Rate Your Classroom's Literacy Environment
 From the January 2002 Education newsletter.
Are you charged with improving children's literacy skills in preschool to grade 3? Study your classroom's learning environment — research shows a clear relationship between children's language and literacy development and the opportunities available in high-quality classrooms. (For details, click here.)
There's now an inexpensive, field-tested set of observational tools you can use to assess how well your classroom supports language and literacy development: the Early Language Classroom Observation (ELLCO) Toolkit, developed by Miriam W. Smith, Ed.D., and David K. Dickinson, Ed.D., and colleagues at the Education Development Center in Newton, MA.
ELLCO's three parts (the Literacy Environment Checklist, the Classroom Observation and Teacher Interview, and the Literacy Activities Rating Scale) each yield valuable baseline data principals and program administrators can use to track progress over time and plan school improvement. The Classroom Observation and Teacher Interview — the heart of ELLCO — works like this:
- The Classroom Observation rates classroom quality on 14 items covering two areas: 1) general classroom environment (organization, contents, technology, classroom climate and management) and language, literacy, and curriculum (reading and writing instruction, oral language use, cultural sensitivity, assessment approaches).
- Following the observation, observers conduct an informal 10-minute Teacher Interview (prompts provided) to clarify aspects of the classroom and activities and supplement the observation.
- The 30-40 minute observation should occur during a block when teachers and students engage in literacy activities. Observers should focus on interaction among students as well as with the teacher to capture an accurate picture of the environment.
- The observation should be completed independently by two or three observers per classroom. Once the observers rate each of the 14 items according to ELLCO's rubrics and scoring sheet, they should compare their ratings to ensure consistency. (Training for observers is strongly recommended. See the Brookes on Location professional development page for details on arranging a workshop.)
For details on implementing the complete ELLCO toolkit, check out the ELLCO book page.
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