Literacy Teachers' Instructional Adaptations: A Review of the Literature, 1975–2014

• In Event: Critical Issues in Literacy Research 3

Abstract

Abstract
Adaptive teaching is considered an important aspect of literacy instruction. Teachers must adjust their teaching to modify their instruction to meet students’ linguistic, cultural, and instructional needs. While there is consensus that effective teachers are flexible and adaptive in their approach to literacy instruction, there is not consensus on the language literacy scholars use to describe this phenomenon. Diverse terminology surrounding an adaptive approach to literacy instruction impedes the field’s common understanding of ways to support a flexible and equitable approach to literacy instruction. Our research team completed a comprehensive literature review of teacher adaptability in literacy instruction. In this session, we describe the findings of this review and implications for research and practice.

Authors

• Melissa A. Gallagher, University of Louisiana at Lafayette

• Seth A. Parsons, George Mason University

• Roya Qualls Scales, Western Carolina University

• Margaret Vaughn, University of Idaho

• Allison Ward Parsons, George Mason University

• Alicia Bruyning Leggett, George Mason University

• Stephanie Grayson Davis, University of North Carolina - Greensboro