Reading and Writing Project Word Study 4th Grade

In this installment of the Teacher's Corner, nosotros hash out the latest news surrounding a renewed push to ensure early reading instruction is aligned with the science of reading. This includes the recent review of Units of Study by Student Achievement Partners and their study that the program lacks alignment with research. Finally, we share our own recommendations for supplementing Units of Study with evidence-based practices and helping educators conduct their own reviews of reading programs and practices.

Terminal month, Student Achievement Partners (SAP), a nonprofit educational consulting group, launched a new initiative to commission literacy experts to review reading programs in an effort to highlight enquiry-based practices that should be used in every elementary classroom and help educators make sound decisions near curriculum. This project comes amongst relatively stagnant reading scores (despite a large trunk of research that scientifically proves how children learn to read) and a renewed push button for schools to adopt reading curricula and practices grounded in the 'science of reading.'

SAP's reviews volition be conducted in partnership with good reading researchers, who volition evaluate programs against bachelor research in the following areas: foundational reading skills, like phonics and fluency; text complexity; building noesis and vocabulary; and supports for English learners.

The researchers released their first written report on Lucy Calkins' Units of Study program from the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project. Units of Study, more than commonly known every bit "reading and writing workshop," is 1 of the well-nigh widely used programs in the land, with 16 percent of teachers indicating they have used the materials in their classrooms, according to an Teaching Week Research Center survey. Expert reviewers noted the program'due south strengths and weaknesses when compared to scientific evidence of how children learn to read. Overall, reviewers' primary concern was that crucial aspects of reading instruction practice not receive the necessary time and attention required to maximize student learning. This might exist particularly problematic for children who are not well primed to read or who are not already reading when they enter school. (Notation: The Teachers College Reading and Writing Projection released a response to the SAP report in defense of the balanced literacy and the Units of Written report plan.)

Specifically, the SAP reviewers noted that the plan

• provided insufficient time to acquire phonics skills;
• made frequent recommendations for apply of the SMV (structure/meaning/visual system—widely known as the iii-step cuing arrangement), which contradicts a large body of enquiry;
• provided bereft guidance regarding how to use assessment results to inform didactics;
• lacked text that appropriately challenged or supported readers, preventing successful progress in reading;
• largely failed to build knowledge systematically and provided footling guidance to teachers on word work to build vocabulary; and
• failed to fairly and sufficiently integrate explicit supports to support English learners.

Recommendations for Improving Literacy Didactics for Teachers Using Units of Written report

Many educators will still be expected to use Units of Study as the main curriculum until states or school boards have time to make official changes. Here, we offer some means to supplement those lessons and other, similar "balanced literacy" curricula to maximize student learning.

SAP Concerns about Units of Written report	Possible Solutions	Helpful Resources (Sample lessons mentioned below tin can exist adapted for other grades as needed.)
Insufficient time devoted to phonics	Ensure teachers provide explicit and systematic phonics pedagogy, including instructional routines for teaching letter sounds, decodable words, sight words, and reading to reinforce learned sounds and words. Connect comprehension education so that phonics is not always taught in isolation.	Sample lessons and instructional routines for first class Sample lessons and instructional routines for second and tertiary grade
Use of the 3-step cueing system	Avoid the utilise of cuing systems and instead teach students to decode words by looking at all the messages in a word (see phonics recommendations above)	Guidance from Tim Shanahan
Lack of challenging texts and appropriate text reading supports	Although first readers (G-ane) should read many texts at their instructional level to primary basic decoding, more avant-garde readers should be provided opportunities to read texts with a range of difficulties. Support students before text reading by preteaching important vocabulary, setting a purpose for reading, and helping students decode when they make errors. Ensure students read a mixture of narrative and nonfiction books.	Sample "Daily Reading Routine" and lessons for second grade
Lack of knowledge edifice and vocabulary educational activity	Provide explicit vocabulary instruction of essential words (i.eastward., 2–three words critical to understanding the text) prior to reading past providing a student-friendly definition, visual, sample sentence, and examples. Aim to help students understand the "core meaning" of the words and the "shades" of meaning (e..g, bravado is a bit dissimilar from dauntless). Integrate multiple exercise opportunities past having students use vocabulary words in give-and-take, reading, writing, brief games, and other engaging activities. Embed instruction on morphemes, root words, prefixes, and suffixes and then that students learn how to derive the meanings of unknown words on their ain.	Academic Word Routines in lesson plans for fourth grade
Inadequate English Bacteria supports	Ensure ELs receive explicit and systematic education in phonics (see above), decoding, and encoding Build students' vocabulary and conceptual noesis (meet explicit vocabulary instruction above). Provide opportunities for peer conversations so students practice using academic vocabulary.	Reading Tip Sheets for Educators

Calls to Action

Given the contempo media attention, schools and districts are starting time to ask themselves if the reading curricula they've selected is, in fact, rooted in reading science. Nosotros encourage educators to carry their own reviews to ensure the reading programs being used volition address the learning needs of most students and are aligned with inquiry.

1. Read the Executive Summary, if non the total report.
2. Consider the extent to which your school or commune'due south early on reading program is aligned with the science of reading.

• For case, if you are currently implementing a "balanced literacy" program, "some of the inquiry findings in this written report will apply and others may non."
• To learn more about the critiques of the balanced literacy or whole linguistic communication approach to reading teaching, read this report from the Fordham Institute.

3. Learn more about constructive reading didactics from books identified as exemplary by the National Middle on Teacher Quality (NCTQ).

• The following texts are grounded in the science of reading and will be helpful to teachers aiming to provide show-based reading pedagogy. You lot can download the NCTQ written report for more data.

4. Download instructional materials aligned with the science of reading from trusted organizations, such as:

• The Texas Center for Learning Disabilities
• Meadows Heart for Preventing Educational Risk
• The Florida Middle for Reading Enquiry
• Iowa Reading Research Middle
• Pb for Literacy
• IRIS Middle
• National Center on Intensive Intervention (see their literacy resources)

5. Keep upwardly with the latest on the science of reading.

• Follow us, TCLD, on Twitter and Facebook
• Follow Emily Hanford, didactics reporter at APM Reports, on Twitter.
• Read Sarah Schwarz's reports at Educational activity Week

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Source: https://www.texasldcenter.org/teachers-corner/does-the-units-of-study-reading-and-writing-workshop-align-with-evidence-ba

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