IMPROVING LITERACY ACHIEVEMENT THROUGH A CONSTRUCTIVIST APPROACH - THE KEEP DEMONSTRATION CLASSROOM PROJECT

In this article we describe the whole-literacy curriculum, a social co nstructivist approach to literacy instruction that encompasses 6 aspec ts of Literacy, writers' and readers' workshops, grade-level achieveme nt benchmarks, and portfolio assessment. The Demonstration Classroom P roject was designed to determine whether full implementation of this c urriculum could improve the achievement of Native Hawaiian students (n =281 in year 1,608 in year 2) in grades K-6. In the first year of the project, 13 teachers from 7 schools volunteered to participate in a pr ocess that involved monthly observations and goal-setting to improve t heir teaching. In the second year, 9 teachers from year 1 were joined by 20 additional teachers. Observations indicated that teachers entere d the project with considerable proficiency in organizing their classr ooms and giving students learning opportunities consistent with the wh ole-literacy curriculum. However, they required support to implement p ortfolio assessment and certain aspects of instruction, such as sharin g their writing with students. Full implementation of the whole-litera cy curriculum was related to substantial improvements in students' wri ting achievement (ownership of writing and writing process), with proj ect classes achieving higher than teachers' previous classes.