Reading Tools for the SBP Literacy Toolbox

After doing a large amount of reading over the summer, I have gathered the framework for a possible Literacy Toolbox for use by SBP teachers.  The framework begins with understanding that literacy instruction (that is: reading and writing instruction) is a responsibility that can be embraced by all content-area teachers, and not just those of the English department.  By incorporating literacy instruction in all the content areas, we can work to meet our Middle States student performance objectives of increasing the writing skills and the critical reading skills of all our students at SBP.

In Critical Reading, we ought to include in the framework the four ‘anchor standards’ that we have adopted (from the Common Core) as our definition of critical reading.  By laying out what ‘we’ mean as critical reading, we can all better understand what it is that we would like our students to be able to do in the area of critical reading.

Next, we should include the realization that the ability to read words (called in literacy research as “decoding”) is not the same as the ability to create meaning from those words (in research, this is called “comprehension”).  The ability to create meaning includes the reader’s ability to make inferences (using evidence from the reading), the ability to understand the author’s viewpoint and to question it (called “dialogue with the text” in research), and the ability to use the new knowledge gained from the reading (called “integration” in research).  This is a more detailed definition of reading comprehension, and this definition is expanded by the anchor standards we have adopted.

Within the framework of the Toolbox, critical reading must be acknowledged as a process that is continuing throughout the time that a student is in school.  We cannot rest on the notion that the high school student has “already” learned this, or perhaps “should have learned this” before they arrive in high school.  Teachers must accept the research-based evidence that comprehension (as defined above) develops even (and especially) during high school, during adolescence.

With these in mind (our expectations, the definition of critical reading and comprehension, and the realization that comprehension continues to develop during adolescence), we should continue to base the framework of the Literacy Toolbox on the research that Pearson et al. (1992) has found to be the seven strategies used by successful readers.  In their research, widely quoted in many subsequent studies on adolescent literacy, Pearson et al. have found that successful readers:

• use existing knowledge to make sense of information;
• ask questions about the text;
• draw inference from the text;
• monitor their comprehension;
• use fix-up strategies when meaning breaks down;
• determine what is important;
• synthesize information to create new thinking.

Of the books and documents that I have read during the summer, the one that best explains instructional routines to help students learn these ‘effective reader strategies’ is I Read It, But I Don’t Get It written by Cris Tovani (2001).  Because of the book’s description of the ‘effective reader strategies’ and its inclusion of practical, useful classroom routines that instruct students how to learn these ‘strategies’, I propose that this book be an important part of the SBP Literacy Toolbox.  The main content of the book is clearly and concisely laid out in an easy-to-read 111 pages, and includes supplementary material (graphic organizers, comprehension scaffolds) that allows a teacher who is interested in literacy instruction to include the routines in the classroom.

By using Pearson’s seven ‘strategies of effective readers’, we could then include in the Literacy Toolbox the descriptions of specific (additional) classroom routines that address each of the seven strategies.  As examples:  for strategy “ask questions about the text”, our Literacy Toolbox should describe the effective use of a routine called “Question The Author”, a routine that also has research evidence for its effectiveness in improving adolescent literacy.  For strategy “monitor their comprehension”, our Literacy Toobox should describe a classroom routine called “comprehension modeling”. 

There are many classroom routines that are aimed at improving reading comprehension, and several books contain descriptions and ‘user guides’ that lead a content-area teacher into being able to employ these routines in the classroom.  I propose two books that should be available for reference by SBP teachers (as part of the Literacy Toolkit):

Daniels, H. and Steineke N. (2011).  Texts and lessons for content area reading.  Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.  (The subtitle is “23 comprehension strategy lessons to get every kid thinking.”  Using reading selections from contemporary sources and covering multiple content areas, the authors give step-by-step instructions on how to use 23 different comprehension strategies.  The articles are interesting, challenging, and reproducible.  Best of all, when a teacher has introduced the comprehension strategy in the classroom, other reading selections suitable to the content-area can be substituted into the instruction routine).

Fisher, D. et al.  (2011).  50 instructional routines to develop content literacy.  Boston, MA: Pearson Education Inc.  (From the Introduction: “every teacher needs to use instructional routines that allow students to engage in all these literacy processes.”  The authors present 50 routines complete with step-by-step implementation guidelines, the research evidence for each routine’s efficacy, classroom examples, and other illustrations.)

This is my proposed outline for the critical reading section of the SBP Literacy Toolbox.  We need access to materials that teach us these instruction routines; had we all attended courses in pedagogy, in education courses or during certification, we would have learned about these routines.  But since many of us don’t have a traditional education background, we need to learn about these evidence-backed comprehension strategies, and then apply some of them in our classrooms.

Next:  the Writing portion of the SBP Literacy Toolbox.  More about that in my next blog entry.