This paper examines the problem of declining adolescent literacy in American middle and high schools, drawing on NAEP achievement data and comparative OECD rankings to illustrate the scope of the crisis. It identifies core challenges — including students' inability to move beyond literal comprehension, low daily reading rates, and the disproportionate burden placed on English departments — before presenting five reading strategies and five writing strategies grounded in current research. Reading strategies include increasing daily reading time, engaged reading practices, assisted reading, cross-curricular integration, and varied strategy instruction. Writing strategies focus on vocabulary development, hierarchical summaries, student-generated questions, personal connection assignments, and creative responses.
Literacy — the ability to read, write, speak, listen, and think effectively — enables adolescents to learn and to communicate clearly about what they know and what they want to know. Being literate enables people to access power through the ability to become informed, to inform others, and to make informed decisions. Yet contemporary research shows that many adolescents are losing access to that power through increasing levels of literacy deficiency (Meltzer, Cook, & Clark, 2011, p. 6). Unfortunately, adolescent literacy has fallen far below general expectations for middle and high school grade levels. This is a serious national problem, as many students in middle and high school fail to receive the literacy support training needed to boost their abilities. This paper first outlines the issues contemporary adolescents face and then presents five reading and five writing strategies aimed at improving adolescent literacy levels.
One of the biggest problems in American literacy is the fact that many adolescents fail to meet the literacy standards for their grade levels. According to the research, "multiple indicators overwhelmingly suggest that the majority of American high school students do not have the reading and writing skills necessary to maximize content-area learning nor to successfully negotiate the Information Age economy facing them" (Meltzer, Cook, & Clark, 2011, p. 6). Students in both middle and high school are struggling tremendously with keeping up with their literacy standards, and many have trouble with a number of elements associated with reading and writing that affects their power as students and members of the broader American community.
In order to gauge students' literary abilities, the NAEP achievement levels are defined as follows: basic, proficient, and advanced (Guthrie, 2012). Students who read at a basic level can understand material only on a literal level — they can relate material to a personal experience, but fail to grasp more abstract concepts associated with the reading content. Proficient students can grasp complex inferences, literary devices, and character manipulation to a certain extent. Advanced students "perceive abstract themes, analyze, synthesize, evaluate viewpoints, transfer and apply text-based knowledge" (Guthrie, 2012, p. 3). Recent NAEP data from a 2003 survey shows that most adolescents fail to reach the advanced or even proficient literacy level. A striking 37% of students scored below the basic level of reading, while 59% fell below the proficient standard (Guthrie, 2012). This paints a grim picture of the literary abilities of America's adolescent students. Furthermore, out of 28 OECD countries, the United States ranks 20th in reading time and 24th in the proportion of book readers (Guthrie, 2012) — a troubling position when American adolescent reading levels are compared with those of other developed nations.
One of the major problems underlying low adolescent literacy is the difficulty students face in moving beyond basic understanding of the texts they encounter. Research shows that "typical students have basic understanding but show a lower ability to make inferences and connections between texts and more abstract concepts" (Guthrie, 2012, p. 5). Students reading below a basic level show almost no inferencing ability and very little contextual comprehension. Many students coast through their classes with only rudimentary skills in interpreting and analyzing texts. This is especially evident in populations where English is a second language or where the family falls into a low socioeconomic category. Research shows that comprehension levels decline with income; however, numerous strategies exist that can help improve a student's ability not only to read but to fully comprehend text material.
There are a number of reading strategies that can augment lesson plans and support literacy development. First, it is important for teachers to increase reading for daily activities and assignments. One of the main contributors to low adolescent literacy is the limited time students actually spend reading. Research shows that 93% of adolescents do not read daily, and 74% rarely read more academic material, such as science articles or historical biographies (Guthrie, 2012). This is a major problem that can be addressed with strategies aimed at increasing daily reading time. Teachers can incorporate daily reading activities — either short or extended — depending on planned lessons and grade level. Greater exposure to reading materials will help students practice and strengthen their literacy abilities.
Second, lesson plans across subjects should incorporate more engaged reading activities. Engaged reading involves deep processing strategies. Using engaged reading drills, teachers can encourage students to think more abstractly and connect more meaningfully with the text in front of them. Engaged readers are "motivated, strategic, knowledgeable, and socially interactive" (Guthrie, 2001). This contrasts with less engaged reading, which is common among students who read only to perform on specific tests — an approach characterized by less time spent reading, more memorization over comprehension, and attention only to material relevant to the next upcoming test (Guthrie, 2012). Research confirms that engagement is directly correlated with student motivation, implying that "creating classrooms that center on student engagement is key to motivating students to develop positive literacy identities and strengthen literary skills" (Meltzer, Cook, & Clark, 2011, p. 18). Moreover, contemporary studies show that greater engaged reading correlates with higher general achievement in other coursework. According to Guthrie (2012), "high reading engagement produces more reading achievement than three years of secondary education" (p. 16). Engaged reading also helps address gaps related to second-language learners and students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds: "findings suggest that engagement cancels the gap in reading achievement when socioeconomic status is factored in with reading scores" (Meltzer, Cook, & Clark, 2011, p. 20). Lessons that teach students to underline and circle key concepts can help make engaged reading strategies practical and accessible.
Assisted reading is a third strategy that helps keep students on track with their literacy skills. This approach involves high levels of teacher involvement to support readers as they encounter difficulties while working through assigned material. The use of praise and rewards to motivate students working toward higher literacy levels can be an important component here (Meltzer, Cook, & Clark, 2011). Teachers should provide class time for students to read aloud and work through text material collaboratively with instructor support.
A fourth strategy involves incorporating reading exercises outside the context of English classes. Most schools promote literacy training primarily within English or literature courses, and the administrative structure often forces the English department to shoulder most literacy responsibilities (Meltzer, Cook, & Clark, 2011). However, reading is central to all subjects and disciplines. As a result, many opportunities to develop literacy skills in other subject areas are missed. It is essential for teachers in subjects such as history and science to contribute to literacy support by implementing reading exercises within their own lesson plans. This fosters a more collaborative, school-wide effort to build literacy skills and may reach students who feel a stronger connection to the sciences or mathematics than to English and literature.
Finally, strategy instruction using a variety of applied reading techniques can be a key element. Not all students learn in the same way. When teachers rely on a single instructional approach, some students may not benefit as much as they would from strategies better suited to their individual learning styles (Guthrie, 2001). Teachers should devote time not only to reading itself but also to presenting and practicing multiple strategies that encourage more engaged reading and deeper comprehension.
"Five writing approaches to build comprehension"
Writing summaries of reading material is another method of using writing to increase literacy. Teachers should implement lessons in which students write hierarchical summaries that organize the structure of reading material into a format that is more familiar and understandable to them (Meltzer, Cook, & Clark, 2011). Writing summaries requires students to internalize material and restate it in their own words, further deepening their engagement with texts.
Third, using student-generated content to expose gaps in understanding can play a key role. Having students generate questions about reading material that they then share with the class is an important strategy that should be built into all reading exercises. This process focuses students on what they do not understand, effectively pinpointing the precise concepts that need greater clarification through teacher assistance.
Teachers can also use student-centered activities that ask students to make written connections between texts and their own life experiences. Such classroom environments invite students to actively engage with reading material by drawing on personal connections. Students can reference their own experiences, films they have seen, and other texts they have read in order to make more abstract connections to the material. These connections can then be expressed in writing to deepen students' relationship to the text and to generate motivation for writing based on the personal attachment they bring to the reading. In student-centered environments, "teachers expect students to make and share these connections in written and spoken communication, thereby fostering an inclusive climate for literacy development" (Meltzer, Cook, & Clark, 2011, p. 18).
Finally, using creative responses in writing exercises can also be beneficial. Some students express themselves more naturally through creative formats; allowing them to write outside the conventional academic structure can encourage more imaginative analysis of textual material. Activities such as rewriting different endings to a story or composing character biographies are effective ways to expand a student's understanding of texts and to build writing fluency in an engaging, low-pressure context.
Guthrie, John T. (2001). Contexts for engagement and motivation in reading. Reading Online, 4(8). Retrieved September 21, 2012, from
Guthrie, John T. (2012). Adolescent literacy: Issues, knowledge base, design principles, and challenges. Center on Instruction. Retrieved September 21, 2012, from http://centeroninstruction.org/
Meltzer, Julie, Cook, Nancy, & Clark, Holly. (2011). Adolescent literacy resources: Linking research and practice. Center for Resource Management, Brown University. Retrieved September 20, 2012, from www.alliance.brown.edu/pubs/adlit/alrlrp.pdf
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