Literacy Instruction Needs To Change. Here’s How.

Literacy instruction needs to change

Students in middle and high schools across the country are spending hundreds of hours a year on literacy assignments that don’t ask enough of them. Students from low-income families, students of color, multilingual learners, and students with disabilities are even less likely to receive tasks appropriate for their grade level. 

Is it any wonder reading scores haven’t improved in 30 years?

As I recently shared in The Hechinger Report, Research shows that grade-level texts and tasks should be the start—not the finish—of effective literacy instruction. Yet, too many students are assigned texts based on their reading level rather than grade level. 

That approach, while well-intentioned, does not close gaps or prepare students for life after high school. National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) data indicates that only 37% of 12th graders are academically prepared for college in reading. Employers say that young people lack important reading, writing, and speaking skills needed for success at work. 

Yes, reading classic texts and learning to write a five-paragraph essay are important. But students need much more. 

In 2013, I became the Chief Academic Officer of the Literacy Design Collaborative (LDC), a consortium of national educators dedicated to answering one question: how can we help all students meet grade-level literacy standards? Over five years, we worked with New York City and Los Angeles schools to improve teachers' understanding of standards and create authentic literacy tasks without lowering the content level. 

Afterward, the UCLA Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing evaluated LDC’s impact on student outcomes. They found that students gained four to nine extra months of learning compared to grade-level peers. This occurred after only two to four cycles of grade-level literacy instruction. Each two-week cycle focused on one content area standard, one reading standard, and one writing standard.

Over ten years, we studied 100,000 teachers and 2.4 million students. The results show that a standards-driven approach can result in two years of growth in just one school year.

The principles of this approach are simple. Every day, all students use complex texts, write in response to texts, and do grade-level work. 

So, why aren’t more schools doing this?

What's preventing strong literacy instruction?

There are many reasons. Here are a few:

There is a culture of low expectations 

In "The Opportunity Myth," TNTP found that 82% of teachers supported their state’s standards. However, only 44% believed their students could succeed with them. Even when students earned As and Bs, most were still given below-grade-level work or texts. 

Differentiation could be more effective

Since the Common Core State Standards were released in 2010, ELA teachers have become more likely to assign texts based on students’ reading levels rather than their grade levels. Teachers assign texts below grade level to help students based on their reading skills. As a result, students do not work with grade-level texts.

Professional development is inadequate

Even though $18 billion is spent annually on PD, most teachers don’t believe it’s helping—and they’re right. Teachers spend approximately 19 days a year on PD, but most don’t substantially improve their instruction, and student outcomes aren’t improving. 

Literacy curricula need to be standards-driven

Standards-aligned and standards-compliant curricula are different from standards-driven curricula. A standards-based or standards-aligned approach would be to observe student work, determine if each student demonstrated evidence of a particular ELA standard, and pass those who were successful.  

A standards-driven approach, however, is a little more complex. Instead of creating a task and then matching it to a standard, this approach utilizes the objectives of the grade-level standard in the task's design. While evaluating student work, the instructor can, therefore, consider how well a student met the standard rather than simply focusing on whether they were able to do so. 

How do we improve literacy instruction?

To turn things around, we must support students and teachers with pathways to meet grade-level standards. Following are a few ways to help:

Offer grade-level tasks on day 1, not on day 160 

A persisting misconception in education is that students need to “build up” to receiving grade-level work steadily for the first few weeks and months of the school year. TNPT found that while 82 percent of teachers support their state’s standards, only 44 percent expect their students to have success with them. Nothing could be further from the truth. 

Building students up to grade-level work has the unintended consequence of offering less overall time for students to master challenging concepts that they’d ideally have an entire school year to engage with. Shortening the window almost guarantees that students won’t be able to achieve proficiency in the wide range of grade-level competencies they need to advance to their next grade level and, ultimately, to post-secondary pursuits after that. 

Students must engage with grade-level experiences starting from day one of the school year. They need exposure to grade-level learning for the entirety of a class period or subject block.

Research shows that task predicts performance. Thus, ELA instruction must be designed assuming every student can read, think, and write about rich and complex ideas using complex texts.

Use effective scaffolding and learner supports

Students have diverse backgrounds and needs, and some may require extra assistance. Teachers can meet individual needs When they have access to different levels of support in a literacy curriculum. This helps them engage all learners with the same challenging grade-level texts and tasks. 

Examples of effective scaffolding include:

1. Reading aloud to support students’ listening comprehension.
2. Chunking texts into smaller sections for readability.
3. Providing guided annotation cues to help students interact with smaller sections of the text.
4. Providing translated definitions of vocabulary words in students’ home language.
5. Using visual images to supplement definitions for unknown words.
6. Providing discussion sentence starters to promote broader participation.
7. Offering small group discussion in students’ home language.

Students can become better readers and writers using complex, grade-level texts and tasks through effective scaffolding.  

Build teachers’ knowledge and skills

To implement standards-driven literacy instruction, teachers need access to PD that is intentional and immediately useful. Professional learning content can be embedded in a literacy curriculum so they deepen their understanding of the standards—and their knowledge of what mastery of specific standards looks like—as they go about their daily work.

Shift from a standards-aligned approach to a standards-driven one

A typical literacy curriculum structure is genre- or theme-driven. It focuses on a genre or theme, provides the text, and then moves on to content and concepts, standards, and (finally) the writing assignment.

With a standards-driven curriculum, however, the focus isn’t on the text but on its relationship to the disciplinary writing product students produce. 

Standards-driven instruction starts by considering the standard and creating a task to meet it. This approach prioritizes understanding the standard's meaning and requirements from the start. It does not involve creating a task and then matching it to a standard.

This changes the focus from what students consume (input) to what they create (output). When students create different writing products for various audiences and purposes, they build essential skills that can be used in real-life situations.

The time for change is now

We tested these four approaches during my time at LDC and found they work. Now, as Chief Literacy Officer at Carnegie Learning, I’ve helped bring those insights to life in a comprehensive, core ELA curriculum called Lenses on Literature, which brings best practices to even more classrooms nationwide.

No matter what curriculum you’re using, any ELA classroom can transform into a highly effective learning environment. As the research demonstrates, when students are given grade-appropriate assignments—and teachers are given PD that is laser-focused on the standards—both students and teachers will rise to the challenge.

The time to raise expectations and outcomes is now. Our students are ready to do the work. Are we?