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TEACHING READING REALLY IS ROCKET SCIENCE. Donald N. Langenberg, Chair National Reading Panel Chancellor, University of Maryland IT IS AN ENORMOUSLY- COMPLEX ACT.
TEACHING READING REALLY IS
ROCKET SCIENCE.
Donald N. Langenberg, ChairNational Reading Panel
Chancellor, University of Maryland
IT IS AN ENORMOUSLY-COMPLEX ACT.
Speaking and listening come first. But learning to read is, without question, the top priority in elementary education.
Boyer, 1995, p.69
“Yes, parents may have the greatest impact on how their children come to us. But we have the greatest impact on how they leave us.”
Superintendent, North Carolina
High Home Support
Low Home Support
Consistent High Quality Classroom Support Instruction 100% 100%
Mixed Classroom Support 100% 25%
Consistent Low Classroom Support 60% 0%
The Simple View of Reading
R = D x C
(Phil Gough)
Fluency
Word Recognition & Comprehension
What are the Essential Components?
Phonemic Awareness Phonics Vocabulary development Reading fluency Reading comprehension
The Fab Five!
Classroom organization
Matching pupils and texts
Access to interesting texts, choice, and collaboration
Writing and reading
What are the Major Findings? Most children need explicit instruction in decoding and
comprehension. While fluency isn’t sufficient for comprehension, it is absolutely
necessary for good comprehension. Assessment and instruction are inextricably linked.
Writing, spelling, and reading are highly related, especially in the early stages of learning to read.
Children should spend more time independently reading and writing.
Children not reaching benchmarks benefit from daily intensive instruction.
Chall’s Stages of Reading Development
Changing Emphasis of Big IdeasK 1 2 3
Phonological AwarenessAlphabetic Principle
Automaticity and Fluency
with the CodeVocabulary
Comprehension
Letter Sounds & Combinations
Listening
Listening
Reading
Reading
Multisyl lables
The Effects of Weaknesses in Oral Language on Reading Growth/Academic Achievement
5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
16151413121110 9 8 7 6 5
Read
ing
Age
Lev
el
Chronological Age
Low Oral Language in Kindergarten
High Oral Language in Kindergarten
5.2 years difference
(Hirsch, 1996)
Children must become accurate
readers as a first step toward
becoming fluent readers.
An accurate, fluent reader will
read more.
The Failure Cycle
The Reading Gap
0%10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%100%
Pre-K
K 1 2 3 4 5
Per
cen
tag
e o
f yo
un
gst
ers
in
the
sch
oo
l w
ho
can
rea
d
gra
de
leve
l m
ater
ial
The Reading Gap
Target: 85-90% of students can handle grade level material.Actual: Where schools say they are.
The difference between the Target and Actual levels is the Reading Gap that can only be closed by comprehensive literacy strategies at the school level.
Target
Actual
Importance of Independent Reading
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
Minutes Per Day
Per
cen
tile
Ran
k
0.0 1.0 4.3 9.2 16.9 33.4 76.3
Importance of Independent Reading
Percenti le RankMinutes/Day(Books, Magazines,
Newspapers)Words/Year
98th 67.3 4,733,000
90th 33.4 2,357,000
70th 16.9 1,168,000
50th 9.2 601,000
30th 4.3 251,000
10th 1.0 51,000
2nd 0.0 --
Reading rate is strongly correlated
with comprehension.
Reading rate (fluency) is causally
related to reading comprehension.
Reading rate is correlated with many other student characteristics that also influence reading comprehension.
Vocabulary = .99% F/R Lunch = .97
% Minority = .97% ELL = .96
How much fluency (rate) is enough to facilitate good reading comprehension?
DIBELS Norms
H & T Norms
Aimsweb Norms
1st 45 wpm 43 wpm 45 wpm
2nd 91 wpm 79 wpm 85 wpm
3 rd 110 wpm 96 wpm 102 wpm
Grades 1 – 2
Oral Reading Fluency Goals
Grades 3 – 5
2-3 words per week
1½-2 words per week
The role of vocabulary becomes
increasingly important as students
progress in school.
End of Grade One -- .45
End of Grade Four -- .62
End of Grade Seven -- .69
Kindergarten vocabulary (PPVT) is closely related to later reading comprehension
The relationship of vocabulary to reading comprehension gets stronger as texts become more complex. (Snow, 2002)
Comprehensive Vocabulary Development
1. Wide reading
2. Direct teaching of important words
3. Teaching word learning strategies
4. Fostering word consciousness
Magic Number = 1,000,000 words read per year
For a child who reads 15-200 words per minute, reading 20 minutes per day wil l yield 1,000,000 words read in a year.
Anticipated vocabulary growth: 1,000 – 4,000 new words learned
Tier One:
Examples: happy, bed, school
Rarely require instruction in school
The most basic words
Tier Two:
Examples: coincidence, absurd, industrious
Instruction adds productivity to an individual’s language ability
High-frequency words for mature language users
Tier Three:
Examples: isotope, lathe, peninsula
Best learned when needed in a content area
Words whose frequency of use is quite low, often limited to specific domains
Prior Knowledge . . .
Better than I.Q. for predicting success on inferential comprehension.
Types of Prior Knowledge
Topic knowledge
Text structure and organization
Vocabulary
The punter kicked the ball.
The baby kicked the ball.
The golfer kicked the ball.
How did the ball change?
Mary Lou’s heart was pounding as she stood on the highest portion of the platform, flanked by a Japanese and a Rumanian. The last two years had been worth it!
Today’s Cricket
The batsmen were merciless against the bowlers. The bowlers placed their men in slips and covers, but to no avail. The batsmen hit one foul after another with an occasional six. Not once did a ball look like it would hit their stumps or be caught.
Proficient comprehension of text is influenced by:
Accurate and fluent word reading skills Oral language skills
Extent of conceptual and factual knowledge Knowledge and skill in use of cognitive strategies to
improve comprehension or repair it when it breaks down.
Reasoning and inferential skills Motivation to understand and interest in task and
materials
Three Major Strategies to Teach Comprehension
1. Reading a lot
2. Strategic reading
3. Deep discussions about books or articles
1. Competent reader strategies
2. Text structure strategies
Two Approaches
The Big Five Predict and Infer
Self-Question
Monitor and Clarify
Evaluate and Determine Importance
Summarize and Synthesize
Narrative Structure (Story Grammar)
Expository (Informational) Structure
The effectiveness of instruction
in comprehension strategies
depends critically on how they are
taught, supported, and practiced.
1. An explicit description of the strategy and when and how it should be used.
2. Teacher and/or student modeling of the strategy in action.
3. Collaborative use of the strategy in action to construct meaning of text.
4. Guided practice using the strategy with gradual release of responsibility – scaffolding by the teacher.
5. Independent use of the strategy.
Meaningful conceptual content in reading instruction increases motivation for reading and text comprehension.
Giving students choices of texts, responses, or partners during instruction.
Have an abundance of interesting texts available at the right reading level for every student.
Allow students the opportunity to work collaboratively with ample opportunities for discussion, questioning, and sharing.
Engaged Readers
