Episode 176: Quick Q&A: Why Shouldn’t We Level Students and What Should We Do Instead?

Why shouldn’t we level students? 

Professor and researcher Kristin Conradi-Smith from episode 143 says, “We lack research for differentiation by text levels.There's simply no support for it.”  Teaching with a leveled reading, sometimes known as guided reading, approach isn’t the most effective way to teach or learn to read. 

Instead, we can 

• Support students’ access to complex texts through scaffolds and building knowledge using language comprehension. 
• Use students' prior knowledge and match that knowledge to text topic demands.
• Read text sets - a group of texts on the same topic - to build students’ knowledge and vocabulary. 
• Practice and model oral reading fluency, rearead, and use comprehension strategies.

Resources

• Episode 143: Maximizing Small Group Reading Instruction 
• Matt Burns F&P BAS and LLI Research
• Matt Burns Leveling Students: Why we do it, why we shouldn’t, and what we should do instead
• Tim Shanahan Should We Teach at Reading Level? 
• Tim Shanahan blogs What does the Easter bunny have in common with the independent reading level?
• Tim Shanahan presentation Science of Reading Levels
• Dr. Kristen Schrauben Science of Reading What I Should Have Learned in College Private Facebook Group Presentation Giving Up F&P

We answer your questions about teaching reading in The Literacy 50-A Q&A Handbook for Teachers: Real-World Answers to Questions About Reading That Keep You Up at Night.

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