Scientifically Based Reading Research

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Scientifically Based Reading Research

• The Good, The Fair, The Untenable
• Deborah L. Thompson, Ph.D.
• The College of New Jersey

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Introduction

• Scientifically based reading research, or SBRR,
  is a term that has come into prominence since the
  passage of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB)
  legislation.
• According to the US Department of Education,
  reading instruction that is scientifically or
  evidenced-based has been proven effective through
  rigorous scientific research.

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What we know about learning to read did not begin
with NCLB. There is a large body of research
many decades old that gives us the tools to help
all children become skillful readers. But we will
start with NCLB.
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The National Reading Panel identified five
essential components of reading.

• Phonemic Awareness
• Phonics
• Fluency
• Vocabulary
• Comprehension

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Glossary of terms

• Phonemic awareness The ability to manipulate
  soundssubstitution, deletion, isolation,
  blending, segmentation, and rhyming.
• Phonics The relationship between the letters
  (graphemes) of written language and the sounds
  (phonemes) of spoken language.

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Glossary of Terms

• Fluency The ability to read a text accurately
  and quickly.
• Vocabulary The words we must know to communicate
  effectively. There is oral vocabulary or those
  works we recognize in listening and reading
  vocabulary, or those words we recognize or use in
  print.
• Comprehension The ability to make sense of text.

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Phonemic Awareness

• Phonemic awareness can be taught and learned.
• Phonemic awareness can help students learn to
  read and spell.
• Learning to read and spell can help children
  develop phonemic awareness.

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Important elements of phonemic awareness

• Rhyming recognizing and producing rhyming words.
• Segmentation breaking words into component
  parts.
• Isolation identifying individual sounds in
  words.
• Deletion taking out phonemes from spoken words.
  
• Substitution switching one sound for another in
  words.
• Blending putting sounds together to form words

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Phonemic Awareness in Action
Rhyming cat-sat-fat
Isolation c A t
Blending c a tcat
Segmentation c at
Substitution catcot
Deletion catat
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Phonics

• Phonics instruction teaches children letter-sound
  relationships.
• Systematic and explicit phonics instruction is
  more effective than non-systematic or no phonics
  instruction.
• Systematic and explicit phonics instruction can
  improve first-grade childrens word recognition
  and spelling.

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Phonics

• Systematic and explicit phonics instruction can
  improve childrens reading comprehension.
• Phonics instruction is not an entire reading
  program for beginning readers.
• Approximately two years of phonics instruction is
  sufficient for most students.
• The best way to help children develop good
  sound-symbol relationships is through repeated
  opportunities to read high quality childrens
  literature.

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Fluency

• Fluency is the connector between word recognition
  and comprehension.
• Fluency helps readers focus on the meaning of
  text instead of decoding of text.
• (Teachers) Reading aloud provides the best model
  of fluent reading.
• Have students practice orally rereading text
  using methods such as student-adult reading,
  choral reading, partner reading, tape-assisted
  reading, or readers theatre.

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Two well-loved, but fluency destroying, strategies

• Round robin reading
• Popcorn reading

RIP FLUENCY
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Developing fluency in oral reading

• Allow children to rehearse (read to themselves
  before reading aloud).
• Use easy materials.
• Dont let children correct each other.
• Ignore errors that dont change meaning.
• Wait when a reader makes a meaning changing
  error.
• Coach for strategies needed.

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Vocabulary

• Children cannot understand what they are reading
  unless they know what most of the words mean.
• Children learn vocabulary directly (explicit
  instruction) and indirectly (wide reading and
  writing).
• Most children learn more vocabulary indirectly
  than they do directly.

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Teaching Vocabulary

• Vocabulary instruction should take place before
  and after reading.
• Wide reading exposes children to a multitude of
  new words.
• Learning to use context clues helps children
  learn vocabulary independently.
• Word study gives children the foundation to build
  on words they already know.

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One of the least productive methods for teaching
vocabulary is having children use the dictionary
to find meanings of unknown words.

• Children often wander aimlessly through the
  pages.
• If a child does not know a word, reading the
  definition does little for him or her, especially
  if there are multiple entries
• Jade (5), mark (37),
• set (35), jam (7), dog (59)

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Comprehension

• Instruction in comprehension can help students
  understand what they read, remember what they
  read, and communicate with others about what they
  read.
• Some key comprehension strategies that must be
  taught comprehension monitoring, using graphic
  and semantic organizers, answering and generating
  questions, recognizing and understanding
  different text structures, and summarizing.

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Teaching comprehension

• Provide explicit (or direct) instruction direct
  explanation, modeling, guided practice,
  application.
• Make use of cooperative learning.
• Help readers use comprehension strategies
  flexibly and in combination.

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Classic reading research studiesFirst grade
studies (Bond Dykstra, 1967)

• There is no particular method that works better
  for one set of students over another set, i.e.,
  if wide-reading worked for one group of students,
  it worked for all groups of students.
• The most effective method of teaching reading is
  it depends (P. David Pearson)

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What the researchers at CIERA (Center for
Improvement of Early Reading Achievement) say

• Oral language is the foundation for literacy
  development.
• Two powerful predictors of first grade reading
  achievement are letter name knowledge and
  phonemic awareness.
• Readers must be able to apply phonics knowledge
  to unfamiliar words.
• Rapid recognition of vocabulary is the foundation
  of fluent reading.

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CIERA researchers

• Children must be able to use basic comprehension
  strategies to support known information and
  acquire new information.
• Learning to write assists children in learning to
  read.
• Personal engagement and pride contribute much to
  childrens becoming skillful readers.
• In schools that are successful in fostering high
  levels of reading achievement, all adults work
  together on the reading program.

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The National Assessment of Educational Progress
(NAEP) has been used to assess major areas of
education including reading performance since
1969.  In the more than 30 years since its
inception, and despite the different approaches
to reading education that have prevailed at
different times, childrens reading scores have
not really changed appreciably about 40 percent
of this countrys forth graders have always
performed in the "below basic" category, while
approximately 5 percent have been ranked in the
"advanced" category at the other end of the
distribution.
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If SBRR were a puzzle

• there would be missing pieces based on the
  NRPs model.

Phonemic awareness
Family
Motivation
Fluency
Comprehension
Teacher preparation
Vocabulary
Phonics
Resources
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A story about evidence from sciencethe
physicians health study

• Began in 1982 to study the effects of taking
  aspirin and beta-carotene on cardiovascular
  health.
• More than 250,000 male doctors were asked to
  participate in the study. Final number of
  participantsapproximately 22,000.
  (http//phs.bwh.harvard.edu/phs1.htmback)

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evidence-based research but

• First positive results reported in 1989aspirin
  taken in controlled doses helped prevent heart
  attacks.
• Cheers! Kudos! But wait!
• Do we know aspirin helps women? Were there no
  female physicians available?
• Womens Health Study established in 1993.

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Evidence-based means little if only one type of
subject was studied.
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Summary

• Research is important, but must be read and
  applied judiciously.
• One method of teaching reading does not work for
  all students. Even the most strident of phonics
  or whole language advocates would agree.
• Nothing can get a child to fluent, effortless
  reading quicker than a good teacher of reading.

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Good research worth reading Preventing Reading
Difficulties in Young Children (1998) Beginning
to Read Thinking and learning about print (1990)