Abstract
Multiple stakeholders in literacy clinics around the world were affected by pivoting from face-to-face or online to totally remote platforms during the COVID-19 pandemic. This chapter, after providing some contextual descriptions and theoretical framing, explores findings from two literacy clinics in the United States, one in a rural Midwest area and the other in an urban region along the Eastern Seaboard. The implications from these two sites are representative of other literacy clinics across North America and elsewhere as they made necessary adaptations because of COVID-19.
TopIntroduction
Literacy clinics historically and currently are sites designed for the professional development of veteran teachers or pre-service tutors. They are required clinical practica, which are significant components of pre-service education of K-12 teachers or a graduate degree as a reading specialist. The teachers (or tutors--if they are pre-service) provide assessments of young students, specifically what strengths and needs they have in word identification, fluent reading, many aspects of comprehension, and written composition. Furthermore, they design appropriate learning environments, and deliver literacy instruction that is tailored for their assigned students based on their assessed needs (Dozier & Deeney, 2013; Laster, 2020a). Across many countries, literacy clinics assist young students to advance their reading and writing within the context of their families (Laster, 1999; Dozier et al., 2019; Dozier & Smit, 2013). Parents or caregivers are often directly involved in extending the instruction.
Since literacy clinics were established in 1921, they have been face-to-face (Laster, 2013), often located at universities. During the last 10 years, some colleges of education, because of physical space limitations, have moved their literacy clinics to online platforms in which the teacher and the student are at one site (usually a school) and the supervisor is located elsewhere (Vokatis, 2017).
Whether face-to-face or online, literacy clinics have been spaces for research and careful examination of literacy processes, student engagement, and teacher learning, as well as other topics (Laster et al., 2016; Laster, et al., 2018; Laster et al., 2021; Ryan, 2013; Vasinda, et al., 2015). Traditionally, literacy clinics have included multiple innovative practices for assessment, instruction, coaching, consultation, and family literacy connections (McAndrews & Msengi, 2013; Pletcher et al., 2019). Typically, professional learning includes autonomous decision-making by the teachers as they choose multiple assessments to determine the child’s strengths (i.e., reading comprehension, writing composition, interest, culture, attitude) and areas needed for literacy improvement. Also, teachers are empowered to design appropriate instruction. As teachers assess and provide instruction to students, they receive feedback from a supervisor. Teachers, as reflective practitioners, strive to gain strategic knowledge that enables them to explore, recognize, acknowledge, and make adaptations to their instruction (Shanahan et al., 2013). Furthermore, the graduate students are provided opportunities to peer coach and consult with each other on the best literacy strategies based on each student’s needs. This mirrors the role of literacy coach (Evensen & Mosenthal, 1999). Reciprocal and recursive learning by teachers and by students has been a hallmark of literacy clinics with emphasis on culturally responsive pedagogy that recognizes the importance of social justice (Love, 2019). Typically, in literacy clinics, teachers help to advance literacy learning for all students, inclusive of individuals’ cultures and identities (Dozier et al., 2019; Laster et al., 2021).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Writing Assessment: Evaluation of students’ processes and products of expository, narrative, persuasive, or creative writing, including ideas, organization, voice, word choice, and style.
Literacy Clinics: A clinical practicum for aspiring teachers or aspiring reading specialists that provides literacy assessment and instruction to students in grades K-12.
Teachers: Clinicians who advancing their professional skills as they support the literacy learning of K-12 students in literacy clinics.
Reading Instruction: Teaching how to decode and comprehend written language, whether in texts, or in digital spaces. In literacy clinic, instructional practices are designed and adapted to meet the specific strengths and needs of learners.
Supervisors: Instructors, professors, or teacher educators who use research to teach future reading specialists by collecting observational data, reviewing lesson plans and case reports, providing feedback, and designing and managing literacy clinics.
Digital Divide: The gap between groups of people who have or do not have communication technologies needed in the 21 st century and the skills to effectively use them.
Writing Instruction: Teaching how to use logical ideas and organization, consistent word choice, voice, sentence fluency, and conventions to compose or arrange ideas that creates a comprehensible message.
Reading Assessment: Selected formal and informal tests or tools used to evaluate a learner’s vocabulary development, phonological awareness, phonics, word identification, emergent text concepts, oral reading fluency, and many aspects of narrative and expository text comprehension.
Digital Literacies: The ability to search for, evaluate, utilize, share, and create content using information technologies.