Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children (1998) / Chapter Skim
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6. Instructional Strategies for Kindergarten and the Primary Grades
6. Instructional Strategies for Kindergarten and the Primary Grades
Pages 172-225
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From page 172... ...
INTRODUCTION Previous Reviews The issue of what constitutes optimal reading instruction has generated discussion and debate and the investment of research ef 172
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From page 173... ...
Chall found substantial and consistent advantages for programs that included systematic phonics, as measured by outcomes on word recognition, spelling, vocabulary, and reading comprehension at least through the third grade. Moreover, the advantage of systematic phonics was just as great and perhaps greater for children from lower socioeconomic backgrounds or with
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From page 174... ...
Like Chall, Adams synthesized available research but also included a review of the literature on the psycholinguistic processes involved in reading. She concluded that direct instruction in phonics, focusing on the orthographic regularities of English, was characteristic of good, effective reading instruction, but she noted the need for practice in reading, for exposure to a lot of reading materials as input to vocabulary learning, and for motivating, interesting reading materials.
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From page 175... ...
Follow Through Provoked by finding that gains made by Head Start students during preschool tended to dissipate with time, in the early 1970s the federal government sponsored another large study comparing the long-term effects of reading instructional methods. The objective of Project Follow Through was to determine which general educational approaches or models worked best in fostering and maintaining the educational progress of disadvantaged children across the primary school years.
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From page 176... ...
(Recall our discussion of direct instruction and cognitively oriented preschool education models, which have some similar results as those findings on direct instruction in kindergarten through grade 3 and also some contrasting findings.) Although the Follow Through results suggest very positive effects for the program, it has not been as widely embraced as might be expected.
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From page 177... ...
Evaluations of instructional programs in kindergarten classrooms are not numerous, yet inferences about what such programs must cover are tightly constrained by the preschool predictors of literacy success on one side and the first-grade requirements on the other. Moreover, the major instructional tension associated with kindergarten literacy objectives is less about what children should learn than how they can be helped to learn it in an appropriate manner.
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From page 178... ...
Among the most important ways to prevent reading difficulties is classroom instruction in literacy activities, which begins in kindergarten. KINDERGARTEN The Kindergarten Challenge A kindergarten classroom typically consists of an adult and 20 to 25 students -- a very different scenario from a home or preschool.
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From page 179... ...
By the end of kindergarten, children should be familiar with the forms and format of books and other print resources and be able to recognize and write most of the alphabet; they should also have some basic phonemic awareness, that is, understanding of the segmentability of spoken words into smaller units. The second major goal of kindergarten is to establish perspectives and attitudes on which learning about and from print depend; it includes motivating children to be literate and making them feel like successful learners.
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From page 180... ...
. Recall from Chapter 4 that many of the outcomes of reading aloud as measured in kindergarten are significantly associated with reading achievement outcomes in first through third grades.
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By way of example, we describe three: big books, predictable books, and rebus books. Big books are nothing more than oversized storybooks.
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An example of a sentence in a rebus book is presented in Box 6-1. Entry-level rebus books are often designed to build a basic sight repertoire of such short and very frequent function words as "the," "of," "is," and "are." As the child's skill in word recognition progresses, the number of different printed words is increased.
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From page 183... ...
. Research affirms that use of language experience activities in the kindergarten classroom is of general benefit in enhancing reading readiness (Stahl and Miller, 1989)
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From page 184... ...
Kindergarten teachers can facilitate language and literacy development through play-based literacy instruction if they: · allow enough time and space for play in the classroom, · provide the needed material resources, · develop children's background knowledge for the play setting, · scaffold the rehearsals of dramatic retellings, and · become involved in play settings so as to guide the children's attention and learning through modeling and interaction. Helping Children to Discover the Alphabetic Principle As discussed in earlier chapters, English is an alphabetic language in which printed letters systematically, but not entirely consistently, represent phonemes (the smallest meaningful phonological elements within spoken words.)
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From page 185... ...
Some evidence suggests that an environmental literacy or whole-language orientation in kindergarten is more effective than phonics-oriented instruction, particularly for children with low initial scores on knowledge of literacy conventions, including letter knowledge (Sacks and Mergendoller, 1997) , presumably because these children are not yet developmentally prepared to benefit from explicit instruction in letter-sound relationships.
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From page 186... ...
found that, of all the various foci of language arts instruction observed in the kindergarten classroom, only the proportion of time that was devoted to analyzing the internal structure of spoken and written words reliably predicted differences in reading achievement at the end of first grade. Although the relative contributions of the various components of training cannot be readily estimated, the con
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From page 187... ...
for use in phonological awareness training prior to formal reading instruction are now widely available for kindergarten teachers who wish to strengthen the phonological skills of their students. Another kindergarten activity that promotes both letter knowledge and phonological awareness is writing.
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From page 188... ...
. Instructional intentions notwithstanding, however, research indicates that children's ability to fingerpoint in phase with recitation depends on their ability to sound the initial consonants of words; it depends, in other words, on prior letter knowledge and phonemic awareness (Ehri and Chun, 1996; Ehri and Sweet, 1991; Morris, 1983, 1992, 1993)
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From page 189... ...
Reanalyzing the various techniques just reviewed to extract the underlying instructional activities, we can see that they are relatively few in number: · oral language activities for fostering growth in receptive and expressive language and verbal reasoning, · reading aloud with children to foster their appreciation and comprehension of text and literary language, · reading and book exploration by children for developing print concepts and basic reading knowledge and processes, · writing activities for developing children's personal appreciation of the communicative dimensions of print and for exercising printing and spelling abilities, · thematic activities (e.g., sociodramatic play) for giving children opportunity to integrate and extend their understanding of stories and new knowledge spaces, · print-directed activities for establishing children's ability to recognize and print the letters of the alphabet, · phonemic analysis activities for developing children's phonological and phonemic awareness, and · word-directed activities for helping children to acquire a basic sight vocabulary and to understand and appreciate the alphabetic principle.
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From page 190... ...
Because of this, an inventory of basal objectives is a slightly time-lagged profile of modal instructional preferences and practices. The results of a recent analysis of basal reading programs at the kindergarten level is presented in Table 6-1.
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From page 191... ...
92 Phonemic awareness Games or activities that focus on activities words and their phonemic elements, oral segmenting and blending activities, oral syllabication, and rhyming activities. (It should be noted that to discriminate phonemic awareness from decoding strategy instruction, only oral activities are included in this category.)
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From page 192... ...
2. The phonological awareness activities of segmenting and blending that are most highly correlated with beginning reading acquisition are simply not included in any of the basal reading programs.
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From page 193... ...
Most basal reading programs do provide such a plan, as embodied in its lesson sequence. To the extent that these plans are pedagogically well designed, the basal programs can be seen to offer instructional value that extends beyond the specifics of their activities and materials.
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From page 194... ...
Given the current variability in commitment to kindergarten literacy preparation and the widely varying capacities and needs in any group of first graders, this is a challenge whose importance is exceeded only by its complexity. First-grade instruction should be designed to provide: · explicit instruction and practice with sound structures that lead to phonemic awareness; · familiarity with spelling-sound correspondences and common spelling conventions, and their use in identifying printed words; · sight recognition of frequent words; and · independent reading, including reading aloud.
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From page 195... ...
to consolidate independent reading ability through daily reading of texts selected to be of particular interest and beneath the frustration level of individual students and (b) to promote advances in reading through daily assisted or supported reading and rereading of texts that are slightly more difficult in wording or in linguistic, rhetorical, or conceptual structure.
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From page 196... ...
Techniques include: · creating a literate environment in which children have access to a variety of reading and writing materials; · presenting explicit instruction for reading and writing, both in the context of "authentic" and "isolated" practice; · creating multiple opportunities for sustained reading practice in a variety of formats, such as choral, individual, and partner reading; · carefully choosing instructional-level text from a variety of materials, with a reliance on literature, big books, and linking reading and writing activities; · adjusting the mode (grouping) and explicitness of instruction to meet the needs of individual students; · encouraging self-regulation through cognitive monitoring strategies; and · "masterful" management of activity, behavior, and resources.
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From page 197... ...
. Box 6-3 provides a more detailed example of a good teacher at work with her class on literacy activities.
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process writing in struction, (2) basal reading instruction, (3)
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embedded phonics in which sound-spelling patterns are sys tematically embedded in connected text; and 3. direct code, in which letter-sound correspondences and prac tice take place with various kinds of text.
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She gathered the eight children around her and passed out individual copies of the book just shared in the big book format. She had the children choral read the story with her, pointing to each word as they read.
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From page 201... ...
B started the language arts block with a morning message, using yesterday's target spelling pattern, -am. She wrote "Sam will be 15 years young on tuesday" Then she asked the children to help her edit the message.
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Students brainstormed about Thanksgiving activities while the teacher wrote down sentences that expressed their ideas. If previously taught spelling patterns ap peared, she pointed that out.
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With about 30 minutes remaining in the language arts block, Ms. C dismissed all but eight children to their seats to work on a worksheet that provided additional practice with /p/ spelled p (followed by independent reading in a book of their choice)
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. Direct Code Instruction The first phase of direct code instruction focuses on establishing the children's basic knowledge and understandings about how print works through linguistic awareness activities, the use of big books, writing, and language games and rebus activities.
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. Furthermore, whereas a relatively large percentage of children in the two whole-language groups and the embedded phonics group exhibited no measurable gains in word reading over the school year, the direct instruction group showed growth in word reading that appeared more or less normally distributed.
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Explicit instruction in the alphabetic principle was more effective with children who began the year doing poorly in phonological processing. Basal Programs The analysis of basal reading programs discussed in the section above on kindergarten covered first-grade versions of the programs as well (Stein et al., 1993)
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A good basal program should clearly distinguish key from optional activities. Basal programs are used in the majority of first-grade classrooms in the United States and thus have substantial influence on both classroom practice and teacher development.
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relationship between letters and sounds Implicit -- letters and 70 their sounds are presented within the context of a word. Phonemic Awareness: It should be noted that, 60 40 games or activities to discriminate phonemic that focus on words awareness from decoding and their phonemic strategy instruction, elements, oral only oral activities are segmenting and included in this blending activities, category.
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Reading Comprehension and Writing Activities to promote 100 understanding of the text prior to reading Activities during reading 100 Activities after reading Teacher-directed 100 Independent 100 continued on next page
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(%) Comprehension skill/ 100 strategy training: activities designed to teach students generalizable and strategic skills such as sequencing or discriminating fact from fiction - these activities need not be directly related to a specific text selection Composing activities -- Activities that require students to compose text Related to text selection 20 40 Independent of text 10 5 selection Both 30 30 SOURCE: Based on Stein et al.
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. Word Recognition, Reading Fluency, and Spelling By the end of third grade, students should possess the skills, habits, and learning strategies needed for fourth grade success.
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To develop the children's phonemic awareness and knowledge of basic letter-sound correspondences, spelling instruction is important. Beginning with short, regular words, such as pot, pat, and pan, the focus of these instructional activities is gradually extended to more complex spelling patterns and words, including long vowel spellings, inflections, and so on.
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It has long been appreciated that a critical factor in considering the learning impact of time spent reading is the difficulty of the text relative to the student's ability. Common terms to describe differences among text are the following: · The independent reading level is the highest level at which a child can read easily and fluently: without assistance, with few errors in word recognition, and with good comprehension and recall.
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. Instead of using repeated readings of any single passage, the children read from basal reading series that, in the style of the 1960s, were designed to repeat new words across selections.
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Responses to the program were strongly positive from both teachers and students. Oral reading growth was assessed by asking a subsample of 89 students to read aloud both familiar and previously unseen excerpts from their basal reader in November, January, and May.
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However, superior word recognition abilities do not necessarily translate into superior levels of reading achievement (Chall et al., 1990)
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. Can children's word knowledge and reading comprehension be measurably improved through instruction?
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Cain (1996) studied the home literacy activities of 7- and 8-year-olds whose word reading accuracy was appropriate for their chronological age but who differed in their comprehension ability.
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Every opportunity should be taken to extend and enrich children's background knowledge and understanding in every way possible, for the ultimate significance and memorability of any word or text depends on whether children possess the background knowledge and conceptual sophistication to understand its meaning. A program designed to enhance background knowledge and conceptual sophistication among third graders is Concept Oriented Reading Instruction (CORI)
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From page 220... ...
It is difficult to tease apart the effect of stores of word knowledge and background knowledge from the effect of processes (e.g., identifying words quickly and accurately, constructing mental representations to integrate information from the text) and meta-processes (making inferences, monitoring for inconsistencies)
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From page 221... ...
notes, it is an open question whether direct instruction or observational learning provides the greater contribution to student progress. Reciprocal teaching is a particularly interesting approach to consider in detail both because of its apparent effectiveness and because it illustrates the mixed instructional agenda and pedagogical strategies.
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From page 222... ...
Research on reciprocal teaching with young children in first and second grades indicates statistically significant improvement in listening comprehension (which assessed ability to recall information, summarize information, draw inferences from text, and use information to solve a novel problem) and fewer referrals to special education or remedial reading programs.
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From page 223... ...
Activities designed to ensure these opportunities to learn include practice in reading (and rereading) , writing as a means of word study and for the purpose of communication, invented spelling as a way to explore letter-sound relationships, and spelling instruction to enhance phonemic awareness and letter-sound/sound-letter relationships.
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. Although in this report we have not incorporated lessons from exceptional teaching practices with the same comprehensiveness as other topics in the research on reading, we acknowledge their importance in conceptualizing effective reading instruction.
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INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES 225 BOX 6-5 Teaching Children Versus Teaching a Curriculum Language Arts: You come down solidly advocating that educators need to teach children rather than to teach a curriculum. And you have also stated that the wars between whole language advocates and phonics advocates "are based more on educator identities than on children's needs." Would you talk about that a bit?
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