Core Reading Research Articles

Making time for literacy: teacher knowledge and time allocation in instructional planning

This study examined how K-5 general and special educators (N = 102) would choose to allocate time in a 2-h language arts block if they could do so as they wished, and how these choices related to their knowledge base for reading instruction. Preferences for time allocation were assessed through an open grid on which participants listed descriptions of planned instructional activities and amount of time for each activity; teacher knowledge was assessed via a multiple-choice measure involving questions about assessment and instruction in the five components of reading. Results showed that many teachers planned little or no time for areas such as assessment, vocabulary, phonemic awareness, and spelling; also, relatively little time was devoted to basic writing skills and virtually none to writing processes such as planning or revision. There were few significant differences between general and special educators in time allocation on the grid, although there were more differences by grade level (e.g., grids for Grades K-1 vs. Grades 4–5). Teacher knowledge did predict teachers’ time allocation plans, particularly for teachers with relatively high knowledge of phonemic awareness and phonics. Overall, however, many teachers chose to allocate time in ways inconsistent with scientific recommendations, in writing as well as in reading. The study highlights the importance of research-based, targeted teacher professional development in literacy, as well as the need for schools to provide comprehensive, research-based core reading and writing curricula to educators, with attention to fidelity of implementation.

Explicit Instruction in Core Reading Programs

The purpose of this study was to conduct a content analysis of the types and occurrences of explicit instructional moves recommended for teaching five essentials of effective reading instruction in grades 1, 3, and 5 core reading program teachers’ editions in five widely marketed core reading programs. Guided practice was the most frequently recommended explicit instructional move for teaching phonemic awareness, phonics, and vocabulary. Discussion was the dominant explicit instructional move recommended for comprehension. Modeling was the dominant explicit instructional move recommended for fluency. Core reading program lessons were found to provide ample explicit instructional move recommendations for explanations and guided practice, with less attention to modeling or discussing reading concepts, strategies, and skills. The core reading program lessons provided inadequate recommendations for the explicit instructional moves of monitoring student progress, providing students feedback, and moving students gradually toward independence.

Teacher Implementation of Evidence-Based Practices in Tier 1

Federal mandates more than a decade old require the use of evidence-based practices in schools, and an abundance of meta-analytic evidence for reading instruction exists; however, the long lamented research to practice gap in education gives reason to explore whether this evidence has translated to classrooms. This study examined the extent to which a national sample of kindergarten, first- and second-grade teachers ( n = 534) reported using evidence-based reading curricula. Results indicated that very few curricula teachers used have been evaluated using research designs that meet federal guidelines. In addition, teachers reported supplanting their core reading curricula with other materials. Results of the survey indicate the need, despite a federal push for evidence-based practices, for new models of developing, testing, and disseminating evidence-based curricula.

Evaluating the Effects of a Systemic Intervention on First-Grade Teachers’ Explicit Reading Instruction

This article examines the efficacy of a multitiered systemic reading intervention for increasing the intensity and quality of explicit literacy instruction that teachers provide in first-grade classrooms. Schools ( j = 16) were randomly assigned to the treatment or comparison condition. In both conditions, teachers ( i = 42) provided 90 min of Tier I reading instruction to first-grade students ( n = 883). In the treatment condition, Tier I classroom teachers were trained to enhance their core reading instruction by making instruction more explicit and intensive through standardized protocols and ongoing coaching support. At-risk treatment students ( n = 240) also received an additional 30 min of Tier II supplemental reading intervention that was highly aligned with Tier I instruction. The focus of this study is on the Tier I portion of the multitiered intervention and the impact of the Tier I Enhancing Core Reading Instruction intervention on teacher practices. Results indicate positive effects of the Tier I intervention on the quality of explicit instruction and the frequency and accuracy of group practice opportunities provided to students.

Vocabulary Instruction in Commonly Used Kindergarten Core Reading Curricula

The purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which commonly used core reading curricular materials supported research-based pedagogical features for oral vocabulary instruction in kindergarten. A document analysis was completed for 12 weeks of instructional materials from the teacher's editions of the 4 most widely used curricula. Results indicated disparities across curricula in the number of words addressed, ranging from 2 to 20 words identified for instruction per week. Organizing principles for word selection were unclear for 3 of the 4 curricula, and many target vocabulary words were rated as too easy or basic for school-based instruction. Programs differed greatly in the frequency of instructional practices provided to support teachers and in their application of an instructional regime. These results suggest that instruction in kindergarten core curricula does not reflect the current research base for vocabulary development and may not be systematic enough to influence children's vocabulary learning trajectories.

Common Core, Commonplaces, and Community in Teaching Reading

AbstractJoseph Schwab, a curriculum theorist, described four commonplaces, or universals, of teaching: content, students, milieu and teachers. This article considers how the Reading Standards of the ELA‐CCSS are shaping these commonplaces in the teaching of reading. The organization of the Reading Standards, for example, focuses on two broad grade bands, K‐5; 6‐12 and its framework outlines curriculum content in three categories, foundations, literacy and informational reading. As a core set of expectations, the Reading Standards challenge learners of all ages and require a more participatory literacy environment. They ask more of beginning teachers who must set a brisk pace in reading instruction if students are to achieve expectations. The importance of community in building strong reading programs that meet high core standards is emphasized. New teachers are strongly encouraged to become actively involved in the implementation of core Reading Standards in their local professional communities.

Action Video Games Make Dyslexic Children Read Better

Learning to read is extremely difficult for about 10% of children; they are affected by a neurodevelopmental disorder called dyslexia [1, 2]. The neurocognitive causes of dyslexia are still hotly debated [3-12]. Dyslexia remediation is far from being fully achieved [13], and the current treatments demand high levels of resources [1]. Here, we demonstrate that only 12 hr of playing action video games-not involving any direct phonological or orthographic training-drastically improve the reading abilities of children with dyslexia. We tested reading, phonological, and attentional skills in two matched groups of children with dyslexia before and after they played action or nonaction video games for nine sessions of 80 min per day. We found that only playing action video games improved children's reading speed, without any cost in accuracy, more so than 1 year of spontaneous reading development and more than or equal to highly demanding traditional reading treatments. Attentional skills also improved during action video game training. It has been demonstrated that action video games efficiently improve attention abilities [14, 15]; our results showed that this attention improvement can directly translate into better reading abilities, providing a new, fast, fun remediation of dyslexia that has theoretical relevance in unveiling the causal role of attention in reading acquisition.

Using Basal Readers: From Dutiful Fidelity to Intelligent Decision Making

AbstractWhen schools and teachers adopt core reading programs they can use them with fidelity or make intelligent decisions about the texts, lessons and components they select to use. The evidence suggests that these programs are not research‐based documents, but rather compromises between what the research suggests about effective reading instruction and what the market wants. Given these compromises and complexity of core reading programs teachers should make decisions about what texts their students will read, what skills and strategies they will teach, and what program components they will use. Teachers should have the prerogative to move students beyond the core program into the wider world of children's literature and informational books. The article outlines eight key decisions that teachers should make.

Effects of Supplemental Computer-Assisted Reciprocal Peer Tutoring on Kindergarteners' Phoneme Segmentation Fluency

Phonemic awareness is a critical early reading skill that gives students a strong foundation for beginning reading. Without effective interventions or supplements to core reading programs, many students fail to acquire these skills. The present study examined the effects of using computer-assisted peer tutoring to supplement kindergarten students' instruction in phonemic awareness. Results of the study indicate three of the four participants made substantial gains in phoneme segmentation fluency. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.

English Leadership Quarterly: Leadership for Excellence

“Leadership is a disposition, not a position.” So said 2011 CEL Exemplary Leader award-winner Kylene Beers. Understanding the definition and nature of leadership is at the heart of our job as educators, and yet we struggle to understand how to develop leaders, both in teacher education and in our schools. In this annual issue on Leadership, we hear from former ELA district supervisor Bill Sowder, who urges us to keep the reader and reader-response in reading instruction, even in the face of Common Core reading standards. ELA Department Chair Melanie Mayer shares “talking points” from her district’s vertical-team meetings. And Lindsay Walton, who just completed a dual yearlong internship in special education and English education, sheds some light on the differing perspectives often held by these two types of educators. All of these people demonstrate a leadership disposition through their different roles in the education of our children.

Colonoscopy core curriculum

Colonoscopy core curriculum

Teaching & Learning Guide for: Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics? Nineteenth Century Crime Statistics for England and Wales as an Historical Source

Teaching & Learning Guide for: Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics? Nineteenth Century Crime Statistics for England and Wales as an Historical Source

BCIA Certification Exams—A New Look at This Standard

For the Biofeedback Certification International Alliance (BCIA), assessment is the culmination of a learning process that begins with didactic training that is guided by Blueprints of Knowledge and Core Reading Lists. The references in the BCIA Core Reading Lists help applicants master the learning objectives of the Blueprint and are the source of the exam questions. BCIA certification exams test entry-level knowledge that is relevant to the current practice of biofeedback. Applicants can now take exams in both paper/pencil and online formats. BCIA encourages applicants to use the Blueprints as roadmaps to guide their study, to read the Core references, and to take advantage of their mentors' experience. The quality of the applicants, the excellence of didactic programs, and the careful construction of the exams have resulted in pass rates that exceed 70%. BCIA believes that the applicant's journey, not passing the certification exam, is the best metric for measuring success. BCIA has achieved its mission in the time before the professionals arrive at their testing site.

Why Reading Fluency Should Be Hot!

AbstractThis article explores problems that have surfaced in the teaching of reading fluency and how teachers and reading coaches can resolve those problems. Specific issues addressed include reading fluency being defined as reading fast and instruction that is focused on having students read fast, reading fluency viewed as solely and oral reading activity, reading fluency seen as an issue only for the primary grades, and reading fluency instruction viewed as a distinct form of reading instruction not integral to authentic reading that focuses on meaning. The author makes the case for an authentic, meaning‐based, and comprehensive approach to fluency instruction that is integral part of the core reading program.

An Examination of Kindergarten Core-Reading Instruction in the United States

Prevention, intervention, and research efforts are grounded in a belief that teachers should only use alternative educational practices after reasonable evidence has indicated that general education practices implemented with a high degree of integrity have been unsuccessful. To investigate levels of implementation of an evidence-based primary reading program, we observed teachers’ use of Open Court, a commercially-available core reading program, during the district-mandated two-hour literacy block. We found that the amount and type of literacy and language arts instruction children received varied across classrooms. We discuss the implications of our work for future research and the improvement of childhood education practices.

Effects of a Supplemental Vocabulary Program on Word Knowledge and Passage Comprehension

A cluster randomized trial estimated the effects of a supplemental vocabulary program, Elements of Reading®: vocabulary on student vocabulary and passage comprehension in moderate- to high-poverty elementary schools. Forty-four schools participated over a period spanning 2 consecutive school years. At baseline, 1,057 teachers and 16,471 students from kindergarten, first, third, and fourth grade participated. The schools were randomly assigned to either the primary or intermediate grade treatment group. In each group, the nontreatment classrooms provided the control condition. Treatment classrooms used the intervention to supplement their core reading program, whereas control classrooms taught vocabulary business-as-usual. The intervention includes structured, weekly lesson plans for 6 to 8 literary words and aural/oral and written language activities providing multiple exposures and opportunity for use. Hierarchical linear modeling was used to estimate both proximal (Year 1) and distal (Year 2) effects on vocabulary and passage comprehension. The intervention had positive and statistically significant proximal effects but no statistically significant distal effects. The results indicate that the intervention can improve targeted vocabulary and local passage comprehension, but expecting global effects may be overly optimistic.

Does Instructional Alignment Matter?

AbstractThe purpose of this study was to explore the effects of aligning classroom core reading instruction with the supplementary reading instruction provided to 133 struggling grade 2 readers. A 2-group, pre-posttest true experimental design was employed in this study. In 11 elementary schools, 12 teachers taught both the aligned and unaligned core and supplementary reading treatments. Students in both treatment conditions, aligned and unaligned, made statistically significant reading progress during the 20-week study. Students in the aligned reading instruction treatment group evidenced higher, statistically significant mean residual gain scores on all measures of reading at posttest. Effect sizes, favoring the aligned treatment condition, were small for all reading measures when comparing the 2 treatment groups' mean residual gain scores. This study indicates consistent advantages for aligning supplementary reading instruction with the core reading instruction provided to struggling grade 2 readers.

What's the story? The tale of reading fluency told at speed.

Fluent readers process written text rapidly and accurately, and comprehend what they read. Historically, reading fluency has been modeled as the product of discrete skills such as single word decoding. More recent conceptualizations emphasize that fluent reading is the product of competency in, and the coordination of, multiple cognitive sub-skills (a multi-componential view). In this study, we examined how the pattern of activation in core reading regions changes as the ability to read fluently is manipulated through reading speed. We evaluated 13 right-handed adults with a novel fMRI task assessing fluent sentence reading and lower-order letter reading at each participant's normal fluent reading speed, as well as constrained (slowed) and accelerated reading speeds. Comparing fluent reading conditions with rest revealed regions including bilateral occipito-fusiform, left middle temporal, and inferior frontal gyral clusters across reading speeds. The selectivity of these regions' responses to fluent sentence reading was shown by comparison with the letter reading task. Region of interest analyses showed that at constrained and accelerated speeds these regions responded significantly more to fluent sentence reading. Critically, as reading speed increased, activation increased in a single reading-related region: occipital/fusiform cortex (left > right). These results demonstrate that while brain regions engaged in reading respond selectively during fluent reading, these regions respond differently as the ability to read fluently is manipulated. Implications for our understanding of reading fluency, reading development, and reading disorders are discussed.

Post-Scripts: Teaching Reading in the Aftermath of Prescriptive Curriculum Policies

NCBL and Reading First are negotiated in implementing beginning reading instruction. The article describes and analyzes how two critical conditions for creating opportunity—access to qualified teachers and rigorous academic curriculum—are met by examining the enactment and adaptation of a prescriptive core reading program disproportionately targeted at “low-performing” schools. Although prescriptive curricula attempt to ensure achievement, classroom implementation is mediated by teachers exercising professional prerogative. The quality of these mediations is determined by a teacher’s expertise in negotiating the tensions between fidelity of implementation and adaptation to local context. Through extensive classroom observations and teacher interviews, this case study illuminates fundamental issues of teacher quality as they are realized by an experienced teacher.

The effects of a volunteer mentoring programme on reading outcomes among eight- to nine-year-old children: A follow up randomized controlled trial

This article presents the findings of a randomized controlled trial evaluation of the effects of a revised version of the volunteer mentoring programme, Time to Read. Participating children received two 30-minute mentoring sessions per week from volunteer mentors who carried out paired reading activities with the children. The current trial involved 512 children aged eight to nine years from 50 primary schools. The programme was found to be effective in improving decoding skills (d=+.15), reading rate (d=+.22) and reading fluency (d=+.14) and there was some evidence of a positive effect in relation to the children’s aspirations for the future (d=+.11). However, no evidence was found of the programme having an effect on reading comprehension or reading confidence and enjoyment of reading. The article concludes by suggesting that mentoring programmes using non-specialist volunteers can be effective in improving foundational reading skills but would appear to be less effective in terms of improving higher-order skills such as comprehension. The article also suggests that such programmes are likely to be most effective if concentrating on core reading activities rather than attempting to address reading outcomes indirectly through improving children’s confidence or wider enjoyment of reading.