Notes on Reading Growth in High Poverty Classrooms: The Influence of Teacher Practices that Encourag

Taylor, B., Pearson, P., Peterson, D., & Rodriguez, M. (2003). Reading Growth in High-Poverty Classrooms: The Influence of Teacher Practices that Encourage Cognitive Engagement in Literacy Learning, The Elementary School Journal, 104(1), 3-28.

Purpose:

“Evaluate the relative contributions of an array of curricular and teaching variables to children’s reading and writing growth” (p. 6)

• determine which elements of classroom instructional practice accounted for the greatest growth in student achievement

• evaluate the efficacy of a framework of teaching for cognitive engagement

Method

Participants: 88 teachers, 792 students, across grades 1-5, 9 randomly selected students per classroom in 9 schools in the U.S.

Variables considered: Explicit phonics skill instruction, instruction in applying word-recognition strategies to text, comprehension skill instruction, comprehension strategies instruction, lower- and higher-level thinking related to text, teachers’ use of various interaction strategies (coaching, modeling, telling, recitation), students time on task, active pupil response

Data Collection:

Students assessed in Fall and spring on several literacy measures; teacher interviews, observations

Findings:

• high-level questioning matters: questions that emphasized theme, character interpretation, text-to-self connections, story events, retelling or summarizing, making predictions before and during reading

• routine practice on skills is not beneficial –compatible with NRP report that phonics instruction should be concentrated in the earliest stages of schooling

• how reading comprehension is taught ( mechanistically or strategically) is key in determining efficacy of instruction

• high levels of coaching enhanced growth

• involving students in active reading enhanced growth

• High level of telling (negatively) and modeling (positively) predicted students’ writing growth