Theory

Dr. Richard Allington wrote an article about effective reading instruction.  It is titled What I’ve Learned About Effective Reading Instruction; From a decade of studying exemplary classroom teachers.  I particularly liked this article because Dr. Allington focuses on effective teachers.  “Good teachers, effective teachers, matter much more than particular curriculum materials, or proven programs.”  Allington directs attention to the importance of effective professional development.  He has researched this and proven that good professional development is a sound investment in good teaching.  Effective teachers are able to have high achieving classes, regardless of which curriculum or program they use.  He states that education unlike other professions have been slow to recognize that expertise matters.  The article focuses mostly on what Allington calls the six T’s of effective elementary literacy instruction.  He observed these in classrooms throughout his study.  The first T stands for time.  Effective teachers manage their time well.  They spend a good amount of time on reading and writing versus stuff.  Allington points out that it is common to go into classrooms where students are merely doing ‘stuff.’  In order to be an effective teacher you must use the time you have engaging students in highly effective literacy activities.  In these classrooms he saw more guided reading, more independent reading, social students and science.  The next T is texts.  Simply put, students need a good variety of texts.  Effective teachers provide text that is on each students reading level.  Students of all achievement benefit from good solid text.  Lower achieving students can spend their days reading books successfully.  The next T is teaching.  Allingotn focuses on active instruction, or what I like to call explicit teaching.  Effective teachers spend a great deal of time modeling and demonstrating useful strategies.  Effective teachers offer explicit explanations.  Allington suggest that most teachers merely assign and assess.  He offers reasons to why this is not effective.  Students need actual teaching.  A worksheet is not an effective teacher.  The next T is Talk.  Effective teachers offer more opportunities for students to talk or think aloud their problem solving.    The next T is Tasks.  “Another factor related to student engagement was that the tasks assigned by exemplary teachers often involved student choice.”  Allington described this type of environment as “managed choice.”  Choice of this sort has been shown to lead to greater student ownership and engagement with the work.  The final T is testing.  “Exemplary teachers evaluated student work and awarded grades based more on effort and improvement than simply on achievement.  This was my favorite article.  The six T’s basically sum up effective teaching.  I think that my school is trying to make effective use of time by scheduling reading blocks.  We are also teaching students on their reading level and students have readers on their level during independent reading time.  Personally, I am trying to encourage more student talk during writer’s workshop as well as assess my students on their performance.