Highlights - February 2000

• Students learn skills and knowledge in multiple lesson types
• Teachers integrate test preparation into instruction
• Teachers make connections across instruction, curriculum and life
• Students learn strategies for doing the work
• Students are expected to be generative thinkers
• Classrooms foster cognitive collaboration

From page 3, Guidelines for Teaching Middle and High School Students to Read and Write Well: Six Features of Effective Instruction. (Langer, 2000).

In high performing schools students learn through three types of activities: simulated, separated and integrated. What works and what doesn’t (following) can be found on page 5, (Langer, 2000):

Activities that work:

Offering separated and simulated activities to individuals and groups, or the entire class, as needed

Providing overt, targeted instruction and review as models for peer and self evaluation

Teaching skills, mechanics, or vocabulary that can be used during integrated activities such as literature discussions

Using all three kinds of instruction to scaffold ways to think and discuss (e.g., summarizing, justifying answers, and making connections)

What doesn’t work?

Reliance upon any one approach to the exclusion of the other two

Focus on separated and/or simulated activities with no integration with the larger goals of the curriculum

CELA Online: Tools for Schools
ummer, a great time for reflecting on the past year’s work, pondering what has worked well (and not as well) and interesting developments in our teaching, is also ideal for tuning in—to current research that can inform and improve practice. Highly recommended for this summer’s reading list is an excellent just-published booklet: Guidelines for Teaching Middle and High School Students to Read and Write Well: Six Features of Effective Instruction (Guidelines). The authors, Dr. Judith A. Langer, director of the National Research Center on English Learning and Achievement (CELA) and co-authors Elizabeth Close, Janet Angelis and Paula Preller draw the six features from findings of a five-year study. (Called Beating the Odds: Teaching Middle and High School Students to Read and Write Well, Langer and co-researchers conducted it.)

Guideline’s six features reflect insights gained from research conducted about English programs in 44 classrooms in 25 schools (most serving students in high poverty, big city neighborhoods) and in 4 states (Langer, 2000, 1, 2). The guiding question: “Most classroom teachers work hard planning lessons, choosing materials, teaching classes, interacting with indi-vidual students, and assessing student progress. Yet some schools and teachers seem to be more successful than others. What makes the difference?” (Langer, 1).




		CELA Online: Tools for Schools ummer, a great time for reflecting on the past year’s work, pondering what has worked well (and not as well) and interesting developments in our teaching, is also ideal for tuning in—to current research that can inform and improve practice. Highly recommended for this summer’s reading list is an excellent just-published booklet: Guidelines for Teaching Middle and High School Students to Read and Write Well: Six Features of Effective Instruction (Guidelines). The authors, Dr. Judith A. Langer, director of the National Research Center on English Learning and Achievement (CELA) and co-authors Elizabeth Close, Janet Angelis and Paula Preller draw the six features from findings of a five-year study. (Called Beating the Odds: Teaching Middle and High School Students to Read and Write Well, Langer and co-researchers conducted it.) Guideline’s six features reflect insights gained from research conducted about English programs in 44 classrooms in 25 schools (most serving students in high poverty, big city neighborhoods) and in 4 states (Langer, 2000, 1, 2). The guiding question: “Most classroom teachers work hard planning lessons, choosing materials, teaching classes, interacting with indi-vidual students, and assessing student progress. Yet some schools and teachers seem to be more successful than others. What makes the difference?” (Langer, 1).
		The booklet—beautifully laid out—is formatted around the six features and accompanying explana-tions, key points about successful schools, activities that work (and ones that don’t) plus classroom vignettes. The authors emphasize repeatedly that the features work systemically, that is, while each can be discussed separately, in schools the features “identi-fied in this research are interrelated and supportive of each other. Higher performing schools exhibit all of these features,” they state and, “addressing one feature may bring about improved student performance but it is the integration of all the features that will effect the most improvement,” (Langer, 3). Janet Angelis, Guidelines booklet co-author, points out that researchers found that the key enabling high-performing schools’ success is their supportive professional context for staff (Angelis, 2000, May). Note: citations made by permission of the NationalResearch Center on English Learning and Achieve-ment (CELA). References • Angelis, Janet. (2000, May 25). Personal Communication. • Langer, J., (with: Elizabeth Close, Janet Angelis and Paula Preller). (2000, May). Guidelines for Teaching Middle and High School Students to Read and Write Well: Six Features of Effective Instruction. National Research Center on English Learning and Achievement (CELA). Note: There is one free booklet available to each individual. It can either be ordered via the CELA web site: http:/cela.albany.edu or downloaded. (School districts can order up to 400 copies and schools up to 50). Also online at CELA: Langer’s research reports, a set of case studies, and newsletter articles. Further information: National Research Center on English Learning and Achievement University at Albany, ED-B9 State University of New York 1400 Washington Avenue Albany, NY 12222 Telephone: (518) 442-5026