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Beyond beginning literacy Teaching initial literacy, especially initial reading, has always been given most attention in research and teaching. We have often been so concerned with teaching the basics of literacy that we have forgotten what literacy is for.

What is literacy for this 3 year old?

Adult texts are gripping

Key principles Non-fiction accounts for about three quarters of adult reading, And 90% of their writing. Non-fiction texts require different literacy skills. These need to be taught, But they will not be entirely learnt in the early years.

Key features in student literacy Skills and strategies a)How to locate, interact with, and evaluate texts b)How to meet information needs c)How to respond, relate to and engage with texts Wray & Lewis (1997) Extending Literacy, Routledge e.g. Exit model, writing frames, KWL, text restructuring

Key features in student literacy We were convinced, from the evidence we found, that developing student skills and strategies was the key to enhanced literacy. But We were wrong!

Key features in student literacy Skills and strategies are only one part of the story. Research in the US has added a completely new dimension. What we seem to have neglected are the texts themselves that students are asked to read.

ACT (2006) Reading between the lines Reported on the testing of American high school students for their readiness to embark on study at college and University level. A surprising outcome - what differentiated the success of the students was not comprehension skills – looking for the main idea, making inferences, drawing conclusions from evidence, etc. The difference, instead, lay in the abilities of students to successfully read and respond to harder, more complex texts. Those students who could read complex texts were more likely to be ready for college entry. Those who could not read complex texts were less likely to be ready for college. Performance on complex texts was the clearest differentiator in reading between these groups of students.

ACT (2006) Reading between the lines Suggestion was not that a focus on developing reading strategies was redundant. But, rather, it was actually a minor part of what really engendered student success across the curriculum. This, it was argued, was exposure to a range of increasingly challenging texts across the curriculum.

The killer punch! The ACT report revealed the clear and alarming picture that: – that the reading demands of college/University study, of workforce training etc. had remained steady or risen over the previous fifty years, – But the texts used to teach subjects in high school had moved the other way, that is, they had become less demanding.

Caveats Assessing the difficulty levels, or complexity, of texts is fraught with problems. Little comparable evidence about the situation in the UK. But: DfEE Literacy across the Curriculum document (2001) said that “Modern textbook pages contain a plethora of presentational devices: flow charts, drawings, colour coding, bullet points, etc. The written text is condensed and difficult to follow without diagrams. The emphasis on the visual is typical of many modern school textbooks.” (p. 50). Is one of the features of ‘modern textbook pages’ a simplification in terms of text complexity?

But what if it’s true? In the US the Common Core State Standards now prescribe a planned increase in text complexity, across the curriculum, across the age phases. In the UK, “national” curricula for literacy highlight strategies and skills, and scarcely mention texts. Perhaps: We need to begin thinking about deliberately stretching our students more in terms of the texts they read.

But what if it’s true? I f we want our students to achieve mastery over the increasingly complex texts they will encounter in their lives, we need a policy to introduce them to progressively more complex texts. Retreating from print can no longer be a tenable option. We also need to focus on teaching them to make sense of these texts. And that teaching has to happen not just in English lessons, but in Chemistry, in Maths, in History etc., etc.