Literacy Blogs

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 ...

Blast from the Past: This was originally posted on February 22, 2015 and was reposted on January 4, 2018. This blog entry explains one important reason why standards-based teaching is not improving reading achievement. There are others--the over-emphasis on teaching, the lack of sufficient and appropriate professional development, the misinterpretation of standards as narrow easily tested skills--all serve to undermine success. Nevertheless, the emphasis on teaching activities instead of on learning will undercut kids learning progress.  Standards-based educational reform goes back to the early 1990s. Since then, test scores have see-sawed a bit, but for the most part, we are doing ...

Blast from the Past: Originally posted February 16, 2015; re-posted on November 9, 2017. This is very timely as this issue has arisen anew about a half dozen times over the past month. Given that, I would add to the original post that core reading programs should include content objectives, content texts should be added to summer reading lists, IEPs should include statements about how content knowledge exposure will be protected, and schools should ask parents for help when the students need to be removed from content classes. If you have other ideas post them to comments, or to me ...

Blast from the Past: This entry first posted on February 1, 2015 and was reposted on May 17, 2018. This week on Twitter, Carol Jago, past president of the National Council of Teachers of English challenged the practice of high school teachers reading books to students. She rightly criticized the practice, pointing out the importance of having students do the reading. Her thoughtful comment reminded me of this still timely blog posting. Teacher question:             Should high school English teachers read aloud to their students or play audio recordings to them? Shanahan response:             Over the past several years, this practice has insinuated itself, Justin Bieber-like, into our consciousness. It seems to be showing ...

Teacher question:   Why don’t you write more about the new tests? Shanahan response: I haven’t written much about PARCC or SBAC—or the other new tests that other states are taking on—in part because they are not out yet. There are some published prototypes, and I was one of several people asked to examine the work product of these consortia. Nevertheless, the information available is very limited, and I fear that almost anything I may write could be misleading (the prototypes are not necessarily what the final product will turn out to be). However, let me also say that, unlike many who strive for school ...