What Goes into Reading?
Reading Models
The following videos by Zaner-Bloser briefly discuss some of the classic theoretical models of reading. These reading models guide teachers' decisions about reading programs and teaching practices, help eliminate instructional practices that lack evidence and waste precious teaching time, and provide insight into why a child might have trouble learning to read. ("Models of Reading", n.d.)
Model # 1: The Simple View of Reading
An important model in early reading research is Philip Gough and William Tunmer's (1986) Simple View of Reading (SVR) which states that reading comprehension is the product of word recognition and language comprehension. This means that 2 things are required to comprehend a written text: "the ability to read the words on the page and the ability to understand the meaning of the words" (Davis, 2006, as cited in Murray, 2016). Gough and Tunmer (1986) proposed this model of reading in order to emphasize that the basic skill of decoding, a skill that used to be set aside during literacy instruction, is just as important as language comprehension when teaching learners how to read.
For a better understanding of the SVR model, watch the following video by Zaner-Bloser.
Video Transcript:
When we think about the essential skills children need to build their reading brain, Gough and Tunmer’s model, known as the Simple View of Reading, is quite helpful. In this model, the critical subskills of reading are simplified to their essential categories--decoding and language comprehension--and framed as a multiplication equation with reading comprehension as the product or goal on the right side of the equation. The idea is this: strong reading comprehension results only when both decoding and language comprehension are strong.
To illustrate this idea, let's assign values of 0 for weak and 1 for strong. If decoding is weak and assigned a value of 0, and language comprehension is strong (a value of 1), reading comprehension is weak because 0 multiplied by 1 is 0. Conversely, if language comprehension is weak but decoding is strong, reading comprehension still suffers. 1x0 is 0. Only when both domains on the left side of the equation are strong does reading comprehension become a strong 1 because 1x1 is 1.
The Simple View of Reading tells us that children need to learn essential skills to decode to get text off the page while also developing their understanding of the world and of literacy.
Although reading is a complex process, the Simple View is helpful because all of the essential subskills of reading such as phonological awareness and vocabulary can be assigned to the decoding and language comprehension domains on the left side of the equation.
Model # 2: Scarborough’s Reading Rope
Over time, researchers have found that reading is not actually as simple as described by the Simple View of Reading. In fact, there are different sub-skills or factors related to the Decoding and Language Comprehension segments of the Simple View equation. Hollis Scarborough built upon the Simple View equation and developed the Reading Rope (2001), which essentially shows the component sub-skills of Decoding and Language Comprehension. Scarborough's Reading Rope provides a detailed visual representation of the most important skills that need to be taught by teachers to develop skillful readers ("Models of Reading", n.d.). Furthermore, this model emphasizes that skilled reading takes a lot of repetition, instruction, and practice.
To know the essential component skills for reading, watch Zaner-Bloser's video on Scarborough's Reading Rope.
Video Transcript:
Another helpful theoretical model for the reading process is Scarborough's Reading Rope which expands upon The Simple View of Reading. Scarborough's Reading Rope provides a meaningful visual representation of the process by which decoding (or word recognition) and language comprehension subskills are combined during skillful reading.
The decoding subskills are each assigned a strand in the rope: phonological awareness, decoding and spelling, and sight recognition. Under language comprehension, we need to build these reading subskills: background knowledge, vocabulary knowledge, language structures, verbal reasoning, and literacy knowledge. Think of these subskills as strands in the Reading Rope that become stronger and stronger the more tightly the strands are woven together. As the language comprehension subskills grow and get stronger, the reader becomes increasingly strategic in their reading. At the same time, as the reader strengthens their decoding subskills, they're becoming more automatic in their reading. With increasingly strategic and increasingly automatic reading, skilled reading occurs and the reader can comprehend text. Skilled reading appears to be effortless, but a skilled reader has fortified the subskills of the Reading Rope in order to manage the skills simultaneously and automatically, resulting in reading comprehension.
References:
Gough, P., & Tunmer, W. (1986). Decoding, reading, and reading disability. Remedial and Special Education, 7, 6–10.
Models of reading (n.d.). Reading Rockets. Retrieved January 23, 2024 from https://www.readingrockets.org/reading-101/how-children-learn-read/models-reading
Murray, M. S. (2016). Steps to success: Crossing the bridge between literacy research and practice. Open SUNY Textbooks. https://milnepublishing.geneseo.edu/steps-to-success/chapter/4-language-comprehension-ability-one-of-two-essential-components-of-reading-comprehension/
Scarborough, H. (2001). Connecting early language and literacy to later reading (dis)abilities: Evidence, theory, and practice. In S. B. Neuman & D. K. Dickinson (Eds.) Handbook of Early Literacy (pages 97-110). Guilford Press.
Zaner-Bloser (2020, October 16). The science of reading basics, part 2: The simple view of reading [Video file]. Youtube. https://youtu.be/QtDEMHMRd8E
Zaner-Bloser (2020, October 16). The science of reading basics, part 3: Scarborough's reading rope [Video file]. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JR7GbAHntQ4
