Article Summary and Reflection

                                                    Instructional Method Article Summary of

                                          “Integrated Reading and Language Arts Instruction”
                                                                   By, Robert J. Stevens



Mary-Lynn Miller
Wilmington University
Practicum III




    Recognizing the common decline in reading and writing skills and academic motivation among middle school students, Robert Stevens and other researchers attempted to implement a new method of instruction to help combat this problem.  Stevens’ experiment worked to measure the success of a new program called the Student Team Reading and Writing (STRW) program among disadvantaged urban middle schools.  This program combines reading and English instruction in a new way that focuses on the use of high-quality literature, cooperative learning groups, and explicit reading comprehension instruction, as well as the consistent use of writing and other meaningful tasks, such as discussion (Stevens, 2006).  This program proved successful in the trial schools although it is unclear how successful the program would be if it were immediately implemented across the country.
    It has been frequently observed that there is a “significant downturn in many indicators of students’ learning and motivation” (Stevens, 2006, p.1), especially in areas of reading and writing, during the middle school years.  This decline proves troubling, since strong reading and writing skills are important not only for language arts, but in other content areas as well (Stevens, 2006).  It has been noted that the structure of middle school instruction is “unresponsive to the development and needs of students” (Stevens, 2006, p.1) and therefore needs to be addressed and reformatted.
    Stevens describes the introduction of the Student Team Reading and Writing (STRW) approach as one method of remodeling middle school design.  The STRW program focuses on reorganizing reading and English classes to follow six main goals.  These goals are to combine reading and English classes, to use high-quality literature, to use meaningful instructional assignments, to explicitly teach reading comprehension, to put a great deal of focus on writing, and finally, to frequently use cooperative learning (Stevens, 2006).  Each of these methods has been shown to have a positive impact when used individually, so the researchers wanted to observe what sort of effect their combined use would have on students’ performance (Stevens, 2006).
    Firstly, combining reading and English classes would result in one longer block of time used for literacy instruction taught by one teacher (Stevens, 2006).  Since these subjects often have a lot of overlap, integrating them allows for flexibility, more growth opportunities, and more opportunities for engagement.  Secondly, in this class teachers would use an anthology of high-quality literature.  Normally these are books that students would only encounter during English class, yet here they are being used to teach reading comprehension while also serving as models of outstanding writing (Stevens, 2006).  These books provide students with examples of excellent literature and should serve to help motivate the students to read and inspire them to write (Stevens, 2006).
    Another important facet of STRW is the focus on “meaningful instructional tasks” (Stevens, 2006, p. 3).  With this program students should be fully engaged in a variety of discussions and written activities that pertain to the text that they are reading and that help them extend their comprehension of those texts (Stevens, 2006).  Using high quality literature, students can frequently stop to discuss the plot, characters, predictions, literary style, and the like, all of which aide in their comprehension and engagement, without them simply filling out an unrelated worksheet.  Furthermore, students can ask their own questions and then work to answer them using the text and the classroom discussions to find answers.
    Although these types of meaningful instructional strategies will surely aide in students’ comprehension, it is also important to the STRW program that teachers explicitly teach reading comprehension strategies to the students.  This requires teachers to teach students about text structure as well as teaching strategies to help them comprehend difficult and unfamiliar parts of text.  Stevens notes that “teachers should not only teach comprehension strategies, but should also apply them in content area reading” (2006, p. 3) since this will help students realize how to use those skills across a variety of content.
    Additionally, STRW focuses on the importance of writing as part of language arts instruction.  Teaching writing to students means giving them strategies for planning and composing their writing.  These strategies in turn will help students become more motivated to write and results in writing that is longer and of better quality (Stevens, 2006).  Students need to focus on using language to express their ideas and are able to do so through a high quantity of writing activities.  STRW also focuses on having students share their writing with one another.  Sharing writing helps focus on the power that exists for students to serve as role models for one another.  Students who try new things in writing will inspire their classmates to try these new things as well, which will ultimately help strengthen all students’ confidence and writing abilities (Stevens, 2006).
    Finally, STRW focuses on the use and importance of cooperative learning.  Research suggests that “students who do not develop positive peer relations...are much more likely to drop out of school” (Stevens, 2006, p. 4).  Cooperative learning helps students develop these important peer relationships and thereby helps them to have a stronger attachment to school.  Furthermore, cooperative learning helps students become engaged with the material in unique ways.  This type of learning focuses on group goals, where every member of the group must participate and succeed (Stevens, 2006).  These activities develop a “positive interdependence” (Stevens, 2006, p. 4) within the group which helps all members to support, motivate, and accept one another.
    This integrated approach was tested in five middle schools consisting of grades six through eight in large, disadvantaged urban schools on the East Coast.  The summer prior to implementation, all participating teachers went through training on the program and the processes.  Once the school year began, teachers were observed and received a lot of coaching and feedback regarding their use of the instructional model.  As the teachers became more proficient with the program, the coaching decreased (Stevens, 2006).
    Overall, the study showed that the students in the trial schools achieved higher test scores than students from comparable nearby schools that did not participate in the STWR program.  When tested at the end of the year using standardized testing, the students in the STWR program scored higher in reading vocabulary, reading comprehension, and language expression (Stevens, 2006).  Researchers conclude that this indicates that “such curricular and instructional changes can lead to significantly higher achievement” (Stevens, 2006, p. 8).   However, Stevens adds that more research needs to be done on the program to see how it will work in various other schools and with various amounts of support and coaching for teachers.
    In my opinion the changes made by the STWR program seem as though they would be effective methods to include in the language arts curriculum.  Although I never thought about having reading and English as combined classes, the researchers’ reasoning makes sense.  One combined block that focuses on literacy instruction seems as though it would be more effective than two isolated blocks that may waste time overlapping instruction.  Instead, filling a larger amount of time with meaningful learning seems like it would do more to thoroughly engage the students. 
    Using high-quality literature seems like a great way to get students motivated to read and to get them familiar with high quality writing.  I have read other research that suggests that it is beneficial for all readers, even those struggling below grade level, to read high-quality, complex texts, which adds to the appeal of the usage of this type of literature selection.  Furthermore, I agree that having these rich examples of writing will serve as positive motivation and inspiration for students and may help them to discover a hidden passion for writing and/or literature.
    Furthermore, I agree that cooperative learning will greatly help students to succeed academically and socially.  Working as a team will provide a necessary sense of community in the classroom and will help students become more confident in their abilities.  Additionally, the researchers’ comments regarding the high risk of dropping out of school among students without positive peer relationships is critical.  Without positive interactions at school, students may find it easier to simply give up.  However, we cannot accept that as an option for our students.  By working to have them foster healthy, strengthening relationships with their peers, they will be more motivated to learn and have more confidence in their abilities.
    Despite all of the positive gains made by the STRW program, it is important to note that this trial was successful due in part to the great amount of collaboration between teachers and researchers.   In a more widespread version of this program it may be impossible for teachers to get the amount of training, coaching, and observation time that the teachers in this study received.  For those reasons, it will be important for more research to be done on this program to isolate what key features are most critical to its success.  Once the program is more streamlined then it may be able to be adopted by a large majority of schools.  Until then, the program does shed light on important methods for use in the classroom which many of us may be able to incorporate until more is researched on the program as a whole. 
   
  
References
Stevens, R.J. (2006). Integrated Reading and Language Arts Instruction. Research in Middle  Level Education Online, 30 (3), 1-12.