“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
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.
literacy system, and determine the non-negotiables for literacy instruction. Truly understanding where you are, is the foundation for moving forward.
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.
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:
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- All classrooms need libraries of their own. There is a lot of research supporting literacy rich classrooms and higher levels of learning.
- There needs to be a school-wide benchmark which quickly assess your students and their needs.
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:
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.
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-