Narrowing the Literacy Gap
What Works in High-Poverty Schools
Barone, D. M. (2006). Narrowing the Literacy Gap: What works in high-poverty schools. New York, New York: The Guilford Press.
Highlights
Barone made the following conclusions at the end of her 7 year experience with the students and teachers at Howard Elementary. "First, teachers matter", (Barone, 2006). Second, even though schools may have all of the essential elements in place for student success, they still may not see progress in student learning as measured in standardized tests. In order to see improvements, literacy instruction needs to be consistent. According to Barone (2006), one teacher said students tend to regress in reading and writing over the summer; therefore, during the school year students need to grow at least a year and a half in order to reach benchmarks. Third, teachers at high-poverty schools must find ways to get to know the students' families, and encourage them to visit and participate in schools. In other words, teacher's must not focus on the demographics of their students. Teachers need to understand that a student's academic limitations are not a direct result of their home or neighborhood. Fourth, schools with a high number of ELLs, must find ways to value parents and bring them to school. This is a difficult task due to language barriers. However, if teachers begin to make contact early in kindergarten by inviting parents to visit and share books with them to help them create at-home libraries, children will see the valuable connection between school and home. Lastly, Barone began to see the complexities of learning to read and write in a high-poverty school as a result of this study.
Supporting the Literacy Development of English Learners
4 Powerful Strategies for Struggling Readers
Help struggling readers succeed by teaching four research-based comprehension strategies with sample lessons and a gradual-release approach leading to student-directed learning.
The Next Step in Guided Reading
Barone's Reflections on Student Learning During the 7-year Study
- Children learned to follow directions
- Instruction was not meaningful
- Little conversation between students and teachers
- Minimal support for ELLs-no real accommodations
- Teachers focused on the alphabet and sound-symbol instruction
- No opportunities for students to explore reading and writing
- Parents were not encouraged to become involved in academic learning
First Grade
- Focused mostly on decoding skills
- Small group guided reading in six different ability groups
- Shared reading, independent reading, and read-alouds
- Word wall to develop sight word knowledge and support spelling
- Teacher-directed journal writing
- Directed oral language activities
Second Grade and Third Grade
- All of the above plus the following
- Comprehension of informational and narrative texts
- Social Studies and Science were taught through reading
- Writing workshop
- Continued to build on student's decoding knowledge
- High expectations for all students
Fourth Grade
- Whole-class literacy instruction
- No attempt for small group differentiated instruction
- All students engaged in the same selection in the basal text
- Vocabulary instruction related to basal selection
- Later in the year some teachers added reading groups; however, students read the same novel and there was little or no time for discussion
- Independent Reading with Accelerated Reader books followed by quizzes
- Daily Oral Language where students corrected sentences
- Wrote in preparation for state writing assessment
- Only one of the three teachers made personal connections with students and had high expectations which contributed to student success
Fifth and Sixth Grade
- Both grade levels blocked
- Instruction was organized across the grade level
- Routines, academic, and behavioral expectations were consistent for all teachers
- Teachers informally assessed their students and regrouped students based on current literacy and math knowledge
- Daily read-aloud
- Spelling practice daily
- Daily journal writing and a variety of other forms (stories and informational reports)
- Basal texts were used, but book club groups were the used frequently
- Students responded to other students and/or teachers in a literature log and had daily conversations about literature
- Accelerated Reading program used daily
*Watch the video below for a preview of a guided reading lesson. The video is of Jan Richardson, Ph.D., a literacy consultant and author who earned her Ph.D. studying struggling readers. In the video she is working with second graders introducing them to a new text.