ELA: Science of Reading
The Science of Learning to Read
Learning to read requires explicit, systematic instruction.
The way the brain learns to read is settled science, backed by decades of research. Our brains are hardwired to learn to speak, but not to read. To learn to read, students need to be able to do two things: decode written words and comprehend what those words mean. This requires explicit, systematic instruction and practice over time.
In 2000, the National Reading Panel report outlined five essential components of effective reading instruction for young children: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and reading comprehension. Yet while we have the science, national reading scores remain stagnant.
READING FRAMEWORK
The Simple View of Reading, a prominent theory of reading development, contends that students become readers when they can marshal the skills to decode words while simultaneously drawing on their knowledge of language for reading comprehension (Baker et al., 2017; Gough & Tunmer, 1986; Hoover & Gough, 1990). Knowledge of language includes more than vocabulary and simple sentence construction; it also includes students’ knowledge of language structures, print concepts, and verbal reasoning skills (Scarborough, 2001). Reading with comprehension occurs when children can convert the meaning represented by words in print to a meaning that they can readily understand. Thus, children successfully learning foundational literacy skills discover how print maps onto their existing spoken language; gradually, they master these foundational skills to move beyond this simple transaction and bring higher levels of language as well as thinking skills, such as inferring and critiquing, to their reading.
Phonemic Awareness Instruction
High quality instruction in the early grades focuses on helping students understand the role that phonemic awareness plays in learning to read and write. Phonemic awareness refers to the connections between spoken language and literacy, that is, that learning to read and write involves attending to and analyzing the structure of what is said and heard. In BESD, the primary resource for phonemic awareness is the Heggerty curriculum.
Sound Spelling Routine.mp4IMG_7817.MOVEffective Phonics Instruction
The next step for students to learn phonics or the actual letter-sound correspondences. As these understandings fall into place, students begin to decode. Initially, they may recognize familiar words on sight, but gradually they should apply what they know about about letter-sound correspondences to decode words as they read and to encode words as they write.
The video to the left, shows Lisa Hickman using the phonics template routines to teach phonics in a systematic and structured format.
Effective Fluency Instruction
Practice in reading simple texts (decodable/leveled readers) and in reading their own writing contributes to students' development of fluency, that is, the ability to read smoothly with accuracy and expression. When students' word identification becomes fast and accurate, the have freed up "cognitive space" to draw on their broader knowledge of language and to comprehend what they are reading.
Effective Vocabulary Instruction
From the very beginning, high quality early literacy instruction must also include instruction and practice on vocabulary. Students' vocabularies expand from repeated encounters with new words, both in literacy block and in content area instruction; vocabularies also grow from listening, reading and talking to others. Some examples of best practices include teaching academic vocabulary, such as technical meanings for words used in informational texts, or content-area books. In addition, while teaching language for discussing books, teachers can model and explain the vocabulary used to discuss narrative and informational texts, including organizing and then discussing the actions that take place in a story shared during oral reading time.
Effective Comprehension Instruction
Comprehension is the ultimate goal of learning to read. Part of beginning comprehension instruction is teacher “externalizing” or modeling the comprehension strategies mature readers use automatically. Students need to be actively involved in asking and answering questions, making predictions, or explaining characters’ motivations. Of course, this kind of instruction is most effective when teachers have access to high-quality children’s literature in a variety of genres and representing different cultural backgrounds and experiences. One of the great advantages of introducing students to reading comprehension skills by giving them opportunities to read on their own in books at the right level is that the experience reinforces that the students themselves do indeed have the capacity to become successful readers.
Effective Writing Instruction
Most young students will—if given opportunities—become writers. Initial efforts may be part drawing and part writing, with words spelled as students “hear” them while subvocalizing what they want to say. These early efforts also demonstrate young learners’ understanding of orthography and syntax, for example, that writing flows from left to right across a page. Gradually, students’ writing becomes more complex and expressive, especially if students receive explicit instruction on the writing process, that is, the recursive steps a writer uses to compose text.
Students need to write each day and to write for various purposes, for different audiences, and in many different genres ; writing as part of content area is also valuable.
Students benefit from instruction on handwriting, spelling, sentence structure, grammar, and other skills, but teachers also need to model writing for their students and point out the features of good writing during read alouds and other instructional interactions.
If you are a BESD teacher and need online access to any of these programs, please contact the Integration Support Team, integration@besd33.org.
If you are a BESD teacher and need hard copies of the TEs or the classroom materials, contact your school librarian.