The 4th grade and middle school are a focus here, but research and learning profits accrue for all of us in this spring’s timely and applicable issue of English Update. The National Research Center on English Learning and Achievement (CELA) reports meaningfully about practices that most benefit students. There are many dividends to be discovered like those in the Further Reading (additional available CELA publications) and References sections.
Also enriching is the overview of a model, “the formation of the teacher professional community.” The model’s stages—beginning, evolving and mature—are charted and elaborated with behavior and interaction markers. This is excerpted from a collaborative study (by CELA researchers and the Center for the Study of Teaching and Policy at the University of Washington) titled What Makes Teacher Community Different from a Gathering of Teachers?
The two extended sections of English Update that are reviewed below yield details about classrooms where students perform and achieve at high levels.
EFFECTIVE FOURTH-GRADE TEACHERS AND THEIR CLASSROOMS
In this section we learn that CELA researchers, Richard Allington and Peter Johnston, gathered data in 30 classrooms, 24 schools, and five states across a variety of rural, suburban, and small- and large city environments. Their question was: “What overall conception of literacy teaching and learning guides the practice of effective teachers?”
In summary, findings that emerged included the high importance of particular kinds of talk (students in effective classrooms talk more and more purposefully) and curriculum and materials (varied, engaging and multisourced) in these classrooms. How instruction is organized (around students’ interests) and evaluation is conducted (based more on improvement, progress and effort than standardized testing methods) were other key features. The researchers found “substantial convergence between previous studies of effective upper elementary school instruction” and their own research. The entire report is valuable and is called What Do We Know about Effective Fourth-Grade Teachers and Their Classrooms? (It can be downloaded from the CELA Web site by following onscreen instructions.)
CLASSROOM DIALOGUE HELPS STRUGGLING READERS
This section (which begins on page 2) carefully explains and references how the successful middle school experience can enable students’ growth. The authors emphasize that, in contrast to more successful readers, those who are struggling “adopt a relatively passive stance to learning.” Enabling their improvement “requires first and fore-most the development of classroom environments that sustain inquiry and reflection, agency (with all it entails about identity and strategic action), and authentic collaborative action,” say the authors. Productive interventions can be structured and require flexibility and individual response to students. “Overall it is essential that teachers notice exactly what a child is doing well and reflect back to her or him, along with constructive feedback as to what might be done to improve performance,” they add.