Improving literacy achievement through a constructivist approach: The KEEP Demonstration Classroom Project

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, grade-level 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.