Welcome!
Avoiding Instructional Casualties:
Matching the Instructional System to the Developing Reader
2012 Indiana Non-Public Education ConferenceOctober 18, 2012
Presenter: Pam Peroutky, Ed.D
Big Ideas
1. Learning to read is not a natural skill and must be taught.
2. There is a great deal of research consensus on teaching reading.
3. Scientists know the major brain-processing systems involved in reading.
4. There are key instructional practices that are critical for any beginning reader.
Why this matters
Will come to school already reading?
Will learn to read regardless of the instructional approach that is used?
Will require systematic, explicit, and supportive instruction, as well as additional opportunities to learn?
Will require systematic, explicit, and supportive instruction, with intensive opportunities to learn?
Will have a reading disability and require special education services?
In a class of 24 kindergarten students, about how many:
Points of ConsensusThere are two main parts to reading:
– Accurate, fluent word recognition (decoding, memory words)
– Vocabulary/Language proficiency (comprehension)
– C=DxLC
A solid reading program should incorporate explicit, systematic instruction in the alphabetic code
The majority of reading problems arise from failure to acquire basic skills in word recognition
With appropriate instruction, virtually all but a small percentage of our students can learn to read
Key termsExplicit
Plain in language, distinctly expressed, clearly stated, not merely implied
The sequence of teaching and teacher actions must be conspicuous
“I do, we do, you do”
SystematicCharacterized by a method or a plan
The skills that are needed to acquire the alphabetic principle cannot be learned sporadically or opportunistically. To be effective, instruction must be organized and sequential.
Instruction that follows the developmental sequence of skills necessary to be a reader
Predictable Progression of SkillsWord Recognition:
Phoneme Awareness
Letter recognition and naming
Letter-sound association
Blending letter-sounds
Decoding
Memory words
Automaticity Fluency Text Comprehension(“Mental Orthographic Images”)
Comprehension:Oral languageVocabularyListening comprehension
Big Ideas 1 and 2 Review
• Learning to read is not a natural skill and must be taught.– We learn to speak without formal instruction
– Reading must be taught
– There will always be a range of reading ability in any classroom
– All but a small percentage of children can be taught to read
• There is a great deal of research consensus on teaching reading.– C=DxLC
– Explicit, systematic instruction is critical
Big Idea 3:What the Brain Must Do to Read Words
Four-Part Processing Model
Meaning Processor
Context Processor
Phonological
Processor
Orthographic
Processor
(experience; language)
(vocabulary)
(speech sound system)
(phonics) (memory for letters)
Big Idea 3 Review
• Scientists know the major brain-processing systems involved in reading.– Phonological
– Orthographic
– Meaning
– Context
• Readers must become proficient in accessing the text (phonics) in order to activate meaning and context.
• All systems work seamlessly and in conjunction in a proficient reader.
Good Reading Requires …
Accurate Word Reading, Fluency, and Comprehension
Decoding Comprehensionx
PA
Phonics
Fluency
Vocabulary
Text Comprehension
5 components
2 domains
Instructional Practices: Phoneme Awareness
• A phoneme is a speech sound that can be combined with other speech sounds to make a word.
• Phoneme awareness is important for reading and spelling in an alphabetic system. It is the “gateway skill” to reading.
• English has about 44 phonemes.
• Every language has a unique inventory of phonemes.
• English has about 15* vowel sounds, plus 3 r-controlled combinations. (Linguists argue about /y/ + /u/, as in music).
• English has 25 consonant sounds.
• Phoneme awareness tasks “can be done in the dark.”
• What processor(s) come into play during phonemic awareness instruction?
A Phonological Processing Continuum
• Repetition of sentences, phrases, words
• Word identification
• Syllable manipulation (counting, blending, segmenting)
• Onset-rime manipulation
• Rhyming
• Alliteration
• Phoneme awareness
– Comparison/Matching
– Isolation
– Blending
– Segmenting
– Manipulation
PreK
K
Best Practices in Phoneme Awareness
• Follow a progression of tasks
• At the pre-K level, the focus is on auditory discrimination to phonological awareness
• Focus student attention on sound before introducing letters
• Make sure you are pronouncing phonemes correctly
• Encourage mouth awareness
• Introduce all sounds, including vowels
• Use sound spelling cards
• Use motions to help with instruction
• Phonemic awareness training should be no more than a few minutes a day, focused in kindergarten
Instructional Practices: Phonics
• Phonics is the study of the relationship between letters (graphemes) and the sounds (phonemes) they represent
• Consensus for phonics instruction is beyond controversy.
• Phonics instruction should begin as soon as children can identify 2 to 3 phonemes in spoken words and when they know their alphabet letters.
• Instruction should continue until students know all the major phoneme/grapheme correspondences and syllable patterns and can attempt to decode any unfamiliar word.
• What processor(s) come into play during phonics instruction?
Important research to know
• Eye movement studies help us understand that proficient readers perceive and register all letters in words while reading. (Rayner et.al, 2001)
• Children in explicit phonics programs read words more quickly and score higher in reading comprehension than those in implicit phonics programs. (Christenson, C.A. and Bowey, J.A., 2005)
Phonics Program Comparison
Systematic, explicit• Preplanned scope and
sequence• Easy to more difficult• Cumulative review• “I do, we do, you do”• Guided practice to
independent practice
Incidental, Embedded• Opportunistic, as
children make errors• No predetermined
sequence• Skills taught in mini-
lessons, as needed• Insufficient practice
for most students
Phonics Program Comparison
Systematic, explicit• Look carefully at the
word• Sound it out• Check it (use context
to resolve meaning)
Incidental, Embedded• Think about what
makes sense here• Read the whole
sentence• Look at the pictures• Look at the first letter• Sound it out
The power of phonetic controls
“There is a period during beginning reading instruction when all children benefit from practicing letter-sound correspondence in decodable text. To immerse children in a print environment without instruction in letter-sound correspondence and practice in decodable text is to doom a large percentage of children to reading failure.”
(Foorman, Fletcher, Francis, 1997)
What Are Your Goals?
Students who… Will…
Read texts that focus on high frequency words
Use visual strategies for word identification
Read from predictable texts Memorize patterns, repetitive language and rhyme
Read from decodable text Develop a phonemic decoding strategy based on spelling-sound correspondences.
Big Idea 4 Review
There are key instructional practices that are critical for any beginning reader
• Instruction/practice in phoneme awareness
(18-20 hrs./yr)
• Instruction/practice in phonological awareness
for pre-K
• Explicit, systematic phonics instruction
• The use of decodable text
Take Two Review
Big Ideas How will this impact my teaching or leadership?
Learning to read is not a natural skill and must be taught.
There is a great deal of research consensus on teaching reading.
Scientists know the major brain-processing systems involved in reading.
There are key instructional practices that are critical for any beginning reader.
