Literacy Blogs

05 October, 2015

Final Notes on Washington Post Article on Complex Text Requirements

Last week I replied to some of the remarks about text complexity that were made on the Valerie Strauss’s Washington Post column. Here are a couple more. Fountas and Pinnell are stating what is their take on what the Common Core standards say. What the standards say and what their supporters are advocating are not necessarily the same thing. I think this statement is fully in agreement with what I have said above.   "But standards do not usually prescribe that students must spend all their time reading texts that are extremely hard for them, with no access to books that will help ...

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29 September, 2015

Of Carts and Horses: Where Fluency Teaching Fits in Learning to Read

Our preK-5 school has a number of struggling readers, and we were told yesterday that we should focus only on fluency and accuracy, not comprehension or vocabulary. We were also told that we really shouldn't be using our grade level reading materials or complex texts in the classroom until students are fluent and accurate. I'd love to hear your thoughts on what we do when we have large numbers of struggling readers. I get lots of questions about the sequence of instruction. In this case the issue is fluency versus comprehension; more often it is about phonics, both about the sequence ...

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22 September, 2015

Does Formative Assessment Improve Reading Achievement?

          Today I was talking to a group of educators from several states. The focus was on adolescent literacy. We were discussing the fact that various programs, initiatives, and documents—all supposedly research-based efforts—were promoting the idea that teachers should collect formative assessment data.     I pointed out that there wasn’t any evidence that it actually works at improving reading achievement with older students.           I see the benefit of such assessment or “pretesting” when dealing with the learning of a particular topic or curriculum content. Testing kids about what they know about a topic, ...

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15 September, 2015

What Texts to Use to Teach Fluency?

Blast from the Past: This blog dropped the first time on September 15, 2015; and reposted on October 22, 2022. Recently, I have had many questions from readers about text placements for teaching reading, but without any consideration of fluency instruction. This blog from 7 years ago is focused specifically on the kinds of text that make sense to use when teaching oral reading fluency at various grade levels. I think the practical insights should be useful to many teachers. Teacher question: What are the most appropriate types of texts to use for fluency practice both for young new readers and even ...

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30 August, 2015

More on the Instructional Level and Challenging Text

Blast from the Past: This posting originally appeared on August 30, 2015 and reposted August 19, 2023. Issues about whether students should be taught at grade level or instructional level continue to plague the field of reading education. Since this first posted, more research has accumulated showing that it is important -- for the sake of learning -- that we give students opportunity to learn to read harder texts than we dared in the past. Sadly, many advocates of guided reading continue to misinterpret the "challenging text" requirements of their state standards. Here i explain why the instructional level theory ...

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26 August, 2015

Sorting Out the Arguments Over "Independent" Reading

Teacher question: I am confused. You claim that independent reading has almost no benefit, but another article I just read says, "In one of the most extensive studies of independent reading yet conducted, Anderson, Wilson, and Fielding (1988) investigated a broad array of activities and their relationship to reading achievement and growth in reading. They found that the amount of time students spent in independent reading was the best predictor of reading achievement and also the best predictor of the amount of gain in reading achievement made by students between second and fifth grade." Which is correct? Shanahan's snappy response"  Oh, that's an ...

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16 August, 2015

Vocabulary Teaching

Blast from the Past: This blog first posted August 16, 2015, and was reposted on September 25, 2021.This blog entry is an evergreen. What I mean by that I didn’t need to change a word. What it took to teach vocabulary effectively was as true then as it is now. It is important that students develop rich vocabulary. This is both an issue of knowledge of the world and language, since vocabulary is the connection between these key reading assets. This blog entry straightforwardly addresses what it takes to develop this resource in our students. Teacher question:  What do you recommend is ...

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02 August, 2015

Why We Need to Teach Reading AND Writing

            Many educators trumpet the idea of reading-writing relationships, emphasizing how close reading and writing are. As a teacher I was a big believer in this—my kids wrote every day, despite the lack of a report card space for writing, a writing curriculum, writing standards, or even any professional development on the topic. I strongly believed that when you taught writing, you were teaching reading.             Then I went to graduate school. My dissertation focused on the relationships between reading and writing. Boy was I surprised. Yes, indeed, reading and writing were related, but not to the ...

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28 July, 2015

Report Cards and Standards

Re-posted August 9, 2017; originally posted July 28, 2015. Recently, I was contacted by a principal wanting to find this posting. Her district is dealing with how to evaluate and report student progress in reading and the language arts. We have a tendency in education to pendulum swing between too little information for students and parents (like a single grade in ELA) or way too much (like a grade for each standard). This entry provided she and her faculty with a little practical guidance in what might be included in a report card.  Teacher Question: I wanted to ask your opinion regarding the ...

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22 July, 2015

What Can Librarians Do to Support Student Literacy?

Question: Any thoughts on top 2 or 3 literacy concepts on which you would focus librarians? Grades 4-8? My response: Let me say how happy I am that you are available to students and teachers. As I make my way across the country I find fewer and fewer school-based librarians. Unfortunately, you appear to be part of a disappearing breed. Here are a few ideas. Content Basically, I think one of the biggest things school librarians can do for teachers is help them and their students to find resources. As teachers are trying to emphasize content and informational text to a greater extent, helping them ...

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