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Legitimate Professional Development for Reading Teachers · The Reading Instruction Show

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  This is The Reading Instruction Show. I'm your
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  host, Dr. Andy Jonson. Topic of today's show,
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  legitimate professional development for teachers
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  of reading. Now, expert reading teachers have
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  a specialized body of content knowledge related
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  to reading. The International Literacy Association,
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  they have a set of standards. for literacy slash
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  reading specialist and describes knowledge in
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  several areas. I've adopted and adopted some
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  of these and identified six types of knowledge
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  required to be an expert reading teacher. But
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  before you send me emails about how kindly old
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  Miss Peterson taught kids to read for 35 years,
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  let me clarify. Yes. You can be a very good teacher
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  of reading to many children without having a
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  fully developed knowledge base in some of the
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  six areas that I'll describe. But to be an expert
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  reading teacher, one needs to be able to make
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  the best decision for all students in all phases
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  of literacy instruction. An expert reading teacher
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  has the knowledge and skills to enable all children
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  to develop their full literacy potential. This
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  teacher prepares all students to be able to read,
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  write, and think in the real world, to use literacy
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  for authentic purposes in the real world. And
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  this is far different from preparing them to
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  take the next standardized test. Here are the
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  six areas one needs to know, needs to have knowledge
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  in. Number one, human literacy learning. This
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  is theories of human learning and development
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  related to literacy. Two, literacy processes,
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  the processes used by the brain to create meaning
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  with print and use print to create meaning from
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  both a cognitive and neurocognitive perspective.
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  Number three, literacy methods, the different
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  methods or approaches to teach reading and writing.
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  Number four, literacy pedagogy. These are the
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  research -based strategies related to literacy
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  learning and how and when to use them. Number
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  five, literacy research. How to read research
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  as well as a familiarity with the wide -body
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  literacy -related research. And last one, number
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  six, literacy assessment. and diagnosis. This
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  includes such things as miscue analysis, running
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  records, qualitative reading inventories, authentic
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  assessments, as well as the strengths and limitations
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  of standardized tests. Now let me say that legitimate
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  professional development for teachers is necessary.
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  We don't create finished teaching products in
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  three semesters of any teacher preparation program.
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  Now I use the word legitimate, legitimate professional
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  development to exclude programs and services
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  that are profit -based. These are usually little
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  more than infomercials disguised as professional
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  development. Here there is no check and balance,
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  there is no blind peer review of the information
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  provided, and only the information that supports
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  their product or service is presented. Information
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  that does not, is not. The best example of this
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  is letters professional development for teachers.
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  There is no legitimate research provided to suggest
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  that letters A enhances students reading achievement,
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  B enhances teachers ability to teach effectively,
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  and C is more effective than other types of professional
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  development. And remember, having elements that
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  are supported by research doesn't make the program
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  research based. Every program has some element
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  that can be supported by research. Now, with
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  legitimate professional development for reading,
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  you will very rarely encounter a magic method,
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  formula, program, or product. Instead, legitimate
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  professional development for reading instruction
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  provides the six types of knowledge I just described.
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  Teachers won't simply be given a list of pedagogical
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  skills or a program to follow with fidelity.
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  Instead, they'll be provided with an understanding
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  of how all phases of literacy learning occurs
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  along supporting research -based theories and
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  a variety of pedagogical skills that they can
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  then adopt and adapt as needed. Effective professional
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  development also enables teachers to develop
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  their professional knowledge and skills in the
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  context of the classroom practice. Now, I recognize
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  my own bias here, but good professional development
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  still comes from accredited graduate programs
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  in education where professors have spent significant
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  time, our whole professional lives, immersed
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  in research related to the field. Knowledge is
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  important. These types of programs are usually
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  aligned with the International Literacy Association
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  standards and informed by a wide body of research
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  -based knowledge in a variety of ways. But most
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  importantly, this type of professional development
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  is not influenced by motives. For example, with
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  a legitimate graduate class offered by a real
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  professor, that professor is not bound only by
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  what a body of research has determined to be
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  best practice. They don't get paid more for saying
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  some things or not saying other things. And their
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  courses continue to evolve. That is, as they
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  continue to learn and do scholarly work, review
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  research, and teach students, their knowledge
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  basic sands and their thinking changes on issues.
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  This. enables them to make the change from semester
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  to semester or even from week to week. Now compare
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  this with the rigid type curriculum or programs
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  offered by letters and their one -size -fits
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  -all professional development. Here, the same
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  information is presented the same way in the
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  same order for years. It's done this way in California,
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  Minnesota, Boston. Only when sales begin to slip
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  will there be revisions. Now, what about professors
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  who use their books in courses like you? Like
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  me? Aren't I making money off my books? That's
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  a good question. Let's look at profit. In the
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  field of education, professors who write books
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  are rare. And that's because academic writing
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  is hard work. It takes a lot of time and an enormous
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  amount of thinking space, and most professors
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  who work in teacher preparation programs have
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  three or four classes to teach every semester.
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  Besides, the time spent teaching one to three
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  hours is typically necessary to prepare for each
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  class period. You must also read assignments,
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  communicate with students, and provide service
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  to the department, college, and field. Blah,
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  blah, blah, blah. And to be relevant, they must
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  continue to read and synthesize the latest research
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  in the field and publish in academic journals.
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  Writing a book like I have requires a great deal
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  of time to think, plan, read research articles
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  and related books and take notes. And that's
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  before the actual reading starts. Now I'm able
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  to do it because I don't have many interests
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  outside of literacy instruction, except for playing
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  the euphonium. But the truth is, I would make
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  more money per hour working at a fast food restaurant
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  than I do writing this book. Most professors
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  earn very little for book royalties, and most
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  colleges and universities have a system in place
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  for getting approval when students are required
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  to purchase their materials. Well, if you don't
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  pick me, why do you write books? Again, good
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  question. Four reasons. First, most often there
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  is not an adequate textbook to use. They're too
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  expensive, full of too much stuff, or don't contain
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  the right information. And second, I write to
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  contribute to the field. Hopefully, my ideas
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  will add to the greater conversation in some
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  small way. And third, it's part of my job. The
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  state of Minnesota pays me to be curious about
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  literacy things, to find out and then to write
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  about them. That's called scholarship, scholarly
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  work. And fourth, all people are not always motivated
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  by money. Some people are motivated, some people
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  are motivated simply to do the right thing. And
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  the field of education tends to attract these
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  kinds of people. What about programs? Accredited
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  graduate programs at universities can provide
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  good professional development for teachers. And
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  of course, accredited graduate programs differ
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  in quality. One of the ways to determine the
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  quality of a graduate program is to look at the
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  publishing record of the professors teaching
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  in the program. Have they been published? Publishing
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  books and journal articles requires that one
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  read and synthesize the latest research in the
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  field. If they've never published, what makes
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  them relevant? What about the liberal agenda?
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  Conservative pundits often accuse professors
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  of pushing a liberal agenda. It's the liberal
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  agenda! They're teaching the liberal agenda!
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  I'm not quite sure what that is. What's an example
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  of a liberal agenda? But just saying this is
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  an example of anecdotal evidence and I think
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  of them. What is a liberal agenda? Define your
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  terms. What specific things are said or done?
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  And do you have any data to support a proposition
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  that professors push a liberal agenda? Do you
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  have any evidence to suggest that we brainwash
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  students? I wish I was that powerful. If I had
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  the power to brainwash students, they would certainly
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  study more and they would start their assignments
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  much earlier. Now I've spent over 30 years in
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  higher education. I have yet to encounter a professor
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  with a liberal agenda or one who brings politics
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  into their courses. must have a research -based
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  agenda or a knowledge -based agenda. But even
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  if I knew what a liberal agenda was, I simply
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  don't have time or space in my courses to have
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  a liberal agenda. Too many standards. So the
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  last thing is action research. Action research
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  is an effective, efficient, and economic way
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  to take research directly to classroom practice.
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  Action research defining my terms is a systematic
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  observation of some element of one's own teaching
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  practice. Action research would serve to create
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  learning specific to each teacher's classroom
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  and an educational resource, connect research
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  directly to classroom practice, and generally
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  improve the professional status of teachers.
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  I will be writing more about this in book number
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  two. This is the reading instruction show I,
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  Dr. Andy Johnson.