Effective Literacy Website #6: What Works Clearinghouse by Pearl Hamada

 

Image from: https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/FWW

    What Works Clearinghouse (WWC), https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/, is a website supported by the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) of the U.S. Department of Education. WWC is led by a group of experts reviewing research to determine high-quality education programs, products, practices, and policies. They believe that not all research is of equal quality and should be based on scientific evidence.

    Searching for evidence-based strategies online can be overwhelming. WWC provides a resource page for educators to access videos, guides, and articles that make it easier to make informative decisions to promote student learning, such as literacy. By clicking on the drop-down “Menu” button located at the top of the page, users can choose the following: Find & Use Evidence, Search Publications, and Handbooks & Other Resources. 

Under the “Find & Use Evidence” section, users may choose from sub-sections such as Educator’s Practice Guides and Resources for Educators. One of the practice guides can be downloaded, “Providing Reading Interventions for Students in Grades 4-9.” The article contains download links, a webinar video, and a brief description of the guide. Tabs at the top of the report are details, panels, and related resources. In the short description, each recommendation from the guide has an icon on the right-side panel. The icon tells the educator if a recommendation has “Strong Evidence” or “Moderate Evidence.” If labeled “Strong Evidence,” the recommendation has consistent positive student outcomes. If labeled “Moderate Evidence,” the recommendation may have positive student outcomes, but the evidence is limited, or other factors may affect student data. This practice guide states that a teacher should use a set of comprehension-building practices to help students make sense of the text on a routine basis. When the user clicks “Show More,” the section within the guide appears on the screen for more information. Studies and reviews of the practice guide can be found at the bottom of the screen. 

    In the “Resources for Educators,” the user can choose from Assisting Students with Reading in K-3, Increasing Reading Comprehension in K-3, Supporting K-3 in Reading and Foundations Skills, and Teaching K-5 Writing. In addition, WWC provides a Regional Educational Laboratory West (REL West) video to help teachers learn how to do an interactive read-aloud. The read-aloud demonstration can be done in a K-3 face-to-face or distant learning setting to increase reading comprehension. Teachers can watch, download, save the YouTube video in a playlist, and subscribe to the Institute of Education Sciences to search for more literacy-related topics. 

What Works Clearinghouse is an effective literacy website that makes it easier for educators to make informed decisions on “what works” in the classroom. As educators search for and update their current strategies or want to find a resource to model high-quality literacy instruction, WWC is a dependable U.S. Department of Education website to promote student success in reading and writing.