What matters most here
| Rank | Practice | Grade |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Quizzing on what students read and learned, mixing old and new (principles 6, 7) | Evidence grade: Proven in classrooms Proven; strong middle school classroom studies (McDaniel et al.(opens in a new tab); Roediger et al.(opens in a new tab)) |
| 2 | Background knowledge taught before hard texts (principle 10) | Evidence grade: Strong Strong in principle; tested mainly in elementary grades |
| 3 | Screening for slow decoders; targeted small-group help (principles 9, 12) | Evidence grade: Promising Promising for this age |
| 4 | Explicit vocabulary teaching tied to units | Evidence grade: Promising Promising |
A lesson in this room
Brain dump on yesterday's chapter. Teacher gives the historical background for the novel's setting in ten minutes. Class reads the next section together, stopping at planned questions everyone answers in writing. Short written response using two unit words.
Leader look-fors
- Are students reading real texts, not only short excerpts?
- Before a hard text, did the teacher build the background?
- Does every student answer the questions, in writing or on boards?
Stop doing
Assuming students who struggle with grade-level text have a "comprehension skills" problem without checking decoding and background knowledge first.
Where the evidence runs out
Rigorous trials of knowledge-building approaches are mostly in grades K–6. How much decoding and fluency work struggling middle schoolers need is less settled.
Principles
Sources
- McDaniel et al. 2011 (opens in a new tab)
ovid.com
- Roediger et al. 2011 (opens in a new tab)
profiles.wustl.edu