Results for category: Reading
How Much Teacher Guidance Versus How Much Independent Work?
By Tim Shanahan 2016
Teacher’s letter:
I’ve been reading your blog articles very carefully, and in one entry you recommended having the kids read a lot during the literary block time (and all other subjects), suggesting possibly 50% of the time should be spent reading. My question is how much of that reading time should be teacher-led […]
For the Love of Reading: Engaging Students in a Lifelong Pursuit
By Daniel T. Willingham 2015
How should American teens spend their leisure time? I recently asked* American adults this question, after explaining that the typical teen enjoys approximately five hours of leisure time each weekday.1 The activity with the highest response, irrespective of race, education, and other demographic factors, was reading. Adults thought teens ought to […]
Read More....A Fine Mess: Confusing Close Reading and Text Complexity
By Tim Shanahan 2016
We just started close reading in our district last year. Our second graders were given text that was a grade level above their reading level. We were told to let them figure it out. They could not even read the first sentence it was too hard for their reading level. The reading […]
Read More....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. […]
Read More....Teaching Reading Comprehension and Comprehension Strategies
Tim Shanahan
January 2016
Teacher question: In terms of teaching comprehension to grade 3-5 students, what is the best way to help the readers transfer the strategies they are taught so they can be independent, self-regulated readers?
Shanahan’s response: If you want to teach reading comprehension strategies to on-grade level students between the ages of 8-10, we have […]
Read More....- Articles
- Comprehension
- Differentiated Instruction and RtI
- Higher Level/Critical Thinking
- Metacognition
- Reading
- Research-Based/Evidence-Based
- Teaching
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 […]
Read More....Why We Need to Teach Reading AND Writing
Tim Shanahan
Many educators trumpet the idea of reading-writing relationships, emphasizing how close reading and writing are. As a teacher I was a big believer in this—my kids wrote every day, despite the lack of a report card space for writing, a writing curriculum, writing standards, or even any professional development on the topic. I strongly […]
Read More....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 […]
Middle School Reading Interventions
By Tim Shanahan
From a district leader:
We are a K-12 district and are revamping our grade 6 through grade 8 instructional supports, which include a 40-minute additional session of reading and/or math instruction anywhere from three to five days a week. This extra instruction is provided to any student below the 50th percentile on the MAP […]
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 […]
Read More....Newsletter
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