WEBVTT 00:00:05.046 --> 00:00:09.136 I'm Michael Kamil; I'm a Professor of Education at Stanford University, 00:00:09.846 --> 00:00:12.706 and I was chair of the committee that put together the Practice Guide 00:00:12.706 --> 00:00:15.836 on Improving Adolescent Literacy. 00:00:15.836 --> 00:00:19.916 The goals of the panel in creating the Practice Guide for Adolescent Literacy was 00:00:19.916 --> 00:00:27.656 to create a document that would serve as an informative guide to curricular practices 00:00:27.656 --> 00:00:31.246 for teachers in middle and high school. 00:00:31.506 --> 00:00:37.456 The Practice Guide is important for administrators and teachers because the major crisis we have 00:00:37.456 --> 00:00:40.086 at the moment is in middle and high school literacy. 00:00:40.766 --> 00:00:45.586 We've got students who are so far behind that they will never catch up. 00:00:45.686 --> 00:00:49.406 We're denying them the opportunity to pursue advanced degrees, 00:00:49.886 --> 00:00:53.066 to pursue careers of their own choice, 00:00:53.666 --> 00:00:57.486 and we limit the usefulness that they will serve in society. 00:00:58.496 --> 00:01:03.806 The problem has been that middle and high school teachers often don't believe 00:01:03.936 --> 00:01:07.506 that it's their job to teach reading, that that should happen in elementary school. 00:01:08.466 --> 00:01:11.836 And because of that, we are trying to change the attitude 00:01:12.306 --> 00:01:18.626 and provide some simple-to-implement practices-maybe some that aren't so simple to implement, 00:01:18.626 --> 00:01:24.066 as well-to give them an idea of what they could do immediately 00:01:24.436 --> 00:01:26.836 to improve the reading of their students. 00:01:27.236 --> 00:01:31.666 The guide has five recommended practices that came directly out of the research. 00:01:32.446 --> 00:01:37.886 So those are number one, students need explicit vocabulary instruction. 00:01:39.006 --> 00:01:45.176 This isn't a very popular idea for a long time because vocabulary is thought 00:01:45.176 --> 00:01:49.646 to occur almost naturally or as a result of wide reading. 00:01:49.646 --> 00:01:53.896 What we found is that it needs to be taught and needs to be taught very explicitly. 00:01:54.686 --> 00:01:58.636 This is critical in content areas where vocabulary carries the load of the meaning. 00:02:00.096 --> 00:02:03.436 The second thing is that we know that students benefit 00:02:03.586 --> 00:02:08.786 if we teach them comprehension strategies, and they need to be taught explicitly again. 00:02:09.576 --> 00:02:14.426 So, this is how to approach a text and either construct or extract 00:02:15.076 --> 00:02:19.856 or understand the meaning of that text. 00:02:20.136 --> 00:02:26.416 This, again, is the result of careful analysis of the research and is very clear it's one 00:02:26.416 --> 00:02:32.166 of the most potent instructional interventions that we can use. 00:02:32.346 --> 00:02:38.576 The third recommendation is that students need to engage in discussion about text. 00:02:39.716 --> 00:02:44.836 This is probably the most unusual of the recommendations because it's the result 00:02:44.836 --> 00:02:50.596 of very recent analysis of the research that shows that students do extremely well 00:02:51.206 --> 00:02:56.206 when they are engaged in collaboratively discussing the text. 00:02:57.436 --> 00:03:01.936 This tends to be focused on literature in the research at the moment, 00:03:02.396 --> 00:03:06.126 but is very clearly applicable to content area material as well. 00:03:06.936 --> 00:03:10.756 The fourth recommendation is motivation of students, 00:03:11.336 --> 00:03:16.276 that we need to make sure that students are motivated to read and engaged in the reading task. 00:03:16.856 --> 00:03:23.216 For the purpose of the website, we've collapsed motivation and engagement with discussion 00:03:23.216 --> 00:03:27.346 around text because discussion around text is one way 00:03:27.346 --> 00:03:30.236 of increasing the engagement of students with that text. 00:03:31.186 --> 00:03:35.146 The last recommendation is about targeted and intensive tutoring 00:03:35.146 --> 00:03:38.986 for students whose problems are more serious than those 00:03:38.986 --> 00:03:41.346 that can be handled by the classroom teacher. 00:03:42.676 --> 00:03:48.166 The teacher needs to be able to identify those students and recommend that they be helped 00:03:48.266 --> 00:03:55.886 by a specialist who can arrange for tutoring in either individual or small group sessions. 00:03:56.626 --> 00:04:01.566 This is tutoring that goes well beyond the normal classroom regimen of instruction 00:04:02.666 --> 00:04:08.366 and is the way to bring students who are far behind in their achievement in literacy 00:04:08.946 --> 00:04:11.886 up to grade level or as near as possible. 00:04:12.716 --> 00:04:19.586 So, the way we can support teachers and administrators in implementing these is 00:04:19.586 --> 00:04:24.686 through organized, sustained, and intensive professional development. 00:04:25.696 --> 00:04:32.756 We need to make sure that the coaches that we're putting into schools at the moment are capable 00:04:33.236 --> 00:04:39.366 of helping teachers reach these goals of implementing the practices that we have. 00:04:39.786 --> 00:04:43.386 Recent studies have shown that literacy is one of the best predictors 00:04:43.986 --> 00:04:46.546 of achievement in math and in science. 00:04:47.906 --> 00:04:52.966 Now, what the principal needs to know is that we have to implement professional development 00:04:52.966 --> 00:04:55.986 for those teachers in the content areas 00:04:56.526 --> 00:05:01.556 to help them do literacy instruction in each of those content areas. 00:05:02.256 --> 00:05:06.766 That means being supportive in terms of professional development. 00:05:06.926 --> 00:05:13.916 It means creating an infrastructure that allows time for both planning and implementation, 00:05:13.916 --> 00:05:21.146 and it means that we have to have a cadre of other administrators who might replace 00:05:21.146 --> 00:05:24.136 that principal someday when the principal moves on so 00:05:24.136 --> 00:05:27.906 that there's an institutional memory about the program. 00:05:29.606 --> 00:05:32.546 Students have shown some improvement, 00:05:32.546 --> 00:05:36.336 in fact dramatic and historical improvement, through third grade. 00:05:37.126 --> 00:05:41.166 We need to continue working instructionally to maintain those improvements. 00:05:42.546 --> 00:05:47.266 The situation in many of our schools today with regard to literacy is that students are 00:05:47.266 --> 00:05:53.546 so far behind that it's almost like a trauma care unit that we need to institute. 00:05:54.486 --> 00:06:02.916 This Practice Guide provides some suggestions that will move the field and all the education 00:06:03.216 --> 00:06:08.606 at middle and high school level to improve the lot of those students 00:06:09.196 --> 00:06:14.676 and open up those opportunities for all those students that we are now underserving. 00:06:14.776 --> 00:06:21.006 [Music]