Accelerated Literacy
Orientations newsletter | Accelerated Literacy methodology | Accelerated Literacy teaching sequence
The School's Accelerated Literacy research is conducted on two major fronts: the National Accelerated Literacy Program (NALP), in conjunction with Northern Territory Department of Education and Training which is being implemented in primary and high schools; and Adult Literacy.
The sight of a 16-year-old boy struggling to read a year one book about a fox in a box – his head down, hands over his face, mumbling apologies – is humiliating for the student and chastening for any educator.
Yet many marginalised students – particularly those from remote Indigenous schools in Australia – fail to learn even the most basic reading skills. This is because understanding how reading and schooling works is not a given for any student: it needs to be taught. Students who have no background in literacy don’t understand the ground rules for how schools work or for looking at a book or an illustration and then answering questions about it.
Accelerated Literacy (AL) is a teaching program designed to accelerate the literacy skills of marginalised learners who have failed to make the appropriate literacy gains in school and/or who are in acute danger of falling behind. The AL program differs from traditional, mainstream educational methodologies. It lifts learners’ reading levels in highly supported ways in minimal time so that students quickly become confident in working with texts.
AL doesn't simply teach spelling, grammar and vocabulary. It uses written texts to ‘scaffold’ students into the invisible rules of Western schooling, to build their confidence and knowledge and engage them in reading. It also teaches the ways of thinking – the discourses, or cultural knowledge – that underpin what these mean. This knowledge is an essential part of being able to decode text and therefore succeed educationally. Through a whole book (in early childhood classes) or a passage from one (for older year levels), fluent reading and discussion of a familiar text becomes a powerful resource for learning how the ‘ground rules’ of English literacy work in a classroom context.
When AL is taught effectively, teachers are able to awaken a sense of the 'what', the 'how', the 'when', the 'where', and ultimately the 'why', of language choices in a text.
As a result, Accelerated Literacy:
- Teaches students to be fully participating members of a literate society: ‘full members, not just with access, but also with a zest for participating and an instinct to exercise agency’ (Freebody, 2004: 4)
- Promotes the use of regular routines based on strategies that provide a context for classroom lessons: ‘Education cannot simply be merely the experience of a series of consecutive events. It must be a developmental process in which earlier experiences provide the foundations for making sense of later ones. For those involved in teaching and learning, continuous shared experience is one of the most precious resources available' (Mercer, 2001: 248).
- Lays the foundations of English literacy with continuous shared experiences through carefully chosen texts.
Results
Results to date have shown that students who have participated in the Accelerated Literacy teaching programs in the Northern Territory have gained almost two year-levels in reading per year of actual schooling delivered. This evidence extends further than just being able to read, it contributes to a dramatic increase in the student’s entire schooling performance. While lifting their literacy competence, it also lifts their enthusiasm for learning, their own self-confidence and with it, the possibility for a better direction in life. Students thrive on the experience of success. The program enables students to see themselves as successful learners.
More information about Accelerated Literacy research and development on the NALP website.
