Literacy Blogs

            My last blog entry was written in response to a fifth-grade teacher who wanted to know about spelling instruction. Although teachers at her school thought that formal spelling instruction, like working with word lists, was a bad idea, it turns out that such teaching is beneficial to kids. The same can be said for studying word structure and its implications for spelling, pronunciation, and meaning.             The best reviews of this research have consistently found that spelling instruction leads to spelling improvement, but it also leads to improvements in reading and writing, so it can be ...

Blast from the Past: This entry was first published on April 30, 2015, and was reissued on January 17, 2018. This issue arises again and again, but the answer doesn't seem to change. If you like this, there was a part II in the first week in May 2015.  I often hear concerns about our students' poor spelling abilities and have been thinking about practical ways to address this issue.  Although we want to continue to steer away from memorized lists that are often not retained, I want to get your feedback about incorporating more word study in your ELA block.  I ...

Blast from the Past: This entry was first published on April 23, 2015; and was re-issued on October 19, 2017. Some oral reading questions came up this week that reminded me of this blog. I'd point out that since its release, Tim Rasinski has shown that even struggling college students need fluency work--well beyond the middle school focus of this blog. Finally, last week Jan Hasbrouck let me know that she and Gerry Tindal have updated their oral reading norms: http://www.brtprojects.org/publications/technical-reports/.  Given all of that, this seems timely. Teacher question: I am seeking your advice based on the email correspondence below that I ...

Teacher question: I have recently encountered some severe criticism leveled at reviews and reviewers from What Works Clearinghous  (see http://www.nifdi.org/research/reviews-of-di/what-works-clearinghouse). I am concerned about recommending this site to teachers as a resource for program evaluations. I'm wondering if you agree with the criticisms, and if yes, where you would recommend teachers go for evidence-based program reviews. I know that NELP and NRP reports are possibilities but are also static documents that do not get updated frequently with new findings, so some of the information really isn't current. Perhaps the Florida Center for Reading Research is an alternative? Do you have others than you ...

Teacher question: We are a K-12 district and are revamping our grade 6 through grade 8 instructional supports, which include a 40 minute additional session of reading and/or math instruction  anywhere from 3 to 5 days a week. This extra instruction is provided to any student below the 50th percentile on the MAP assessments ---roughly 2/3 of our student population in our 5 middle schools.   Where we are struggling is in determining whether this additional instructional time  (taught during later periods in the day  by different teachers from the core instruction) should be based on addressing gaps in foundational skills or supporting grade level curriculum.   In the ...

Teacher question: Would you add some thoughts about visual literacy, that is, questioning the artist/illustrator in the same way we are questioning the author/text…prior to analyzing the text.   Thank you. Shanahan response: I’ve been carrying this question around for a while, trying to think up a good answer.  On the one hand, I’ve never been a big fan of “visual literacy.”  It’s not that I’m insensitive to the idea that pictures have value (I subscribed to Playboy for many years), but I’ve never been willing to put pictures on the same plane as the printed word. I guess I’ve been afraid that teachers in the early grades would eschew ...

Blast from the Past: This entry first posted in February 28, 2105 and it was reposted on July 31, 2021. The only change that I needed to make in this one was to add more research studies -- they continue to accumulate. This entry challenges both the idea of the instructional reading level and that resource teachers should be focused on that with any but beginning readers. I hope this helps you to rethink some practices that are holding kids back. Teacher question: Please provide the research about how teaching students using instructional level texts does not yield results! I am a ...