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10 keys to higher literacy achievement : some Dos and don’ts

Learn the essential strategies for improving literacy achievement in students. Provide ample reading and writing instruction, focus on key outcomes, set clear goals, avoid test preparation, encourage extensive reading within instruction, build stamina, require writing about text, teach with complex text, increase knowledge through literacy, and engage students at a high intellectual level.

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10 keys to higher literacy achievement : some Dos and don’ts

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  1. 10 keys to higher literacy achievement: some Dos and don’ts Timothy Shanahan University of Illinois at Chicago www.shanahanonliteracy.com

  2. 1. Provide substantial amount of reading and writing instruction • Students should receive 2-3 hours per day of reading and writing instruction/practice • This time can be spread across the day and even across subject matters • 10,000 hours to be an expert at anything (this provides almost half of that)

  3. 2. focus on key outcomes • This time should be divided among word learning (decoding and meaning), oral reading fluency, reading comprehension, and writing • Teaching of these have all been proven by research to raise achievement consistently • This means that students would receive 90 hours – 135 hours per year working on key aspects of literacy

  4. 3. Be goal focused, Not activity focused • Many teachers organize their instruction around activities • Each of these key outcomes can be translated into learning goals (standards) • Be specific as to what students need to be able to do with assignments and hold them to it (and get them there) • Organize instruction around goals, specify goals in lesson plans, match activities to goals rather than the other way around

  5. 4. Avoid test preparation • Many schools analyze comprehension test data by question-type • Teachers and students spend lots of time on item practice • Standardized reading comprehension tests measure a single factor (Davis, 1944; Kirsch, et al., 1993; Spearritt, 1972) • This is due in part to the nature of reading comprehension • And, in part, to the nature of testing

  6. An example of question types not mattering.

  7. Another example

  8. Evidence test text matters matter?

  9. 5. lots of reading within instruction • Students need to practice their literacy • Much of the fluency time should be spent reading and rereading texts aloud • Much of the reading comprehension time should be spent reading texts silently • Much of the word time should be spent reading words

  10. 6. Build stamina • Most students engage in “conversational activities” very well • But much literacy work is more of a monologue • Can they sustain the conversation themselves (with the text as conversational partner)? • Increase the amounts of reading and writing and reduce the amount of support over time

  11. 7. Require writing about text • Summarization • Analysis • Evaluation • Synthesis • Writing about text is more powerful than reading, reading/studying, reading/discussing

  12. 8. Teach with complex text • When students are starting out, it is important to facilitate “reading” – so keep the texts relatively easy (95% accuracy) and provide a lot of support • From Grade 2 on, teach from more demanding texts (80-85% accuracy), but provide scaffolds and repetition • Teach with texts of varied difficulty • Facilitate student reading of “frustration” texts

  13. 9. literacy should increase knowledge • Much of the focus on reading instruction emphasizes skills, strategies, techniques • However, the content of texts matters, too • It is essential that students increase their knowledge of our cultural heritage, the social world, and the natural world • Do NOT reduce the amount of science, social studies, literature, the arts—but do make sure that literacy is a big part of these subjects

  14. 10. Engage students at a high intellectual level • Literacy activities should involve lots of analysis, critical evaluation, problem solving, and synthesis of ideas • Discussions and written analysis should encourage students to determine what texts say, how the texts work, and the value of texts in relationship to other texts • Students need to learn and practice explaining answers on the basis of text evidence

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