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Maybe your state reading scores show your students are below grade expectations, or teachers have noticed that as students move up in grades, they don’t have the decoding skills to read more advanced texts. As an education leader, there are a few foundational strategies you can put in place to support your staff and students.

Most important, said literacy experts and education leaders during the edLeader Panel “Building a Text-Rich Environment to Support All Readers: What Leaders Need to Know,” is to understand how having rich text resources can help you advance literacy.

First, before looking at your resources, collect the data—and make sure it’s showing the information you actually need. Teacher observations, parental input, and overall grades can be helpful, but leaders need to get an accurate picture of how well their students have mastered the different literacy skills they need for success.

The panelists all noted how many standard assessments just highlighted that there was an overall issue, but they didn’t actually pinpoint where students were struggling. By combining a universal screener that shows where students are in terms of their reading skills and then a diagnostic to highlight individual challenges, they were able to get a thorough map of where students were and what assistance they needed.

Next, examine barriers that are impacting your students’ literacy pathways. This could be unrealistic goals for reading at home, class schedules, etc. Remember, student learning doesn’t happen in a vacuum, and you need to be aware of all elements that might present challenges that go beyond what readers you have available.

Also, take an in-depth look at your reading curriculum and see if there are gaps in the structure that aren’t supporting students who are either struggling or who need more advanced materials. Remember, students who think that reading is too hard for them will get easily frustrated, which will influence their attitudes toward reading.

Then, examine the texts. The panelists found that making sure they had more than leveled readers but also decodable texts that let students practice skills is essential. Students need to apply the lessons they’ve learned and see that the phonics structures actually correlate to reading a book.

Here are just a few questions to think about as you catalog your reading library:

• Are they helping students build foundational skills that they can apply to different texts?
• Which texts are examples of which skills?
• How do the texts help scaffold those reading skills?
• What texts are good for reading on their own and what work better as a classroom read aloud?
• In what ways do the texts need to be accessible?
• Do the texts spark student interest and curiosity so that they want to keep reading?
• Do they meet students where they are?
• Do you have materials that can push them further?

But don’t just throw away books—organize what you have. The panelists offered some advice on how their teachers have been using the different types of text.

• If a book is below grade level, it can be used to reinforce previous skills and boost student confidence.
• For books that feature the same combinations of sounds, underline the sounds so students can recognize the pattern or let them circle the sounds.
• With leveled readers where the story is too predictable to maintain student interest, cover up parts of the plot and ask them to imagine what happens next.
• Initiate choral reading with more complex texts—let students support each other.
• When a book has tricky words, tell students—let them know it’s OK to get stuck and that they can come to you for help.

During the scheduled class periods, work on literacy skills, but make sure students have access to books throughout the day. The goal is for these skills to become automatic for each child and for them to apply these skills beyond the reading curriculum. And when the kids feel more confident in their skills, they will no longer fear literacy tests and will actually look forward to showing off what they know.

Have constant conversations with students about what they are reading and how they feel about it. And, of course, keep checking the data to make sure that your students are moving in the right direction.

Finally, don’t forget about professional development. The educator in the classroom is the one who knows where each student is and what a student needs to get to the next skill level. However, teachers need to understand how to use the resources to help the students. It’s not training on a product—it’s training on how to help the different students, whose needs will change year by year. Any PD must be ongoing because the data will showcase these different needs each year.

Learn more about this edWeb broadcast, Building a Text-Rich Environment to Support All Readers: What Leaders Need to Know, sponsored by Learning Ally.

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Article by Stacey Pusey, based on this edLeader Panel