Reading Instruction In Schools Research Articles

Visual and orthographic information in learning to read and the influence of phonics instruction

In the Jackson and Coltheart theory of acquisition of word reading it is claimed that, near the beginning of the partial alphabetic phase of development, children have full use of abstract letter units (ALUs). This claim and less exclusive alternatives were examined. In Experiment 1, normal progress children with on average 9 months of school reading instruction, either with or without explicit phonics, read with moderate accuracy (orthographically) familiar words in upper-case letters (e.g., AND) that are visually dissimilar from their lower-case forms. Lower-case forms were read with greater accuracy but only for familiar words, there being no letter-case effect for less familiar words. Children with explicit phonics showed less impairment in reading accuracy when words were presented in upper-case form than children without such phonics. Children with on average 22 months of instruction, in Experiment 2, read relatively unfamiliar words that required some phonological mediation. Those without explicit phonics instruction read words with digraphs in unfamiliar upper case less accurately than in lower case, while those with explicit phonics showed no such letter-case difference. The results supported the view that children do not have full use of ALUs in early alphabetic reading, both children with and without explicit phonics to some extent using letter identities specific to lower case for representation of familiar words.

Getting Children In2Books: Engagement in Authentic Reading, Writing, and Thinking

Getting children excited about--in2--reading and writing is the first step in developing high-level literacy. An innovative program based on this premise is producing excellent results with urban elementary students who had struggled with language arts. The authors suggest this program shows that there are better approaches than focusing merely on phonemic awareness, phonics, and word recognition. ********** LITERACY reigns in U.S. elementary schools. Because of recent federal and state policies, more instructional emphasis than ever before has been placed on reading and writing. Such a development should bode well for raising the reading comprehension, vocabulary knowledge, and critical-thinking skills of children in the U.S., which, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), have been basically static for the past 30 years. Moreover, according to such international assessments as the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), these are areas in which U.S. children lag behind children in a number of other developed nations. (1) However, there are signs that the current emphasis may be doing the very thing recent federal legislation was designed to avoid: leaving U.S. students, especially children from our poorest neighborhoods, even further behind in what really counts when it comes to literacy--comprehension and critical thinking. How could this possibly happen? Because K-3 reading instruction in many schools has focused so heavily on phonemic awareness, phonics, and word recognition that comprehension, vocabulary, and writing have been given short shrift. Because so much emphasis has been placed on K-3 reading that literacy instruction at higher grade levels has not been given the attention that it requires. Because the results on standardized reading tests have served as the sole criterion of literacy progress and consequently elementary school literacy programs have become mechanized and test-driven rather than content- and meaning-driven. Because instruction focused on reading skills has ended up reducing the teaching of science and social studies in the elementary schools to a minimum and in some cases has even crowded these subjects out of the school day altogether. (2) Ironically, developments such as these have occurred largely in response to state and federal mandates intended to raise the quality and level of literacy instruction. We applaud the idea of giving literacy the primary emphasis in the instructional day in U.S. elementary schools. But we also have observed that, unless fundamental principles of good literacy curriculum and instruction are kept firmly at the forefront of daily teaching in all subjects, the new emphasis may have little effect at best and at worst may negatively affect student literacy. If children are to excel in reading, writing, and critical thinking, they need to learn how to read different types of texts deeply and critically and how to write different types of texts in ways that clearly and powerfully communicate ideas. If the children who are not faring well in literacy learning in our schools are to succeed, they need teaching that both accelerates their learning and goes beyond what are commonly regarded as the basics of literacy. Instruction must promote children's engagement with text while also developing their skill at understanding and creating texts for a variety of purposes and across a range of subjects. For the past few years we have worked in urban public elementary schools to implement literacy instruction that emphasizes higher-level reading, writing, and thinking while also maintaining instructional focus on the skills of decoding, word recognition, and fluency. Our aim has been to help students learn what they really need to learn in order to become engaged and accomplished readers and writers--literate beings capable of interpreting text; developing connections between themselves and texts; critically analyzing, evaluating, and synthesizing; critiquing the usefulness of information in a text; writing on a variety of topics and for many different audiences; revising and editing ideas and forms of expression; and carrying out other higher-level processing that is involved in reading and writing. …

Rethinking Middle School Reading Instruction: A Basic Literacy Activity

Research on subject matter instruction across the 20th century (e.g., Stevens, 1912; Bellack, 1966; Hoetker & Ahlbrand; 1969; Gall, 1970; Langer, 1999; Mehan, 1979; Nystrand, 1997;) reveals a preponderance of teacher-directed lecture, recitation, and round-robin reading of text in place of instruction that focuses on reading-to-learn, thinking, and transforming information into meaning and understanding (Durkin, 1978–79; Langer, 1999; Blanton & Moorman, 1990; Wood & Muth, 1991). This kind of instruction persists despite the fact that observations of higher performing schools indicated the tendency to organize instruction around meaningful learning communities with extensive interactive discussion of material read (Langer, 1999; Myers, 1996; Wenglinsky, 2000; 2004). The purpose of this essay is twofold: (a) to argue that a great deal of reading instruction fails to meet the multiple and complex literacy needs of most middle school students, and (b) to propose a new orientation for thinking about middle school reading instruction. We begin with a discussion of research findings on classroom reading instruction, followed by an exploration of issues central to the problem. Then we propose what we have titled the basic literacy activity, a conceptual tool for thinking about and arranging middle school reading instruction. We end with an overview of selected instructional strategies that exemplify the characteristics of basic literacy activity.

Reading in a disadvantaged high school : issues of accomplishment, assessment and accountability

Findings from a two-year project, which investigated the entry-level English reading skills of Grade 8 non-primary speakers of English, are presented. The article raises some theoretical and methodological issues related to reading development and assessment in schools. The generally poor reading skills of many learners entering high school raise questions about current classroom practices and disparities in literacy accomplishment in primary schools. By making our findings available to scholarly scrutiny, we wish to stimulate discussion on reading instruction and assessment in schools, and educational accountability, and so hope to encourage further research and discussion in this field.

Effective Schools and Accomplished Teachers: Lessons about Primary-Grade Reading Instruction in Low-Income Schools

We investigated school and classroom factors related to primary-grade reading achievement in schools with moderate to high numbers of students on subsidized lunch. 14 schools across the United States and 2 teachers in each of grades K-3 participated. 2 low and 2 average readers per class were tested individually in the fall and spring on measures of reading accuracy, fluency, and comprehension. The teachers were observed 5 times by trained observers between December and April during an hour of reading instruction, completed a written survey, completed a weekly log of reading/language arts activities in February and again in April, and were interviewed in May. Each school was identified as most, moderately, or least effective based on several measures of reading achievement in the primary grades. A combination of school and teacher factors, many of which were intertwined, was found to be important in the most effective schools. Statistically significant school factors included strong links to parents, syst...

Then and now: Perspectives on the status of elementary reading instruction by prominent reading educators

This study queried members of the Reading Hall of Fame about elementary school reading instruction. Results from closed and open items revealed three major themes: (a) a neo‐traditional view toward the teaching and learning of reading; (b) frustration with the fadism and ideological debates in the field; and (c) the necessity of enhancing teacher knowledge at the university and in public school settings. The perspectives of Reading Hall of Fame members of today were then compared to those of prominent reading educators of the past (Morrison, 1963), revealing both similarities and differences in the evaluation of elementary reading education then and now.

Adaptive Instruction and Pupil Achievement

In this article the results are reported of a quasi-experiment on effects of adaptive instruction on reading results of children in the first year of reading instruction in Dutch primary schools. The research involved 456 pupils from 23 schools (12 experimental and 11 control group schools). Teachers in the experimental group show significantly higher adaptive instruction behaviour consisting of: optimizing time on task, using the model for direct instruction, working according to the principles of the 'phonics construction method' for initial reading and degree of diagnostic teaching, than the teachers in the control group. The pupils in the experimental group were significantly more successful on the attainment of higher reading results in comparison with the pupils in the control group. This experimental effect does not only remain after correction for the pretest, but also after correction for intelligence, social economical background and pleasure in reading.

PERSPECTIVES ON SECONDARY SCHOOL READING: IMPLICATIONS FOR INSTRUCTION

We examine secondary school reading instruction from the information‐processing and sociocultural perspectives. After reviewing the research on cognitive strategy instruction and its effectiveness with students experiencing reading difficulties, we describe how societal expectations and culturally derived norms mediate such instruction. Finally, drawing from both perspectives, we present a set of integrated instructional implications that include using text structure, summarizing complex information, performing self‐questioning, activating prior knowledge, and elaborating through guided imagery.

Reading Instruction in the Elementary School: A Proposal for Reform

ity to read with comprehension, write and think systematically and logically, and to speak with clarity in a manner that is articulate, precise and reflective of an intelligent, well educated individual. This priority should be number one. [T. H. BELL, SECRETARY OF EDUCATION] A large proportion of students in the United States have difficulty learning to read in school. Although the majority of these poor readers are members of minority and working-class sectors of the population and therefore concentrated in urban schools, the problem occurs in both rural and more affluent suburban schools.

Conflict or consensus: Views of reading curricula and instruction within one instructional setting

Abstract Questionnaires, interviews, and the school district's printed descriptions were used to test whether administrators and teachers agreed on the goals and means for reading instruction within one school district which had previously reorganized its reading program to emphasize centralized planning and student achievement. Results suggest that most administrators accepted student test scores as the appropriate goal and centralized planning and standard use of commercial reading materials as the appropriate means for instruction, but that most teachers in the same district sought more effective and communal goals and more autonomy concerning means. Discussion is presented concerning each group's academic training, ideological assumptions, and proximity to instruction to clarify their respective positions. Cautions are presented regarding reorganization of reading programs and regarding appropriate models of social organization in the study of reading instruction in public schools.

Evaluation of long term effects of phonemic awareness training in kinderarten: Illustrations of some methodological problems in evaluation research

The long‐term effects of phonemic awareness training in kindergarten were evaluated by studying various aspects of reading, spelling, and oral phonological skills in school. In the kindergarten‐part of the study 95 children divided into three experimental and two control groups took part. One year later 83 of them were identified and tested in school. The children who participated in the phonemic training program seemed to have benefited from it to some extent. At least they improved their scores on phonemic synthesis tests in school. Some children in the middle and high range of pretest performance seem to have avoided a risk for reading failure to a greater extent than the corresponding children in the control groups. It is suggested that phonemic training contributes to the development of accurate concepts of reading in the preschool child and makes the child less confused when confronted with formal reading instruction in school. Great variances, ceiling effects, and group heterogeneity created many difficulties in evaluating the training effects. The various methodological problems implied in evaluation research with nonequivalent control group design were analysed and illustrated with data from the present research.

Reading teacher effectiveness: Implications for teaching the gifted

Comprehension and decoding skills development are factors affecting the quality of reading instruction in schools. Pertinent research literature is reviewed. The teacher is the most influential contributing to students’ learning. Other contributing factors are opportunity to learn, engagement in learning, and of course, effective diagnosis. The need for further research on reading skills diagnosis is discussed.

A Cross-Disciplinary Reading Curriculum

Reading instruction in secondary schools is considerably more difficult than in elementary schools, comment these writers, who describe an organizational structure they believe will make secondary reading programs more effective.

Fallacies of Middle School Reading Instruction

Middle schools are still a comparatively new concept in school organization. Yet, unfortunately, they have been around long enough for fallacies to grow up concerning instructional practices at this level. A fallacy is something akin to an old wives' tale; it is by definition a false idea, such as the notion that poets by nature are impractical. Reading instruction in the middle grades has perpetuated quite a few fallacies, some of which have become almost ingrained as ordinary practice, yet have not proven validity.

An Experimental Study of Effective Teaching in First-Grade Reading Groups

An Experimental Study of Effective Teaching in First-Grade Reading Groups

Reviews

KANE, Robert B., Mary Ann Byrne, and Mary Ann Hater. Helping Children Read Mathematics. American Book Company, 1974. CHALL, Jeanne S. Reading 1967–1977: A Decade of Change and Promise. Bloomington, Indiana: The Phi Delta Kappa Educational Foundation, 1977. DILNER, Martha H. and Joanne P. Olson. Personalizing Reading Instruction in Middle, Junior, and Senior High Schools: Utilizing a Competency Based Instructional System. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, Inc., 1977. BRUNNER, Joseph F. and John J. Campbell. Participating in Secondary Reading: A Practical Approach. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice‐Hall, 1978.

The Two Ended Candle: Reading and English

An English teacher, reading teacher, and resident of Maine ought to be able to get away with a title like The Two-Ended Candle. In my daily work with undergraduates, graduate students, and teachers in high school, My candle burns at both ends. I'd like to discuss ten basic questions about high school reading instruction and the English teacher. 1. Should there be reading instruction in high school?

Teachers’ perceptions of their principal's role in elementary school reading instruction

Teachers’ perceptions of their principal's role in elementary school reading instruction

What Does Research in Reading Reveal--About Materials for Teaching Reading?

One of the first steps in improving reading instruction in many schools consists in increasing the amount, quality, and variety of the supply of reading material and other aids to learning. The resources at the teacher's disposal determine to a great extent whether he can provide a systematic and enriched program, meet the individual differences of children, and furnish enough books and selections on a given theme to relate the reading and studies underway to centers of interest for the group and the individual child. Without enough appropriate materials and equipment, adequate instruction cannot be given, either in reading as such or in the entire school program.

What Does Research in Reading Reveal--About Reading in the Content Fields?

What do we know about high school reading and more specifically, what do we know about reading in content fields? Summers (20, 21) has looked at research output at secondary school level for period 1900-1963, and has organized contributions into categories, some thirty-four in number. Summers observes that almost every question that could be hypothesized relating to systematic reading instruction in secondary school, has been explored. He makes point that what is necessary now is not identification of new categories, nor addition of innovative new questions, but the overriding need is for better coordination of previous effort as well as an attack in new directions on questions consistently raised, but not satisfactorily answered. Some such questions have to do with role of purpose in reading, and a factor closely related to purpose, motivation. It is important that teachers of reading at all levels know more about purpose and motivation, and it is apparent that one has to go to literature in fields other than reading for what guidance can be found, for with certain conspicuous exceptions, literature of reading offers little. What does literature seem to say about purpose and motivation and what have these factors