Introduction

Improved reading instruction is a goal set by many schools and districts.  The occurrence of an election year coupled with recent debate between supporters of whole language and supporters of phonics instruction has forced reading education to the forefront of America's educational agenda.

Standardized test scores in reading are particularly low in schools with high rates of poverty.  Arkansas is a rural state and has population pockets with relatively high rates of poverty.  Educators in this state have battled during recent years to raise standardized test scores in reading.  With the support of the ADE and the educational resources of UALR, some educators in the state are beginning a journey on the road to reform.

Staff Development and Support Structure

The Arkansas Comprehensive School Reform Model is a research-based approach to teaching reading in the primary grades.  The Arkansas Model is founded in the techniques and principles used by Reading Recovery teachers and found in Apprenticeship in Literacy Transitions Across Reading and Writing (Dorn, French, & Jones, 1995[see ref list]).  In Model classrooms, the instructional language used by teachers in primary grades becomes consistent with the language used by early intervention educators.  Arkansas Model classroom teachers participate in a three-year training, Early Literacy Learning in Arkansas (ELLA).  In ELLA, teachers learn techniques for explicit reading instruction and learn how to use leveled activities to better meet the needs of students.  While ELLA training is an important part of the staff development portion of the Arkansas Model, the components of ELLA are difficult to integrate into classroom practice without on-site support for teachers.  School literacy coaches provide needed support and additional training for classroom teachers. 

The role of the literacy coach is to work beside the classroom teacher in a supportive role.  Coaches attend nine weeks of training in theory, processing behaviors, and instructional strategies provided by UALR.  This training occurs over the course of the school year (Dorn & Williams, 2000).  Coaches then return to their school sites and share the knowledge.  A coach may model appropriate practice (i.e. guided reading, writer's workshop, assisted writing) in the components of reading instruction.  The literacy coach may also assist in writing lesson plans and may evaluate student performance.  Coaches also observe teachers working with students and then collaborate with them to problem solve about the students' progress and how to accelerate it.  The school literacy coach is also responsible for planning and organizing literacy team meetings.

School literacy team meetings are powerful opportunities for staff members to learn more about reading instruction and problem solve together to provide high-quality reading instruction for students. Coaches prepare activities prompting discussions about student progress and the direct correlation between teaching to high standards and improved reading competency.  Often classroom teachers bring in samples of student work or videos of classroom interactions that are viewed and discussed.  These discussions can lead to a collaborative atmosphere and positive climate for instructional improvement.

Arkansas Model classroom teachers also have the support of Reading Recovery teachers.  In buildings where the Arkansas Model is fully implemented, Reading Recovery teachers work with approximately the lowest performing 20 percent of the class.  Reading Recovery teachers take some students for one-on-one instruction.  Other students receive services in K-3 literacy groups.

Components and Daily Schedule

In an Arkansas Model classroom, each day begins with familiar reading.  Students read from their individual collections of text that they have previously worked with in guided reading or other instructional settings.  Typically, the books are stored in baskets, bags, or boxes and are continually accessible to the students.  Arkansas Model classroom teachers do not allow students to put books in their familiar book collections until they are able to read them with at least a 90 percent accuracy rate.  This high rate ensures that the first reading experience of each day will be a successful one.  Current brain research (Sousa, 1995) suggests successful learning experiences cause the brain to release chemicals that cause a natural high.  Jensen (1995) further suggests that students will want to recreate this positive feeling and therefore will be more willing to participate in learning activities. 

While students are reading softly to themselves, the teacher circulates through the room taking running records.  Running records are assessment tools for text reading.  By analyzing running records, teachers judge what students know about print messages and what they are overlooking (Clay, 2000).  This information will guide the lessons of the day, which helps ensure that students are being taught at an appropriate level.

The next component of an Arkansas Model classroom is the shared reading lesson.  Arkansas Model classroom teachers bring students into a warm, family-like atmosphere of reading big books, poetry, charts, or chants.  Students are encouraged to be active participants during this time.  To promote participation, the class often begins this time by reviewing an alphabet chart which remains posted at all times for students to use as a reference during other literacy activities.  Students are encouraged to locate words, listen for rhymes, rewrite text, sequence text that has been copied to sentence strips, or compare print based on visual image and auditory sequence.  Early in the first grade curriculum, the focus is on concepts about print.  Arkansas Model classroom teachers give explicit demonstrations of how to handle a book, where to begin and which way to go when reading the text of a page, and the print correlation of each spoken word.  As students master these skills, the focus moves to include print-to-sound matching and decoding activities. 

Following shared reading, students return to their seats for a word building (spelling) lesson.  While these lessons are whole group, children often need a clean, stable work area, so remaining on the floor is not particularly productive.  Arkansas Model teachers use demonstrations on the overhead projector, chalkboard, or dry erase board to teach students how to manipulate letters, blends, and word parts to create new words.  For example, in the training video Organizing for Literacy (Dorn, 1999), Carla Soffos leads children in a word building lesson where they build two words they are familiar with (“why” and “then”) using magnetic letters.  The children then pull parts from each word to figure out the correct spelling of “when.”  Activities such as this teach children to transfer their current knowledge to new applications.  Another benefit of these activities can be found in the interconnectedness of all the experiences, resulting in multiple neuropaths being created and available for use to retrieve single items of information.  Because the human brain categorizes information into databanks of similar facts, but retrieves them by sorting through their differences (Sousa, 1995),; the more neuropaths that are linked to a single fact the easier it may be to retrieve and use the information.

Following word building (spelling) students are sent to work in literacy corners.  These areas around the perimeter of the room contain activities the children have already mastered but are putting into practice. While students are working in the corners, they are recording their activities and the products they create in literacy logs.  This added component of writing serves as a practical application for knowledge they gain in writer's workshop and as a method for teachers to check progress and keep records showing growth over time.   Simultaneously, small groups of children are being called for guided reading or assisted writing.

Guided reading is one of the most important components of the Arkansas Model.  During this time of the day, teachers work with small groups (ideally, four to six children) using leveled readers and scaffolding (supporting) them only as much as is necessary for the children to understand the meaning of the text.  Emphasis is placed on reading for meaning and developing problem-solving strategies to decode text that the children can use when working independently.  Each group lasts approximately 30 minutes, and the groupings are flexible to allow for differing rates of learning.  Depending on individual differences in schedules, children typically attend two or three guided reading groups per week.  On days they do not participate in a guided reading group, they will attend an assisted writing lesson.

Assisted writing lessons are also small group events.  Children of similar skills will compose texts and refine writing skill under the close supervision of the teacher.  Children at the lower levels on the writing continuum work together in interactive writing lessons (Fountas & Pinnell, 1996) to create a group text.  Children who have learned how to successfully compose thoughts and transcribe them may participate in write aloud lessons.  Finally, children will begin revising and editing their stories for classroom publication.

Later in the afternoon, students in Arkansas Model classrooms participate in a writer's workshop.  Teachers lead mini-lessons designed to teach the writing process. Following the mini-lesson, students apply these techniques to their original texts while the teacher holds small group lessons or individual conferences. 

The mini-lessons are designed to provide authentic writing tasks and step-by-step, explicit instruction to achieve the goal of completing multiple manuscripts suitable for classroom publication.  While students will not take every piece of writing to the publication stage, they are encouraged to work on the same piece of writing for several days before deciding to remove it from their writing folder or moving on to new projects.  In this writer's workshop, students do not complete a manuscript for publication in one day.  Children quickly learn to work independently, either writing new texts or revising and editing previously composed messages, while waiting for an opportunity to confer with the teacher.  Conferences provide teachers the opportunity to give individualized instruction to students concerning a specific written work. Arkansas Model classrooms also have time scheduled each day for math, science, social studies, read aloud, and other traditional lessons.  However, during these lessons teachers often make text-to-life connections, use books as springboards into discussion, and ask students to write about their activities or experiments they participate in.

Preliminary Results 

During the 1999-2000 school year, the ADE provided funding for seven pilot sites.  UALR developed and provided training for seven literacy coaches.  This partnership resulted in dramatic gains in standardized test scores and better performance by students on authentic reading and open-ended writing tasks.  One example of dramatic change in scores occurred at Boone Park Elementary in North Little Rock.  The Times, a newspaper serving north Pulaski County, Arkansas, reported the average total reading score of Boone Park's first grade students to be at the 20^th percentile on the SAT 9 pretest for the 1999-2000 school year (Chism, 2000).  The Times also reported the post-test scores of Boone Park first graders to be the 79^th percentile for that same year (Docketer, 2000).

Because of the success at the pilot sites, the ADE and UALR expanded the Arkansas Comprehensive School Reform Model to train 22 additional coaches for the 2000-2001 school year.  The expansion sites will administer the SAT 9 as a post-test late in the spring semester.  The results should be exciting based on mid-year reports of student performance on classroom tasks.

Arkansas educators are combining intense intervention of Reading Recovery teachers with improved, research-based classroom methodology and on-site support for teachers to provide primary students in Arkansas the best possible reading education.

References

Chism, D. M. (June, 2000).  Boone Park's reading scores speak volumes.  The Times, The Weekly Newspaper of North Pulaski County Since 1898.  103.4.  4A.

Clay, M. (2000).  Running records for classroom teachers.  Auckland, New Zealand:  Heinemann.

Dockter, N.  New program scores big on national test, Boone Park students near top fifth on SAT 9 in reading. The Times, The Weekly Newspaper of North Pulaski County Since 1898.

Dorn, L., French, C., & Jones, T. (1995).  Apprenticeship in literacy.  York, ME: Stenhouse.

Dorn, L. (1999).  Organizing for literacy, four inservice videotapes.  York, ME: Stenhouse.

Dorn, L., & Williams, D. (2000).  Arkansas comprehensive literacy model for school change.  Paper not yet published.

Fountas, I., & Pinnell, G. (1996).  Guided reading: Good first teaching for all children. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Jensen, E.  (1995).  Brain based learning and teaching.  Del Mar, CA:  Turning Point.

Sousa, D. (1995).  How the brain learns.  Reston, VA:  National Association of Secondary School Principals.