Effective Literacy Instruction for New K–3 Teachers

WEEK 1: FOUNDATIONS OF EFFECTIVE READING

INSTRUCTION
What does it mean to be a skilled reader? Skilled readers can ultimately do three things:
1) Demonstrate an overall understanding of the text and provide inferential as well as literal
information; 2) Extend the ideas in the text by making inferences, drawing conclusions, and
making connections to their own experiences, and 3) Make clear connections between the text
and what the reader infers.

THE ROLE OF LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT IN LEARNING HOW TO READ

Reading comprehension is strongly related to oral language comprehension. Young children

must be able to hear and recognize the sounds of language and acquire an extensive oral
vocabulary to learn to read (National Reading Panel, 2000). Beginning readers develop a
foundation for reading by listening to the sounds of language and manipulating them, as well as
by listening to the vocabulary and syntax through which meaning is constructed. The more
children interact with spoken and written language, the better readers they become (Hart &
Risley, 1995). In fact, children’s ability to recognize, analyze, and synthesize the sounds of spoken
language and the extent of their vocabulary) are predictive of their ability to read and
comprehend text (Snow, Burns & Griffin, 1998).

The focus on language development is particularly important when the language demands of
early schooling are high as when pupils are learning multiple language as in the Philippines.
(Snow, Burns & Griffin, 1998). The implementation of MTB-MLE puts a high demand on pupils’
ability to understand and speak MT, Filipino, and English with proficiency by Grade 3.

THE ROLE OF PRINT KNOWLEDGE IN LEARNING HOW TO READ

At an early age, children begin to develop an understanding of print and how it works.
Knowledge about print is gained through many interactions with language—both oral and
written. Through these experiences, children come to understand that written language is
related to spoken language and print carries a message (meaning). By the time children begin
school, many are able to “read” environmental print; however, they may not understand how
print conveys meaning (Bialystok, Shenfield, & Codd, 2000). This understanding is foundational
for learning to read and predicts later reading achievement. Skills to be developed are:

 Print function awareness—valuing print as a method of communication, such as

telling a story or providing information
 Print convention awareness—knowing the features and mechanics of our alphabets
 Concept of word—understanding the match between spoken words and written
Handling a book (holding and turning pages)

 Common parts of a book (front, back, and title page)

Effective Literacy Instruction for New K–3 Teachers

 Print carries the message

 Different forms of print
 Directionality of print (In the Philippines alphabets are read from left to right and
from top to bottom)
 Distinctions between upper and lower case letters or printed in different fonts
 Punctuation marks have specific meanings
 Difference between letters and words

Students who are beginning to read should be able to demonstrate the following print
knowledge skills (Snow et al., 1998):

 An understanding of the parts of a book and their functions

 The ability to track print (when listening to a familiar text being read aloud or
rereading own text)
 Recognition/naming of some book titles and authors
 Familiarity with different genres and types of text (narrative and informational)
 The behavior of a reader—reads emergently, not verbatim from print alone

THE ROLE OF PHONOLOGICAL AWARENESS IN LEARNING HOW TO READ

Phonological awareness is the ability to attend to and manipulate units of sound in speech
(syllables, phonemes) independent of meaning (Yopp & Yopp, 2009). Phonological awareness is
complex and critical when learning to read. Students should be able to:

 demonstrate an understanding that spoken words consist of sequences of phonemes

(sounds in a language)
 identify whether phoneme (sounds) are the same or different
 produce rhyming words
 blend phonemes (sounds) into words
 segment words into phonemes (sounds)
 substitute phonemes (sounds) to make new words

When students have built phonological awareness, they have the foundational skills needed for
using the alphabetic principle (Troia, 2004).
Effective Literacy Instruction for New K–3 Teachers

THE ROLE OF PHONICS, WORD IDENTIFICATION AND RECOGNITION IN

LEARNING HOW TO READ

Proficient readers demonstrate skill in both comprehension and word identification (Snow et al.,
2005). This ability to accurately and rapidly decode words and then associate the printed word
with its meaning allows the reader to focus attention on the meaning of the text.

Being able to “read words” is composed of several elements, including:

 Alphabetic Principle: Knowledge of the shapes and names of letters of the letters
and the understanding that there is a systematic relationship between the sounds of
spoken languages (MT, Filipino, English) and the letters and letter patterns of written
languages.

 Decoding and Phonics: Understanding how to read each letter or letter pattern
in a word to determine the word’s pronunciation and meaning.
 Irregular/High-Frequency Words: Recognition of words that appear often in
printed English but may not be readily decodable.

The Alphabetic Principle

The alphabetic principle focuses on three major concepts:

 Letters and letter patterns represent the sounds of spoken language.

 There are predictable relationships between sounds and letters and learning these
allows children to apply these relationships to both familiar and unfamiliar words.
 Applying the alphabetic principle allows students to begin reading with fluency.

Decoding and Phonics

When children apply their knowledge of the alphabetic principle, the process of decoding occurs
and they read the words. This strategy involves “sounding out and blending graphemes into
phonemes to form recognizable words” (Ehri, 2002). More advanced decoders pronounce
common spelling patterns as “chunks.”

Sometimes used synonymously with the term decoding, phonics has been defined as “the ability
to associate letters and letter combinations with sound and blending them into syllables and
words” (What Works Clearinghouse, 2007, p. 4). Experts have described phonics instruction as a
method of teaching children to learn and use the alphabetic principle (Armbruster et al., 2001).
In order to blend the sounds together to pronounce words, students must learn progressively
difficult word patterns—individual letter sounds progress to letter combinations and continue to
include structural analysis such as prefixes and suffixes. Research confirms that systematic and
explicit phonics instruction yields positive results for developing readers (Chall, 1967; Foorman,
Fletcher, & Francis, 1998).
Effective Literacy Instruction for New K–3 Teachers

Irregular and High-Frequency Words

As noted, decoding is a strategy for rapid and accurate word identification. Another method
employed by skillful readers is “sight” recognition. Research has revealed that this method of
reading words is word-specific and requires children to draw upon their knowledge of
previously learned words (Ehri, 2002).

THE ROLE OF FLUENCY IN LEARNING HOW TO READ

Fluency has been defined as “the ability to read a text quickly, accurately, and with proper
expression” (National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, 2000, pp. 3-5).
As skillful readers develop, their recognition skills move from simple patterns to more
complicated ones, and they transition from understanding simple letter patterns to mastering
patterns of language structure (Meyer & Rose, 1999). Quick and accurate word identification is
essential for skillful reading and allows cognition to shift to comprehending the text, yet it is just
one facet of comprehension (Torgesen et al., 2007).

For this reason, some researchers have adopted the visual image of fluency as the bridge
connecting word decoding and comprehension (Rasinski, 2004). This “bridge” is composed of a
range of skills a reader must build and maintain in order to become and remain fluent (Kuhn &
Stahl, 2003):

 Word recognition is accurate with few miscues.

 Word recognition occurs quickly, at a reasonable rate.
 Reading is done with expression—it sounds like language. Kuhn and Rasinski (2007)
explain that intonation, stress, tempo, and appropriate phrasing indicate prosodic
reading. As an indicator of fluent reading, prosody also contributes to a reader’s
engagement with the text. However, the relationship between prosody and
comprehension is not clearly understood and requires more research.

THE ROLE OF VOCABULARY DEVELOPMENT IN LEARNING TO READ

Research has established that children’s vocabularies, or “knowledge of words and word
meanings” are crucial to their acquisition of reading skills and their understanding of what they
read. In fact, “one of the most enduring findings in reading research is the extent to which
students’ vocabulary knowledge relates to their reading comprehension (Lehr, Osborn, &
Hiebert, 2004).

Studies indicate that students add approximately 2,000 to 3,500 distinct words to their reading
vocabularies every year (Anderson & Nagy, 1992; Beck & McKeown, 1991). Several principles
regarding vocabulary development are important to keep in mind (Nagy & Scott, 2000):

 Word knowledge is complex: knowing a word is more than being able to recite its
definition.
Effective Literacy Instruction for New K–3 Teachers

 Word learning is incremental: it represents an accumulation of knowledge over time

(school career). Students need many exposures in different contexts.
 Word knowledge is multidimensional: many words have multiple meanings and
serve different functions in different texts.
 Word knowledge is interrelated: knowledge from one word connects to knowledge
about other words.
 Word knowledge relies on multiple sources: definitions, context, and word parts
each provide important information about a word; however each source has
limitations.

Vocabulary development and word knowledge are tremendously complex, and this is due, in
part, to the many types of vocabularies, and the social and academic language, students must
develop (Hiebert, 2008).

READING COMPREHENSION, THE ULTIMATE GOAL

Researchers concur that reading comprehension is very complex. Fluency, while important,
does not ensure good reading comprehension and is just one of several proficiencies that a
skilled reader must possess (Paris, Carpenter, Hamilton, & Hamilton, 2005; Torgesen et al.,
2007). Proficient readers are able to comprehend both narrative and expository texts. In order
to become skilled readers by the end of elementary school, students must be able to do the
following (Lehr, Osborn, & Hiebert, 2004, p. 5)

 identify the words on a page accurately and read them fluently

 draw upon a body of knowledge large enough to help them understand the words,
sentences, and paragraphs strung together to explain and relate concepts
 be engaged in thinking and motivated to use their knowledge in order to understand
and learn from text
 develop the flexibility and stamina required to complete the task at hand
(Blachowicz & Ogle, 2008)

Comprehension is a process that involves strategic action throughout the reading process:
before, during, and after reading. Before reading, the student sets a purpose for reading, makes
predictions or formulates questions. During reading, predictions may be confirmed and
questions answered; however, the student may also reformulate or add questions and
predictions. A “good comprehender” also self-regulates by monitoring understanding, clarifying
confusions, and repairing comprehension. After reading, the student reflects on the reading and
summarizes or synthesizes the new information. Knowledge-building, active reading for specific
purposes and applying the new knowledge gained deepen comprehension.

Researchers have identified three types of comprehension processing (Block, Rodgers, &
Johnson, 2004):
Effective Literacy Instruction for New K–3 Teachers

 Literal: This form of processing serves as a prerequisite for inferential

comprehension and entails tasks such as mining details from the text and
recognizing the author’s purpose. Generally the information the reader is looking
for is articulated in the text.
 Inferential: In this type of processing, readers must combine textual information
with his or her own knowledge, information, and thoughts.
 Metacognitive: This form of processing affords the reader an opportunity to think
about one’s thinking and processing of the text.

Readers who employ the third form of processing, metacognitive, are strategic. They are able to
control their reading and employ a variety of strategies to ensure that they understand what
they read. These strategies are “actions that are consciously controlled by a reader but may be
applied unconsciously when the reading materials are easy or when the reader is skilled in using
a specific strategy” (Blachowicz & Ogle, 2008).

Moving beyond the findings of the National Reading Panel (2000) researchers have found that
the following list of strategies “have been researched and validated to be highly successful since
2000” (Block & Duffy, 2008, p. 22):

 Predict—Size up a text in advance by looking at titles, text features, sections,

pictures, and captions, continuously updating and re-predicting what will occur next
in a text.
 Monitor—Activate many comprehension strategies to decode and derive meaning
from words, phrases, sentences, and texts.
 Question—Stop to reread and initiate comprehension processes when the
meaning is unclear.
 Image—Construct meanings expressed in the text by wondering, noticing, and
generating mental pictures.
 Look-backs, Rereads, and Fix-it—Reflect on the text before, during, and after
reading, continuously deciding how to shape the knowledge base for personal use.
 Infer—Connect ideas in text based on personal experiences, knowledge of other
texts, and general world knowledge, making certain that inferences are made quickly
so as not to divert attention from the actual text but to help the reader better
understand it.
 Find Main Ideas, Summarize, and Draw Conclusions—Make sure to include
information gained from story grammar or textual features; if students can’t make a
valid summary of information read to date, this is a signal to go back to reread.
 Evaluate—Approach a fictional text expecting to (and making certain that students
do) note the setting, characters, and story grammar early on, with problems,
solutions, and resolutions to occur thereafter.
Effective Literacy Instruction for New K–3 Teachers

 Synthesize—approach an informational text watching for textual features,

accessing features, unique types of information, sequence of details and conclusions,
and combining all of these to make meaning.

THE ROLE OF MOTIVATION IN LEARNING HOW TO READ

Students’ comprehension depends on: (1) how well they read the words on the page; (2) how
much knowledge they possess; (3) how well they think; and (4) how motivated they are to do
the work (Torgesen, 2005). Snow, Burns, & Griffin (1998) confirm that motivation is one
predictor of reading success. Simply defined, motivation is the desire to do something. In the
context of reading development, doing something might be reading a picture book, participating in
a discussion, or learning about photosynthesis (Gaskins, 2003).

At an early age, positive expectations about and positive experiences with literacy foster
motivation to read. While most children begin school with a positive attitude and expect to be
successful, those who have negative experiences with reading and struggle to master
components decide that they do not like to read and they do not want to read (Juel, 1988). For
some children, this happens as early as the first grade.

Viewed in this light, it is of paramount importance for children to have positive experiences and
to develop and maintain the motivation to read (Leipzig, 2001). A motivated reader has the
following characteristics:
 Appreciates the pleasures of reading
 Views reading as a social act
 Uses reading as an opportunity to explore interests
 Reads widely for a variety of purposes
 Works comfortably with a variety of written forms and genres of text
Effective Literacy Instruction for New K–3 Teachers

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Effective Literacy Instruction for New K–3 Teachers

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Effective Literacy Instruction for New K–3 Teachers

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