A proven approach to accelerate reading and writing skills
Educators want to build strong literacy skills. Here's how to do it.
In 2022, U.S. teenagers between the ages of 15 and 19 read an average of 12.6 minutes per day—a four-year high, up from 7.2 minutes in 2018.
That means that the precious minutes students spend in our ELA classrooms count for way more than we may realize. We don't have the time to build up to grade-level literacy tasks during the school year. We have to engage our students with grade-level work from day one.
The best way to do that is through standards-driven instruction.
What is standards-driven instruction?
Standards-driven instruction focuses on using grade-level standards to guide all student experiences in the classroom.
Standards-driven instruction starts by thinking about the standard and then 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 first and then trying to match it to a standard.
What is the difference between standards-driven instruction and standards-based instruction?
Standards-driven instruction and a standards-based approach are different in how they create activities, assignments, and assessments. They also differ in how literacy standards are used to evaluate student work.
Let's look at an example.
The Common Core State Standards for 6th grade English Language Arts include the following for reading informational texts:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.6.6 Determine an author's point of view or purpose in a text and explain how it is conveyed in the text.
Let's assume a 6th-grade teacher has assigned a rhetorical analysis as the final writing product of a unit to evaluate students' abilities to meet the standard.
A standards-based or standards-aligned approach would be to observe student work, determine if each student demonstrated evidence of understanding an author's point of view or purpose, and pass those who were successful.
A standards-driven approach, however, is a little more complex. The instructor would consider not only whether the student demonstrated evidence of meeting the standard but also how they did so.
To assess how students are meeting this standard, the teacher might ask,
In a standards-driven approach, a YES to two of these questions would confirm meeting the standard or even showing advanced understanding. The other two wouldn't.
Merely describing information from the text or making surface-level connections (questions 1 and 2) may meet the black-and-white text of the standard, but it isn't enough to build a strong reader or writer. This is often what standards-based instruction looks like.
When we support students in probing deeper into the text and engaging with it in a complex way, such as with thoughtful explanations and analyses (questions 3 and 4), we are delivering standards-driven instruction. This approach fosters literacy skills and allows instruction beyond the basics.
Teachers have long used a standards-based approach to help students succeed. They use it to meet students where they are and provide support to help them reach their goals.
But there's a better way. We can help students achieve at a higher level. And shifting from basing our instruction on standards to driving it with them is a good place to start.
Standards-driven literacy works
How do we know that standards-driven literacy instruction works?
For 15 years, the Literacy Design Collaborative (LDC) developed and field tested a standards-driven literacy model in over 940 school districts nationwide. The results spoke for themselves.
On average, the 2.4 million students taught by over 100,000 educators engaging in standards-driven instruction gained 4-9 months of additional learning per year when compared to matched peers.
"With anything in the classroom, I think that the first and foremost rule of thumb is that you have really engaging, rigorous work that is very clear to the students [...] If you are clear in your specific expectations and in your task and the purpose of what you're learning, everything else kind of falls into place, so [students are] excited and curious learners," noted Sarah Moser, a 6th grade teacher.
LDC found that students in standards-driven schools demonstrated improved writing quality, quantity, rigor, and stamina, as well as higher levels of thinking and overall confidence in their abilities. These students were reported to be more engaged in their classrooms and better understood the expectations set for them.
Teachers in the study had a better grasp of standards and knew how to assess student learning more effectively. Teachers could plan better lessons by carefully choosing texts and instructional practices. Teachers who participated in the standards-driven pilot program "began to understand that [they] had looked at the standards and referred to them, but [hadn't] really understood them," noted a principal.
Best practices of standards-driven literacy
Shifting to a standards-driven model of ELA instruction is just that: a shift. Standards-driven instruction asks educators to shift aspects of their practice, not re-invent them. Here are the pillars of standards-driven instruction that can help guide educators in re-aligning their pedagogy:
To better understand the focus standard, start with a clear rubric to assess student success.
What will this look like at an emerging level? At an acceptable level? What will this look like for students who exceed expectations?
For the 6th grade example from earlier, the teacher would first need to examine the standard "Determine an author's point of view or purpose in a text and explain how it is conveyed in the text." Then, they must create or access an analytic rubric for this standard to guide subsequent instruction.
After understanding the standard, teachers should use it to design tasks with the standard in mind. This will help students develop the skills needed to meet the standard.
Our 6th grade teacher may choose to walk students through a series of informational texts and model how to identify an author's perspective. Giving them annotation tasks and making their thinking visible through free writing would further build the needed skillset for the standard.
As students progress through these tasks, they must continually receive feedback from various types of formative assessments.
For the end of the unit, teachers should craft their summative assessment or task carefully.
For the 6th grade standard example, the teacher could assign a grade-level rhetorical analysis, asking students to analyze an author's perspective in a chosen informational text. To better help students accomplish this summative writing task, teachers could show a model rhetorical analysis and then walk through it with their students to evaluate it based on the rubric they developed at the unit's outset.
By placing standards first, teachers can ensure that every class experience is tethered to grade-level learning. There's no guesswork or effort to align with the standard. Instead, they can be confident that they are using all their class time to its maximum efficiency.
A path to stronger literacy skills
There is no silver bullet in education. Teaching children to read and write is not easy, and ELA teachers nationwide have to contend with many factors outside their control.
However, in a situation where so many variables exist, standards-driven instruction stands alone as an approach that draws on educators' existing knowledge base and leverages it for optimal impact. You don't need to re-learn how to teach to use standards-driven literacy instruction. Adopting this approach is more a matter of retooling and reframing— with a huge return on investment.
If your teaching had transformed for the better one year from now, would you put the work in today? If this time next year, your students were half a grade level ahead, would you adopt a slightly different approach?
The best news is that you don't have to do this alone. Our brand-new, standards-driven literacy curriculum, Lenses on Literature, has your back every step of the way. Based on the belief that all students are capable of engaging with complex, grade-level texts, we designed Lenses to make transformative literacy instruction accessible to all.
As the saying goes, the best time to start was yesterday. The next best time is now.
Kelly joined Carnegie Learning in 2023, bringing a decade of diverse educational experience. Her career includes one year as a high school Dean of Students and nine years teaching French at secondary and post-secondary levels. An AP French exam reader in 2017 and 2020, Kelly holds ACTFL OPI certification and is versed in various world language pedagogies, including TPRS and Organic World Language (OWL). She taught using Carnegie Learning's T'es Branché? curriculum for six years. As a content writer, Kelly is dedicated to highlighting educator experiences and empowering teachers to enhance student outcomes nationwide.
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