DOCUMENT RESUME ED 432 778 CS 216 825 AUTHOR Medwell, Jane; Wray, David; Poulson, Louise; Fox, Richard TITLE Effective Teachers of Literacy. PUB DATE 1998-05-00 NOTE 89p. PUB TYPE Reports Research (143) EDRS PRICE MF01/PC04 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Beginning Teachers; Elementary Secondary Education; *Foreign Countries; *Literacy; Professional Development; *Reading Writing Relationship; Student Needs; *Teacher Attitudes; Teacher Education; *Teacher Effectiveness; *Teacher Role IDENTIFIERS Teaching Research ABSTRACT A study was commissioned to help the Teacher Training Agency and teachers in England to understand more clearly how effective teachers help children to become literate. Research aims were to: identify the key factors of what effective teachers know, understand, and do that enables them to put effective literacy teaching into practice; identify the strategies that would enable those factors to be more widely applied; examine aspects of continuing professional development that contribute to the development of effective teachers of literacy; and examine what aspects of their initial teacher training and induction contribute to developing expertise in novice teachers of literacy. A questionnaire surveyed the qualifications, experience, reported beliefs, practices and preferences in the teaching of literacy of a group of 228 teachers identified as effective literacy teachers. Observations of literacy lessons and interviews were conducted with 26 of these teachers, and a "quiz" tested teachers' literacy knowledge. Findings suggest that effective teachers of literacy: believe it is important to make it explicit that the purpose of teaching literacy is enabling their pupils to create meaning using text; centered their teaching around "shared texts"; teach aspects of reading/writing such as decoding and spelling in a systematic, structured way; emphasize to their pupils the functions of what they were learning in literacy; have developed strong and coherent personal philosophies about the teaching of literacy; have well-developed systems for monitoring children's progress and needs in literacy; and have had considerable experience of in-service activities in literacy. (Contains extensive data tables and 25 references.) (MCA) ******************************************************************************** * Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made * * from the original document. * ********************************************************************************