Read, Write, Lead

Breakthrough Strategies for Schoolwide Literacy Success

Regie Routman

• Publisher: ASCD
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781416619307
• Topic: Bildung
• Subtopic: Bildung Allgemein

Literacy is a skill for all time, for all people. It is an integral part of our lives, whether we are students or adult professionals. Giving all educators the breadth of knowledge and practical tools that help students strengthen their literacy skills is the focus of Read, Write, Lead.

Drawing on her experience as a mentor teacher, reading specialist, instructional coach, and staff developer, author Regie Routman offers time-tested advice on how to develop a schoolwide learning culture that leads to more effective reading and writing across the curriculum. She explains how every school—including yours—can

* Implement instructional practices that lead to better engagement and achievement in reading and writing for all students, from kindergarten through high school, including second-language and struggling learners.
* Build Professional Literacy Communities of educators working together to create sustainable school change through professional learning based on shared beliefs.
* Reduce the need for intervention through daily practices that ensure success, even for our most vulnerable learners.
* Embed the language of productive feedback in responsive instruction, conferences, and observations in order to accelerate learning for students, teachers, and leaders.

In their own voices, teachers, principals, literacy specialists, and students offer real-life examples of changes that led to dramatic improvement in literacy skills and—perhaps just as important—increased joy in teaching and learning. Scattered throughout the book are "Quick Wins"—ideas and actions that can yield positive, affirming results while tackling the tough work of long-term change.

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Chapter 1

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Literacy and Leadership: Change That Matters

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Every one of us who deeply cares about equal educational opportunities for all students tries to solve the problem that won’t go away: How do we create schools and classrooms where all students thrive and become highly literate? Despite reams of research, billions of dollars for new programs, a renewed focus on testing and evaluation, and massive professional development efforts, not much of substance has changed for a large proportion of our students, especially students of poverty and our Latino and black students.

Many of our schools remain segregated, with accompanying inequality of funding, while other schools are resegregating by race and class.¹ Income disparity has become a greater factor than race or color in the achievement gap.² In addition, the high school dropout rate in our cities is as high as ever, with students who are poor and minority much more likely than their affluent peers to drop out; the number of students of color who get to two- or four-year colleges, let alone earn a degree, is still dismally low; and teachers and principals are caught in the crossfire of who’s to blame.³

For most of us who are conscientiously doing our jobs as best we can in a demanding culture of cumbersome rules and regulations, exacting standards and evaluations, growing diversity in students’ language and culture, increasing class sizes—and working with the often devastating consequences of poverty on students’ learning—it’s important to stay focused on what we can do. This is no easy matter. It’s easy to get discouraged and to blame factors outside our control for our students’ low achievement. Despite pockets of success where students in some high-challenge schools beat the odds and become high achievers, placing the blame for low achievement on factors that we cannot control is still quite common.

What keeps me going and encouraged in the complex world of teaching and leading is the core belief that what we do greatly matters, not just to the future of our students, but to our nation and the world. John Dewey wisely stated more than a century ago, "What the best and wisest parent wants for his own child, that must the community want for all of its children. Any other ideal for our schools is narrow and unlovely; acted upon, it destroys our democracy."⁴ What keeps me teaching and leading is the belief that one persistent, knowledgeable, caring person can and must make a difference. A statement by playwright Arthur Miller resonates: "The longer I worked the more certain I felt that as improbable as it might seem, there were moments when an individual conscience was all that could keep a world from falling."⁵ At the very least, one person’s commitment can change the projected results for one learner; and for that learner, whether it be a child or a teacher, the experience can be life changing. Such stories are woven through this book.

My goal in writing this book is to demystify the process of "getting better," to show through individual and collective stories, actions, practices, demonstrations, and shared experiences in diverse classrooms and schools how worthwhile literacy and leadership change can happen, one person and one school at a time. Highly knowledgeable teachers and leaders can and do create a culture of collaboration, professional learning, and trust that becomes the oxygen that breathes life and hope into learning. We can become energized and excited by the work itself and the results we get. We can replace fear with joy. We can create a whole school and community working together for a greater good. So how does that happen? A bit of background first.

Learning from Teaching and Leading

I am a teacher-learner with 45 years of experience in instructing, assessing, coteaching, coaching, leading, and learning in diverse schools and classrooms. I have been a classroom teacher of most of the elementary grades, a reading specialist, a Reading Recovery teacher, a teacher of children with learning disabilities, a mentor teacher and leader, a literacy coach, a staff developer, a literacy change agent, and an author of many books and resources for educators.

Since 1997 I have been conducting residencies in schools across the United States and in Canada. Most of these schools are diverse; that is, they serve large populations of students of color, second language learners, and highly transient students. Often these are also schools with large numbers of students from low-income households. I created this residency model when I realized no one was demonstrating for educators—showing them the what, why, and how of effective teaching and assessing practices—beyond the one-day or one-week inservice training sessions on how to use the newest adopted program or implement the latest standards.

In the teaching residencies, most of which occur over the course of a week, I assume responsibility for the classroom; that is, I do the teaching while the classroom teacher and other teachers are released to observe. Using what I call an Optimal Learning Model (described in detail in Chapter 2), I begin with demonstrations and shared experiences before gradually handing over responsibility to the teacher to "try and apply" with my coaching support. Fundamental to the residencies are the daily ongoing professional conversations in which we debrief, question, and discuss our work.

Over many years my perspective has expanded from the classroom to the school and, sometimes, the district, and from a focus on literacy to a focus on literacy and leadership. I have learned much about what works, why it works, and what needs to be done to raise and sustain whole-school achievement. Like you, I am still learning. I am passionate about improving the literacy and learning lives of students, as well as for us educators. I continue to rely on tried-and-true practices and to seek and try out new ideas based on my experiences, knowledge about literacy and leadership, collaboration with colleagues, professional reading, reflection, and current and relevant research.

Literacy Insights

My experience working in schools and collaborating and presenting at educational workshops and institutes has taught me that what works best for sustainable, long-term gains are interactive opportunities with school teams. Those teams include teachers and their principal, and, perhaps, coaches and curriculum specialists. Although literacy is the focus, the emphasis is on literacy in the context of whole-school achievement, as well as literacy that is supported by beliefs that align with robust practices and strong leadership. Likewise, I have learned that workshops dedicated solely to literacy—without consideration for whole-school learning—often leave individual teachers and principals satisfied with implementation of specific reading and writing strategies. However, even when such implementation is successful, the change that occurs is often superficial and limited; a new activity or strategy has been added to the teaching repertoire, but nothing more.

Lasting change depends on an entire staff working together to develop shared beliefs and to align them with research-based practices that move a whole school of learners forward, grade to grade, teacher by teacher. For example, I have observed that most teachers and principals hold and act upon a part-to-whole learning model and a belief system that supports teaching skills and strategies mostly in isolation. Yet teaching isolated skills actually slows down and diminishes the impact of the learning experience. To maximize full learning potential, our most vulnerable students in particular must experience how the skills are relevant and fit into a meaningful and authentic whole. Until a staff develops a belief system that contextualizes and integrates the teaching of skills and strategies into meaningful and whole texts, achievement continues to lag. Moreover, without well-developed and articulated shared beliefs, schools continue to rely too much on programs and resources to determine what to teach rather than seeking out resources that support their well-founded beliefs.

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Meeting as a Professional Literacy Community

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I have also learned that not only must the professional learning be ongoing (scheduled weekly and monthly), but professional conversations have to become infused into the daily life and culture of the school. That is, in addition to Professional Literacy Communities (which are discussed in detail in Chapter 6) in both horizontal and vertical teams at and across grade levels, the day-to-day work of the school must include supportive visits and conversations between and among the principal and teachers, observations and coaching by and with teachers and the principal, time for team planning, older students tutoring or coaching younger ones, and an ongoing, free flow of conversation about reading, writing, teaching, leading, assessing, and learning.

From researchers Kathy Au and Taffy Raphael, I have learned the need for building a staircase curriculum with clearly defined and high enough literacy benchmarks at every grade level.⁶ Until teachers and principals see what excellence looks like and sounds like at every grade level and can articulate with deep understanding what they are seeing, expectations and progress for students will fall short. Developing benchmarks is a messy, complex task that requires knowledgeable teams to be able to look at student work, determine significant strengths and weaknesses, and set worthwhile goals. Once established, those reading and writing benchmarks need to align and increase in depth from grade to grade. Also, as teachers and leaders we need to ably demonstrate effective literacy practices through thinking aloud as we show how we read, write, speak, listen, analyze, and solve problems across the curriculum. At the same time, we need to establish clear objectives in a manner that is meaningful and relevant and likely to lead to increased student understanding and application.

Perhaps most important to the school change process, I have learned that literacy is not a strong suit for many principals even when they have solid leadership and organizational abilities. For example, I have worked with elementary school principals who were former music teachers, physical education teachers, and high school principals. They did not recognize the key literacy specifics to look for when they went into K–8 classrooms, and many could not effectively assess if the work was at a high enough level. Offering useful feedback and appropriate support to teachers was, consequently, limited. As a result, I created virtual literacy residencies, in the form of a video-based, embedded professional development series, as a companion for principals—as well as coaches and teachers—so that, as a staff, educators could view, discuss, analyze, plan, and apply effective literacy practices to the classroom.⁷ Without deep knowledge about literacy, principals remain restricted in their quest to raise reading and writing achievement across a whole school.

Leadership Insights

I didn’t know much about leadership when I began demonstration teaching in weeklong residencies. My first residencies involved a multiyear contract with one typical school in a high-needs district. I conducted two weeklong writing residencies each year at the school, one in the fall and one in the spring. The results were humbling. After four years there were some outstanding teachers of writing, as documented by high achievement scores on state and district tests, along with excellent daily writing. There were some teachers who hadn’t moved much, and we still had a couple of resisters who hadn’t budged. The principal was a strong leader in the sense that she knew a lot about literacy, entrusted many professional development decisions to a teacher-led team, and held regular professional development meetings. But—and this is a big but—she rarely got out of her office to go into classrooms. When I would return each spring, I learned that she didn’t know that several teachers weren’t teaching writing every day—an agreed-upon school belief—or that teachers hungered for affirmation for taking risks as writing teachers, or that one teacher was actively working against change of any kind. Also critical, because of the principal’s absence from classrooms, she was unable to provide the feedback and coaching that are necessary for supporting teachers and staff in their efforts to continually improve.

In truth, not much writing progress was sustained, and looking back, I realize we didn’t accomplish much for the amount of time, resources, and energy invested. My background was as a teacher, and instruction is what I knew. In those early residencies, I spent the entire morning instructing and coaching in a primary classroom and the entire afternoon instructing and coaching in an intermediate classroom. Although the principal was required to be part of the residencies, observing and participating with the teachers, I hadn’t yet seen the principal as the linchpin in school literacy achievement.

The hardwiring of my thinking changed after I acknowledged and took responsibility for our failure to attain and sustain schoolwide achievement in those first residencies. I came to realize the crucial role of principal-as-literacy-leader in improving school achievement. In all residencies since then, I devote the entire afternoon to mentoring the principal, and that has made a big difference in our short- and long-term outcomes. (See www.regieroutman.org for more information about the residency model.)

I also learned that teachers need encouragement, demonstrations, and responsive coaching to step up to the plate as leaders. Once we teachers learn how to take on a leadership role and embrace it, the culture, collaboration, and achievement in a school change in many positive ways. Professional conversations go on all day long, between and among grade levels; the principal is seen as a supportive partner and not just an evaluator; teachers are eager to be coached and to share their ideas and questions; trust and respect increase throughout the building, and all students begin to thrive.

On a personal level, I learned that we educators need courage, stamina, and unrelenting determination to lead. A few years ago, in cooperation with Seattle University, I conceived and organized with five esteemed colleagues the first Urgency and School Change Conference. It was a huge challenge and undertaking, which included inviting notable national and international keynote speakers. Never having put on a national conference before, my colleagues and I were learning along the way. Early on in the process, when my husband and I were on vacation and unavailable, one of our most dedicated group members panicked that we would not be able get the number of attendees we needed to cover our considerable expenses. Meaning well, she communicated her fears to other members of our group, and the group concluded we should cancel the conference. Returning from vacation, I learned I had a benevolent but serious mutiny on my hands. I called each group member and spoke at length with each one.

Through persuasion, optimism, and sheer grit, I convinced them all that we would have a highly successful conference—and we did! It didn’t matter that I didn’t know with certainty if we could pull it off. What mattered was that without collective support and all of us confidently working toward the same worthy goal, we had no chance for success. I learned that people want to be convinced that the work they’re doing is important, that their role is crucial, and that they can depend on the designated leader to help them reach the goal line. I also learned that as a leader I had to be willing to live with tension and uncertainty while doing everything possible to see a commitment through and ensure a successful outcome.

I further learned that being a decisive teacher-leader is very different from being a teacher-collaborator. At first I would allow our weekly planning calls to go on too long, listening hard and with an open mind to all viewpoints and trying to get our group to consensus. But often we had no consensus, and although it was difficult at first, I learned to say something like this: "Based on all the viewpoints that have been presented and discussed, it seems like such-and-such makes the most sense, so we’re going to do thus-and-so." As a teacher, I was not used to making the final, important decision for a group of peers; my work in schools has always been based on a collaborative mindset and plan. That is, after presenting and discussing possibilities and options and reviewing data, the teachers and the principal decide the course of action that they believe is best.

So I understand firsthand how risky and hard it is for teachers to move into the unconventional role of teacher-leader—for example, to be willing to stand up and say, "This is what I’m seeing at our school. This is an important issue we all need to talk abo...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Table of Contents
• Dedication
• Note
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction Why This Book and Who Is It For?
• Chapter 1. Literacy and Leadership: Change That Matters
• Chapter 2. Responsive Instruction, Feedback, and Assessment
• Chapter 3. Reading and Writing Priorities
• Chapter 4. Reducing the Need for Intervention
• Chapter 5. Leadership Priorities
• Chapter 6. Professional Literacy Communities
• Chapter 7. Sustaining the Work: We Can Do It!
• Appendix
• Glossary
• Endnotes
• References and Resources
• About the Author
• Study Guide
• Related ASCD Resources
• Copyright