Characteristics of Effective Literacy Teachers: How to Meet the Literacy Needs of All Students'

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Characteristics of Effective Literacy Teachers
How to Meet the Literacy Needs of All Students.

• SCEC--February 20, 2009
• Julie Zeilstra
• Educational Diagnostician, Conroe ISD
• B.A., PsychologyStanford University
• M.A., Special EducationOhio State University
• Doctoral Candidate in ReadingSam Houston State
  University

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Objectives

• Review the research findings regarding
  characteristics and qualities of effective
  literacy teachers.
• Discuss the challenges facing literacy teachers
  today and the forces impacting literacy teachers.
• Identify 5 key qualities that research has shown
  to characterize exemplary literacy teachers.
• Explain Critical Pedagogy in simple terms and
  discuss the critical role it may have in todays
  educational environment.
• Guiding theme acknowledge, accept, foster, and
  utilize what each student brings to the classroom.

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The Impact of the Teacher

• Empirical studies have consistently shown that
  teacher quality is the single most important
  feature of schools that drives student
  achievement (1).
• The effects of well-prepared teachers on student
  achievement are stronger than the influences of
  student background factors such as poverty,
  language background, and minority status (2).
• Teachers actions have twice the impact on student
  achievement as do policies regarding curriculum,
  staff collegiality, and community involvement
  (3).
• Studies have found that teacher effects are,
  additive, cumulative, and generally not
  compensatory (Darling-Hammond, 2000, p. 2).

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The Sad Fact

• There are too few effective teachers.
• High-achieving students can identify at least
  twice as many influential teachers as
  lower-achieving students (3).
• High-achieving students have on average 3.2
  influential teachers compared to 1.5 for
  low-achieving students (3).
• Studies have shown that pre-service teachers with
  the best intentions to deliver child-centered
  instruction and meet the needs of all students
  are very vulnerable to the influences of more
  experienced teachers, and studies have shown that
  this influence is not always positive.

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This is a Critical Time

• Student populations are becoming more and more
  diverse in many ways.
• Rich-poor achievement gap continues to widen.
• NCLB/Inclusion/Reauthorization of IDEA (IDEIA,
  2004).
• Accountability and high stakes testing.
• Push for one-size-fits-all reading curriculum
  (decodable text).
• We must remember that it is teachers who teach
  and it is teachers who have the most significant
  impact on student achievement.
• Expert teachers produce readers regardless of the
  reading series they are mandated to use.

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High Expectations

• Effective literacy teachers
• Have high expectations for all students.
• Have confidence that they will teach all children
  to read.
• Do not complain about or place blame regarding
  struggling readers (6).
• Relationship between teachers self-efficacy to
  teach students and students beliefs about their
  own abilities and chances for success (7).
• Deficit views of struggling readers.
• One of the greatest roadblocks struggling readers
  face (5).
• Compassion for struggling readers should not
  justify lowered expectations for their reading
  achievement

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Teacher-Student Relationship

• Studies asking students to name characteristics
  of influential teachers from their past (4)
• Teachers who help them with personal problems.
• Teachers who exhibit a strong sense of personal
  caring for them.
• The IRA lists one of the research-based qualities
  of excellent literacy teachers they interact
  with individual children frequently (8).
• Study examining indices of secondary literacy
  teacher expertise from all 50 states (6)
• Taking a personal interest in and caring about
  students.
• Develop quality relationships with students.
• Understand and interact with students.
• Effective teachers value what each student brings
  to the learning context and actively work to find
  strengths in each student (5).
• Video--differences

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Balance

• Balanced literacy program (see handout).
• Flexible groupingsoptimal balance between whole
  group, small-group, and individual instruction
  (8).
• Materialsvariety of materials and texts (8).
• Assessment methodsvariety of literacy assessment
  methods (9).
• Questioningdevelop childrens thinking processes
  by balancing factual, interpretive, applicative,
  and trans-active questions (4).
• Scaffolding/Coachingbalance varying degrees of
  support (8).
• Motivation/Engagement techniquesbalance various
  practices to spark students intrinsic and
  extrinsic motivation (9, 11, 12).
• Classroom management techniquesbalance various
  classroom management and behavior management
  that maximize time on task and minimize
  disruption (3, 9, 14).

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Diversity

• In school today, diversity is the norm, and
  effective literacy teachers understand that
  recognition and acceptance of diversity is
  critical in the learning process
• Culture/ethnicity
• Language
• Discourses
• Background knowledge/experiences
• Interests
• Learning style
• Ability
• Motivation
• Effective literacy teachers understand that it is
  critical to encourage and activate every
  students unique strengths, interests, and
  background to improve the learning process.
• Effective literacy teachers differentiate
  instruction to meet the unique characteristics of
  every student.

10
Contextualized Learning

• Effective literacy teachers consciously and
  continually strive to contextualize their
  students learning (13).
• Contextualized learning activities make sense to
  students
• Meaningful and authentic purposes for reading.
• Relevant to real world.
• Connected to students personal background
  experiences.
• Learners more easily make sense of a learning
  situation when they can place it in a context
  that helps them make connections.
• Transmission vs. Transformative teaching-learning
  (10).
• What is worthwhile or relevant to each student?
• Construct, communicate, organize, and act on
  knowledge.
• Connect teaching and learning to the community
  for social transformation.
• Teach and learn so that we grow
  (self-transformation).

11
Critical Pedagogy

• Criticalseeing beyond looking within and
  without and seeing more deeply the complexities
  of teaching and learning (13).
• Pedagogythe interaction between teaching and
  learning (13).
• Critical Pedagogy is a process of continual
  examination, reflection, and action to improve
  the interaction between teaching and learning.
• There is no teaching without learning and no
  learning without teaching.
• There is no hidden curriculum.social, cultural,
  political, and economic conditions.
• Grounded in justice, equity, and morality.
• Makes us see the world more clearly and
  critically.
• Forces us to learn, re-learn, and un-learn to
  improve teaching and learning.
• Forces us to name, reflect, and act to improve
  teaching and learning.
• Gives us strength to do what is best for kids.
• Video

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References

• 1 Haskins, R., Loeb, S. (2007). A plan to
  improve the quality of teaching. The Future of
  Children, 51-56. Retrieved June 26, 2008, from
  http//www.futureofchildren.org.
• 2 Darling-Hammond, L. (2000). Teacher quality and
  student achievement A review of state policy
  evidence. Educational Policy Analysis Archives,
  8(1). Retrieved from http//epaa.asu.edu/epaa/v8n1
  .
• 3 Marzano, R.J., Marzano, J.S. (2003). The key
  to classroom management. Educational Leadership,
  6-13.
• 4 Ruddell, R.B. (1997). Researching the
  influential literacy teacher. Characteristics,
  beliefs, strategies, and new research directions.
  In R.B. Ruddell N.J. Unrau (Eds.), Theoretical
  models and processes of reading (5th ed., pp.
  979-997). Newark, DE International Reading
  Association.
• 5 International Reading Association. (2007).
  Teaching reading well A synthesis of the
  International Reading Associations research on
  teacher preparation for reading instruction.
  Newark, DE Author.
• 6 Parris, S.R., Block, C.C. (2007). The
  expertise of adolescent literacy teachers.
  Journal of Adolescent Adult Literacy, 50(7),
  582-596.
• Ruddell, R.B., Unrau, N.J. (1997). The role of
  responsive teaching in focusing reader intention
  and developing reader motivation. In R.B. Ruddell
  N.J. Unrau (Eds.), Theoretical models and
  processes of reading (5th ed., pp. 954-978).
  Newark, DE International Reading Association.
• International Reading Association. (2000).
  Excellent reading teachers (Position Statement).
  Newark, DE Author. Retrieved June 26, 2008, from
  http//www.reading.org/downloads/ps1041_excellent.
  pdf.

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References Cont.

• Blair, T.R., Rupley, W.H., Nichols, W.D.
  (2007). The effective teacher of reading
  Considering the what and how of instruction.
  The Reading Teacher, 60(5), 432-438.
• Wink, J. (2005). Critical pedagogy Notes from
  the real world. Boston, MA Pearson Education,
  Inc.
• Allington, R.L. (2002). Big brother and the
  national reading curriculum How ideology trumped
  evidence. Portsmouth, NH Heinemann.
• Rand Reading Study Group. (2002). A research
  agenda for improving reading comprehension. In
  R.B. Ruddell N.J. Unrau (Eds), Theoretical
  models and processes of reading (5th ed., pp.
  720-754). Newark DE International Reading
  Association.
• Cambourne, B. (2002). Explicit and systematic
  teaching of reading A new slogan? In R.L.
  Allington (Ed.). Big brother and the national
  reading curriculum How ideology trumped evidence
  (pp. 217-223). Portsmouth, NH Heinemann.
• Anderson, R.C., Hiebert, E.H., Scott, J.A.,
  Wilkinson, I.A.G. (1985). Becoming a nation of
  readers The report of the Commission on Reading.
  Washington, DC National Institute of Education.
• Noddings, N. (2005). The challenge to care in
  schools An alternative approach to education.
  New York, NY Teachers College Press.