Workforce Innovations Conference

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Workforce Innovations Conference

• Tanya Shuy
• National Institute for Literacy
• July 21, 2004

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The Partnership for Reading

• A collaborative effort of three federal agencies
• The National Institute for Literacy (NIFL)
• The National Institute of Child Health and Human
  Development (NICHD)
• The U.S. Department of Education

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For more discussion on scientifically-based
research

• Using Research and Reason in EducationPaula J.
  Stanovich and Keith E. Stanovich
• This brief paper is helpful to discerning
  consumers of educational programs and materials.
  It provides guidance on how to recognize
  scientifically based instructional strategies,
  and how to use the concepts of research in the
  classroom.
• http//www.nifl.gov/partnershipforreading/publica
  tions/pdf/Stanovich_Color.pdf

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Adolescent Literacy Workshops

• Overall goal of both workshops
• was to assess the current state of knowledge on
  adolescent literacy
• to develop recommendations for research
• to articulate research questions that need to be
  addressed in order to move the field of
  adolescent literacy forward.

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Partnership for Reading

• Overview of the Workshops on Adolescent Literacy
• Workshop I -
• State of the Science and Research Needs
• Workshop IIwith major support from the Office of
  Vocational and Adult Education
• Adolescent Literacy Model Development
  Implementation, and Effectiveness Video Summary
  of the Second Adolescent Literacy
  WorkshopPractice Models for Adolescent Literacy
  Success Adolescent Literacy Research Needs
• http//www.nifl.gov/partnershipforreading/adolesce
  nt/

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Research Solicitation 2 complex overarching
questions

• What characterizes adolescent readers
  struggling readers?
• How do the factors affecting the development of
  literacy change over time?

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What We Need to Know

• The extent to which current evidence on early
  reading instruction holds true for older
  struggling readers
• Which specific reading abilities are more
  predictive of reading difficulties in adolescents
• How to identify, prevent, remediate reading
  writing difficulties

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What We Need to Know

• The role of motivation in reading how to
  instill/increase motivation
• How age experience affect learning to read
• How best to conduct comprehension strategy
  instruction
• How best to instruct writing

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What We Know About Reading

• There are key components that must be mastered
• for students to learn to read, these should be
• taught systematically explicitly
• The phonological system (PA phonics)
• Fluency
• Vocabulary
• Comprehension

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What we know about reading

• Motivation/self-efficacy declines with continued
  failure
• Language provides a crucial foundation for
  literacy especially vocabulary, listening
  comprehension

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What Can We Do

• While we wait for the research findings?

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Work on

• Successful Instructors
• Instruction
• Phonological Awareness Phonics Decoding
• Vocabulary
• Fluency
• Reading Comprehension the Essence of Reading
• Strategies

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What To Look For In A Program Instructors that-

• Understand the role of word level skills,
  fluency, vocabulary, background knowledge,
  comprehension strategies in content area reading
• Ongoing assessment of the critical components of
  skilled reading targeted instruction to enhance
  proficiency where needed
• Provide explicit comprehensive instruction in
  both reading writing
• It is not sufficient for the student to learn
  from a computer screen, need knowledgeable
  instructors

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What To Look For In Programs Instruction

• Must be systematic explicit
• Must be challenging focused on disciplinary
  knowledge conceptual understanding
• Activities in reading writing must have meaning
  in the world outside the classroom Relevance
• Must capitalize on students cultural backgrounds
  personal experiences to enhance engagement,
  comprehension of content, and motivation

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Phonological Awareness Phonics - Decoding

• Some teens/ adults do have deficits, short term
  interventions may be effective
• Program effectiveness will likely depend on how
  well instruction matches what students are
  missing (e.g., ability to analyze sounds,
  knowledge of phonics rules or syllable types,
  strategies for applying what is known)

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Vocabulary

• Vocabulary instruction can improve adolescents
  comprehension
• Encouraging active processing of new word
  meanings, along with opportunities to apply and
  use new vocabulary knowledge, seem to be key
  features of successful programs

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Fluency

• Distinguishes skilled from less-skilled readers
  through adolescence
• Oral reading practice with feedback/guidance is
  most likely to influence word knowledge, reading
  to speed oral accuracy
• Both NRP RAND indicated instruction to enhance
  fluency leads to significant gains in word
  recognition fluency

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Reading Comprehension the Essence of Reading

• Comprehension relies on
• Vocabulary
• Prior knowledge experience
• Word recognition decoding
• Speed efficiency/accuracy (fluency)

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Strategies

• Teaching multiple strategies is better than
  teaching single strategies (NRP)
• Comprehension should be taught explicitly,
  beginning in the early grades continuing
  through high school (NRP RAND) and later
• The explicitness of the instruction is especially
  important for low-achieving students (RAND)

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Eight Strategies that can be effectively taught
(NRP)

• Comprehension monitoring
• Cooperative learning
• Graphic semantic organizers
• Story structure questioning (who, what, where,
  when, why)

• Question answering with feedback correction
• Question generation
• Summarization
• Multiple strategy using several interactively
  with teacher

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For More Information

• Office of Adult and Vocational Education (OVAE)
• http//www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ovae/index.ht
  ml
• National Institute of Child Health and Human
• Development (NICHD)
• http//www.nichd.nih.gov/crmc/cdb/p_lang.htm
• National Institute for Literacy
• http//www.nifl.gov/

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Resources

• Adolescents Literacy Reading for the 21st
  Century
• By Michael Kamil for the Alliance for
  Excellent Education
• http//www.all4ed.org/publications/AdolescentsAnd
  Literacy.pdf

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Resources

• Reading for the 21st Century Adolescent Literacy
  Teaching and Learning Strategies
• http//www.all4ed.org/publications/Reading20for2
  021st20Century.pdf

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ResourcesMajor Panel Reports

• Report of the National Reading Panel Teaching
  Children to Read
• http//www.nationalreadingpanel.org/Publicati
  ons/publications.htm
• Reading for Understanding, on Reading
  Comprehension Toward an R D Program in Reading
  Comprehension (RAND)
• http//www.rand.org/publications/MR/MR1465/ind
  ex.html

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How to contact me

• Tanya Shuy
• tshuy_at_nifl.gov

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Summary Defining Vendor Requirements

• One size does not, will not, can not fit all!
• How will program handle assessment?
• Baseline and progress on common literacy and
  numeracy measures
• On-going diagnostic assessments
• How is the program structured?
• Explicit, targeted instruction
• Strategies
• Application and practice

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Summary Defining Vendor Requirements

• How does the program address each key element?
• Decoding, fluency,vocabulary development,
  comprehension, writing
• How does the program address motivation?
• Relevance use of real-world materials, examples
• Materials of appropriate level and interest
• Builds on cultural background and personal
  experiences

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Summary Defining Vendor Requirements

• How does program address learning disabilities
  and other specialized needs?
• Does the program allot sufficient time for
  targeted progress?
• e.g. ETS estimates that it takes 900 of
  instruction to ramp a young adult up from Level 1
  to Level 2 on the Adult Literacy Scale