Get ready...

NEA Today, Jan 1999

. . .To improve reading instruction--and get results.

When Barbara Stadtmiller volunteered four years ago to try new methods of teaching reading with her first graders, she did so with a mix of excitement and trepidation. Today, Stadtmiller is all smiles, as she crows about how well her students are doing.

"I volunteered to be on a districtwide reading assessment committee because I really wanted to see changes for these students," says Stadtmiller, an NEA member who teaches at Tyler Elementary School in Livonia, Michigan.

"There was always a group of kids in my classroom who never got fully involved in the reading process. They sat back and let other kids do the work.

"But now all ofmy students get involved in reading," she continues. "They read more difficult material and take on reading challenges."

Livonia students have indeed become better readers, since the district asked teachers to look for new tools that could ratchet up reading performance.

Across the country, NEA members are taking advantage of a wealth of new research on the best techniques for teaching reading (see page 6). In libonia, the results have been impressive:

Almost 90 percent of kindergartners recognize letters, know letter sounds, and understand how a book works.

The district reports a 30 percent increase in the number of kids performing at high reading levels by the end of first grade.

And 86 percent of second graders achieved the district benchmark, which requires them to read at beginning third grade levels.

Maureen Castiglione, a fourth grade teacher at Hayes Elementary School, says, "If my students see a word they don't know, they now ask a peer, ask the teacher, or look it up. Before they would just read and blow right by those words, not knowing what they meant. Now they have a system for comprehending what they have read, which adds to their understanding."

What made the difference?

"We researched the most up-to-date material on reading and borrowed the best practices from different approaches," says Stadtmiller.

Livonia's teachers use a variety of strategies for deciphering letter sounds and words, along with techniques designed to boost comprehension.

For example, Castiglione's fourth graders use a four-step process of metacognitive strategies for reading comprehension. They predict what the story will be about, clarify words as they read, summarize and re-tell the story to demonstrate understanding, and pose questions afterwards.

Kindergarten teachers get the process going by teaching students how a book works, letter recognition, and phonemic awareness. By first and second grade, students are learning how to use cues, including pictures, to decipher meaning. And from second through sixth grade, students learn how to understand expository text.

Another successful strategy involves finding out what students know as early as possible in the school year.

In the past, all first graders began the school year in the same reading group and were assessed as the year progressed, according to Stadtmiller.

"Now," she says, "we assess first graders before school starts in the fall. Then we put them in guided reading groups based on their skill level, so students with higher level reading skills can continue their advanced work, while students who need assistance are identified early on.

"The whole class works on comprehension skills," Stadtmiller continues, "but the small guided reading groups are where students learn to use phonics and decipher pictures."

There's an assessment piece as well. Greg DeNio, a fourth grade teacher at Roosevelt Elementary, is one of several educators helping to design ways of assessing reading comprehension in the fourth grade.

"Before," DeNio says, "we assessed how kids understood vocabulary, but not their level of understanding. Now, students use graphic organizers and questions to re-tell what they've read and to explain their understanding of setting, character, events, themes, problems, and solutions."

Livonia educators hope to repeat this success in the middle and high school grades. Teachers on those levels are now exploring how reading research and assessment strategies can be used to improve reading in the upper grades, says Marlene Bihlmeyer, Livonia's curriculum director.

"Our teachers are making dramatic changes in their classrooms to the benefit of their students," says Karen Zyczynski, president of the Livonia Education Association.

"We've not only set higher standards for our students, but for ourselves as well."