Sage Advice: Reading and Writing Proficiency
What works to ensure that middle school and high school students are proficient in reading and writing?
Keep it simple at first. Find them material that interests them. Give them time to read. Forget about tests until they gain confidence in their ability!
Bobbi Anderson
Sixth-grade teacher
Sevier Middle School
Greenville, South Carolina
Reading is a skill. Skills improve with practice. Miserable, bored people practice less. Here's what works: public libraries, school libraries, librarians, a wide array of reading material -- comic books, books about weird or disgusting animals, skateboarding magazines, Guinness Book of World Records. Great literature? No, but look who's practicing their reading.
Doe Myers
Library aide
La Entrada Middle School
Menlo Park, California
The three Rs (from the International Center for Leadership in Education): relevance (lots of practice with interesting reading materials on their reading level), rigor (exposure to grade-level content with comprehension supports and alternate ways to demonstrate their knowledge), and relationships (a caring teacher who makes it possible for them to take risks and learn to do something difficult).
Molly Wilson
Instructional supervisor
Warren County Schools
Bowling Green, Kentucky
Parents of poor readers do not foster a reading environment at home. They don't set aside time for children to read, instead letting them watch television and play on their Game Boys. Until parents insist on quality reading time at home, any progress made at school will fizzle.
Denise Eldon
English teacher
William S. Hart Union High School District
Santa Clarita, California
The answer is simply an entire staff that believes it is collectively responsible for teaching children to read and write better. We need to move away from the mentality that it is only the English department's job to work with students on reading and writing. We must all take a more active and involved role in helping our students achieve.
Mary Anne Steinberg
Human resources development
FDLRS/Springs
Reddick, Florida
Create a system for small classes and individualized instruction to ensure that every child is learning.
Kirsten McCawley Shore
Early-elementary teacher
Morgantown Learning Academy
Morgantown, West Virginia
I must read, read, read, just so I can talk books with the kids. If I can suggest even one book students like, they will usually continue to accept recommendations with the added stipulation that if something doesn't grab them, they should put it down and try something else. I try to stock books by prize-winning authors and gently push my best readers toward them. Even in high school, we offer DEAR (Drop Everything and Read) periods with our low-level and reluctant readers. It works.
Woody Plaut
Librarian
Konawaena High School
Kealakekua, Hawaii
It's important to give students opportunities to shine at whatever their proficiency level happens to be, while encouraging them to improve. Audiobooks and texts -- used in conjunction so that students can read the text while it is being read aloud -- can be a tremendous aid for those who are slow to read.
April Lufkin Miller
History department chair
Alabama School of Fine Arts
Birmingham, Alabama
Require them to read and write! There is so much emphasis on standardized tests with multiple-choice answers. It is difficult to get students to read and reflect on their reading. If we have to do it as an in-class activity, maybe that's what it takes.
Pamlea Stover
fine arts director
Cathedral High School
El Paso, Texas
See the Library Research Service's School Library Impact Studies page (www.lrs.org/impact.asp). It is all there.
Richard Moore
Retired high school and county librarian
Huntingotn, Beach, California
Struggling readers of any age need phonemic awareness, letter-sound knowledge, and the ability to blend sounds. If a student is lacking in any of these areas, we solidify these concepts first. We use a multisensory, structured, sequential language curriculum, such as the Wilson Reading System, to teach reading, writing, and comprehension skills.These students begin the program at their instructional-reading level and progress slowly, moving onto subsequent levels only after achieving fluency in reading and spelling. Applying phonics rules fluently and automatically is key for understanding text.
Kathy Campbell, Barbara Fuller, and Nora Schlesinger
reading specialists
New Way Learning Academy
Scottsdale, Arizona
Students need well-funded school-library programs. Fund it and they will read! Reading improves writing; see Stephen D. Krashen's book, The Power of Reading. Thirty years of research proves that good library programs improve student achievement (visit www.lrs.org). The National Council of Teachers of English recently wrote a resolution about school libraries at www.ncte.org/about/over/positions/category/libr/123157.htm.
Irene Kwidzinski
Library media specialist
Northville School
New Milford, Connecticut
The key to getting students at any level to read and write is simply giving them something worth writing and reading about.The students who struggle with these activities get the most boring and uninspiring assignments. Take a very hard look at what is being asked and see whether the assignments inspire.
Getting students to read and write
I do SAT prep and am saddened by the poor writing skills I encounter, even among honors and AP English students. I have found that my students need lots of feedback and more chances to rewrite. Students bring me graded essays from English class with very little concrete and specific feedback from their teachers. We go over these essays in detail and look at word choice, sentence variety, organization, argumentation, etc. Many students need to learn that long sentences are not necessarily better sentences, and that grammar is still important. They also need to read modern essays to see good writing that feels natural and relevant. Of course reading and writing are inextricably intertwined, so I use SAT reading passages to demonstrate a writer's use of particular techniques.