Concurrent Session
Notes
Adolescent Literacy
June 14, 2005
1:45-3:15pm
Dr. Bonnie Jones, Moderator
On the first day of the National Leadership Summit, participants
had the opportunity to choose from among 14 concurrent sessions,
featuring a total of 45 content experts who spoke about topics
that ranged from aligning career preparation with state standards
to meeting the transition needs of culturally and linguistically
diverse youth with disabilities and their families. One of the
sessions featured three experts who highlighted some of the latest
research on literacy and practical applications to improve youth
literacy rates.
Dr. Donald Deshler, Director, Center for Research on Learning,
University of Kansas – Lawrence
Dr. Deshler said that acquisition of basic literacy skills and
strategies plateaus at the fifth or sixth grade level, and that
a gap between those with and without basic skills emerges as
learning demands increase. Less fluent readers have smaller sight
vocabularies, have limited understanding of words and multiple
word meanings, have limited background and conceptual knowledge,
and are less skilled in using strategies that enhance understanding.
These students struggle, particularly as curriculum demands become
more rigorous. At the same time, research has shown that instructional
practices do not reflect what is known about the learning needs
of students with disabilities. In both general education and
special education classes, more than 50 percent of teaching time
is spent in lecture, and other types of activities that would
better serve students with disabilities are not utilized.
Dr. Deshler suggested that students with disabilities can meet
grade-level curriculum demands through systematic, intensive,
explicit instruction. Research has shown, for example, that students
with learning disabilities were able to learn a word recognition
strategy when the student-teacher ratio was five to one and lessons
were taught 50 minutes a day, five days a week. When the student-teacher
ratio increased, the intervention was less successful. His center
has developed numerous interventions for working with students
with disabilities in a variety of settings. He concluded that
as group size decreases, the explicitness and intensity of instruction
increases, and that instruction of students with disabilities
should recognize the continuum of students’ abilities.
Dr. Peggy McCardle, Associate Branch Chief, Child Development
and Behavior Branch, National Institute of Child Health and
Human Development, National Institutes of Health
Dr. McCardle agreed with Dr. Deshler that many children who
do not learn to read by the third grade will continue to find
reading a challenge in school and throughout their lives. She
said that research has shown that proficient readers must constantly
adapt cognitive processes and have instructive feedback as they
read, and that instruction must be systematic, explicit, challenging,
and focused on disciplinary knowledge and conceptual understanding.
In addition, reading and writing activities must have meaning
in the world outside of school and should capitalize on students’ cultural
backgrounds and personal experiences. More research is needed
to better understand how to instill and maintain motivation in
reading and how best to provide comprehension-strategy instruction
and writing instruction.
To this end, the National Institute of Child Health and Human
Development (NICHD) funds basic research related to reading instruction
and how to identify, prevent, and remediate problems. NICHD,
OSERS, and the DOE Office of Adult and Vocational Education have
jointly funded longitudinal, cross-sectional research with diverse
groups. This research is examining characteristics of adolescent
readers and struggling readers and the ways in which factors
affecting the development of literacy change over time. Funded
projects are investigating social and cultural influences on
the motivation and engagement of adolescent Latino teens, teacher
supports to close adolescent literacy gaps, the behavioral and
neural effects of different reading instruction approaches for
students with learning disabilities, characterization of subtypes
of reading disabilities according to neurobiological and skills
profiles, cognitive and neural processes in reading comprehension
in normal and impaired readers ages 10 to 14, and how best to
sequence interventions for adolescents with reading difficulty.
Dr. Deborah Howard, Program Director, KnowledgeWorks Foundation,
Ohio
Dr. Howard said that a KnowledgeWorks Foundation (KWF) initiative,
a partnership with the Ohio Department of Education, seeks to
improve high school student achievement by focusing on practice
and systems change statewide. Improving literacy skills is one
way to improve achievement on standardized tests. For many reasons,
she explained, urban and rural students are entering Ohio high
schools unprepared academically. Components of the Ohio initiative
include converting 18 large, low-performing schools into 69 new
small schools and establishing 10 new “early college high
schools,” where students can earn a high school diploma
and college credit concurrently. At schools involved with the
initiative, 65-75 percent of students are entering below grade
level, most of them three to four levels below grade level.
Dr. Howard noted that small schools set the conditions for
student success, but what happens within schools determines the probability of
success. Therefore, her foundation is challenging high schools
to “turn their teaching and learning strategies upside down,” focusing
on students before content. Initiatives include onsite coaching,
statewide professional development, community outreach to make
learning relevant, student leadership development, and establishment
of a statewide stakeholder advisory group. The KWF literacy framework
is designed to lead to student empowerment and achievement by providing
site resources, technical assistance, and teacher ownership. As
a result of the project, Ohio schools are immersed in year-round
literacy training, and the project team is working with Kent State
University to gather data that will inform classroom instruction.
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