Key Characteristics of Effective Literacy Instruction - AWSA Article

In this article in The Reading Teacher, Danielle Dennis (University of South Florida) says the two most positive shifts supported by the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) are

(a) moving away from scripted curriculum packages (these were encouraged by Reading First) to balanced literacy, and (b) moving from punitive accountability models to more-effective use of assessments. She quotes Cunningham and Allington’s 2015 synthesis of research on the most effective literacy teaching:

-   Large amounts of balanced comprehensive instruction;

-   Lots of reading and writing;

-   Science and social studies integrated with reading and writing;

-   Meaning is central and teaching emphasizes higher-order thinking;

-   Skills are explicitly taught; children are coached to use them while reading and writing;

-   Teachers use a variety of formats and a wide variety of materials to provide instruction;

-   Classrooms are well managed and have high expectations.

“Learning from the Past: What ESSA Has the Chance to Get Right” by Danielle Dennis in The Reading Teacher, January/February 2017 (Vol. 70, #4, p. a395-400), http://bit.ly/2jpuGfP; Dennis can be reached at dennis@usf.edu.