Are Oral Reading Norms Accurate with Complex Text?

By Tim Shanahan with Jan Hasbrouck

Teacher Question:

A question has come up that I don’t know how to address and I would love your input.  For years, we have used the Hasbrouck/Tindal fluency norms as one of the ways we measure our student’s reading progress.  For example, the 4th grade midyear 50th percentile is 112 CWPM.  […]

• Articles
• Assessment
• Literacy
• Reading

To Lexile or Not to Lexile, That is the Question

Tim Shanahan

A teacher’s question:
Our school district is going wild over Lexiles because they are in the Common Core standards. I think they are overdoing it and don’t feel comfortable with some of the decisions that we are making. What are the weaknesses of Lexiles?

First, Lexiles is only one of several readability measures included in […]

• Articles
• Literacy
• Reading
• Teaching

Report Cards and Standards

Tim Shanahan

Teacher Question:
I wanted to ask your opinion regarding the structure of report cards for parents of students in grades 3-5. Understanding that ELA CCSS intertwines the areas of reading, language, spelling, writing, and moving toward creating district standards-based report cards in all K-5 grade levels, how do you think students’ progress should be reported […]

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• Assessment
• Literacy
• Reading
• Writing

Why Standards-Based Teaching Has Failed to Raise Reading Achievement

By Tim Shanahan

Standards-based educational reform goes back to the early 1990s. Since then, test scores have see-sawed a bit, but for the most part we are doing about as well as we’ve been doing since 1970 (when we first started collecting national reading data).

That means standards-based reform has not led to higher achievement. Establishing educational […]

• Articles
• Literacy
• Reading
• Teaching

A Close Read of a Close Reading Video

by Tim Shanahan

My daughters are Erin and Meagan. When they were little, Meagan would get upset because we always “ran Erins,” but never “ran Meagans.”

That’s cute when a little one doesn’t know the meaning of a word. But such miscommunication can be a real problem in Common Core State Standards implementation.

It’s getting so that I […]

• Articles
• Common Core
• Comprehension
• Literacy
• Reading
• Teaching

10 Guidelines for Dealing with Prior Knowledge

by Tim Shanahan

Don’t overdo it. Research shows that providing readers with key information about a text can improve comprehension, as does reminding them of relevant information that they already know. But in the research studies these things were usually accomplished pretty economically; often the researcher did not do more than tell students the topic. To […]

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• Learning
• Literacy
• Reading
• Teaching

When Will We Ever Learn

Dissecting The Common Core State Standards with Dr. Louisa Moats

Dr. Louisa Moats, the nationally-renowned teacher, psychologist, researcher and author, was one of the contributing writers of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). The CCSS initiative is an attempt to deal with inconsistent academic expectations from state-to-state and an increasing number of inadequately prepared high school […]

• Articles
• Common Core
• Literacy

For New Orleans teen parents, summer school is hands-on

By Danielle Dreilinger, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune

15-year-old Lashuntia Copelin plays with her 8-month-old daughter Londyn, while Jamal Gibson, 17 plays along during a break in a teen parenting class. Landry-Walker High School and the Center for Development and Learning are piloting a program for teen parents, Wednesday, July 2, 2014. In the background, Alice […]

• Articles
• Early Childhood
• Literacy
• Parents

How to Organize Daily Literacy Instruction

By Tim Shanahan

Twice this week—from a NY teacher and an Illinois school administrator—I’ve been asked how to organize instructional time for literacy with Common Core. One was an email inquiry, the other face-to-face, but both noted my earlier concerns about Daily 5 and CAFE. 

In both cases, they were right that I am not a big […]

• Articles
• Common Core
• Literacy
• Professional Development/Learning

Strategies For Managing Language Challenges

By Glenda Thorne, Alice Thomas and Candy Lawson

There are many strategies that will help a student with language problems. A few are listed below.

1. Take the Mystery Away

Teach the student about language and language strategies. Help the student understand his/her own language strengths and challenges. This process is sometimes called demystification – taking the mystery […]

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• Literacy