Fisher, Ros; Brooks, Greg & Lewis, Maureen (2002)
Raising Standards in Literacy.
New York: RoutledgeFalmer.
Raising Standards in Literacy is the third book in the series Language and Literacy in Action. The editors’ goal is to bring different research findings about literacy theory and practice to everyday classroom teachers.
The book is a compilation of chapters that are based on presentations by different well know scholars in the field of literacy research. Research is included from the United Kingdom, United States and Australia, giving an international view of literacy that is thought provoking.
There are three major sections in the book:
Research into the teaching of literacy. (six chapters)
What counts as evidence? (four chapters)
Developing teacher practice. (six chapters)
“Research into the teaching of literacy” contains information on the different roles research can play in teaching literacy and reviews of literacy research. It is important to note that all the chapters in this section except the last are written by scholars practicing in the United Kingdom, therefore the research tends to focus on issues related to the United Kingdom such as the National Literacy Strategy. (In fact several chapters throughout the book focus on the National Literacy Strategy, offering both overview and critical analysis. Readers interested in gaining a better understanding of the Strategy might find this book offers a helpful analysis.) While this section contains information that has a broad appeal, it does not present an extensive focus.
Other topics addressed in the first section include: comprehension development; developing written composition; what effective teachers of literacy know; believe and do; and family involvement in literacy. The family literacy chapter is particularly strong. It begins by listing three basic assumptions about parental involvement in reading: activities practiced with the student should be based on the activities done at school; that the parent reading to the child is the most beneficial practice to the child; and only the parent should be involved in the home literacy of the child, not other members of the family. The authors do a good job in citing examples that rebuke these assumptions. Seven Bangladeshi British families and six monolingual families were observed. The study found that the Bangladeshi students benefited from older sibling involvement. They also tended to have formalized literacy instruction outside of the family or school because they were required to attend Arabic lessons five nights of the week. There are excellent records of the interactions that were recorded, so the reader can see what transpired.
The only U.S focused chapter, written by James V. Hoffman from the University of Texas, offers an historical overview of the words used in basal readers. He finds that both the quantity and position of words in the readers has varied over time. He also discusses the textbook adoption process in California and Texas in depth.
“What counts as evidence” is all about assessment. Anybody who teaches in the United States knows how important assessment is, from elementary school through higher education. This section contains information on different concepts in assessment, from understanding national standards to test validity. In her chapter on reading instruction, Victoria Purcell-Gates argues convincingly that the “simple view” of reading is flawed. Rather than a process consisting of two parts: decoding and comprehension, research shows that the reading process is very complex. To be effective, teachers and researchers must take into account all the complexities of the reading process.
“Trying to count the evidence”, by Greg Brooks starts off by stating that North America and Britain have two very different definitions of the term standards. In this chapter, standards are defined as “levels of attainment” (p. 136). The author offers two conclusions: levels of attainment in reading among school pupils appear to have remained very stable, and the proportion of adults with poor literacy skills has also been fairly stable (p. 137). Despite this stability, the author also focuses on intervention practices that have been shown to raise levels of attainment.
“Developing teacher practice” gives a glimpse into the different ways literacy standards are being addressed and raised in the United Kingdom, United States and Australia. Of the six chapters in this section three are devoted to the literacy block or literacy hour, with effective advocates both pro and con. Literacy hour is a key component of the British National Literacy Strategy, the literacy block is part of the curriculum in Australia. The final chapter in the section, “Globalisation, literacy, curriculum practice”, argues that these programs are too simplistic because they do not take into account the economical and cultural issues facing some families and schools.
The chapter “Textbooks and model programmes: Reading reform in the United States”, discusses the United States' efforts in regard to raising literacy standards. The United States has started to reform reading not at the national level, but at the state level by reviewing their textbooks. Author Elfrieda H. Hiebert finds this problematic because state governments have great influence on sales conscious textbook publishers; especially larger states like California and Texas. According to the author none of the changes are based on research.
The issue of literacy does not exist in a vacuum; it is a very real issue that many countries are struggling with. This book offers a global focus on what in reality is a global issue. The contributing authors bring a wide variety of backgrounds, opinions and research to their respective chapters. The book can be read as a whole or as individual chapters that are of interest. One of the books goals was to bring different research findings about literacy theory and practice to the every day classroom teacher. While the book does this, it is not a practical hands-on guide for integrating literacy theory into a teacher’s curriculum.
Pages: 255
Price: $38.95
ISBN: 0415263514
Reviewed by Vanessa J Earp, Instructor and Education Materials Center Librarian at Texas A&M University - Kingsville. Her interests include vocabulary development and information seeking behavior.
