Matt Renwick's List: Howe Elementary School - Research Base

• We now know more than ever about how to accomplish this goal.
• few students in the United States regularly receive the best reading instruction we know how to give.
• Each of these elements can be implemented in any district and any school, with any curriculum or set of materials, and without additional funds. All that's necessary is for adults to make the decision to do it.
• 1. Every child reads something he or she chooses.
• 2. Every child reads accurately.
• 3. Every child reads something he or she understands.
• Studies of exemplary elementary teachers further support the finding that more authentic reading develops better readers (Allington, 2002; Taylor, Pearson, Peterson, & Rodriguez, 2003).
• 4. Every child writes about something personally meaningful.
• When students write about something they care about, they use conventions of spelling and grammar because it matters to them that their ideas are communicated, not because they will lose points or see red ink if they don't (Cunningham & Cunningham, 2010).
• 5. Every child talks with peers about reading and writing.
• Nystrand (2006) reviewed the research on engaging students in literate conversations and noted that even small amounts of such conversation (10 minutes a day) improved standardized test scores, regardless of students' family background or reading level.
• 6. Every child listens to a fluent adult read aloud.
• The task of switching between writing, speaking, reading, and listening helps students make connections between, and thus solidify, the skills they use in each. This makes peer conversation especially important for English language learners, another population that we rarely ask to talk about what they read.
• adults have the power to make these decisions; kids don't.

12 more annotations...

• The evidence in favor of greater use of informational writing is overwhelming and the new Common Core Standards increase dramatically the emphasis on nonfiction writing in every grade level.
• descriptive, persuasive, and analytical writing is strongly linked to improved performance in reading comprehension, mathematics, science, and social studies.
• "thinking through the end of a pen,"
• The best way to achieve consistency is for teachers to score collaboratively, using the same scoring guide applied to the same assignment.
• What gets measured gets done. Unfortunately, the vast majority of measurement in schools today is focused on test scores, not teaching. That's like attempting to monitor student health by only weighing them once a year and ignoring their diet and exercise habits.

3 more annotations...