Short Name:
Quote:	“Not only do I need to know how I read and look at a text, but I also need to think about how reading will be difficult for my students. Then I can consider how to support their reading for an appropriate level of understanding in my subject area.”
Short Text:	Many students struggle after elementary school as the amount and kinds of reading expected of them begin to change. This article shares lessons from two WestEd projects that help districts bolster students' literacy skills.
Feature: This article was first published in WestEd's R&D Alert, Vol. 7, No. 1, 2005. When students reach middle and high school, the demands on their reading abilities undergo a significant shift — from primarily narrative texts to complex expository material. Unfortunately, many students never learn how to crack the nonfiction code. Their interest and skills in reading decline precisely when the demands of literacy begin to soar. According to research based on the National Assessment of Educational Progress and other standardized tests, most secondary school students have sufficient basic reading skills, such as the ability to identify words on a page. What they lack is an understanding of how to read critically and fluently, translating the meaning and purpose of texts. Without those skills, they struggle in school and beyond to make sense of material — anything from science textbooks to job applications — requiring readers to think, not just decode. “What happens is that about seventh grade, everybody expects that kids can read and that content-area teachers only need to teach them the content, not reading. But we’ve seen in our work across the country that this is not the case,” says Patti Crotti, Senior Program Associate in WestEd’s Comprehensive School Assistance Program. She notes that education leaders are looking for new ways to help middle and high schools develop students’ literacy. Integrating literacy throughout the curriculum and culture of schools is the goal of two WestEd projects that are dramatically changing the way educators think about reading instruction at the secondary level. WestEd’s Secondary Literacy Support Network (SLSN) currently assists about 90 schools in California by focusing on system and policy issues that shape student achievement. SLSN staff help educators understand why they must blend literacy strategies into everything they do — because reading is the crucial link to achievement in all subjects. Another WestEd project, the Strategic Literacy Initiative (SLI), serves schools in 22 states and the District of Columbia. SLI focuses on the day-to-day interactions between students and teachers, using Reading Apprenticeship® as an instructional framework for developing content-area literacy. Through professional development that encourages reflection and collegial sharing, teachers examine their own and each other’s strategies for reading expository text. Then they ask, “How can we make these mental moves of ours visible and accessible to kids?” says Jane Braunger, Senior Research Associate for SLI. “Not only do I need to know how I read and look at a text, but I also need to think about how reading will be difficult for my students. Then I can consider how to support their reading for an appropriate level of understanding in my subject area.” In schools where educators have wrestled with these issues, some important lessons have emerged about improving reading skills at the secondary level: First, teachers need to be part of a community of learners as much as students. Teachers need opportunities to deepen their understanding of literacy by networking with colleagues who teach at similar grade levels. Teachers should also have time to observe research-based practices in action and to go through cycles of trying out, discussing, and sharpening their own literacy practices over time. They should be able to see first-hand, in their own professional development experience, how building strong relationships with other readers and engaging in discussions about texts creates a culture of risk-taking and collaboration that spurs achievement. “It requires a shift in belief about how kids learn and what’s important to learn, bringing students to independence as readers and writers and thinkers,” says Cathleen Kral, instructional leader for literacy and director of literacy coaching for the Boston Public Schools, where use of Reading Apprenticeship has helped double the number of students passing the state’s annual exams in reading and math. Having examined numerous reading programs and materials, Kral credits WestEd’s Strategic Literacy Initiative with having “the smartest stuff out there for secondary literacy: It’s realistic, it’s authentic, it’s research based, and it works.” A second lesson, which seems to hold across many districts, is that literacy instruction cannot take a one-size-fits-all approach. The strategies for getting the most out of a biology textbook, for example, are different from effective strategies for reading in history. Content-area teachers must be able to adapt literacy supports to fit their subjects. Third, literacy interventions work best when they complement reform initiatives already underway. Teachers are appropriately skeptical of initiatives that create a new set of requirements or cause them to continually change directions. In Boston, Reading Apprenticeship has been folded into a professional development program that was already in place for coaching teachers. Finally, school administrators must be directly involved in the effort to develop a comprehensive literacy program. In addition to supporting the changes and evaluating implementation, administrators can keep literacy improvements on track when competing pressures threaten their stability.
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Related Resources: R&D Alert® Vol. 7, No. 1
Staff Contact:	Jana Bouc
Program:
Project:	Strategic Literacy Initiative
Service:	Leadership Institute in Reading Apprenticeship
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Make live on WestEd.org:	yes
Type:	Article

Created by James Nestor 09/19/2005 11:59