Oh, Literacy...Literacy II

“The more that you read, the more things you will know. 

The more that you learn, the more places you'll go.” 

-Dr. Seuss 

Almost 13 million American children live in poverty (“Geography Matters: Child Well-Being in the States. Every Child Matters Education Fund April 2008.

Half of youths with a history of substance abuse have reading problems. National Information Center for Children and Youth with Disabilities. (1998). Children with reading disability. Washington, D.C.: Robert Bock.Half of these children from low-income communities start first grade up to two years behind their peers. Brizius, J. A., & Foster S. A. (1993). Generation to Generation: Realizing the Promise of Family Literacy. High/Scope Press

http://www.bookspring.org/literacy-statistics/

Literacy is learned. Illiteracy is passed along by parents who cannot read or write.

One child in four grows up not knowing how to read.

90% of welfare recipients are high school dropouts

http://begintoread.com/research/literacystatistics.html

16 to 19 year old girls at the poverty level and below, with below average skills, are 6 times more likely to have out-of-wedlock children than their reading counterparts.

A student who can't read on grade level by 3rd grade is 4x’s less likely to graduate by age 19 than a child who does read proficiently in 3rd grade. Add poverty to the mix, and a student is 13x’s less likely to graduate on time than his or her proficient, wealthier peer. (American Educational Research Association)

Can you feel it? Can you hear it? I know the clock is ticking! I can hear it! Tick-tock, tick-tock! As each minute passes, a student is not reading on grade level, there are no meaningful interventions in place, and our educational system is pushing him/her further behind. Yet, I understand as each day passes, their quality of life in adulthood is probably going to perpetuate a cycle of poverty and illiteracy. 

Take a look at the statistics above. Simply putting the pieces together will tell anyone that a student's elementary reading ability has a direct reflection on his/her socioeconomic status in the future. For children who are poor and in most cases, African American and Latino, the sense of urgency to develop literate students needs to be at an all-time high. 

Being an elementary principal with a 98% African-American and 84% free and reduced lunch population-I know what “time” it is! I know if our teachers are not focused, aware, and fragmented by grade level, our students are going to suffer terribly. Some of our students have little to no books in their home, does not come from a literacy rich background, and enroll in our schools several grade levels behind. Because of this reality, educators must understand who they serve, frame their school-wide
literacy system, and determine the non-negotiables for literacy instruction. Truly understanding where you are, is the foundation for moving forward.

Who do we serve?

How can we truly educate students when we don't "really" understand who we are serving? Teachers, parents, and administrators must dialogue about the students they see everyday. Demographics are difficult to discuss and referring to race is taboo. However, without a compassionate understanding about our students, how can we really adjust our pedagogy for student success? To make the greatest dent in the learning, opportunity, and literacy gap-we must have the toughest conversations. We can't control the environment, parental support, financial resources, and demographics; however, we can only control ourselves and how we instruct literacy.

Along the same lines, we must examine our own mental models about our students. Do we truly, truly believe our students can excel in our classrooms despite the poverty which has immersed them? How we subconsciously think about our students will be how we consciously educate them!

What is the literacy structure in your school? 

How does the literacy process work? Think globally! Here is an example: Are all students taking a benchmarked assessments such as AimsWeb or the STAR to gage where students are in reading and math. Once this is determined, are their reading specialist and teachers working to analyze students' needs and provide a meaningful intervention? How do we know students are reading on grade level or two years behind? What tools are you using school-wide? Is it the DRA, Rigby Reads, Accelerated Reader, Lexile Scores, Running Records are a combination of some or all? What is the mandated resource to help support the curriculum? Does your school/district support the basal, balanced literacy, or the Daily 5? Whatever the system, I firmly believe it needs to have several components: 

1. A unified literacy resource (Tier 1) to support the curriculum. Fragmenting the resource such as one grade is instructing from a balanced literacy model while another is instructing from the basal creates different levels of instruction and engagement. One system is student-lead while the other is teacher-lead. K-5, all students need to be guaranteed the same type of powerful instruction.
2. A unified way to determine reading levels. This unity will filter into the library which ensures all students have access to choose and recognize good-fit books.
3. An intentional, meaningful, and purposeful intervention system (Tier 2 and 3). This is the type of system that intently looks at data trying to find the deficit and closing it.
4. All classrooms need libraries of their own. There is a lot of research supporting literacy rich classrooms and higher levels of learning.
5. There needs to be a school-wide benchmark which quickly assess your students and their needs.

This is just my list. I am sure you have pieces you could slide into this system. The important piece is that you recognize your system and possible holes within it. Our students and their future is depending on that system.

What are your schools' non-negotiables for literacy instruction?

Every day, what are you ensuring our students engage in to support their literacy journey. K-5, what will every teacher provide for their students. In the March issue of Educational Leadership, Richard Allington (2012), literacy guru, provided his non-negotiables for everyday literacy instruction:

1. Every child reads something he or she chooses.
2. Every child reads accurately.
3. Every child reads something he or she understands.
4. Every child writes about something personally meaningful.
5. Every child listens to a fluent adult read aloud.
6. Every child talks with peers about reading and writing.

You don't have agree with these, though, I will say if every child is receiving this everyday, they are much better off, right? Yet, the point is that the dialogue has to happen in terms of the non-negotiables for Tier 1 literacy instruction. All teachers doing their "own thing" in isolation is counter productive. We have to be able to discuss our capacity among colleagues and have it challenged professionally, which ignites learning, growing, and redefining.

Today, the standards are getting intense and overwhelming. On the other hand, 30 years from today, our students will not think about their standardized 3rd grade assessment. What will matter in 30 years? How well did he/she read in 3rd grade? That very could predict what his/her future will be....in 30 years.

Rodney S. Lewis, Ed.D.

Allington, R. (2012). Every child, every day. Educational Leadership, 69(6), Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/mar12/vol69/num06/Every-Child,-Every-