Classroom literacy practices and development

¶ … Allington's sixth chapter

In the sixth chapter of his text, What Really Matters for Struggling Readers: Designing Research-Based Programs, literacy expert Richard Allington gives important tips to teachers as to how they can effectively improve instruction for struggling readers in their classrooms. This is often one of the most difficult tasks for any teacher, regardless of the grade he or she teachers.

In fact, one of Allington's first areas of critique is teacher-focused. To help teacher improve classroom instruction for such challenged readers, Allington stresses the need to provide additional support for teachers' professional growth. Since this field of how to approach struggling readers is undergoing continual professional debate, teachers need to keep in touch with new pedagogical developments, as well as receive support from their fellow professionals. Regular classroom teachers must strive to become expert educators, as well as have adequate access to resource room staff.

Enhancing Access to Intensive, Expert Instruction

From a student's perspective, Allington suggests that increasing access to expertly trained professional aid is key to enhancing a student's reading abilities. He believes that smaller classes, often in the form of specifically directed resource room help that can target individual student's needs can be especially valuable. Although this may be costly, in terms of training resource room teachers and providing smaller classes, Allington believes that the costs are worthwhile, given the added cost to the system if students do not gain critical early reading skills.

Availability of Support Across the School Career

Yet Allington is far from one of those educational pessimists who believe that if a student in a higher grade has lower skills than is acceptable, all is lost. In fact, Allington cautions that reading support should not focus purely on the early grades. In fact, he believes that substantial gains in student reading progress and enjoyment can also be made at upper grade levels, provided that students have access to intensive, expert instruction. In the higher grades, it is especially key to focus on the relevance of reading to daily life and facilitating enjoyment in readers who have had sour experiences with literacy education in their academic pasts.

Expanding Available Instructional Time