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 […]

• Articles
• Learning
• Reading
• Teaching

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 […]

• Articles
• Reading

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

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 […]

• 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 […]

• Articles
• Literacy
• Reading
• Teaching

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 […]

• Articles
• Reading
• Writing

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 […]

• Articles
• Assessment
• Literacy
• Reading
• Writing

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 […]

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• Reading
• Teaching

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

Concerns about Accountability Testing

Why don’t you write more about the new tests?

Tim Shanahan

I haven’t written much about PARCC or SBAC—or the other new tests that other states are taking on—in part because they are not out yet. There are some published prototypes, and I was one of several people asked to examine the work product of these consortia. […]

• Articles