Race, Class, and Gender in Literacy Research (Summer 2011)

The lack of effective differentiation is a major issue in schools today because of the district-chosen required texts. Even though the books have a variety of activities that seem to be engaging and able to meet the needs of all students on the surface, it seems that many teachers often dread using the basals mandated by schools and districts. Occasionally, you will find a few teachers among us who will quickly complete the activities to say they have been completed and get to the meat of education - meeting the needs of all students with diverse and developmental instruction. I hate that the individual attention Laurie needed in first grade was at first overlooked, and then when her teacher began to recognize she had a problem, it was appalling that she still continued instruction the way she had always done, which was ineffective in Laurie's situation. I was happy that she was at least referred to additional reading services but hated that even this scenario overlooked her because there were too many other students with worse reading issues. What became apparent to me while reading this section within the chapters was why didn't the school try to look at some adjustments in the language arts curriculum if too many students were unable to grasp reading concepts the way the mandated program intended and weren't able to get the differentiated instruction that they so deserved in order to taste academic growth and success. This situation gave Laurie's only means of achieving the "good student" status one other attainable and doable option - behave and pretend reading and writing as desired by the teacher. So many of our students are slipping into this gender, racial, and class role...trying to do what their histories allow them to do so it appears that they are attempting to be good students.

Andrea-
I unfortunately had similar feelings after reading about Laurie. I have had several students with comparable stories and at times have found myself truly struggling with how to most effectively help. Although it would be ideal in a perfect world, it is impossible to think we can give every child exactly what they need every minute of the day in our classrooms. It is important to do the best we can with our limited resources and the requirements of principals/district coordinators.
This past year we were forced to as I like to refer to it “drink the cool-aid” of a new reading program. I know there were large amounts of money involved but past programs have never been implemented in such a manner before. We regularly received “policing” visits with observations and feedback sessions from a representative from the company and reminded often to teach the program with fidelity. I found it to be extremely frustrating and spoke often with my colleagues about ways to meet the requirements placed upon us, as well as meet the needs of my students. While there were several aspects of the program that were beneficial to my whole class, unlike Laurie’s teacher, I chose to mostly teach and remediate in small groups. This seemed to work better for meeting individual needs than simply sticking to the plan laid out by the textbook creators. After all one program can not be expected to be the perfect fit for every student.

Andrea,
I also struggle with the choice to use or not to use the basal series adopted by our school. I like to think that I have made wise choices and have used it as a tool for teaching - not my literacy program. I do use some aspects of the program, but I often find myself taking an idea that they offer in the textbook and then reworking it to better fit my instructional style and the learning styles of my students. I have been fortunate that my administrators have been accepting of this practice. We do not have those "policing" visits that Ruth Ann mentioned. While we do sometimes feel obligated to use these materials, it is our duty to make sure that we are differentiating our instruction and meeting the needs of our diverse learners.

Today in our classrooms there are more and more students who are just like Laurie facing the same struggles and challenges. I too have struggled with using reading programs forced upon us by our districts. The sad part is often we don't even have to choice to use the best methods we see fit as educated teachers. For four years we were forced to use a program called SFA-success for all. With the students grouped based on their reading abilities the program is designed around the Scott Foresman reading program with a written script for the teachers to follow. We all know that this does not provide instruction that meets the individual needs of our students, but sometimes its out of our control. I tried to alter the program to meet the needs of the students, but it is frowned upon by those who tell us "this is what you teach". We know our children and I think the best thing to do is shut the door and teach the needs of the students. When the program was thrown out I was not sad. Now I can do my best to meet te need and differentiate my instruction to help the students just like Laurie.

Guided reading with leveled readers is the way to go for meeting individual needs of students in my opinion. Basals have been used with students in some guided reading groups, but basals on their reading level. The difficulty lies with "text control" with alot of basals. Six packs of Rigby leveled readers are preferred, because the stories are a good length and they do have text control. The only reason basals have been used is when a reading group has more than 6 students. I've noticed that sharing books among students usually does not work, because students do not pay attention as well.

Whole instruction may be good to introduce a new skill or strategy. Whole group instruction works well with math, skill building, competitive play and cursive writing, but not reading with one basal for the entire class. Like you mentioned, that's when well-behaved students can fly under the radar and wind up not benefitting from instruction, especially if it's not on their reading level to begin with.

When I read the text describing Laurie's first grade literacy experience, it also reminded me of the new program (I won't mentioned any names) in our county's language arts curriculum. I do not use it in my grade level, but our K-2 teachers are required to use it enthusiastically even though they do not like it. The lack of small groups based on instructional levels have always been successful for struggling readers in my classroom. While I understand the need for consistency in our highly transit population, I am afraid that students like Laurie will not get the individualized instruction they need. In my opinion, all learners are not equal and all literacy material should not be equal. Shared reading is a great time to used grade level material such as basals or Scholastic News but not when students are trying to use their decoding and comprehension strategies to negotiate through text.

Andrea,

Many teachers do struggle with balancing what is required of them to teach, what additional info they think they need to teach, and how to teach it so that each students' needs are met. Sometimes I feel like students learn best when they are not taught out of a textbook. I mean.... how interesting is a textbook, honestly? Sometimes the information is written in a way that is difficult for even me to follow and understand, let along a student who is just being introduced to a concept. Teaching information so that children can understand it is no vital to student success. We have to meet them at their level, not the grade level we are instructing.

I agree with you, Andrea, we walk a fine line in using the textbooks and reading series materials we receive from our districts, and differentiating instruction, using other materials. In teaching kindergarten, we also must feel our way through using materials, strategies, and meeting requirements that are not developmentally appropriate for our young students. In my class this past year my students ranged from a few who were reading chapter books to a couple of children who could not consistently name a picture – teaching to the middle, with our reading series, would have been disastrous for most of my kids! I certainly would have left some of my children behind, and it would have been a real disservice to the more literate students to allow them to be bored all year. I spent some of my time in whole group, but the majority of my reading block was spent in small group instruction, with students rotating between my group, another group doing leveled work with my assistant, and two independent stations. That’s the only way I could come up with that would use the reading series materials and still satisfy my personal need to differentiate instruction for the literacy levels of my students.

I too have a great love for reading and wonder what the secret is to helping all the students I teach discover how amazing the world of books can be. Oftentimes I will be teaching older students at the Sylvan Learning Center, and they will tell me they have never once read a book for pleasure in their lives! It makes me so sad, and I usually try to find a book for them to borrow that they will at least be interested enough in to attempt to read. It doesn’t always work, but when it’s successful it’s always worth the time I put into figuring out what flips that switch for them!