Leadership for

Advancing Adolescent Literacy

RESA-I

21st Century Education Leadership Series

October 21, 2008

Terry Reale, WVDE Coordinator

Reading English Language Arts

What do you think about literacy?

Agree or Disagree ?

Reading and writing take away from the time spent on content learning.

Getting all of the students to read the same text at grade level is the goal of the classroom.

Intervention programs for struggling readers are effective regardless of the role of the teacher.

Examining student work with a group of teachers is an effective way of improving student learning.

Content vocabulary words are the most important words students need to know to be successful.

Adolescents read and write well enough.

Do adolescents read and write well enough? Approximately 70-75 % of students in grades 4-12 are low-

achieving writer (Persky et al., 2003) Only 31% of 8th graders meet the NAEP standard of reading

“proficiency” for their grade level. (NCES, 2005, 2003) High school students’ ability to read complex texts is strongly

predictive of their performance in college math and science courses. (ACT, 2006)

Between 1971 and 2004, the reading levels of 17 year-olds showed no improvement. (NCES, 2004)

Among the 8 million students in grades 4-12 who read below grade level, most are able to sound out words-the challenge isn’t to teach them to decode text, but, rather, to help them comprehend what they read. (Biancarosa & Snow, 2004)

Goals for Literacy

Improve overall levels of reading proficiency.

Ensure that all students make at least expected yearly growth in reading ability each school year.

Accelerate struggling readers’ development.

Instruction required to meet the goals:

Instruction in content area classes

Instruction for struggling readers

A successful middle school principal explained:

Teachers use reading strategies in all their classes…Science teachers have a tremendous science vocabulary program. Vocabulary development is embedded in the content across the curriculum in all classes. Social studies teachers directly teach reading strategies as part of the social studies.

Improving Literacy Instruction in Middle and High Schools, Florida Center for Reading Research, 2007

A successful high school principal observed:

Reading instruction in the content areas is expected of all of our teachers, whether it be culinary or industrial electricity. The reading coach has conducted professional development with all of our teachers on different reading strategies and on the importance of reading.

Improving Literacy Instruction in Middle and High Schools, Florida Center for Reading Research, 2007

Instruction in Content-Area Classes

Comprehension strategies Discussion High Standards Reading-writing connection Motivation and engagement Content learning

While it is clear that content-area teachers cannot be expected to teach struggling readers basic skills, they can teach strategies, use appropriate instructional routines, lead and facilitate discussion, raise standards and create engaging learning environments that help students improve their ability to comprehend text.

Instruction for Struggling Readers Whatever they have had in the past has not

been strong enough to help them meet grade-level expectations;

They have probably not been doing very much reading for some time, and are likely to be very discouraged about being able to read well; and

They are a very diverse group who struggle to meet grade-level standards in reading for many different reasons.

Two Groups of Struggling Students Group 1 – This group is generally between 1 to

2 years below grade level and has primary needs in the area of reading comprehension.

Group 2 – This group is usually smaller than group 1 and contains students with severe and pervasive reading difficulties. The problems seem to be with reading accuracy (usually caused by weak phonics/word analysis skills), weaknesses in content knowledge, thinking/reasoning skills, reading strategies and vocabulary.

Group 1 Students

Tier II students Time: Scheduled time outside the reading block with

flexible groupings of students (middle school) Time: Delivery of interventions during or outside the

classroom depending on individual needs (high school) Strategic tutoring Flexible groupings during or after school

Supportive instruction from all the content-area teachers

Instruction in vocabulary, reading comprehension, and writing

Group 2 Students

Tier 3 students Intensive instruction in appropriate setting

within the school, such as reading intervention classroom or other specialized instructional setting (middle school & high school)

Time for delivery of interventions during or outside the classroom depending upon the individual needs

Staffing: reading specialists, special educators, interventionists

Literacy Action Plan

Leadership ActivitiesUsing Data to Guide InstructionAppropriate and Effective

Instructional Materials

Leadership Activities

Determine the school’s capacity for literacy improvement.

Establish a school literacy leadership team. Develop a schoolwide organizational model that

supports extended time for literacy instruction. Address the professional development needs of the

teachers. Provides principal oversight and supervision

activities. Demonstrate your commitment to the literacy

program.

Principal Oversight

“If you expect it, then you need to inspect it.”

Use the Adolescent Literacy checklist.

Staffing plan to meet the needs of all students: Key staffing challenge is having the right

people to provide intervention…involves thinking in new ways.

“When I came here, there were a few reading teachers in the Language Arts Department. I have created a Reading Department separate from Language Arts.”

Literacy Action Plan

Leadership Activities Using Data to Guide Instruction

Appropriate and Effective Instructional Materials

Putting Assessment in the Driver’s Seat Become an assessment-savvy leader. Use data from assessment wisely and in a

balanced fashion. Establish a school culture that utilizes data to

a guide a literacy program designed to meet the needs of ALL learners.

Assessment for learning and of learningInformal Assessments: Content area literacy assessments Teacher observations Student interest and attitude surveys Teacher developed rubrics for performance assessment

Formal Assessments: Gray Oral Reading Tests Woodcock-Johnson Reading Mastery Stanford Diagnostic Reading Test 4 Degrees of Reading Power

Literacy Action Plan

Leadership ActivitiesUsing Data to Guide InstructionAppropriate and Effective

Instructional Materials

Instructional Materials

Using books, magazines and other documents to enhance literacy instruction content-area teachers intervention teachers

Instructional programs and materials computer programs Intervention programs professional development books and articles

Final Thoughts

Change begins with a vision-a vision that grows out of the mind of the school leader and into the hearts of others.

Take a few minutes to imagine your school as it might appear with a fully functional literacy plan in place.