Download presentation
Presentation is loading. Please wait.
Published byKasandra Disbrow Modified over 10 years ago
1
Timothy Shanahan University of Illinois at Chicago www.shanahan onliteracy.com 10 KEYS TO HIGHER LITERACY ACHIEVEMENT: SOME DOS AND DON’TS
2
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) 1. PROVIDE SUBSTANTIAL AMOUNT OF READING AND WRITING INSTRUCTION
3
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 2. FOCUS ON KEY OUTCOMES
4
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 3. BE GOAL FOCUSED, NOT ACTIVITY FOCUSED
5
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 4. AVOID TEST PREPARATION
6
AN EXAMPLE OF QUESTION TYPES NOT MATTERING.
7
ANOTHER EXAMPLE
8
Evidence test text matters matter?
9
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 5. LOTS OF READING WITHIN INSTRUCTION
10
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 6. BUILD STAMINA
11
Summarization Analysis Evaluation Synthesis Writing about text is more powerful than reading, reading/studying, reading/discussing 7. REQUIRE WRITING ABOUT TEXT
12
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 8. TEACH WITH COMPLEX TEXT
13
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 9. LITERACY SHOULD INCREASE KNOWLEDGE
14
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 10. ENGAGE STUDENTS AT A HIGH INTELLECTUAL LEVEL
Similar presentations
© 2025 SlidePlayer.com. Inc.
All rights reserved.