Adolescent Literacy:
How Best Can Middle and High School Students Be Supported?

A discussion topic

"We must move beyond early intervention to supporting students throughout their school lives."

Carol Minnick Santa's statement in her article "Adolescents: The Forgotten Faction" in the April/May issue of Reading Today calls out to educators and to the International Reading Association to focus on adolescent literacy. Here are some excerpts from Santa's article:

In my school system, we are spending less on helping our adolescents succeed in school. Most of our Title I budget is now allocated for early intervention. We have worked hard to reduce class size for children in grades K-3, but at the same time we have seen steady increases in class size as children progress through school.

Ten years ago, we had reading specialists at the middle school and high school levels. They collaborated with teachers to fulfill a mission of assisting all content teachers in implementing reading strategies in the classroom. They worked side-by-side with science and mathematics teachers. They facilitated classroom research, investigating issues of reading, writing, and learning.

But when funding shrank, the reading specialists were the first to go. In their wake was a loss of professionalism. They were the knowledge brokers in our schools. They facilitated talk about learning, reading, and writing in the teacher's room, in classrooms, and with individual students. They inspired a vitality, an energy in our schools which now is lost.

I am afraid my district is not unique. My school community fits a pattern in the United States of diminishing support for the middle school and high school child. Reading specialists, especially at these levels, have become viewed as expendable luxuries.

I believe in supporting early literacy programs and research. However, I also know that we must not stop the teaching of reading at Grade 3. In fact, at the end of Grade 3 our work has only begun. Even proficient third-grade children aren't yet literate.

IRA Must Take the Lead

As an association, IRA must take the lead in supporting teachers and parents of adolescents. We must insure that the instruction offered in our middle school and high school classrooms engages students in learning and that our classrooms entice students to come to school.

All of us know that students aren't engaged in classrooms where they memorize facts from textbooks, read text chapters, write answers to end-of-chapter questions, and listen passively to lectures. They aren't engaged with the stop-and-go curriculum of the seven-period day where they have little opportunity to become deeply involved in learning. They aren't engaged when the goal of teaching is covering content with little if any regard to how students learn and with little attention to the social context of the classroom.

I also worry about upper-grade children who have difficulty reading. With so much interest in early intervention, I see little effort spent on ways to help struggling upper elementary, middle, and high school students who have problems reading. There is virtually no interest in this critical area of teaching and research.

Think for a moment about what entices the struggling reader to remain in school. Why stay in an uncomfortable, self-defeating situation? The majority of children who spend their days on our streets and in our malls have difficulty using reading as a tool for learning. Successful readers and learners remain in school; those who aren't leave. We must move beyond early intervention to supporting students throughout their school lives.

Your Turn to Speak Out

One of my goals as an IRA officer is to be an advocate for the adolescent and young adult. Yet, I am not sure about the best way to do this. Issues of value are never easy to figure out without multiple minds and voices. In other words, I am asking for your help. What do you think our organization should do about adolescent literacy?

Currently, IRA has a commission on Adolescent Literacy, which is chaired by Rich Vacca and Donna Alvermann. This commission is working hard to develop long-term goals and advocacy plans for adolescent literacy. I invite you to join with me and Donna and Rich in a conversation about adolescent literacy in this section Reading Online. Consider these questions:

• What can IRA do to support middle and high school students and the educators who teach them?
• How can IRA better support middle and high school teachers through conferences, publications, and special institutes?
• What type of instructional environment is best for adolescents?
• How should school literacy programs for adolescents be structured? What should they include?
• How can we become a better political advocate for middle and high school reading specialists?
• How can IRA be more supportive of content teachers?
• How might IRA collaborate with other professional organizations?