HOTtopics EFF

VOL. 3/NO. 1

ON THE INSIDE

2 Up Close and 

Personal

6 Learning to Read

in English

7 Teaching/Learning

Toolkit

8 Using the EFF

Teaching and

Learning Cycle 

to Plan Reading 

Instruction

10 The RWU Diary: 

A Tool for 

Reflection and 

Assessment

12 RWU Assessment

Prototype

14 Family and Child

Education (FACE)

Programs 

Participate With

Purpose in the

RWU Project

16 Online Resources

I

n this issue we focus on 

the EFF Standard Read With

Understanding and researchbased instructional practices

that will help students reach

their goals. Many articles in this

issue are based on work carried out

as part of the EFF Reading Project,

a two-year partnership between the

National Institute for Literacy and the National

Center for Family Literacy integrating research on

the teaching of reading into EFF’s purposeful and

contextual approach to instruction.

The EFF approach to teaching

and learning embeds researchedbased reading instruction in the

broader context of a standardsbased approach to adult education. This approach is also based

on solid research about how standards improve instruction and accountability. Standards make the

goals and content of teaching and learning activities

transparent to the teachers and students and make

clear what knowledge and skills should be the focus

EQUIPPED FOR THE 

FUTURE IS AN INITIATIVE

OF THE NATIONAL 

INSTITUTE FOR LITERACY

A C C E S S

V O I C

E

I N

D

E

P

E N D E N T

A C T I O N

B R I D G E

T O

T H E

F

U

T

U

R

E

STANDARD

Read With

Understanding

• Determine the reading purpose.

• Select reading strategies

appropriate to the purpose.

• Monitor comprehension and adjust

reading strategies.

• Analyze the information and reflect

on its underlying meaning.

• Integrate it with prior knowledge

to address reading purpose.

Citizen

Family Worker

In order to fulfill 

responsibilities as 

parents/family members, 

citizens/community 

members, and 

workers, adults 

must be able to:

F ALL 2003

Read With Understanding

This issue of

HOT Topics is about 

one of the hottest topics

in education today—

reading.

STRATEGIES 

AND TOOLS 

FOR TEACHING

WITH EFF

See Read With Understanding, page 2
Equipped for the Future and the 

National Center for Family Literacy 

received funding from the Partnership 

for Reading to develop materials and 

a professional development process

aimed at helping teachers and 

administrators learn how to use 

research-based reading instruction 

to support adult students in learning 

to read more effectively. Teachers 

and administrators from ten program

teams participated in piloting the 

training curriculum. They took part 

in three training sessions, received

technical assistance between 

sessions, and designed and 

implemented a series of lessons 

integrating researched-based reading 

instruction into an EFF teaching/ 

learning approach. 

The EFF/NCFL Reading Project

The programs that took part in 

the project:

FACE Programs at the Blackwater 

Community School, Coolidge, Arizona;

the Chi Chi’l Tah/Jones Ranch 

Community School, Vanderwagon, 

New Mexico; the Crownpoint 

Community School, Crownpoint, New

Mexico; the Little Singer Community

School, Winslow, Arizona; and the

Rough Rock Community School,

Chinle, Arizona. The Groves Adult High

School Even Start, Middletown,

Delaware; Susanna Wesley Even Start,

East Prairie, Missouri; Easton Even

Start, ProJeCt of Easton, Incorporated,

Easton, Pennsylvania; Southwest 

Corner Even Start, Waynesburg, 

Pennsylvania; and Norfolk Even Start,

Norfolk, Virginia.

2 HOTtopics Fall 2003

Connecting Reading Research 

to RWU

Read With Understanding (RWU) is one of

16 EFF applied learning standards. Like the

other fifteen EFF Standards, RWU is conceptualized as an integrated skill process

that adults use to accomplish goals and

purposes in their lives. The components of

the Read With Understanding Standard (see

page 1), describe a process that skilled readers engage in as they make sense of the

symbols on a page. The first component

states that the reader determines the reading purpose; however, a reader does not

necessarily carry out the remaining components in sequential, discrete steps. Rather,

the components are integrated as the

reader draws on sets of underlying skills in

order to read with understanding to accomplish his or her purposes.

Recent reports that review and synthesize research on reading instruction have

Read With Understanding: 

Up Close and Personal by Amy R. Trawick

of instruction and assessment. The

EFF Standard Read With Understanding is one of sixteen EFF Standards that define the core knowledge

and skills that adults need in their

roles as family members, community

members and workers.

Teachers want to learn and use the

most valid instructional practices

available that will result in higher

levels of student achievement. In the

first article, Amy Trawick introduces

the key research on reading instruction and explains how the EFF Standard Read With Understanding

frames the four elements of evidence-based instruction. The issue

also includes practical application

strategies and models for teaching

and learning used in the ten programs that participated in the EFF

Reading Project as well as an article

by Marilyn Gillespie on teaching

reading to ESL students.

The article “Using the EFF Teaching and Learning Cycle to Plan Reading Instruction” describes how two

teachers used the EFF Teaching/

Learning Cycle to plan and carry out

standards-based instruction focusing

on Read With Understanding.

One of the ways that standardsbased instruction improves instruction is by integrating assessment at

every step of the teaching/learning

cycle. The article “RWU Assessment

Prototype” is a brief update on the

development of assessment tools for

the EFF Standards. The Read With

Understanding assessments, developed as the prototype for accountability assessments for all the EFF

standards, complete the circle of

goals, instructional practices, assessment, and accountability needed for

standards-based educational improvement. ●

Read With 

Understanding,

continued from page 1

Over the past two years more and more adult and family literacy

teachers have become aware of what gets talked about as “the reading research”—that body of evidence that supports particular reading instructional practices in the areas of alphabetics, fluency,

vocabulary, and comprehension. In developing the materials for the

EFF Reading Project, our goal was to integrate these findings about effective reading

instruction into the EFF approach to teaching and learning. This article explores the

connections we made between the EFF Standard Read with Understanding and the

reading research—and how teachers and programs can use this information to support students in reading to accomplish important purposes in their lives.
Fall 2003 HOTtopics 3

helped EFF to identify the underlying

skills that readers integrate during the

reading process. The report ResearchBased Principles for Adult Basic Education

Reading Instruction (Kruidenier, 2002)

discusses “emerging principles” from the

relatively small base of adult reading instruction and supports these with findings

from Teaching Children to Read (National

Reading Panel, 2000), a report on K-12

reading instruction based on a much

larger body of research. The reports organize these instructional principles

around four elements: alphabetics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. As

the EFF Reading Project studied these

four elements, it became clear that they

could be thought of as sets of knowledge,

skills, and strategies.

Knowledge refers to what the reader

knows about each reading element. For

instance, in alphabetics, the skilled reader

knows that written spellings usually systematically represent the sounds of spoken words. This knowledge can be used

when trying to figure out, or decode, unknown words. In the area of comprehension, knowledge consists of such things as

knowing that readers read for a purpose

and that reading can break down and require specific “fix-up” strategies.

Skills refers to what the reader can do

with that knowledge as he or she reads.

For example, in the area of alphabetics, it

is helpful to have knowledge that b says

/b/, a might say /a/, and t says /t/; it is even

more useful for reading purposes to be

able to apply this knowledge in the skill of

decoding when one encounters the word

bat. In the area of comprehension, the

reader must have the skill of determining

a purpose for reading. Similarly, a skilled

reader knows how and when to monitor

comprehension.

Strategies refers to intentional ways

that readers perform skills. For example,

Joe, a novice reader, sees the sentence,

“The bat hit the ball with a smack” and

gets stuck at the word bat (a skill). He

decides to try to decode the word by applying one of several possible strategies.

He might try segmenting the word into

individual sounds--/b/+/a/+/t/. Or, he

might decide to look for a word he

knows inside the larger word. To decode

bat, then, he might find the word at, put

a /b/ in front of it—/b/+/at/—and come

up with bat. He might use another strategy, comparing the unknown word to a

full word he knows—cat—substituting a

/b/ for the /k/. Any of these strategies

might be used for accomplishing the

skill of decoding.

More complex strategies aid the

reader in using comprehension skills.

Susan has a variety of strategies that will

help her determine the main idea and

supporting details of a text (a skill). She

might first look for headings or numbered sections, knowing that authors

often try to mark their main points. She

might read the first sentence or paragraph in a section and compare following

sentences or sections to the first to see if

it captures an idea bigger than the others.

She could draw a graphic organizer to

help her see the relationships. Or, she

might use different colored highlighters

and write notes in the margin as she

works out her hypothesis and keeps track

of her thinking. Again, each of these

(continued on page 4)

The Four Elements

The Reading Research Working Group, sponsored by a collaboration between

the National Institute for Literacy and the National Center for the Study of Adult

Learning and Literacy, evaluated the research related to four elements (which

the reports calls components) that should be included in reading instruction 

offered in adult basic education classes. For more information go to 

www.nifl.gov/partnershipforreading/adult_reading/adult_reading.html

The following definitions come from this website.

Four Elements to 

Include in Reading Reading Research Working Group

Instruction Defines Four Elements

Alphabetics

Phonemic 

Awareness and

Word Analysis

Fluency

Vocabulary

Comprehension

The whole process of using the written letters in an 

alphabet to represent meaningful, spoken words is

called alphabetics. 

Alphabetics includes both phonemic awareness (PA)

and word analysis (WA). Students with good PA know

how to manipulate the individual sounds (phonemes) 

of spoken English.... Students with good WA know 

how individual letters and combinations of letters 

are used to represent the sounds of spoken English.

Fluency is the ability to read with speed and ease.

When readers are fluent, they read accurately, without

making mistakes in pronunciation, and with appropriate

speed and rhythm.

Vocabulary is a term used to refer to all of the words 

in a language. Our own vocabulary consists of the individual words we understand or know the meanings of.

Reading comprehension is understanding a text that 

is read, or the process of “constructing meaning” from

a text.
4 HOTtopics Fall 2003

strategies, applied appropriately, can help

her accomplish the skill of finding the

main idea and supporting details.

This scheme of knowledge, skills, and

strategies outlined for alphabetics and

comprehension can also be applied to fluency and vocabulary, the other two elements named specifically in the reviews

of reading research.

Expert Performance of RWU 

Consider how a skilled reader approaches the reading process. We might

think about this process as choosing

tools from a reading toolbox. Necessarily, the toolbox is large, and it contains a

variety of knowledge, skills and strategies. Each one is useful in certain situations, and the skilled reader knows when

and how to use them.

What does this toolbox look like? Research on how people develop expertise

tells us that the knowledge base of experts

is not only broad but also organized for

efficient retrieval. So instead of a hodgepodge of tools thrown willy-nilly into a

box, we want to be sure that we envision

an organized toolbox for our skilled

reader, maybe even a tool chest with

drawers representing key sets of knowledge, skills and strategies. Because these

drawers are organized, the skilled reader

has easy access and can accomplish a wide

range of tasks in a wide range of situations. In fact, a skilled reader chooses

wisely among these tools, using them

flexibly and in combination, as she works

through each of the components that

make up the integrated skill process Read

With Understanding.

For example, as a reader monitors her

comprehension (the third RWU component), she may realize that something in

the passage doesn’t make sense. She may

then zero in on certain words that she

thinks she might have mis-read, applying

appropriate tools from her alphabetics

drawer. If she concludes that word recognition is not the issue, she might check

her understanding of key words, borrowing from her vocabulary drawer. If the

passage is especially difficult and she had

originally read it very slowly, she might

decide to re-read the passage more fluently (fluency drawer) and see if understanding flows more easily. Or, she might

decide she needs a graphic organizer to

help her make sense of the information

(comprehension drawer).

The point is, that in the course of trying to read with understanding, this

reader and other skilled readers pull from

the tools they have available to them,

choosing those that address the issue at

Up Close and Personal, continued from page 3

FLUENCY

ALPHABETICS

COMPREHENSION

Strategies for

Figuring Out

Meaning

Understanding

of Key Words

VOCABULARY

Knowledge, Skills, and Strategies

Used Flexibly and in Combination to 

Read With Understanding

Read With Understanding

• Determine the reading

purpose.

• Select reading strategies 

appropriate to the purpose.

• Monitor comprehension and

adjust reading strategies.

• Analyze the information 

and reflect on its underlying

meaning. 

• Integrate it with prior 

knowledge to address 

reading purpose.

The Reader’s Tool Chest
Fall 2003 HOTtopics 5

“The EFF Reading Project training

made it possible for practitioners in

family literacy programs to understand

and to apply a standards-based 

approach to teaching reading with

both children and adults, based on 

research. Teachers involved in the

project, most of whom had little prior

training in teaching reading, began 

to create learner profiles based on

tools which were designed to assess 

learners’ decoding, fluency, and 

comprehension skills in reading.

Teachers began to employ the types 

of instructional strategies evidenced

through research to be effective to 

address phonemic awareness, phonics

and word analysis, fluency, vocabulary

development, and comprehension 

with children and with adults. Teaching

learners a variety of strategies, based

on their particular area of need, 

has made a difference in learners’ 

motivation and their reading 

progress.” 

—Susan Finn-Miller, 

Professional Development Specialist

Lancaster, Pennsylvania 

hand. A skilled reader is able to draw appropriate tools from the tool chest,

knowing when and how to use them, because he has metacognitive abilities.

Metacognition is the awareness of one’s

own thinking and the ability to monitor

and regulate thinking to achieve cognitive goals. In designing instruction using

the Standard Read with Understanding,

teachers consider ways to support readers

in regularly attending to their own understanding and making decisions about

how to solve problems as they read.

Further Implications for Teaching

Research with students in adult basic education classes has shown that unlike

skilled readers, who have equally developed sets of tools across all four elements,

students in adult and family literacy programs are more likely to have strengths in

some of the sets and gaps in others.

Teachers should assess students’ skills in

order to identify their strengths and gaps,

consider the implications for their ability

to Read With Understanding, and focus

instruction where needed.

The recent synthesis reports on reading instruction identified effective instructional practices that help readers

build the sets of knowledge, skills, and

strategies that are the focus of the EFF

Reading Project. In general, the reports

conclude that two approaches are essential for building expertise in reading: explicit instruction in knowledge, skills,

and strategies and opportunities to use

and practice these learnings in reading

texts. In teaching Read With Understanding, teachers provide explicit instruction about these knowledge, skills,

and strategies within the context of

larger activities that engage students in

reading material in pursuit of their rolebased goals. Addressing these goal-related contexts provides the motivation

for students to read, which in turn reinforces learning and facilitates further

growth in each of the sets of knowledge,

skills, and strategies.

Conclusion

What is clear from the data gathered by

EFF in its assessment research is that

adult readers at all levels of development

draw on/work through all the components in the Read With Understanding

Standard. However, the knowledge, skills,

and strategies available to the novice

reader are much more limited than those

available to an expert reader. These differences frame the reader’s access to both

texts and tasks, and are perceptible on the

performance continuum, which illustrates what performance looks like at different points in the process of building

expertise in Read With Understanding.

(See pages 12 and 13.)

The key to moving readers along the

continuum toward expertise is effective

instruction in the Read With Understanding Standard. This includes supporting students in building their tool

chests of knowledge, skills, and strategies. It also requires giving students

practice in choosing the right tool at the

right time as they attempt to construct

and apply meaning in reading activities

grounded in topics and tasks that matter

to them. ●

References:

Kruidenier, John (2002). Research-Based

Principles for Adult Basic Education Reading Instruction. Washington, DC: National

Institute for Literacy, Partnership for

Reading.

National Reading Panel (2000). Teaching

Children to Read: An Evidence-Based Assessment of the Scientific Research Literature on Reading and its Implications for

Reading Instruction (Report of the Subgroups). Washington, D.C.: National Institute for Child Health and Human

Development.

For more information on the 

EFF Reading Project visit

http://www.nifl.gov/partnership

forreading/family/eff/effrp.html

“The more parents and teachers 

understand the reading process, the

better they are able to make decisions

about their own and their children's

learning.” 

—Nancy Sledd, 

National Center for Family Literacy
6 HOTtopics Fall 2003

ESL Literacy Learners are Diverse

The authors point out that adult ESL literacy is especially complex because adults

come from such diverse backgrounds and

have so many widely differing previous

educational experiences. Since students

are often placed in classrooms based on

their oral proficiency in English, the literacy levels within a single ESL classroom

may span from those with almost no literacy to those with college degrees or

higher. In classrooms where ESL learners

are grouped by literacy level, students’

oral language abilities may range from beginner to advanced; the structures of their

first language writing system may vary

widely (such as between Spanish and Chinese); and, they may have quite different

prior experiences with school.

Components of Second Language

Reading Proficiency

NCLE’s review suggests that first language

reading ability is a less significant predictor of second language reading ability

than is second language proficiency, especially among lower proficiency learners.

They suggest four components of second

language proficiency that are among the

most important for teachers to take into

account.

Vocabulary Knowledge. To improve

vocabulary knowledge, and to provide

students with many opportunities to

read comprehensible texts, teachers can

preview text-specific vocabulary with

students before learners start to read. In 

addition, they can explicitly teach highfrequency vocabulary.

Syntactic Proficiency. Studies also show

that students who understand the structures of English are better able to understand the underlying meaning of written

texts. English language learners need to

learn about the relationship between

form and meaning and to identify cues

that signal that connection (for example,

the use of the -ed to form an adjective, as

in “a parked car”). This implies that

teachers need to integrate grammar instruction with reading instruction and to

use what students read as a context to examine and learn about grammatical

structures. As students get better at syntactic processing, more mental space is

freed up for understanding the larger

meaning of a reading passage.

Phonological processing. Research shows

that explicitly teaching the letter-sound

correspondences in the English writing

system through phonics instruction can

improve English language reading ability.

Teachers can use matching letters to

sounds; matching morphemes (units that

signal meaning, such as past tense markers), meanings and pronunciation; oral

reading and choral reading to improve

phonological processing.

Schema Activation. An important part of

reading comprehension involves “reading

between the lines” or using our background knowledge of the world to fill in

what is not stated explicitly in a text. To

help learners to build schema, teachers

can provide background knowledge on a

topic before beginning to read by selecting texts that build on ideas and concepts

students are already familiar with. For unfamiliar themes they can use visual aides

and other kinds of pre-reading activities

such as having students brainstorm ideas

about a topic and compare practices in

their home countries and in the U.S. ●

For more information, see: Burt, M.; Peyton, J.K.; Adams, R. (2003) Reading and

Adult English Language Learners: A Review of the Research. Washington, DC:

The Center for Applied Linguistics.

Copies of this publication can be requested for free from the Center for Applied Linguistics:

http://www.cal.org/ncle

Telephone: 202-362-0700

Learning to Read in English

Learning to read is challenging for

any adult, but especially so for adults

who are also learning how to speak

English. Unfortunately, very little 

research has been undertaken with

this population of learners. This year

the National Center for ESL Literacy

Education (NCLE) completed a 

thorough review of what research 

has been undertaken with adult

learners. In addition, they examined

second language reading research 

undertaken with K-12 learners and

provided key findings that are useful

to practitioners working with adults.

(Burt, Peyton & Adams, 2003).

This article contains a summary 

of their findings.

by Marilyn Gillespie
Fall 2003 HOTtopics 7

P R E P A R A T

I

O

N

P L A N N I

N

G

C

A

R

R Y

I

N G

O U T

T H E P L A N

R E F L E C T I O N

The EFF

Teaching/Learning

Cycle

STEP 1. Determine 

individual learner’s 

goals and purposes 

and identify the 

Standards that will help 

him/her achieve them.

Identify student’s prior 

knowledge about these 

goals and Standards.

STEP 2. In a group identify 

a shared interest, purpose, 

or goal and determine the

group’s prior knowledge of 

this topic. Identify the 

Standard that will help the 

group address this shared 

goal. Make clear the 

connection between the 

class focus and individual 

needs.

STEP 3. Design a learning 

activity to address the real-life 

concerns of the learners.

STEP 4. Develop a plan 

to capture evidence and 

report learning.

STEP 5. Carry out 

the learning activity.

STEP 6. Observe and 

document evidence of 

performance of the 

Standard.

STEP 7. Evaluate and reflect

on how what was learned 

is transferable to real-life 

situations.

STEP 8. Determine next 

steps to help learners meet 

their goals.

 

(Return to Step 1 and/or 2.)

• Work with learners 

to continually revisit

and revise their goals.

• Engage learners,

throughout, in 

identifying and 

applying their prior 

experience and

knowledge to their

learning.

• Build in opportunities

throughout the activity

for learners to reflect

on and monitor 

their own developing

knowledge, skills, and

learning strategies.

• Make sure throughout

that learners clearly

understand what they

are learning and why.

• Adjust the learning 

activity to reflect

emerging goals and 

learning needs.

ON-GOING PRACTICES

The new online EFF Teaching/Learning Toolkit provides practitioners with resources 

to use the EFF Teaching/Learning Cycle in adult education settings.

Examples I Tools I Steps I Standards I Support I Home

Teaching/Learning Toolkit 

http://cls.coe.utk.edu/efftlc
8 HOTtopics Fall 2003

B

elow is an illustration of how Cheryl Williams and Patricia Murchison, two teachers who participated in the

EFF Reading Project, used the EFF Teaching/Learning

Cycle. Cheryl and Patricia teach in an Even Start Family

Literacy Program in a large early childhood development center

in Norfolk, Virginia. One day they heard a heated discussion

among the parents they teach about junk food and healthy

snacks for their children. Cheryl and Patricia recognized an opportunity to help these parents learn more about healthy snacks

while improving their reading comprehension. The table below

describes how they used the EFF Teaching/Learning Cycle to

plan and carry out this learning activity focused on improving

reading comprehension in order to learn more about improving

their children's eating habits. ●

Using the EFF Teaching and Learning Cycle

to Plan Reading Instruction

Cycle Steps Step-by-Step Activities

1. Determine individual learner’s

goals and purposes and identify

the Standards that will help

him/her achieve them.

Identify student’s prior 

knowledge about these goals

and Standards.

2. In a group, identify a shared 

interest, purpose or goal and 

determine the group’s prior 

knowledge of this topic. 

Identify the Standard that will

help the group address this

shared goal. Make clear the 

connection between the class

focus and individuals’ needs.

3. Design a learning activity to 

address the real-life concerns 

of the learner(s).

Individual learners in the program identified their primary goals as:

• passing the GED Exams

• improving reading comprehension to understand work-related materials and 

information they receive from community agencies.

All students identified the EFF Standard: Read With Understanding as a standard 

that would help them achieve these goals and self-assessed their ability to use 

the standard during intake. Students also took the TABE, and Cheryl reviewed the 

diagnostic information provided by the test. She also administered Independent 

Reading Inventories to some students to gain insight into the knowledge, skills, 

and strategies they were using. 

Cheryl led the class in discussing an issue they had with the snacks, which they and

other parents were bringing in for the children at the Center. Students decided that their

concern was reflected on the Parent/Family Member Role Map in the Broad Area of 

Responsibility: Meet Family Needs and Responsibilities. They wanted to find out how 

to make healthy snacks and to share this information with other parents. They knew that

some of the material they found on this topic would be difficult to read, and they wanted

to learn reading strategies that would enable them to build their skills so they could 

understand and learn from this more difficult material.

The class decided to focus on the Standard Read With Understanding so that they could

make progress on their larger goals as well.

Cheryl’s goal was to bring in a variety of reading materials at their instructional level, 

but text that would challenge them, as well. She was prepared to select from the EBRI

(Evidence-Based Reading Instruction) strategies to accomplish this goal.

Students determined that they would read and discuss what was involved in making

healthy snacks and getting children to eat them and then share this information with 

the other parents by making and putting up posters in the Center. Cheryl used the 

components of the standard RWU as a guide to planning instruction and then guided 

the students in:

• formulating questions as a way of determining their purpose for reading

• selecting reading materials: pamphlets, magazines, newspapers, food labels, books,

and internet information

• developing the knowledge, skills, and strategies in word analysis, fluency, vocabulary,

and comprehension processes to support the components of the RWU standard

• reflecting on their strategy use.
Fall 2003 HOTtopics 9

Cycle Steps Step-by-Step Activities

4. Develop a plan to capture 

evidence and report learning.

5. Carry out the learning activity.

6. Observe and document evidence 

of performance of the Standard. 

7. Evaluate and reflect on how 

what was learned is transferable 

to real-life situations.

8. Determine next steps to help 

learners meet their goals. 

(Return to Step 1 and/or 2)

Cheryl planned to include opportunities for students to:

• Read aloud to practice and assess fluency

• Complete the Read With Understanding Diary to develop their metacognitive 

awareness of their own reading and to give her insight into strategies that were 

and were not working for them 

• Show their understanding of the content in the posters they created.

Cheryl engaged students in a KWRL activity (see below) as a way for students to 

generate questions about the topic, and then students used these questions to 

determine their purposes for reading texts. She set aside a portion of each class to 

engage students in strategy lessons related to Read With Understanding. The focus of

these strategy lessons was determined from her observations of students’ progress.

Lessons included skimming, using text features to locate information, and identifying

main idea and details. Students then used (and, thus, practiced) these strategies in small

groups as they read their self-selected articles. Cheryl also regularly led a lesson called

“Unlocking Words” to support students in building word-level strategies. 

Cheryl led the class in filling out their RWU Diaries and provided opportunities for 

completing the Diary on their own. She reviewed the Diaries, noting strengths and gaps

in how students were performing Read With Understanding. These more structured 

assessments of student reading were supported by her own informal observations and

note-taking. She used these assessments to inform her daily lessons. She also realized

that students seemed to use the same strategies again and again, and she decided to 

introduce new strategies during the next T/L cycle.

Students completed a written reflection at the end of each day and at the end of the

cycle. During these reflections, they noted material they had read, evaluated its difficulty

(for them), and wrote about changes they were noting in their reading. They also 

reflected on how they might use the reading strategies they were learning in other 

situations. Most students found connections with their work-related goals, and others

described how these strategies would help them when they took the GED tests. Cheryl

followed up with class discussions about these potential applications. 

Students noted that they tended to resort to re-reading when their comprehension

breaks down and wondered what else they could do. As they discussed developing

a new shared priority, what effective discipline looks like, they wanted to continue to 

explore other “fix-up” strategies.

What resources How will I show

What do I know? What do I want to know? are available? what I have learned?

Healthy snacks help 

children grow.

Healthy snacks give 

them healthy teeth.

Healthy snacks give 

them healthy skin.

Some healthy snacks are:

• Cheese/crackers

• Raw vegetables

• Fruits

Why should our kids eat healthy snacks?

Effects of healthy snacks?

How often? How much?

What are healthy snacks?

What are unhealthy snacks?

How can I encourage kids to eat healthy 

snacks?

What are the risks of not giving kids

healthy snacks?

Nutrition books

Parenting

books/magazines

WIC

Pamphlets

Internet

Food labels

School child 

nutritionist

Snack chart

Memo – Providing 

healthy snacks

Newsletter

Workshop

Bulletin Board

Posters

K-W-R-L Shared Priority: Providing healthy snacks for children
10 HOTtopics Fall 2003

READ WITH UNDERSTANDING DIARY

TEXT: ____________________________________________________________________________ DATE: _________________________________ 

NAME: ___________________________________________________________________________

Read With Understanding What did you do? How did you do it?

• Determine the reading purpose.

• Select reading strategies 

appropriate to the purpose.

• Check comprehension and 

adjust reading strategies.

• Analyze the information and 

reflect on its underlying 

meaning.

• Integrate it with prior 

knowledge to address 

reading purpose.

The RWU Diary:

A Tool for Reflection and Assessment

During the EFF Reading Project, we developed two important tools for reading and

reflection and assessment: The

Read with Understanding Diary and The

Read with Understanding Guide. We were

looking for a way to assess use of the standard during actual reading, and we

wanted something that could be used at

any reading level by either teachers or students. Of more importance, we wanted a

tool that would demonstrate the power of

the Read With Understanding Standard.

Teachers may use the diary to take

notes as they observe students reading.

They can then ask questions as a way of

getting more specific information about

students’ reading abilities and strategies.

Informal conferences such as these provide forums for the question/answer/assessment process. For example, imagine

that a student has read an article of specific interest to her:

• The teacher asks, “Why did you decide

to read this section?” The teacher is

able to gain insights into the student’s

purpose for reading.

• The teacher asks “Where have you read

something new? Could you read that

section to me?” The teacher notes fluency and the strategies the student uses

to figure out unknown or difficult

words.

• The teacher asks “Did anything you

read give you trouble? Where did that

happen? What gave you the difficulty?

What did you do?” The teacher is able

to gain information about how well

students monitor comprehension and

adjust reading strategies.

Over time, these informal conferences

can help the teacher and student build a

picture of the banks of strategies students

are drawing from to Read With Understanding and then set new goals for reading improvement.

Teachers and students can use the

RWU Diary/Guide in a number of other

ways as well:

• The teacher can “prompt” strategy use

by asking questions from the Guide.

• The students can refer to the Guide on

their own when their comprehension

breaks down.

• If the student has been working to develop a particular reading strategy, the

teacher might suggest that he/she read a

selection incorporating the strategy and

use the Diary to record the experience.

• Students might use the Diary on their

own, as they reflect on their use of components as they develop metacognitive

awareness.

• Copies of completed diaries can be kept

in student portfolios. Teacher and student can review them periodically to

track strategy use and to see what kinds

of insights the student is gaining into

his/her reading. ●
Fall 2003 HOTtopics 11

➧ What is your general purpose in reading this text?

➧ What are some specific things you want to get out of this reading?

TRY: Read the title and look at the pictures. What do you notice about

the way the text looks? Are there headings? Turn the headings into

questions. What are the questions you think this text will answer?

➧ Should you read this text fast or slowly? 

➧ How often will you stop to check your understanding? 

TRY: Every heading/page/chapter

➧ How will you keep up with the answers to your questions?

TRY: Make a chart

➧ How often will you make new predictions/questions?

TRY: Every heading/page/chapter

➧ What will you do if you come to word you don’t know?

TRY: Tips for Tackling Long Words

➧ Tune in to whether or not you are understanding as you read.

TRY: Stop every paragraph or page and:

• Cover the text and tell yourself what you read. 

• Answer any questions you wrote at the beginning.

• Think of new questions for the next section.

➧ Use different strategies when you get stuck:

TRY: Reread, break down words you don’t know, use context clues,

use the glossary or margin notes, look at pictures/charts on the page.

➧ Can you summarize the main ideas from the readings?

➧ Can you make sense of the author’s writing?

TRY: Making a graphic organizer or text map to “see” the information 

in a different form.

➧ Did you meet your general purpose? Your specific purpose? 

How do you know?

TRY: Writing or telling someone what you learned or the answer to your

pre-reading questions.

READ WITH UNDERSTANDING GUIDE

TEXT: ____________________________________________________________________________ DATE: _________________________________ 

NAME: ___________________________________________________________________________

Read With Understanding What did you do? How did you do it?

• Determine the reading 

purpose.

• Select reading strategies 

appropriate to the purpose.

• Check comprehension and 

adjust reading strategies.

• Analyze the information and 

reflect on its underlying 

meaning.

• Integrate it with prior 

knowledge to address 

reading purpose.
12 HOTtopics Fall 2003

This assessment scenario is almost a reality. It is based

on the experience of a teacher who piloted Level 2

Read With Understanding assessment tasks during the

spring of 2003, one final step in the preparation of EFF

Read With Understanding Assessment Tasks. The process and

tools for using EFF reading performance tasks will be fully described in the EFF Read With Understanding Accountability Assessment Handbook, in production. The Guide will include:

• the full RWU Performance Continuum, a summary developmental description of six levels of performance on the 

Standard;

• “Use Scenarios,” narrative descriptions of the implementation

and use of the assessment tasks in a variety of state administrative, program, and classroom settings;

• sample model assessment tasks for the six EFF RWU Levels,

with examples of learner performance;

• guidelines for developing instructionally-embedded assessments;

• guidelines for administering, scoring and reporting tasks for

accountability purposes; and 

• guidelines for training scorers.

The classroom scenarios will be similar to the one given

above, giving more detail about the manner in which instructionally-embedded assessment tasks and accountability assessment tasks may be selected, administered, scored and reported

to meet the particular needs of the learner and the instructional

context.

The Guide will be available in early 2004 for use by state and

program administrators. For more information, contact the EFF

Assessment Consortium Co-Directors:

Regie Stites, Technical Director, regie.stites@sri.com or 

Brenda Bell, Field Research Director, bsbell@utk.edu. ●

RWU Assessment Prototype

Several beginning ESL students in Mary’s mixed

level class in the local correctional facility are

preparing for an end-of-instructional-cycle 

assessment that will let them know if they are

ready to move to a more advanced reading level.

For the past four weeks, they have focused on

reading about family and community relationships, using material drawn from the newspaper

and from students’ family stories. Read with

Understanding Level 2 (on page 13) and the

EFF Teaching/Learning Cycle are the guides

that Mary has used in developing her teaching

plans. She developed learning activities and 

instruction that included multiple opportunities

for students to assess their reading skills.

These ‘instructionally-embedded’ assessment 

activities mirror the type of performance 

assessment that students will take for 

accountability purposes. Students are used to

documenting the evidence of their reading 

performance: they are comfortable using a tape

recorder for oral reading; they are used to being

observed as they use the reading strategies they

have learned; and are familiar with using

rubrics to rate their performance.

From the online EFF assessment task collection,

Mary selects the most appropriate Level 2 Read

With Understanding performance assessment

for her students. She chooses an assessment task

that can be administered to a small group of

students, with individual oral reading. The task

calls for students to read two simplified utility

bills (one for telephone services and one for 

electricity), write simple one or two word 

responses to short questions, and respond 

rally to questions about the utility bills.

She administers the task to her students 

and scores their reading performance using a

scoring rubric that accompanies the assessment.

Because she periodically checks her scoring with

another trained scorer and because she has kept

up to date with training in scoring assessments,

Mary is confident that her scores of ‘proficient’

for two students and ‘advanced’ for the third 

are valid and reliable.

She administers two more assessment tasks to

these students. On the basis of the scores from

the three tasks, all three students exit Level 2

and move to Level 3.

A Scenario
Fall 2003 HOTtopics 13

1. Read With Understanding

• Determine the reading purpose.

• Select reading strategies appropriate to the purpose.

• Monitor comprehension and adjust reading strategies.

• Analyze the information and reflect on its underlying meaning. 

• Integrate it with prior knowledge to address reading purpose.

2. Use Key Knowledge, Skills, and Strategies

• Decode and recognize everyday, simple words in short, simple text by breaking words into parts, 

tapping out/sounding out syllables, applying pronunciation rules, using picture aids, and recalling 

oral vocabulary and sight words;

• Demonstrate familiarity with simple, everyday content knowledge and vocabulary; 

• Monitor and enhance comprehension (using various strategies such as rereading, restating, copying 

and rephrasing text, making a list of new words, or using a simplified dictionary);

• Recall prior knowledge to assist in selecting texts and in understanding the information they contain.

3. Show Fluency, Independence, and Ability to Perform in a Range of Settings

• Read and comprehend words in small blocks of simple text slowly but easily and with few errors.

• Independently accomplish simple, well-defined, and structured reading activities in a range of comfortable 

and familiar settings.

4. Accomplish a Variety of Reading Purposes

• Accomplish a variety of goals, such as:

✔ Reading aloud a picture book with very simple text to a young child. 

✔ Reading a short narrative about a community concerns in order to identify and think about one’s 

own community issues. 

✔ Reading about entry-level job duties in order to decide whether or not to apply.

✔ Reading simple greeting cards to choose an appropriate card for a friend.

✔ Reading a simple chart about job benefits to figure out if hospitalization is covered.

✔ Reading utility bills in order to understand how and when to pay them. 

✔ Reading short narratives about immigrant experiences to reflect on and learn about 

one’s own heritage.

✔ Reading the newspaper weather forecast to decide on appropriate clothes for a weekend trip. 

EFF RWU LEVEL 2

At Level 2 Adults Are Able To:
14 HOTtopics Fall 2003

Teaching with the EFF Standard RWU includes creating a real world context for instruction by identifying shared priorities that provide a purpose for

practicing reading, constructing meaningful learning activities that address that purpose, and identifying appropriate texts that support the purpose and student goals.

These texts must also provide opportunities for students to

use the Four Reading Elements: alphabetics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. Participants in the FACE cohort of

the EFF Reading Project drew on cultural, familial, and personal interests and goals as the contexts for reading instruction in the adult education component of the program. A

consistent goal for all parents in FACE programs is to support

their children’s literacy development. The purposes described

here focus on bringing reading activities and strategies into

other components of their family literacy programs as well.

Family and Child Education (FACE) Programs 

Participate With Purpose in the RWU Project

FACE Program Purpose for Reading Learning Activities Selected Text Instruction in RWU

Blackwater 

Community School 

Gila River Reservation

Coolidge, Arizona

Chi Chi’l Tah/Jones 

Community School

Navajo Nation

Vanderwagon, 

New Mexico

Crownpoint 

Community School

Navajo Nation

Crownpoint, 

New Mexico

• To access information

about the history of 

Gila River Indian 

Reservation 

• To understand loss of

the O’Otham Language

as a result of river 

diversion and relocation

of tribes

• To discover ways to 

reclaim the language

and culture and share

these with children

• To access information

about topics of interest

related to television

programming

• To make decisions 

related to children and

adult television viewing

• To identify developmentally appropriate

social/emotional growth

in children

• To develop vocabulary

for labeling and 

discussing feelings

• To become more 

understanding of self,

of other adults, and of

children

• To support young 

children in their literacy

development

• Accessed internet articles 

describing desert life and 

history of Gila River

• Listened to elders tell 

stories

• Read recipes and created

Rebus Charts for children in

English and O’Otham

• Created Desert Scrapbooks

and translated into

O’Otham

• Created books for children

• Generated questions about

the cartoon, Sponge Bob

• Read articles to find 

answers about origination

and opinions of program

• Developed methods to 

guide children’s viewing of

TV programs

• Discovered and named 

different feelings 

experienced by characters

in short stories and short

biographies 

• Identified and named their

own feelings

• Developed communication

strategies to discuss 

positive and negative 

feelings

• Discussed how to help 

children to name their own

feelings

• A Pima 

Remembers by

George Webb

• Pima Indian 

Legends by 

Anna Moore

Shaw

• Variety of 

internet articles

• Variety of 

children’s 

literature

• Internet articles

• TV Guide

• Variety of 

children’s 

literature

• Short stories

• Short 

biographies

• Community 

resources

• Practiced note taking and 

highlighting main ideas

• Rewrote passages in their 

own words 

• Summarized passages to

build comprehension 

• Created vocabulary charts of

O’Otham and English terms

• Engaged in repeated readings

of text to children 

• Analyzed story structure 

evident in cartoons and 

children’s books

• Identified character traits 

and motivations

• Compared and contrasted 

different points of view 

• Created “Word Banks” to

study vocabulary and created

a “Word Wall”

• Learned to write definitions,

using the dictionary as guide 

• Made “Flash Cards” to use 

in dyads.

• Teacher read aloud daily 

to model fluency

• Participated in dialogic 

reading with children to 

monitor comprehension

• Developed concept maps to

categorize types of feelings

and associated terms 

• Created a “Word Wall” of 

relevant vocabulary
Fall 2003 HOTtopics 15

FACE Program Purpose for Reading Learning Activities Selected Text Instruction in RWU

Little Singer 

Community School

Navajo Nation

Winslow, Arizona

Rough Rock 

Community School

Navajo Nation

Chinle, Arizona

• To access information

about Navajo history

• To learn about Navajo

rights

• To discover how to take

action related to rights

• To access information

about health issues

prevalent among these

and other families in the

community: diabetes,

depression, and 

alcoholism

• To learn how to take

action in order to Walk

in Beauty

• Participated in small and

large reading groups

• Wrote daily reflection and

response pages related to

history

• Created art works based on

responses to the readings

• Listed and graphed major

diseases that affect the

families in the program

• Selected focus (diabetes)

and made a KWRL chart 

to guide their reading

• Small groups read and 

reported to large group

• Developed Power Point

presentations to share

• Developed Four Directions

Wheel with information on

disease and diet

• Dinetah: An 

Early History of

the Navaho 

People by

Lawrence 

Sundeberg

• Chapters and 

articles about

Manueliot,

Navajo leader

• Treaties

• Biographies

• A Journey to

Wellness

• Navajo 

Curriculum:

Walking Across

the Navajo 

Nation

• Practiced using text features

common to history texts: 

timelines, photo captions, 

bold print 

• Explored underlining as a 

strategy for locating important 

information

• Participated in daily discussion

related to the reading and its

connection to their reading 

purposes.

• Read to find answers to 

self-posed questions on 

KWRL chart

• Used charts and graphic 

organizers to summarize 

information gained from 

reading in order to share 

with others

• Adapted a commercial phonics

program to correspond with

the Navajo alphabet

• Developed a culturally 

appropriate alphabetics 

system

Adult students in Wyndham, Maine,

decided to give a gift to a district superintendent who was leaving the school system. Knowing that she liked to listen to

books-on-tape in the car, the class created

an audiotape of each class member reading a special text. Each student selected a

favorite poem, short narrative, or children’s book and developed fluency

through Read-Aloud practice sessions.

When they were satisfied with their oral

reading, they made a tape recording and

presented it to the superintendent.

These students also participated in

weekly book discussion clubs. Each student assumed a role—selector, questioner,

summarizer, life connector, or vocabulary

enricher—and came to the group prepared to participate in a rich discussion of

the selected text.

Parents in the Southwest Corner

Even Start Program in Pennsylvania

used graphic organizers to analyze book

chapters. The herringbone organizer was

a favorite for separating main ideas from

detail.

The Pennsylvania group adapted the

RWU Diary by rewriting the Standard in

simple language. Each component was

posted on a separate sheet of chart

paper. As students learned new strategies, they were noted on the appropriate

charts. After each in-class reading experience, students wrote in their diaries

and recorded use of newly learned

strategies.

Parents in the Susanna Wesley Family Learning Center in Missouri read

to their children during Parents and Children Together Time. They developed fluency by reading children’s books aloud in

practice sessions with other adult students, who provided feedback. Then, they

shared the books with their children.

Parents in the Manchester Literacy

Center in Delaware engaged in “concept sorts,” dividing words related to their

career study into categories. Students

then shared with each other the reasons

for their decision-making, making clear

the connections they saw between the

various terms.

A student in Easton, Pennsylvania,

developed a pamphlet about safety in the

home by summarizing material she had

been reading. She worked with her

teacher to plan the “safety” book because

of an incident in which her son pulled a

tablecloth off a table on which was a

lighted candle. She started thinking

about the need for safety, talked with her

teacher about it, and then went to the library to research the topic. Her pamphlet was added to the rich collection of

texts available for student use in the

classroom. ●

Using Purposeful Instruction to Build Key Knowledge, Skills, and Strategies: 

Examples From Other Programs
16 HOTtopics Fall 2003

■ The Equipped for the Future website is a LINCS Special Collection. Visit this site to

learn more about EFF, the NIFL’s standards-based system reform initiative. The EFF website will provide you with information on such topics as: the history of EFF, the Content

Framework and Standards, EFF publications, EFF resources, and EFF training events.

Site address: www.nifl.gov/lincs/collections/eff

■ The Equipped for the Future Online Discussion features targeted discussion about

the EFF initiative. Subscribe to the discussion, or read the archived messages for this or

previous years. This online forum is the logical place to turn for EFF information and resources, and to join in the ongoing conversation about EFF by people using EFF.

Site address: www.nifl.gov/lincs.discussions/nifl4eff/equipped_for_future

You can also subscribe to the list by sending an e-mail message to: listproc@literacy.nifl.gov

(Leave the subject line blank. In the body of the message type: Subscribe NIFL-4EFF your

first name your last name)

■ Equipped for the Future publications may be ordered from the ED Pubs Clearinghouse. EFF publications are free of charge, unless otherwise noted. Online versions of the

documents can be accessed directly, including the EFF Content Standards, the EFF Voice

newsletter, the EFF Assessment Report, and the EFF Evaluation Report. For the complete

list of EFF publications and products, go to:

www.nifl.gov/lincs/collections/eff/eff_publications

■ The Partnership for Reading website is another rich resource for information on

reading instruction. Research-Based Principles for Adult Basic Education Reading Instruction cited in Amy Trawick’s article can be downloaded at:

http://www.nifl.gov/partnershipforreading/publications/html/adult_ed/adult_ed_1.html

The web version, Adult Education Reading Instruction Principles and Practices has additional information on instructional practices and is found at:

http://www.nifl.gov/partnershipforreading/adult_reading/adult_reading.html

EFF Hot Topics (Highlights on 

Teaching Topics) is a publication 

of the EFF Center for Training and 

Technical Assistance. Each issue 

concentrates on a specific topic, 

highlighting examples of actual 

practice and offering strategies and

tools for using EFF in the classroom. 

Please direct all correspondence 

including editorial comments to:

Beth Bingman

Publications Coordinator

EFF Center for Training and 

Technical Assistance

Center for Literacy Studies

600 Henley St, Suite 312

Knoxville, TN 37996

or Bingman@utk.edu

This issue was edited by

Meta Potts, National EFF Facilitator/

Consultant

Editorial team:

Amy Trawick, National EFF Facilitator;

Coordinator, EFF Reading Project

Mary Dunn Siedow, National EFF 

Facilitator; Member of EFF Reading

Project Team

Equipped for the Future is an initiative

of the National Institute for Literacy.

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TEL 202-233-2025

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