Literacy Blogs

A third bit of evidence in the complex text issue has to do with the strength of evidence on the other side of the ledger. In my two previous posts, I have indicated why the common core is embracing the idea of teaching reading with much more complex texts. But what about the evidence that counters this approach?   Many years ago, when I was a primary grade teacher, I was struggling to teach reading. I knew I was supposed to have groups for different levels of kids, but in those days information about how to make those grouping decisions was not ...

So why is the common core making such a big deal out of having kids read hard text?   One of the most persuasive pieces of evidence they considered was a report, “Reading: Between the Lines,” published by American College Testing (ACT; 2006). This report shows the primacy of text in reading and the value of having students spend time reading challenging text in the upper grades.   Virtually every reading comprehension test and instructional program makes a big deal out of the different kinds of questions that can be asked about text. You’d be hard pressed these days to find teachers or principals who ...

The new common core standards are challenging widely accepted instructional practices. Probably no ox has been more impressively gored by the new standards than the widely-held claim that texts of a particular difficulty level have to be used for teaching if learning is going to happen.   Reading educators going back to the 1930s, including me, have championed the idea of there being an instructional level. That basically means that students would make the greatest learning gains if they are taught out of books that are at their “instructional” level – meaning that the text is neither so hard that the students ...

Sorry about not posting for a while. I've been particularly busy, and even worked in a vacation. But my eye is back on the ball and I hope I have something of interest for you.   Recently, I received a letter: “I am writing to you because members of our state’s Department of Education believe that there is no alignment between the Common Core Standards and Reading First. Do you know of any document that aligns these two approaches for the early grades?” Clearly, the writer is concerned that the gains and improvements made through Reading First may be lost as attention ...

While in graduate school, I worked with Jack Pikulski and became interested in the theory of instructional level. That’s the idea that text has a particular level of difficulty and that students learn best when they are matched with text in a particular way. If text is too hard, they won’t learn to read and if text is too easy they won’t make any progress. The difficulty levels in between those extremes (and there are usually levels and not a single level), are thought to be the levels at which instructional progress would be optimum.   It makes logical sense. If text ...

The Common Core Standards repeatedly stress the idea that kids should be reading more than one text. I don't mean they call for kids to have multiple textbooks (the standards say nothing about how teaching should take place), but they do call for kids to be able to compare and contrast, analyze, evaluate, and synthesize information across texts. That is a big step forward, since multiple texts place different, and more authentic, reading demands on students. Here are many of the standards that dictate developing students abilities to read multiple texts and the grade levels that these are expected to ...

Today the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers released the new draft of the common core standards for public comment. Yipee! I'm so happy to see these.   Here are 7 reasons you should be happy, too.   1. They are common! Unlike any reading/writing/language standards that we have had in the past, these are truly going to be widely adhered to. In the past, we never could have common tests or common curricula because everyone had different standards. Now there will be the United States and Texas (and these are such good standards, at some point I think Texas ...

As some of you know, I've been working with the Council of Chief State School Officers and the National Governors Association on the common standards project. I've been listed as a participant in newspaper articles: a participant, not a leader. What that means is that, like the other people who's names you've seen, I answer queries and react to drafts, and even contribute potential standards... but ultimately, I'm not in charge. I don't set the timelines, or decide who participates, or any of the dozens of other things that those in charge have to do.   This week I got an angry ...

During the past few months, some amazing things have been happening in education policy. Forty-six states and the District of Columbia have agreed to adopt a single set of education standards in the English Language Arts and Mathematics. Arne Duncan ALSO pledged $350 million towards a new set of tests of those standards. Now that sounds like a national curriculum to me… and national tests to boot—though nobody is using those terms right now. Of course, development efforts like these take years, so those who are philosophically offended by the idea of a national curriculum won’t have to worry, right? Not ...