Best Practices in Literacy Instruction, Third Edition.

Hay, Ian

Best Practices in Literacy Instruction, Third Edition

Edited by Linda B. Gambrell, Lesley Mandel Morrow and Michael Pressley

The Guilford Press, New York/London ISBN 978-1-59385-3914

The third edition of Best Practices in Literacy Instruction contains some of latest insights and research on literacy instruction that has direct implications for classroom instruction. The book is readable and informative and has a strong evidence-based focus that places the research findings in a context. There are 34 contributors to this practitioner-oriented guide, and these authors seem well aware of the pressures and difficulties incumbent in teaching a diverse classroom of learners.

This book is organised into five parts: (i) perspectives on best practices; (ii) best practices for all students; (iii) evidence-based strategies for literacy learning and teaching; (iv) perspectives on special issues; and (v) future directions. In Part I, the authors explore the core beliefs and philosophies of classroom literacy, with a recognition of the need for balance when designing and implementing classroom instruction. Part II addresses the perspectives relevant to designing instruction to suit the needs of all students. In particular, the unique needs of early learners, English-language learners, struggling readers and adolescents are discussed. Part III presents some of the latest research-based information about classroom literacy practices. Topics include current practices in phonological awareness and phonics, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehensive literacy instruction, as well as writing development and assessment of literacy skills. Part IV provides an overview of many of the current issues in the field of literacy instruction, including a discussion of the best uses of multiple texts and multiple media, organising differentiated literacy instruction, the use of technology in literacy programs, and professional development practices that support the propagation of best practices for a comprehensive classroom literacy program. The book concludes with a commentary by Michael Pressley reflecting on future directions for achieving best practices.

While it is beyond the scope of this review to highlight all of the major evidence-based findings reported in this edited text, the following is a sample of some of the more interesting findings that relate to: best practice in literacy; reading acquisition; and use of teacher aides in the classroom.

In the early chapters of the book the editors provide a summary of the research on children's literacy development and they list the ten evidence-based best practices for a balanced and comprehensive literacy instruction program. These ten teacher-focused practices are:

1. Create a classroom culture that fosters literacy motivation

2. Teach reading for authentic meaning-making literacy experiences: for pleasure, to be informed, and to perform a task

3. Provide students with scaffolded instruction in phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension to promote independent reading

4. Give students plenty of time to read in class

5. Provide children with high-quality literature across a wide range of genres

6. Use multiple texts to link and expand vocabulary and concepts

7. Build a whole-class community that emphasises important concepts and builds upon prior knowledge

8. Balance teacher- and student-led discussions of texts

9. Use technologies to link and expand concepts

10. Use a variety of assessment techniques to inform instruction.

Reading acquisition

Given the ongoing debate in Australia on children's early reading development, it is relevant to highlight from the book the findings from the USA National Early Literacy Panel (2004). This panel identified the five key abilities of children from birth through five that predicted the children's later achievement in literacy. The important issue here is the range of predictors identified, which were:

1. Oral language development: expressive and receptive vocabulary

2. Alphabetic code: alphabet knowledge, phonological/phonemic awareness, invented spelling

3. Print knowledge: environmental print, concepts about print

4. Rapid naming of letters and numbers

5. Visual memory and visual perceptual abilities.

Research studies conducted over the past decade have also helped educators to understand the importance of young children's experiences with oral and written language. The child's early years are extremely important for social, emotional, physical and cognitive development, with high-quality early learning experiences translating into literacy, academic and social competence. Marrow and Tracey (2007) maintained that children who attended high-quality kindergartens and preschools were less likely to be retained in the early years of formal schooling, to have higher graduation rates from high school, and to have fewer behaviour problems. For these reasons educators in the USA like educators in Australia are arguing for quality early learning experiences for all children.

The indications are that quality kindergartens and preschools are child-focused and include oral language experiences that enhance children's comprehension, verbal expression, vocabulary development, as well as build children's background knowledge and listening skills. The evidence is also that most children start to learn phonological awareness (that is an understanding that words are made up of individual sounds) when the children are engaged in oral language experiences such as chanting poems and rhymes, singing songs, and clapping the sounds they hear in words.

In a number of the chapters in the book the argument is stated that to become good readers and writers children must learn to decode words. Pressley (2007), however, is concerned that in some classrooms phonemic and decoding instruction replaces other crucial areas of instruction. His argument is that decoding knowledge supports reading development only if it is part of a broader program that includes among other things the development of students' vocabulary, syntax, comprehension, strategic reading abilities, as well as engaged writing across all content areas, and a knowledge of when to use decoding strategies.

Teacher aides

The chapter by Reutzel (2007) on organisation factors in the classroom is also very relevant to the Australian literacy context and it is worth noting that the use of paraprofessionals in classrooms of any kind has often been shown to have little positive effect on students' achievement. The key to understanding these findings is located in the need for the students to have access to expert instruction.

Teacher aides might provide supportive practice opportunities, but such activities seem more successful when the lessons are planned and the materials selected by the teacher or reading teacher. The evidence is that paraprofessionals need to be provided with professional development that allows them to be more successful in the classroom, but unfortunately many teacher aides receive little, if any, such professional development, and this is an issue that North American and Australian educators need to better address.

In conclusion, the book Best Practices in Literacy Instruction is of value to a range of teachers and educators in the Australian literacy context. If I had to select one chapter to recommend to new teachers it would be Michael Pressley's final overview chapter. He urges teachers never to lose sight of the fact that they are teachers of the whole reading and literacy curricula and that the end point of their endeavours is the students' engagement, enjoyment, and comprehension of the literacy activities. Pressley's advice is that most of the children and students who are not coping or engaged in literacy simply need closer and more explicit teaching. On average these students need more guided reading and literacy opportunities and more high-success independent reading and writing. In particular, the evidence is that good readers typically spend 500% more time reading than struggling readers. The challenge for educators then is to increase the students' engaged reading and writing time and this often requires substantial reconfigurations of the curriculum.

Reviewed by Ian Hay

University of Tasmania