Implications for Teaching, Research, and Policy
The persistence of the U.S. achievement gap is especially problematic when we realize that current statistics likely underestimate the problem. The problem persists because of a failure in the system to provide much more than cookie-cutter instructional responses that do not address youth’s literacy needs. Too many young people leave our schools with identities as poor readers and failures, a situation that cautions us, first, to do no harm. Programs that exacerbate youth’s negative identity constructions abound, and Terrance’s story tells us that there are more positive alternatives. Terrance’s work in Ms. Ryan’s RAAL classroom suggests instructional alternatives that can yield positive outcomes for the young people represented in the NAEP statistics. Indeed, research suggests that large-scale RAAL replication has begun to yield measurable positive student outcomes (Kemple et al., 2008). As important, our interviews suggest that Terrance has constructed an identity as a thriving, problem-solving Omega Replica reader of primary source academic and digital texts. There is much about Terrance’s array of life contexts that facilitated his development of such a resilient learner identity, but Ms. Ryan’s teaching also likely made contributions to this construction. Key features of her teaching included the following:
1. High academic challenge coupled with explicit support calibrated to aid young people’s development of generalized strategies and discipline specific insights.
2. Asset-oriented teaching that began with youth’s existing cultural, linguistic, and experiential resources through emphasizing student choice and interest-driven reading of a wide array of texts.
3. An inquiry-oriented learning environment that positioned students as active collaborators investigating their own learning, personal responsibility, and construction of identities as self-sufficient learners.
Several thoughtfully constructed, supplemental instructional programs have demonstrated positive effects on young people’s reading achievement and identity construction (Slavin, Cheung, Groff, & Lake, 2008). Qualitative case studies demonstrate how identity transformation takes place when youth are shown how their personal strengths can inform the problem solving needed for academic literacy tasks (Jimenez, 1997; O’Brien, 2003). Such research tells us that young people deserve instruction that reaches for high-level literacies and that equips them for the challenges ahead—in school, in life, and in the workplace.
Even though adolescent literacy instruction in the U.S. remains woefully underfunded and itself marginalized, teachers like Cindy Ryan and students like Terrance renew our resolve and shift our vision. Imagine what could happen if we assisted secondary schools to build on the small gains documented for literacy interventions thus far, to create and sustain comprehensive programs that address all students’ literacy needs, including those who struggle. To do so would be to address a fundamental Omega Replica Watches human right of U.S. adolescents. To come to see themselves as thriving readers, young people who struggle with reading have a right to expert instruction that treats them as capable and competent, and that helps them to use existing competencies to develop the knowledge, dispositions, and strategies needed for academic and life success.
Processing your request, Please wait....
