About Adolescent Literacy
Too many kids in the United States aren't learning to read critically, write persuasively, or communicate effectively. According to the U.S. Department of Education's National Assessment of Educational Progress, some 33% of 4th graders and 26% of 8th graders can't read at the "basic" level. Fortunately, in the last few years, researchers and policymakers have begun to give the adolescent literacy crisis the attention it demands, and the articles below provide an introduction to their work.
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A Closer Look: Closing the Performance Gap
The performance gap — what students are expected to do versus what they can do — is compounded each year a child falls short of acquiring expected skills. As a result, underachieving high school students are at great risk for academic failure, discouragement, and disengagement. This article offers a framework to support adolescent literacy that ties improved student outcomes to an instructional core and an infrastructure core.
A Conceptual Model of Adolescent Literacy
A graphic representation of four sectors — perceptions, achievement, programs, and demographics — that influence adolescent literacy. A glossary of the conceptual model's components is included.
Adolescent Literacy and Older Students with Learning Disabilities
This report describes the adolescent literacy problem (grades 4 to 12), its consequences, and contributing factors. Guiding principles for assessment, instruction, and professional development, as well as recommendations for short-term and future consideration, are also addressed.
Adolescent Literacy and Older Students with Learning Disabilities (Executive Summary)
The full report describes the adolescent literacy problem (grades 4 to 12), its consequences, and contributing factors. Guiding principles for assessment, instruction, and professional development, as well as recommendations for short-term and future consideration, are addressed.
Adolescent Literacy Resources: Linking Research and Practice
Meltzer, J., Cook Smith, N. and Clark, H. Adolescent Literacy Resources: Linking Research and Practice. Retrieved Oct. 22, 2007, from http://www.alliance.brown.edu/pubs/adlit/alr_lrp.pdf.
This book from the Education Alliance at Brown University reviews relevant research from the past 20 years and describes the implications for instruction, curriculum, school structure, professional development, and assessment.
Adolescent Literacy: We've Been Waiting For This Moment
Three critical factors optimize student progress in adolescent literacy: 1) using multiple research-based interventions over a sustained period of time, 2) teaching interventions with fidelity and intensity, and 3) ensuring that instruction is coordinated across teachers and settings.
Adolescent Literacy: Where We Are Now?
This essay summarizes adolescent literacy interventions and trends, and its relation to dropout rates.
Adolescents and Literacy: Reading for the 21st Century
This report reviews and analyzes existing research on effective literacy instruction and the impact of successful literacy programs for students in grades 4-12.
Effective Instruction for Adolescent Struggling Readers: A Practice Brief
Boardman, A. G., Roberts, G., Vaughn, S., Wexler, J., Murray, C. S., & Kosanovich, M. (2008). Effective instruction for adolescent struggling readers: A practice brief. Portsmouth, NH: RMC Research Corporation, Center on Instruction.
The Center on Instruction created this practice brief to provide schools, districts, and states with background knowledge about best practices for older students who struggle to read. It focuses on the reading skills that adolescents need to more fully access content-area curricula and, in turn, secure a productive future.
Effective Literacy Instruction for Adolescents
Alvermann, D.E. (2001). Effective Literacy Instruction for Adolescents. Oak Creek, WI: National Reading Conference.
Literacy must be redefined for the Net Generation. Strict print literacy in a subject area does not prepare students to respond to today's increasingly complex communications. Instead, literacy must be considered multi-faceted, and include hypertext and visual. Furthermore, the framework of literacy instruction must be reconsidered: what does struggling mean, how can digital literacy be transformed into academic literacy and the reverse. For today's adolescents, literacy instruction must be sensitive to multiple interrelated factors, including motivations and self-perception, and it must be embedded in the subject matter.
