Effective Literacy Learning

The assumption that every student at a certain grade level can learn from the same textbook is completely false, and any teacher would know that. Every class is made up of an array of literacy levels, and it is the teacher's job to provide many means of instruction to create an environment suitable for all students to learn. Creating said environment is not easy, but I feel that through Allington's six Ts of effective elementary literacy instruction and literacy centers, every child will have the potential to improve in literacy.

In a study performed by Richard Allington, results showed that there are six things that are essential for effective literacy instruction: time, texts, teach, talk, tasks, and test. In effective literacy classrooms, teachers delegate at least 50% of the school day to reading and writing. Children need practice often in reading and writing to become proficient. This practice comes in many forms, such as reading and writing in many subjects, guided reading, and independent reading and writing. The types and amount of texts students read  are also an important factor in literacy instruction. Every student should not be reading the same text all the time; rather, students should be reading texts based on their reading levels. In order for a child to learn, he or she needs to be reading books in which they are proficient and fluent 90% of the time. This means, they should not miss more than 2-3 words out of 100. These "easy" texts lead to higher self-confidence in reading, which motivates students to read and learn more. In an effective literacy classroom, teachers use the "let me demonstrate" structure instead of "assign and assess." The former structure allows teachers to model effective strategies for good reading and writing. Through modeling, children are able to put what they see into practice. In the "assign and assess" model, only students who have grasped the concept of a particular strategy are able to complete and learn something from the assignment. Teachers in effective literacy classrooms encourage conversational talk, whether it be between student and teacher or student and student. This talk normally stems from open-ended questions, which have more than one correct response and lead to more questions. This form of talk encourages all children to speak in class because there are no wrong answers; children will not feel embarrassed like they sometimes do when they answer a question incorrectly. Additionally, children learn communication skills and how to talk in front of people. The types of assignments teachers rely on directly influence whether literacy instruction is beneficial for all learners or not. Research shows that effective literacy teachers assign longer assignments that last several days rather than multiple, short assignments that make up one school day. Students also have a say in what kind of work they will be doing, which makes them more engaged in their work and more likely to claim ownership of their work. Lastly, effective literacy teachers evaluate their students based on effort and improvement rather than achievement. In this way, every student, even the typical low-achievement student, has the potential to get good grades. These teachers are more concerned about the process rather than the end result.

In addition to incorporating Allington's six Ts to effective elementary literacy instruction, effective literacy teachers devote a good amount of each week to literacy centers. These literacy centers should focus on six things: comprehension, phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary/word study, and writing. During the time allocated for literacy centers, the teacher is able to work with students who need extra help (or any group of students) while the other students are participating in literacy centers. Each of the centers should be simple and easy, so all students understand what to do without any teacher intervention. In addition, they should be directly linked to what the teacher is teaching at that current time, so the students are able to make connections and practice the skills and strategies they are learning. However, in order to ensure that literacy centers are effective, teachers need to outline the routine and expectations of the students.

Creating a literacy classroom in which all learners can thrive is no easy task. It will take much time, preparation, and practice, but the end result will be completely rewarding if all of the steps outlined above are followed.