Everybody agrees that teaching children to read is important. That’s why it is a key focus in the School of Education’s literacy programs.
Leanne Evans and Annie Marcks of UWM’s Department of Teaching and Learning lead the efforts to prepare students to use evidence-based practices to teach reading.
Evans, an associate professor and co-chair of the Inclusive Early Childhood Teacher Education program, focuses on inclusive early childhood literacy and language development. Marcks is coordinator of the Wisconsin Foundations of Reading Test (WI FoRT), which prepares aspiring teachers for this test required to become licensed. She also teaches literacy courses in early childhood and elementary/middle education programs.
Teaching students with a wide range of abilities
Preparing effective classroom reading and literacy teachers is vital, according to research.
Statistics show that children who aren’t reading well by the end of third grade are at higher risk of not graduating from high school. More than a quarter of Wisconsin elementary students were reading at “below basic level” on standardized tests in the spring of 2022. Only 37% were rated proficient or advanced. Reading levels were much lower in large urban districts like Milwaukee with high numbers of low-income students. In those districts, more than half of third- through eighth-graders were below basic, and only 14% were reading at proficient or advanced levels.
“Aspiring teachers need to learn how to most effectively work with each child.”
One of the top priorities, according to Marcks and Evans, is to ensure the teacher education programs center on how students are prepared to teach reading and writing to children coming to school with a wide range of abilities.
“We recognize that there are going to be students all across the literacy learning spectrum,” Marcks said. “Children come to school with various levels of skills and experiences. In our programs, we recognize the importance of developing responsive teachers for all children and youth, such as building knowledge and competencies in multilingualism and neurodiversity.”
Aspiring teachers need to learn how to most effectively work with each child, Evans said. So, using research-based strategies and effective practices, and monitoring progress, are essential to meeting the circumstances of all children, she added.
When UWM education students go into a classroom, a key part of their learning is assessing the children in the class to identify individual needs and develop approaches that work for each child.
“We keep this as a strong component in preparing future reading teachers,” Evans said. “In addition, we encourage our university students to be reflective in their teaching practices. For example, they ask themselves, am I responding to students’ backgrounds and life experiences? Are students reading fluently? Are they able to use their phonics and decoding skills to figure out the word?”
New legislation
Wisconsin legislation passed in 2023, scheduled to go into effect for the 2024-2025 school year, provides guidelines on teaching reading. It also provides some financial incentives to help school districts improve the way reading is taught. (Some aspects of the legislation, Act 20, may be delayed due to concerns from school districts and education organizations over deadlines and curriculum choices.)
The new legislation mandates that teachers use a “science of reading” approach that emphasizes research-based literacy practices rather than a “three-cueing” approach that some large districts had been using. This technique is considered controversial because it places an emphasis on students using the meaning of the sentence or context, sentence structure and visual cues to decipher meaning instead of using strategies to decode words.
“A key to teaching reading, Evans and Marcks agree, is fostering the love and joy of reading by prioritizing topics the young readers are interested in and providing opportunities for them to see themselves represented within the pages.”
The state budget provides $50 million to fund the bill’s requirements. That includes money for training teachers, hiring reading coaches and buying new curriculum materials. The legislation also increases the number of annual reading screenings to help identify students who would benefit from more differentiated instruction.
“Annie and I looked at the legislation and found we were closely aligned with it,” Evans said. “Some of the terminology has changed, which we are adapting into our curriculum.”
For example, instead of using terms like “running records,” the UWM program uses the term “oral reading record,” Marcks said.
“As a whole, we’ve been doing an effective job of fitting in all the components of the legislation, and our students are very well-prepared,” Evans said.
The approach to UWM’s education curriculum in the context of Act 20 is to continue the commitment to research-based practice and to review and adapt any terminology to be sure it aligns with the intent of the legislation, she added. Faculty will also need to be prepared to answer students’ questions about the impact of the new mandates on how they teach.
“We want to make sure our students are well-prepared to be literacy teachers and understand the legislation before they go into the classroom,” Evans said.
“We will continue to monitor the progress,” Evans said, to make sure UWM’s graduates are up to date on what will be required of them as they enter classrooms. The School of Education also has a literacy council, which meets regularly to discuss legislation, research and the classroom experiences of student teachers.
A key to teaching reading, Evans and Marcks agree, is fostering the love and joy of reading by prioritizing topics the young readers are interested in and providing opportunities for them to see themselves represented within the pages.
The changes mandated by the new law are already being put in place in some classrooms, especially in early childhood programs, Evans said. “Our students say what they see in their field experiences fits in with what they are learning at UWM. These are essential connections for our future teachers.”