Literacy Success For All Learners!

Being conscious of each individual student’s current reading level can help teachers plan and differentiate instruction to create the most effective literacy classroom possible.  Initial assessment of student’s reading ability can help a teacher to determine which students are above grade level, on grade level, or below grade level in reading and more specific assessments can help teachers determine where students are struggling (decoding, comprehension, ect).  Similar assessments for writing can further help teachers determine which students may need extra help and which students need to be challenged.  Being aware of students’ ability helps teachers to form guided and peer reading or writing groups and plan instruction that focuses on the specific needs of their students.  Frequent informal assessments can be used to track student progress. 

Using leveled texts can help challenge students who are reading above grade level and support readers who are struggling in building and improving essential skills, such as fluency, decoding, comprehension, and confidence.  Having a variety of different books spanning different genres, levels of difficulty, and interests available for students to read is important in encouraging students’ interest and desire for reading.  Monitoring individual reading is also important to ensure that students understand what they are reading and are using effective strategies and not developing bad habits when they encounter words they don’t understand.  Effective strategies are also a good way to help support all learners because students learn differently and different strategies may help different students, so having strategies available will teach students to overcome challenges they face while reading.