Theoretical discussion-week 2

Marilyn, Ryan and I discussed important points made from the articles below.

What I’ve Learned About Effective Reading Instruction  (Allington, 2002)

Behind Test Scores: What Struggling Readers Really Need  (Valencia, Buly, 2004)

These articles reiterate how important it is to have good effective teachers in every classroom. Dr. Allington explains that exemplary classrooms share six common features (six T’s of effective elementary literacy instruction). They are as follows:

1.     Time: an exemplary classroom has students actually reading and writing as much as half of the school day.

2.     Texts: children need a rich supply of books they can actually read. Much research supports supplying children with books of appropriate complexity.  Students of all achievement levels benefit from exemplary teaching but the lowest achievers benefitted most.

3.     Teaching: exemplary teachers gave direct, explicit demonstrations of the cognitive strategies that good readers use when they read.  These teachers use effective modeling techniques.

4.     Talk: There is a fundamental difference between nature of classroom talk in the exemplary teachers’ classrooms and the talk reported in classroom observational studies.  Exemplary teachers fostered more student talk that was purposeful and posed more “open” questions.

5.     Tasks: exemplary classrooms had greater use of longer assignments and less emphasis on filling the day with multiple shorter tasks.  Tasks often involved student choice that was managed choice.

6.     Testing: exemplary teachers evaluated student work and awarded grades based more on effort and improvement than simply on achievement.  In effort and improvement grading, teachers must truly know each of their students well in order to assign grades.

Allington stressed they observed almost no test prep in the exemplary classrooms because teachers believed good instruction would lead to enhanced test performance.

Enhanced reading proficiency rests largely on the capacity of the classroom teachers to provide exemplary reading instruction, so we must create schools in which every year, every teacher becomes more expert.

Valencia and Buly article:

One size instruction does not fit all children as there are different types of learners.

Teachers need to conduct diagnostic assessments to help identify students’ needs and use the information to inform instruction.

The evidence also points to the need for multilevel, flexible, small group instruction.

Students need good material-a wide range of books and reading materials.  The teacher must model and explicitly teach comprehension strategies.

We must provide struggling readers with what they need and that begins with ensuring that every student has effective teachers.