable in the classroom.
Five courses are available for free during the public beta:Artifact Analysis, Civil Discourse, History Inquiry, Nonfiction Reading Strategies, and Podcasting in the Classroom. More courses will be added soon.
When you complete a lilyPD course, you’ll receive a downloadable certificate worth 5 hours of professional development, accredited by William & Mary’s School of Education.
We ensure all our courses meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). This includes:
- Behind the scenes: semantic HTML, full keyboard (tab) navigation, and screen-reader compatibility.
- In the user experience: transcripts for non-text content, ALT text for images, and clear, comprehensible site navigation.
If you have concerns or suggestions for how we can improve our accessibility features, we’d love to hear from you. Please email us at lilypd@wm.edu with the subject line “Accessibility.”
Discover more courses
Continue your professional development journey with these related courses.
The Horizon of Independence
As the first course in our three-part series on the American Revolution, the Horizon of Independence helps educators deepen their understanding of early America and the build up to the American Revolution (1607-1776) by exploring inquiry-driven, primary source-based strategies for teaching the complexities and enduring significance of the founding of the United States of America.
Artifact Analysis
Transform your classroom into a site of active, inquiry-driven discovery with this course on artifact analysis. Use artifacts as dynamic evidence that empowers students to question, interpret, and debate history. Through a focus on culturally responsive teaching and practical sourcing—including museum digital collections and 3D printing—you will gain the tools to make history feel tangible and engaging for every learner.
Civil Discourse in the Classroom
Transform your classroom into a microcosm of democracy with this course which positions civil discourse as a foundational teaching tool, proven to enhance content knowledge and literacy skills for all students. You will develop a diverse toolkit of strategies to guide students through complex conversations with academic rigor and emotional safety. In the processes, you will equip them with lifelong skills: the ability to listen deeply, reason together, and disagree constructively and respectfully.
Podcasting for Educators
You don’t need to be a technical wizard to run excellent podcast projects with your students. This course covers the basics — from using podcasts to deepen learning, to guiding students through creating their own — enhancing engagement, deepening learning, and developing your students’ listening skills along the way.
Historical Inquiry in the Classroom
This course provides social studies educators with the practical tools and structures needed to shift from delivering a set of information to facilitating deep, student-led investigation. You will walk away with a comprehensive plan and ready-to-use resources that make meaningful research a daily reality in your classroom, ensuring every student has the skills to analyze information and thoughtfully develop their own conclusions.
Nonfiction Reading Strategies
Pull back the curtain on the reading process by equipping your students with a permanent toolbox of practical strategies to navigate any text with purpose, confidence, and clarity. By turning invisible mental work into visible, repeatable routines, you will empower your students to move beyond literal retelling and start making real meaning from everything they read.
