session4

Dr. Willard R. Daggett, President, International Center for Leadership in Education; and Dr. Ted S. Hasselbring, Professor, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee July 2, 2007 Model Schools Conference 2007 – Washington D.C.

Literacy — The Key to Success – Session 4

In our dynamic and high-tech economy, where jobs for the unskilled are disappearing, all students must become lifelong learners. The single greatest competency they will need for future success is literacy in general and reading skills in particular. Dr. Daggett and Dr. Hasselbring will present the nation’s most successful practices for achieving this critically important goal for all students.

I hOp U njoy d conference! ([|www.transl8.com])

Believe it or not, you can read it. . . paragraph w/misspelled words that maintained the same first and last letter (we //could// read it!)

“Equity and excellence are in conflict with one another”

The key to lifelong learning is literacy

MetaMetrics – source of comparative data on the literacy levels of high school, college, military, workplace, etc.

Job literacy requirements are increasing across the board (training manuals, technical reading, etc.) – construction, craftsman, nurse, sales, secretary, etc.

Special education teachers – don’t teach subjects, teach children (thus, really have a deep understanding of how children learn)
 * All teachers should learn from what is evolving in the realm of best practices in instruction in the world of special education
 * A best practice is a best practice is a best practice . ..

Read 180
 * Started w/1985 Department of Education grant to research the impact of technology on student learning

Literacy Failure Cycle
 * First attempt at learning to read – failure leads to frustration – frustration leads to behavior problems and academic avoidance – avoidance leads to lack of practice and learning gaps – no improvement – loss of motivation – loss of self-esteem
 * = Matthew Effect – the rich get richer and the poor get poorer

Student Voices (Literacy Failure Cycle in action)
 * Skipping school – lack of concern and motivation, avoidance
 * Fear of embarrassment
 * Feeling of shame
 * Physical symptoms of distress

Two problems
 * Inability to decode and read connected text fluently (build neural models)
 * Inability to comprehend text (create mental models)
 * Addressing both will help to break LFC

What is fluency?
 * Building blocks of all things that we do well

Why in fluency important?
 * Lack of fluency creates a situation in which performance is slow, difficult, and full of errors

Lack of fluency – can’t read w/enough speed and connectiveness to comprehend

Human processing
 * Working memory (processing capacity is being consumed by a low level task with simply decoding sounds, letters, and words – thus, nothing left to make meaning of those words)
 * WM is like a computer; need to have the RAM in order to process more data simultaneously
 * Fluency requires the retrieval of info stored in LTM, such as sight works, math facts, spelling words

Shaywitz (2003) – with effectiveness practice, alphabetic principle is mastered and students develop neural model (words of not need to be decoded in the future) – need practice to develop and strengthen neural models

Human mind can process and handle 5-7 +/- 2 (rule)

New research data changes: Less than 5 = 1-3 5-14 = 3-7 14 and older = 5-9

Mind can hold something in WM 20-30 seconds (unless there is rehearsal) – w/enough rehearsal, transfer to LTM will occur and information can be retrieved when needed

Challenge is to help students move data from WM to LTM

Neutral circuits strengthened and reinforced by repetition (creation of neural models)

Technology allows us to provide “instruction and rehearsal time” well beyond what a teacher can provide – DI Must go beyond simple drill and practice Drill and practice simply speeds up retrieval practice

FASTT Model
 * Assessment
 * Small instruction set
 * Controlled response time
 * Corrective feedback
 * Expanding recall
 * Independent practice on only learning info

//Fluency and Automaticity through Systematic Teaching with Technology//

Instructional component
 * Instruction and guided practice
 * Small instruction set
 * Controlled response time
 * Corrective feedback
 * Expanding recall

Independent practice
 * Practice only stored information

Beyond fluency – read for meaning
 * Mental Model Theory – Good comprehenders link ideas presented in print to their own experiences and vocabulary to make sense
 * As we read, we create mental models
 * A mental model consists of mental tokens arranges in a structure that depicts the situation described by the text
 * Can provide students w/the background knowledge necessary to create mental models – we need to prepare students for the text

Dearth of background knowledge is a major hindrance – we need to supplement this

Anchored instruction – provide background knowledge prior to reading (to fill the gaps when we can’t activate prior knowledge because there is no prior knowledge)

Anchors provide background for new learning and build understanding