Lit Booster

Support literacy skills gaps in your classroom by generating research-backed reading materials tailored to your students’ reading levels and interests.

1. Lit Booster basics

What is Lit Booster?

Lit Booster is an AI-powered classroom application that makes it easier for teachers to find expert-vetted instructional strategies that effectively address reading skills gaps for their students.

Lit Booster was created by Render, the edtech innovation studio at the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. 

What literacy skills can Lit Booster help with?

Lit Booster is focused on helping to develop reading skills, specifically:

• Comprehension: The ability to understand and make meaning from what has been read using background knowledge, decoding skills, vocabulary, and critical thinking strategies.

• Fluency: The ability to read with accuracy, speed, and expression.

• Phonological awareness: The ability to hear and manipulate sounds in words.

• Phonics: The relationships between letters and sounds.

• Vocabulary: Knowing the meaning of words.

How were the strategies in Lit Booster created?

The strategies found in Lit Booster come from a variety of evidence-based instructional sources found in the What Works Clearinghouse library. Research reports were distilled down to what you need to quickly and effectively implement the strategies in your classroom. Each strategy includes a link to its source if you would like to read the full reports. 

What are the steps for using Lit Booster?

1. Browse strategies that target the literacy skill you want to help your students develop. Select a strategy.

2. Read through the strategy, and click Create materials to generate a text passage or word list to go with the strategy.

3. Use the materials with your students.

2. Lit Booster strategies

What is a strategy in Lit Booster?

In Lit Booster, a strategy supplements core instruction with extra support. The strategies are teacher-facing, and target specific instructional moves; they are not full lesson plans with worksheets. 

Strategies may be appropriate for use with the whole class, small groups, or individual students. Some strategies consist of a one-time activity you can use with students who need help with a lesson or concept; others are appropriate for interventions that cover several weeks.

What are “evidence-based” strategies?

All strategies in Lit Booster are evidence-based and come from What Works Clearninghouse.

An evidence-based strategy has undergone controlled testing and systematic evaluation by education experts to determine its effectiveness on a large scale. 

Evidence-based strategies must:

• show comparable results with similar interventions;

• demonstrate improvements in the target areas;

• use repeatable methods; and

• show that results hold statistical significance.

3. Information on tiers and grade-levels 

What do the tier tags mean in strategy overviews?

Strategies are tagged based on the Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS).

Tiers in Lit Booster:

• Tier 1 - Supports: Something you might add to a lesson as part of your differentiated instruction for the whole class or a few students. These may be sufficient for 75-90% of students. 

• Tier 2 - Targeted interventions: Strategies you might use for a student or group of students who need support to address specific skills gaps over a period of time. These may be sufficient for  10-25% of students. 

• Tier 3 - Intensive interventions: Strategies used with students who are still struggling with material after a period of group instruction at Tier 2. This includes smaller groups or individual instruction with more explicit focus on specific skills. These may be sufficient for about 10% of students.

  We understand MTSS tiers can vary from school to school—a Tier 2 intervention in one school may be Tier 1 in another. That's why some strategies in Lit Booster are tagged as applicable to two tier levels. You know your school setting best, so choose the level you think is appropriate.

Do you offer strategies for all tiers?

Currently, Lit Booster is focused primarily on Tier 2 reading strategies.

What does the grade level tag in the strategy descriptions mean? 

This is the grade level the student is currently in. If you are working with a student in Grade 6 who is reading at a Grade 4 level, look for strategies that say they are appropriate for Grade 6.

How is the reading level of a text or word list determined?

Teachers can choose a grade level to indicate the student’s current reading level.

The reading level corresponds to the target reading level for a student in the specified grade at mid-year. You can increase the reading level up or down ½ a year at a time by adjusting your results with the Less challenging and More challenging buttons.

For example, if a Grade 5 student is reading at a Grade 3 level, use Grade 3 for the reading level, and then adjust as necessary.

4. Customizing lessons

How do I tailor the reading materials for my students?

After selecting a strategy and reading through it, click Create materials to generate a text passage or word list to go with the strategy. In the Topic field, enter a subject you’re currently talking about in class, one of your students’ interests, a book, or a specific chapter of a book that your class is reading.   

If you are looking for inspiration or ideas to explain the topic, click Show an example, and an example topic will appear in the field. Try this a few times to get a feel for different ways you can word your topic, and to see what types of passages are generated.

Never include any personal information that could be used to identify anyone.

What are my options for adjusting the materials I create?

1. Recreate it from scratch: By clicking Recreate it, new material will be created based on your parameters.

2. Alter the length of content: If a passage or word list is too long or too short, click Shorter or Longer below the text to adjust it. 

3. Adjust the reading difficulty: By default the reading level of the material you create is set to the level a student should be reading by mid-year in the grade you specify. The Less challenging button will decrease the reading level to what a student is expected to read at the beginning of the year, and the More challenging button increases the reading level to what a student is expected to be able to read at the end of that grade.

4. Edit it directly: Copy the text or word list, paste it in your own document and edit it.

5. Using the lessons with your students

How do I share the materials created in Lit Booster?

• Copy and paste the materials you create to your preferred document editor for your Learning Management System (LMS).

6. Creating student materials with Generative Artificial Intelligence (gen AI)

How does Lit Booster leverage gen AI?

Lit Booster strategies include student material suggestions. Since each student has unique needs, Lit Booster uses artificial intelligence to help you create customizable word lists, passages, and questions. This feature was co-created with curriculum and reading experts to help ensure we meet the needs of your classroom.

These student materials are created on-demand. You can adjust them to meet your student’s grade level, reading level, current lesson topics, or a student's interests.

Lit Booster uses a tool called OpenAI to generate the student materials you’ll see. For more information, please submit a ticket. 

What are best practices for prompting gen AI in Lit Booster? 

Never enter personal information, and always review the student materials that are created for accuracy and appropriateness.

7. Additional Resources

Glossary 

• Multi-tiered Systems of Support (MTSS): MTSS is a framework that schools use to identify and provide support for students with academic and behavioral needs, including reading. 

• Tiers: MTSS is often represented as a three-tiered pyramid or triangle, with each tier representing a level of prevention or support. Strategies are tagged with Tier levels. 

• Strategies: Lit Booster strategies supplement core reading instruction with extra support. The strategies are teacher-facing, and target specific instructional moves; they are not full lesson plans with worksheets. 

• Skill: Skills are key competencies students need to develop in order to read at grade level. Our library currently consists of strategies that cover comprehension, fluency, phonological awareness, phonics, and vocabulary.