The Adolescent Literacy Conundrum

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The Adolescent Literacy Conundrum

• Improving Student Reading
  Achievement
• Jo Hartmann, TIE
  jhartmann_at_tie.net

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• Who knows what a conundrum is?

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What is literacy?

• A literate student is one who has the ability to
  read, write, speak, listen and think effectively

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Why is it MY job?

• Being literate enables students to
• Learn
• Communicate clearly about what we know and what
  we want to know
• Become informed
• Inform others
• Make informed
  decisions

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Thomas Jefferson

• a literate populace is essential to preserving
  a functioning democracy

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Adolph Hitler

• Knowledge is ruin to my young men

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Problems we encounter

• Much reading instruction based on fictional text
• Magnitude of the language
• Large amount of discipline-specific vocabulary
  required
• Multiple meanings

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Good news/Bad news

• We know what works because of extensive research
• Guess what! We dont use it

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Where does the research come from?

• Reading experts, of course, but also
• cognitive psychology, English Language Arts
  instruction and assessment, linguistics,
  motivation theory, English as a Second Language,
  education, and discourse analysis.
•  And theres a TON of it!

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What are the important factors to attend to?

• adolescents social and motivational issues
• Explicit teaching and use of good cognitive
  strategies applicable to any discipline, and
• Integration of literacy instruction with content
  area learning, in ways that support teaching and
  learning in that discipline.

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• Well look at some reading strategies that aid
  comprehension
• Well look at some vocabulary issues and some
  strategies