Improving Literacy Achievement Through a Constructivist Approach: The KEEP Demonstration Classroom Project

Abstract

In this article we describe the whole-literacy curriculum, a social constructivist approach to literacy instruction that encompasses 6 aspects of literacy, writers' and readers' workshops, gradelevel achievement benchmarks, and portfolio assessment. The Demonstration Classroom Project was designed to determine whether full implementation of this curriculum 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 process that involved monthly observations and goal-setting to improve their teaching. In the second year, 9 teachers from year 1 were joined by 20 additional teachers. Observations indicated that teachers entered the project with considerable proficiency in organizing their classrooms and giving students learning opportunities consistent with the whole-literacy curriculum. However, they required support to implement portfolio assessment and certain aspects of instruction, such as sharing their writing with students. Full implementation of the whole-literacy curriculum was related to substantial improvements in students' writing achievement (ownership of writing and writing process), with project classes achieving higher than teachers' previous classes.