Improving Adult Literacy Instruction Options for Practice and Research (2012) / Chapter Skim
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2 Foundations of Reading and Writing
2 Foundations of Reading and Writing
Pages 24-69
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From page 24... ...
The findings are particularly robust for elementary school students and less developed for middle and high school students due to lack of attention in research to reading and writing development during these years. We also review a small body of research on cognitive aging that compares the reading and writing skills of younger and older adults.
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From page 25... ...
. The particular knowledge and skill that develop depend on the literacy practices engaged in, the supports provided for learning, and the demand and value attached to particular forms of literacy in communities and the broader society (Heath, 1983; Scribner and Cole, 1 Other documents have summarized research on the components of reading and writing and instructional practices to develop literacy skills.
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. Thus, as depicted in Figure 1-2, a complete understanding of reading and writing development includes in-depth knowledge of the learner (the learners' knowledge, skills, literacy practices, motivations, and neurocognitive processes)
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From page 27... ...
It is important, therefore, to offer reading and writing BOX 2-1 Literacy in a Digital Age Strong reading and writing skills underpin valued aspects of digital literacy in several areas: • Presentations of ideas Organizing a complex and compelling argument Adjusting the presentation to the audience Using multiple media and integrating them with text Translating among multiple documents Extended text n Summary n Graphics versus text n Responding to queries and critiques through revision and written follow-up • sing online resources to search for information and evaluating quality of U that information Using affordances, such as hyperlinks and search engines Making effective predictions of likely search results Coordinating overlapping ideas expressed in differing language Organizing bodies of information from multiple sources Evaluating the quality and warrants of accessed information • Using basic office software to generate texts and multimedia documents Writing documents: writing for others Taking notes: writing for oneself Preparing displays to support oral presentations SOURCES: Adapted from National Center on Education and the Economy (1997) ; Appendix B: Literacy in a Digital Age.
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From page 28... ...
These realities make it especially important to understand the social and cultural contexts of literacy and to offer instruction that develops literacy skills for meeting social, educational, and workplace demands as well as the learner's personal needs. The likelihood of transferring a newly learned skill to a new task depends on the similarity between the new task and tasks used for learning (National Research Council, 2005)
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Teacher beliefs can have a profound impact on the opportunities provided during instruction to develop literacy skills. For example, both Green (1983)
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Much of the research has focused on identifying the neurocircuits (brain pathways) associated with component processes in reading and writing at different stages of typical reading development, and differences in the progression of brain organization for these processes in atypically developing readers.
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knowledge of neurobiological processes needed for early identification of risk with an eye toward prevention of reading and writing difficulties. The same possibilities apply for writing instruction, although neurobiological research on writing is in the early stages.
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Further research is needed to clarify the forms of explicit instruction that effec tively develop component skills for adolescents and adults. • ombine explicit and systematic instruction with extended reading prac C tice to promote acquisition and transfer of component reading skills.
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A substantial body of evidence on children shows that effective reading instruction explicitly and systematically targets each component of reading skill that remains to be developed (National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, 2000a; Rayner et al., 2001)
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. Explicit and systematic phonics instruction to teach correspondences between letters and phonemes has been found to facilitate reading development for children of different ages, abilities, and socioeconomic circumstances (Foorman et al., 1998; McCardle, Chhabra, and Kapinus, 2008; Morris et al., 2010; National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, 2000a; Torgesen et al., 1999)
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(National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, 2000a)
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. For less skilled readers, explicit instruction, combined with discussion and elaboration activities that encourage using the words to be learned, can improve vocabulary and facilitate better reading comprehension (Curtis and Longo, 2001; Foorman et al., 2003; Klinger and Vaughn, 1999; Stahl and Fairbanks, 1986)
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As more text becomes available in electronic form, it also may be possible to develop more tools that provide text-embedded "just-in-time" vocabulary support that developing readers can call on when their reading is impeded by lack of word or lexical knowledge. Embedding vocabulary instruction in reading comprehension activities is another method of developing high-quality lexical representations (Perfetti, 1992, 2007)
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. A well-designed controlled evaluation with high school students with reading disabilities also failed to find support for repeated reading effects on reading comprehension (Wexler et al., 2010)
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Reading Comprehension Components and Processes Although they differ in detail, theories of reading comprehension share many assumptions about the cognitive processes involved (Cromley and Azevedo, 2007; Gernsbacher, Varner, and Faust, 1990; Graesser, Singer, and Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998; Trabasso, Secco, and van den Broek, 1984; van den Broek, Rapp, and Kendeou, 2005; Zwaan and Singer, 2003)
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influence how people read text and develop knowledge of text structures. Box 2-3 presents an example of one text-based model of reading comprehension.
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develop instruction that can be evaluated using rigorous experimental research designs. The report of the National Reading Panel (National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, 2000a)
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, supports the efficacy of strategy instruction models. Several core findings have emerged from the research on comprehension strategy instruction.
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. Adults who lack reading comprehension skills developed through years of accumulated experience with reading especially might benefit from explicit instruction to develop awareness of text components that often happens implicitly.
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demonstrated, for example, that focusing students' attention on the content of the text through the use of open-ended questions was more effective in developing comprehension than the same amount of time invested in strategy instruction. An important direction for research with adolescents and adults is to identify the best methods of integrating strategy instruction with the development of content knowledge, vocabulary, and other aspects of language competence for reading comprehension to meet the assessed needs of the learner.
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. In the last three decades, much more has become known about the components and processes of writing and effective writing instruction.
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As the figure shows, the writer manages and orchestrates the application of a variety of basic writing skills, specialized writing knowledge, writing strategies, and motivational processes when writing. The application of these skills and processes is interrelated and varies depending on the task and purpose of the writer.
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From page 47... ...
. A small body of evidence shows that efforts to increase developing and struggling writers' knowledge about writing, especially knowledge of text structure, improve the writing performance of school-age students (Fitzgerald and Markham, 1987; Fitzgerald and Teasley, 1986; Holliway and McCutchen, 2004)
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. Explicit teaching of strategies for planning and revising has a strong and positive effect on the writing of both developing and struggling writers (Graham and Perin, 2007b; Rogers and Graham, 2008)
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self-efficacy and affects intrinsic motivation for writing, further use of self-regulatory processes during writing, and attainment of writing skills and goals. Goals are important because they prompt marshaling the resources, effort, and persistence needed for proficient writing (Locke et al., 1981)
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This meta-analysis also shows that learners can benefit from the process approach to writing instruction (Graves, 1983) , although the approach produces smaller average effects than methods that involve systematic instruction of writing strategies (Graham and Perin, 2007a)
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. Some foundational writing skills need to be explicitly taught to the point of automaticity.
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. When these skills are not automatized, as is the case for many developing and struggling writers, cognitive resources are not available for other important aspects of writing, such as planning, evaluating, and revising (McCutchen, 2006)
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. Process approaches to writing, teaching sentence construction skills, and teaching text structure as part of a writing activity had a small-to-moderate impact on reading comprehension.
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. In typically developing readers, all three of these components (with subcortical mediating influences from the basal ganglia and thalamus)
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. In general, the same broad LH circuitry evident for word-level reading is observed, with additional increased activation in regions beyond those activated by simple word reading tasks (Cutting and Scarborough, 2006)
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Such research will be invaluable for understanding how learning to read and write differs at different ages. This information can be used to design optimal learning environments that take advantage of neurocognitive strengths and compensate for declines at different points in the life span.
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In Chapter 7, we describe in more detail the difficulties with component reading and writing processes that adults with learning difficulties may experience and review the literature on accommodations, used mainly in college settings, which enable students to benefit from academic instruction and demonstrate their knowledge and skills. Because research on interventions to develop the reading and writing skills of adults with learning disabilities is limited, we describe here what is known from research with children and to some degree adolescent students about how to intervene with struggling readers and writers.
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The principles that follow specify further that, rather than needing instruction that is qualitatively different from the instruction that is effective with typically developing learners, learners who struggle benefit from certain adaptations -- even more explicit and systemic reading and writing instruction; enhanced supports for the transfer and generalization of skills and opportunities for practice; attention to maladaptive attributions, which can be particularly important to address for struggling learners; and scaffolded and differentiated instruction that targets specific difficulties while continuing to develop all the skills needed for reading and writing development. Principles of Instruction for Struggling Learners I nterventions that directly target specific literacy difficulties in • the context of explicit reading and writing instruction result in better literacy outcomes for struggling readers and writers.
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that these difficulties can be remediated by increasing the time and intensity of instruction that is focused on building the language skills on which fluent reading and writing skills depend. Targeted interventions also improve the performance of struggling writers.
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. Similarly, almost all of the strategies that have proven to be effective in teaching struggling writers have involved intense and explicit instruction with ample opportunities to practice taught skills (see the meta-analysis by Graham and Perin, 2007a; Rogers and Graham, 2008)
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confirmed that older struggling readers do benefit from explicit reading comprehension strategy instruction, but these skills did not generalize well. It is possible that more explicit training and scaffolding would support generalization, as might more practice opportunities.
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. A very small body of research with elementary and middle school students who are struggling writers shows that maintenance and generalization of taught writing skills and strategies can be facilitated by teaching target material to mastery, having students set goals for using the skills and strategies and monitoring their progress in doing so, analyzing when and how to use the skills and strategies, and enlisting peers as a resource for reminding and helping struggling writers to apply new skills (Harris, Graham, and Mason, 2006; Sawyer, Graham, and Harris, 1992; Stoddard and MacArthur, 1993)
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From page 63... ...
With this type of scaffolded and integrated instruction and intervention model, learning deficits are addressed and remediated while teaching all of the necessary skills for reading and writing development that enable struggling students to participate and move through the broader program of instruction (National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, 2000a)
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. READING AND WRITING ACROSS THE LIFE SPAN Although much is known from research about the processes involved in the development of reading and writing and effective instruction for typically developing readers and writers and those who struggle, almost no research has focused on changes in reading and writing processes from early childhood through adulthood.
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From page 65... ...
Thus caution must be applied in generalizing the findings to populations of adults who need to develop literacy skills later in life. In general, the processes involved in the component skills of reading and writing studied thus far appear mostly preserved into later adulthood, although older adults do experience declines in areas affected by perception and speed of processing (Durgunoğlu and Öney, 2002; Stine-Morrow, Loveless, and Soederberg, 1996)
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. Yet comprehension skills can be affected by decreased capacity for making inferences as a result of memory decline.
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They also suggest some challenges in developing and using literacy skills later in life that may require enhanced supports. SUMMARY AND DISCUSSION A complete understanding of reading and writing development requires knowledge of the learner (the learners' knowledge, skills, literacy practices, motivations, and neurocognitive processes)
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From page 68... ...
direct targeting of specific areas of difficulty in the context of explicit reading and writing instruction; (2) more intense instruction, more explicit instruction, and even more opportunities to practice; (3)
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From page 69... ...
As a result, more needs to be known about how reading and writing processes change across the life span to determine how to make instruction effective for learners of different ages. As Chapter 3 makes clear, except for a few intervention studies, the study of component literacy skills and processes has not been a priority in research with adults, nor has the research fully incorporated knowledge of the practices that develop reading and writing skills in K-12 students.
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