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Email: jenny@erinkentconsulting.com

Linked In: Jenny Killion

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You all have access!

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Barcelona in November or Bangkok in March!

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Literacy Consultants & Consulting Services | Erin Kent Consulting

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Barcelona Nov. 23-24 | Erin Kent Consulting (EKC)

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1. Analysis in the Wild

2. Toward a New Understanding of Analysis

3. The Essential Tools of Analysis

4. Exploring Passion

5. Exploring Ideas

6. Exploring Structure

7. Exploring Authority

8. Movie and Television Analysis

9. Music Analysis

10. Sports Analysis

11. Video Game Analysis

12. Literary Analysis

13. Gathering Your Own Resources

This book is written to help you plan instruction that supports the development of writers, specifically writers who are analyzing texts. The book is organized into three parts. Part 1 is an immersion into analytical writing that is current, authentic, and relevant to the students we teach today. We'll use the language of exploration to frame a new way of thinking about analysis. This process of analyzing a text is not unlike an explorer setting sail in search of a new land-a metaphor we'll draw on throughout this book to emphasize the discovery that is possible when students analyze texts of their own choosing. Sections 2 and 3 each begin with their own introduction. Section 2 is your lesson book - your guide to helping students find and explore and write about texts they love. Section 3 promises to be dog-eared and worn by the time you're finished with it. Each chapter is jam-packed with our absolute favorite mentors, mentor texts, and "cheat sheets" for supporting students who are analyzing texts you've never heard of.

With samples throughout the book, you will see what students of all levels and experiences can do when they're invited into the world of authentic analysis and supported with mentor texts, targeted writing instruction, and the opportunity to write about their passions.

This book is for teachers who want to revive the art of analytical writing in their classrooms-from teachers of middle-grade writers who are making their first foray into analytical writing to teachers of experienced twelfth-grade writers who are looking ahead to college where their professors will expect much, much more. In this book, we invite you to explore your teaching of analytical writing from a new perspective. To open your mind to the real world of analytical writing and challenge traditional notions about what students should be analyzing and how they should write. In short, we invite you to arrive where you started and know it for the first time-and to share this journey with your students and celebrate the writing that is born where passion and analysis meet.

- Introduction

"English teachers have been waiting for this book since...well...forever. Allison Marchetti and Rebekah O'Dell breathe new life into that semi-comatose assignment-the analytic essay. They ask us to totally reimagine it, to examine how analysis works "in the wild" -on blogs, web sites, Internet reviews, and to expand the range of "texts" students can analyze (music, video games, sports teams, movies). Then drawing on their own classroom work, they show how students can use the lessons from mentor texts in their own writing. A groundbreaking and absolutely essential book." -Thomas Newkirk, author of Embarrassment and Minds Made for Stories

"Are you ready for a mind-bending journey into analytical writing? This book holds a new vision for student engagement grounded in current, authentic, and relevant texts. I guarantee it will upend your understanding of analysis. Full of sentence and passage studies that ignite student voice, mini-lessons that clarify the intent of organizational structures, and a deep understanding of how best to learn from a mentor text, this book will make you a better writing teacher. It's simply brilliant."-Penny Kittle, author of Book Love and coauthor of 180 Days

"Allison Marchetti and Rebekah O'Dell take the dusty skeleton of literary analysis and transform it into a responsive, sophisticated, magical genre of writing that we can teach our students to develop and to adore. Using this book will produce the writing that you and your students will cherish most - these are the pieces they will keep, the ones they will publish. Marchetti and O'Dell's work brings relevance, voice, and life to a form that feels crusty and brittle with directions, templates and redundancy. This book will make your students better writers - but it will also help them to enter into the world they encounter with greater passion and insight than ever before."-Kate Roberts, author of A Novel Approach and coauthor of Falling in Love With Close Reading

"As tour guides to a brave new world, Rebekah O'Dell and Allison Marchetti reject the well-worn path of literary analysis and guide teachers to a vibrant new analytical landscape. By reframing the idea of text as anything that has a beginning, middle, and end, O'Dell and Marchetti entertain a "bigger vision for analysis," that helps students find their passion, explore their ideas, assert authority, and build solid structures for writing. Divided into three sections, the book offers an inquiry into traditional analysis, a compendium of practical lessons, and an exploration of sub-genres, such as writing about movies, music, sports, and video games. In addition, this book is chock full of dynamic mentor texts and classroom-ready techniques that will free your students to explore the vistas vital to their lives."-Liz Prather, author of Project-Based Writing

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This book is for teachers who want to revive the art of analytical writing in their classrooms-from teachers of middle-grade writers to teachers of experienced twelfth-grade writers who are looking ahead to college. We invite you to explore your teaching of analytical writing from a new perspective.

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Back to Results

Killing the Five-Paragraph Essay and Other Necessities

John Warner

An important challenge to what currently masquerades as conventional wisdom regarding the teaching of writing.

There seems to be widespread agreement that-when it comes to the writing skills of college students-we are in the midst of a crisis. In Why They Can't Write, John Warner, who taught writing at the college level for two decades, argues that the problem isn't caused by a lack of rigor, or smartphones, or some generational character defect. Instead, he asserts, we're teaching writing wrong.

Warner blames this on decades of educational reform rooted in standardization, assessments, and...

An important challenge to what currently masquerades as conventional wisdom regarding the teaching of writing.

There seems to be widespread agreement that-when it comes to the writing skills of college students-we are in the midst of a crisis. In Why They Can't Write, John Warner, who taught writing at the college level for two decades, argues that the problem isn't caused by a lack of rigor, or smartphones, or some generational character defect. Instead, he asserts, we're teaching writing wrong.

Warner blames this on decades of educational reform rooted in standardization, assessments, and accountability. We have done no more, Warner argues, than conditioned students to perform "writing-related simulations," which pass temporary muster but do little to help students develop their writing abilities. This style of teaching has made students passive and disengaged. Worse yet, it hasn't prepared them for writing in the college classroom. Rather than making choices and thinking critically, as writers must, undergraduates simply follow the rules-such as the five-paragraph essay-designed to help them pass these high-stakes assessments.

In Why They Can't Write, Warner has crafted both a diagnosis for what ails us and a blueprint for fixing a broken system. Combining current knowledge of what works in teaching and learning with the most enduring philosophies of classical education, this book challenges readers to develop the skills, attitudes, knowledge, and habits of mind of strong writers.

Reviews

That title sounds as if it will be a grumpy polemic, but it's actually an inspiring exploration of what learning to write could be, framed by an analysis of why it so often is soul-destroying for both students and their teachers.

Articulates a set of humanist values that could generate rich new classroom practices and, one hopes, encourage teachers, parents, and policymakers to rethink the whole idea of School and why it matters to a society. Warner is pragmatic, not programmatic, and hopeful without being naïve... I hope teachers, parents, and administrators across the United States read his trenchant book. We are the reformers we have been waiting for.

Why They Can't Write dissects the underlying causes of why so much writing instruction fails in the American system and it provides tested, practical solutions for doing better. The book is more than a how-to-teach guide, however. It diagnoses several important structural problems in American education, including standardized testing, the allure of educational fads, the abuses of technology-driven solutions, and cruel working conditions for teachers.

I wanted direction on how to better teach writing, and I got it-sample assignments that I can tweak to fit my classroom and discipline in marvelous ways. But I got so much more. I closed the book feeling energized and motivated to go back to the classroom and make changes. In fact my first reaction, as I finished, was 'I have to go write about this!' Which so perfectly encapsulates so much of what John would like to see us do as learners that I couldn't help but laugh.

What is to blame for students' bad writing? According to Warner, the entire context in which it is taught. He rails against school systems that privilege shallow "achievement" over curiosity and learning, a culture of "surveillance and compliance" (including apps that track students' behaviour and report it to parents in real time), an obsession with standardized testing that is fundamentally inimical to thoughtful reading and writing, and a love of faddish psychological theories and worthless digital learning projects.

Read More

See All Reviews

Book Details

Part I: Introduction
Our Writing "Crisis"
Johnny Could Never Write
The Writer's Practice
The Five-Paragraph Essay
Part II: The Other Necessities
The Problem of Atmosphere
The Problem of Surveillance
The

Part I: Introduction
Our Writing "Crisis"
Johnny Could Never Write
The Writer's Practice
The Five-Paragraph Essay
Part II: The Other Necessities
The Problem of Atmosphere
The Problem of Surveillance
The Problem of Assessment and Standardization
The Problem of Educational Fads
The Problem of Technology Hype
The Problem of Folklore
The Problem of Precarity
Part III: A New Framework
Why School?
Increasing Rigor
The Writer's Practice
Making Writing Meaningful by Making Meaningful Writing
Writing Experiences
Increasing Challenges
Part IV: Unanswered Questions
What about Academics?
What about Grammar?
What about Grades?
What about the Children?
What about the Teachers?
In Conclusion
Acknowledgments
Appendix
Notes
Index
About the Author

John Warner is a columnist for the Chicago Tribune, a contributing blogger for Inside Higher Ed, and an editor at large for McSweeney's Internet Tendency. He is the author or coeditor of seven books, including The Writer's Practice: Building Confidence in Your Nonfiction Writing.

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Back to Results Killing the Five-Paragraph Essay and Other Necessities John Warner An important challenge to what currently masquerades as conventional wisdom regarding the teaching of writing. There seems to be widespread agreement that-when it comes to the writing skills of college students-we are in the midst of a crisis.

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The Writing Revolution: A Guide to Advancing Thinking Through Writing in All Subjects and Grades by Judith C. Hochman and Natalie Wexler, published by Jossey-Bass/Wiley Buy this book from: You may need a writing revolution in your classroom. Here's how to lead it. Expectations about student writing have changed dramatically in recent years.

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Log in to check out a variety of outline templates to use with your students.

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Login to Erin Kent Consulting community via email or SSO today.

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Opinion | This Is Your Brain on ‘Deep Reading.’ It’s Pretty Magnificent.

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The literacy scholar Maryanne Wolf maps out the ways “deep reading” nourishes our capacity for attention, empathy and insight.

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Research shows that writing notes with a pen helps the brain’s learning process.

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What’s Lost as Handwriting Fades (Published 2014)

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Even as the emphasis shifts to the keyboard, experts say that learning to write by hand improves motor skills, memory and creativity.

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Know Better, Do Better: Comprehension | The Scholastic Teacher Store

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In this timely book, the Libens explore what kids truly need to comprehend texts. Focusing on vocabulary, knowledge building, and language structures, they offer ideas to put into action now.

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From New York Times bestselling coauthor of The Coddling of the American Mind, an essential investigation into the collapse of youth mental health-and a plan for a healthier, freer childhood.

After more than a decade of stability or improvement, the mental health of adolescents plunged in the early 2010s. Rates of depression, anxiety, self-harm, and suicide rose sharply, more than doubling on most measures. Why?

In The Anxious Generation, social psychologist Jonathan Haidt lays out the facts about the epidemic of teen mental illness that hit many countries at the same time. He then investigates the nature of childhood, including why children need play and independent exploration to mature into competent, thriving adults. Haidt shows how the *play-based childhood" began to decline in the 1980s, and how it was finally wiped out by the arrival of the "phone-based childhood" in the early 2010s. He presents more than a dozen mechanisms by which this "great rewiring of childhood" has interfered with children's social and neurological development, covering everything from sleep deprivation to attention fragmentation, addiction, loneliness, social contagion, social comparison, and perfectionism. He explains why social media damages girls more than boys and why boys have been withdrawing from the real world into the virtual world, with disastrous consequences for themselves, their families, and their societies.

Most important, Haidt issues a clear call to action. He diagnoses the "collective action problems" that trap us, and then proposes four simple rules that might set us free. He describes steps that parents, teachers, schools, tech companies, and governments can take to end the epidemic of mental illness and restore a more humane childhood.

Haidt has spent his career speaking truth backed by data in the most difficult landscapes-communities polarized by politics and religion, campuses battling culture wars, and now the public health emergency faced by Gen Z. We cannot afford to ignore his findings about protecting our children-and ourselvesfrom the psychological damage of a phone-based life.

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The Anxious Generation is out March 26. Order the Book.

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From New York Times bestselling coauthor of The Coddling of the American Mind, an essential investigation into the collapse of youth mental health-and a plan for a healthier, freer childhood

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A practical framework for creating units that combine whole-class novels and independent reading to truly help students grow as readers. Take a deep dive into the troubles and triumphs of both to find a student-centered, balanced approach to teaching reading.

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Blast from the past: Teacher question: Shanahan response:
I teach 4th-grade general education. I have read several of your articles the last few days because I have a growing frustration regarding guided reading. I believe a lot of your ideas about what does not work are correct, but I don't understand what you believe we SHOULD be doing. I am confused about how to give students difficult textbooks to read without reading it to them. I thought I was doing what I was supposed to be doing. I do not know how to scaffold science or social studies text for students that are 2 years behind without reading it to them. I also feel pressure in these subjects to read it to them because I thought it was more important for them to understand the information thoroughly by reading the text aloud, having thoughtful discussions, and follow up activities. Every time I think I know what I should be doing, I read another article and realize that I am doing that wrong too. So, please give me guidance on how to best to teach nonfiction and fiction text to my class whole group. What strategies and types of activities are the best? Originally posted February 2, 2013; re-issued October 12, 2024. Over the past 15 years, I have issued several blogs concerning the value of teaching students to read more challenging texts than we have used in instruction in the past. Despite a growing body of evidence showing that teaching students at their "instructional reading level" provides no learning benefits - and that sometimes it limits learning - most teachers continue to avoid challenging text by moving kids to easier text, reading texts to the students, or replacing texts with other sources of information (e.g., videos, teacher presentations). Given that I thought it would be a good idea to reissue this one. Oh, and by the way, I just completed writing a book on this topic. It will be published by Harvard Education Press early in 2025.
I feel your pain. What would it look like to scaffold a fourth-grade lesson from a social studies book with children who are reading at second-grade level? There are several possibilities.

First, I would "level" (pun intended) with the kids. I would not try to hide from them that I was going to ask them to read a book that in the past we would have avoided. The point here is motivation. People like a challenge and kids are people. When you ask them to take on something hard, let them in on the secret so they can take on the challenge with the right mindset and so they can be proud of themselves when they manage to meet the challenge - and we will make sure that they meet the challenge.

Second, it is essential that the teacher read the chapter before the kids do. We need to identify the linguistic, conceptual, and textual features that may be the source of their difficulty. Look out for ideas that you think will be especially complicated, subtle, or abstract, assumptions of background knowledge that you think your students lack, unknown vocabulary, complicated sentences, cohesive links that might be hard to track, organizational structure that students might ignore, and so on. Basically, you are trying to figure out what might make this text hard for your students to comprehend.

I'm willing to head off or avoid a problem if I think the students cannot surmount it. For instance, if there is a word that I think the students will not know and the author doesn't define it, the context doesn't reveal its meaning, or it can't be figured out from morphology, then I am willing to familiarize the kids with it prior to reading. However, if it is possible to gain its meaning from the text, I will not try to avoid the problem. I'd rather that they miss it, which will allow me to teach kids how to take it on successfully. Teachers must decide which problems to solve for the kids and which to guide them to fix themselves. The real learning will come from the latter.
References
Third, the scaffolding described above will likely require some rereading-either of the whole chapter (fourth-grade science and social studies chapters can be surprisingly short, so rereading the entire chapter is usually not that big a deal). Thus, they try to read it; I question them and help them work through the problems; and then they reread it (perhaps more than once), to see if they can figure it out the second or third time.

Fourth, if your kids' reading levels are more than a year or two below the level of the book that you are trying to teach, consider starting with fluency work. Have those students read the text aloud, once or twice before the lesson aimed at comprehension of the text. This can be done many ways (e.g., having partners practice reading the social studies text during their ELA fluency time, getting parents involved, including this kind of practice in a Tier 2 intervention). The point of the fluency work is to reduce the amount of basic reading struggle - the reading of the words - that these students may face. Once they have engaged in the fluency practice, these students should read the text along with the rest of the class. They will benefit from the same comprehension scaffolds noted above.

What you are trying to do with this encouragement, fluency work, and comprehension scaffolding is to enable the students to read the text that they are sure to struggle with. You can monitor their learning by how much improvement you see in their reading of each text. But remember your goal is not to avoid difficulty but to enable students to surmount difficulty. That means that you don't shift kids to texts at their supposed levels, you don't read the texts to the kids, and you don't go around the text by telling them what it says.

Shanahan, T. (In press). Leveled Readers, Leveled Lives. Cambridge: Harvard Education Press.

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How Can I Teach with Books that are Two Years Above Student Reading Levels? | Shanahan on Literacy

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This blog explains how teachers can teach students to read with books that are at the students’ supposed “instructional level.”

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"However, even by 8th grade, fluency continues to explain 25% of the variance in reading comprehension. That means if we could get all students to read fluently, the differences in comprehension would be reduced by 25% -- which is substantial (Tosto, et al., 2017)."

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Do middle and high school students need fluency instruction and what counts as instruction? | Shanahan on Literacy

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This blog responds to a teacher’s question concerning the need to teach older students to read fluently. It explains why fluency matters at those levels and why fewer and fewer students require fluency instruction each year.

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Achieve the Core

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Is Comprehension Better with Digital Text? | Shanahan on Literacy

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Ths blog explores how well readers read digital text. Overwhelmingly, the studies show that digital text is harder to read than paper text. But what does the research have to say about teaching reading with digital text?

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About The Book

NATIONAL BESTSELLER * Acclaimed developmental psychologist David Yeager reveals the new science of motivating young people ages ten through twenty-five in this groundbreaking book that is a must-read for managers, parents, educators, coaches, and mentors everywhere.
"Required reading for anyone who aspires to be a wise influence on the young people they care about." -Angela Duckworth

"One of the most fascinating and important books of the past decade...It will change millions of lives." -Carol Dweck

"This engaging, data-driven book is filled with practical insights." -Adam Grant

Imagine a world in which Gen Xers, millennials, and boomers interact with young people in ways that leave them feeling inspired, enthusiastic, and ready to contribute-rather than disengaged, outraged, or overwhelmed. That world may be closer than you think. In this book based on cutting edge research, psychologist David Yeager explains how to stop fearing young people's brains and hormones and start harnessing them.

Neuroscientists have discovered that around age ten, puberty spurs the brain to crave socially rewarding experiences, such as pride, admiration, and respect, and to become highly averse to social pain, such as humiliation or shame. As a result, young people are subtly reading between the lines of everything we say, trying to interpret the hidden implications of our words to find out if we are disrespecting or honoring them. Surprisingly, this sensitivity to status and respect continues into the mid-twenties. 10 to 25 helps adults develop an ear for the difference between the right and wrong way to respect young people and avoid frustrating patterns of miscommunication and conflict.

Yeager explains how to adopt what he terms the mentor mindset, which is a leadership style that's attuned to young people's need for status and respect. Anyone can adopt the mentor mindset by following a few highly effective and easy-to-learn practices such as validating young people's perspectives (rather than dismissing them), asking them questions (rather than telling them what to do), being transparent about your beliefs and goals (rather than assuming that they will accurately guess your thoughts), and holding them to high standards (rather than coddling them). Yeager's scientific experiments have shown these practices reduce a wide variety of behavior problems, including school dropout, unhealthy eating, stress, purposelessness, mental health problems, and more.

One of the biggest misconceptions about mentoring is that it takes up too much time. On the contrary, those who use the mentor mindset end up with more time. Through back-and-forth conversations, young people feel empowered, and managers can transfer responsibility to them. Young people in this age group are poised to learn, grow, and accomplish incredible things-if only we can tap into the basic neurobiological systems that drive their motivation and behavior.

An essential read for anyone who interacts with young people, 10 to 25 is a groundbreaking book that offers long-term strategies to help nurture well-adjusted, independent, accomplished young people who contribute to society in positive ways-all while making our own lives easier.

About The Author

David Yeager, PhD, is a professor of psychology at the University of Texas at Austin and the cofounder of the Texas Behavioral Science and Policy Institute. He is best known for his research conducted with Carol Dweck, Angela Duckworth, and Greg Walton on short but powerful interventions that influence adolescent behaviors such as motivation, engagement, healthy eating, bullying, stress, mental health, and more. He has consulted for Google, Microsoft, Disney, and the World Bank, as well as for the White House and the governments in California, Texas, and Norway. His research has been featured in The New York Times Magazine, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Scientific American, CNN, Fox News, The Guardian, The Atlantic, and more. Clarivate Web of Science ranks Yeager as one of the top 0.1% most-influential psychologists in the world over the past decade. Prior to his career as a scientist, he was a middle school teacher and a basketball coach. He earned his PhD and MA at Stanford University and his BA and MEd at the University of Notre Dame. He lives in Austin, Texas, with his wife and their four children.

Product Details

Publisher: Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster (August 6, 2024)

Length: 464 pages

ISBN13: 9781668023884

Browse Related Books

Raves and Reviews

"Ask business leaders about corporate life today, and one issue comes up again and again: the challenge of managing Gen Z. So much ink has been spilled on this that it is difficult to make the subject fresh. But by drawing on science and management theory, David Yeager cuts through the noise . . . [with] practical, targeted advice on managing young people." -Financial Times

"There are many books about the challenges of relating to young people-but none like this one. Grounded in David Yeager's pioneering scientific research, 10 to 25 offers actionable advice and real-life storytelling that's beautifully written, comprehensive, and filled with warmth. This book is required reading for anyone who aspires to be a wise influence on the young people they care about."
-ANGELA DUCKWORTH, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Grit

"A valuable resource for every parent, boss, coach, and teacher struggling to help young people reach their potential. David Yeager has spent his career designing experiments that inspire students to aim higher, persist longer, and achieve more. His engaging, data-driven book is filled with practical insights to turn you into a better motivator."
-ADAM GRANT, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Hidden Potential and Think Again, and host of the podcast ReThinking

"This book is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand what makes the years between 10 and 25 so emotionally fraught and occasionally treacherous-and at the same time so full of incredible potential. As a parent of a teenager, this book gave me a valuable new way of seeing my son's journey. As a reader concerned for the future, it gave me a new sense of hope."
-PAUL TOUGH, New York Times bestselling author of How Children Succeed

"This amazing book will change millions of lives. Whether you're a teacher, parent, or manager, it's hard to understand young people-what they want, what will help them flourish, and what will make your life with them rewarding. Superstar researcher David Yeager provides answers that have been validated by both scientific studies and real-world experts. This is one of the most fascinating and important books of the past decade."
-CAROL DWECK, bestselling author of Mindset

"In these case studies and profiles of successful mentors, Yeager shows how the most successful leaders not only expect the youth to succeed but also work with them to find the path to success. The answer to motivating youth is to have respect for their abilities, high standards, an understanding of their need for status, and full support. Yeager offers concrete guidelines. This is a gold mine for anyone dealing with people in this age group." -Booklist

"An instructive look at how adults misapprehend developing minds over the extended adolescence that lasts from 10 to 25 . . . An encouragement to be encouraging, and an approach that seems worth trying on the next surly teenager to come along." -Kirkus Reviews

"This book is life-changing. Filled with tons of evidence-based advice, 10 to 25 will change the way you parent and transform how you think about connecting with the next generation. This is a must-read for anyone who works with young people."
-LAURIE SANTOS, Professor of Psychology at Yale University and host of The Happiness Lab podcast

Resources and Downloads

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10 to 25 by David Yeager - NATIONAL BESTSELLER * Acclaimed developmental psychologist David Yeager reveals the new science of motivating young people ages te...

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On the importance of listening comprehension

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The simple view of reading highlights the importance of two primary components which account for individual differences in reading comprehension across development: word recognition (i.e., decoding) and listening comprehension. While assessments and…

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Lissy Kins on Instagram: "From the stage of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon, hosts David Tennant and Catherine Tate are joined by Benedict Cumberbatch, Judi Dench, Ian McKellen, Helen Mirren, Meera Syal, David Suchet, Rufus Wainwright, Tim Minchin, Gregory Porter, Joseph Fiennes, English National Opera, The Royal Ballet and Akala for a very special evening.

Together, they mark the life and work of William Shakespeare on the 400th anniversary of the playwright's death. This unique event takes place in the presence of Their Royal Highnesses the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall, and celebrates Shakespeare's extraordinary legacy and his enduring influence on all performance art forms - from opera to jazz, dance to musicals."

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1M likes, 7,653 comments - lissy_kins347 on November 11, 2024: "From the stage of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon, hosts David Tennant and Catherine Tate are joined by Benedict Cumberbatch, Judi Dench, Ian McKellen, Helen Mirren, Meera Syal, David Suchet, Rufus Wainwright, Tim Minchin, Gregory Porter, Joseph Fiennes, English National Opera, The Royal Ballet and Akala for a very special evening.

Together, they mark the life and work of William Shakespeare on the 400th anniversary of the playwright's death. This unique event takes place in the presence of Their Royal Highnesses the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall, and celebrates Shakespeare's extraordinary legacy and his enduring influence on all performance art forms - from opera to jazz, dance to musicals.". 

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Transforming to Align With the Science of Reading: Important Considerations

Supporting Adolescent Students

It is essential that adolescents are held to high expectations as they work toward high levels of speaking, listening, reading, and writing. In many middle and high school settings, particularly in content area classes, students are assumed to have developed into accurate, automatic, and fluent readers who can comprehend complex text. However, some students will require instruction and practice in literacy components , such as word study, fluency, vocabulary, knowledge building, syntactic awareness, and comprehension. Supporting adolescent engagement and motivation must also be considered.

The following resources provide an understanding of what is needed to support older students.

Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) for Adolescents

Middle and high schools benefit from well-developed and properly implemented multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS). This includes valid and reliable assessments that provide data to accurately identify students' needs, evidence-aligned Tier I instruction, knowledgeable educators who understand how to assess and instruct those who are still developing reading and writing skills, and evidence-aligned interventions that provide additional support. The following links are resources related to MTSS.

Tiers of Instruction

All educators in a school system must collaborate to support adolescent learners and align their understanding of tiers of instruction. When educators from classroom to classroom and tier to tier use different instructional language, strategies, and routines, students have to learn how each class operates on top of learning the content and/or skills taught in each class. This causes confusion for students and increases their cognitive load. Aligning instructional strategies and routines across tiers, grade levels, and content areas benefits students' because it frees them up to focus solely on learning the content and skills being taught.

When adolescent students are not at grade level in reading, the focus of support typically revolves around content literacy, or disciplinary literacy. While this can be helpful, many need intervention at the foundational level of reading before they can effectively apply disciplinary literacy strategies. The following resources provide guidance for building these systems of support. The first link highlights the importance of including support for foundational skills for those who need it.

Intervention

Adolescents' needs for support range from intensive intervention in foundational skills to accessing grade-level content. Teachers and school leaders must prioritize the development of a system for gathering accurate assessment data to identify students' specific needs.

A flowchart (also included in TRL's Intervention Evaluation Guidelines) of an assessment model that informs instruction and intervention can be found in:

The adolescent literacy intervention selection tool guides informed choices of interventions that align with the evidence base as well as support culturally and linguistically relevant practices.

The Reading League's Adolescent Reading Intervention Evaluation Guidelines

It is challenging to support adolescents' reading intervention needs while ensuring access to rigorous, grade-level content in core classes. The Reading League's Adolescent Reading Intervention Evaluation Guidelines (Grades 4-12), developed in partnership with lead researchers and experts on adolescent intervention, present critical guidance and helpful information derived directly from scientific reading research. Use this new resource to guide decision-making or to review current intervention materials for adolescent learners.

Helping Adolescent Decode Accurately and Automatically

Although the needs of struggling adolescent readers are multifaceted, data often reveals that they are not able to decode words accurately and automatically. Because accurate and automatic decoding leads to fluent and skilled reading that enables comprehension of text, it must be assessed and a focus of instruction.

Research from the science of reading provides knowledge on how to support adolescent decoding. The following resources offer guidance:

Supporting Adolescent Students With Language

Some adolescent reading difficulties stem from weaknesses in language and language comprehension. If students are decoding accurately and automatically yet still experience difficulty comprehending texts, use assessments developed to gather data on their strengths and challenges in language comprehension to determine how to best support their needs. If data show students have difficulty expressing and comprehending language, they should be screened for developmental language disorder (DLD).

Adolescent English Learner/Emergent Bilingual Students

Adolescents learning the language of instruction require specialized language support, which is most effective when targeted in both instructional and intervention settings. Educators should leverage students' home languages and cultures as assets, maintain high expectations, and provide access to rigorous, grade-level content.

The Institute for Educational Sciences (IES) practice guides are publications based on scientific reading research, written and reviewed by experts. They provide recommendations for implement ing evidence-aligned instruction and intervention. The following guides address the needs of adolescent learners.

Resources From State Departments of Education

Many state departments of education have developed excellent resources and guidance on supporting adolescent learners. The following are a few examples:

CORE Learning Adolescent Literacy Services equip educators with the knowledge and skills necessary to address the needs of all learners to equitably access and excel in high-quality Tier 1 instruction. It also provides focused solutions to accelerate the learning pace for students who are still working toward proficiency. The following are webinars, blogs, and complimentary resources:

Keys to Literacy Resources

Keys to Literacy offers a large collection of free resources to support educators in reading and writing instruction. The following list of webinars, blogs, and articles addresses literacy issues related to students in Grades 5-12.

There are critical components of instruction that should be considered in a school-wide approach to supporting the literacy needs of adolescent learners. It is necessary to develop consistent routines in each of the following resource areas outlined below:
Vocabulary and Comprehension

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Discover resources and information for a schoolwide approach to instruction and intervention for older readers.

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Email: jenny@erinkentconsulting.com

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