The Nature of Literacy and Learning Approaches

1. Chapter 1 The Nature of Literacy and Today’s Students

2. Key Terms to Know • Reading—a process of constructing meaning from print • Phonology—the language component that consists of producing and understanding sounds • Morphology—the component of language that has to do with meaningful word parts, such as root words and affixes

3. Key Terms Continued • Syntax-the way words are arranged in a sentence • Semantics—the component of language that has to do with meaning • Graphophonic—component of language that has to do with letter/sound correspondence • Pragmatics—component of language that has to do with engaging in effective communication • Prosody—the component of language that has to do with rhythm of speech: pitch, stress, juncture

4. Behaviorism • What is behaviorism?  • Philosophy of learning that describes all the activities of an organism in terms of observable actions or behaviors. • Stresses observable responses to stimuli. • Describe characteristics. • Learning consists of the acquisition of new behaviors. • Responses that are reinforced increase in frequency. • Responses that are not reinforces are extinguished (do not occur again). • Behaviors are learned or increased when reinforcers are used (e.g., praise, privileges, gold star, other type of reward). • Basic principle of behaviorism is that we tend to repeat behaviors that are rewarding and avoid those that are not.

5. Behaviorism-Example of a Program • Reading Mastery is an example of  a program that takes a behavioristic approach. • Describe what that program looks like. • Students first learn letter sounds and then learn to blend the sounds to learn new words. • The teacher points to a letter and says, "Here is a new sound.” • The teacher touches the letter and says the sound for the letter. • Students are told to say the sound of the letter when the teacher touches the letter. • Signals are used so that students respond in unison. • Individual students are called on to say the sound.

6. Cognitivism • What is cognitivism?  • Philosophy of learning that describes the activities of an organism in terms of observable actions or behaviors and internal or mental states. • Based on the proposition that mental processes exist and can be studied. • Describe 3 characteristics. • Humans are active participants in their learning rather than passive. • Reinforcement is seen as being important to learning because it a) strengthens responses, b) is a source of information and feedback. • This approach tends to be student-centered. • Piaget's theories are considered to be an example of a cognitive approach to learning.

7. Jean Piaget • Piaget is also considered to be constructivist, which is a philosophy of learning that describes learning as an active process in which the learner constructs mental models of reality. They don’t simply reproduce what they hear. • Piaget believed that children interact with the world around them. • Children’s thinking is qualitatively different from adult’s thinking and that it evolves through a series of hierarchical stages. • Through adaptation or interaction with the environment, children build schemes that help them make sense of the world. • Adaptation includes two complementary processes: • Assimilation—the process of incorporating new ideas into existing ones • Accommodation—the process through which concepts or schema are modified or new ones are created to accommodate new knowledge.

8. L.S. Vygotsky • Similar to Piaget, Vygotsky also believed that children interact with the world around them. • Vygotsky also stressed the importance of social factors in cognitive development. • He also distinguished between actual development and potential development. • Known as ZPD • Refers to the difference between what a child can do on his own and what the child can do with help.

9. Scaffolding • What is scaffolding? • Temporary support structures provided to student to assist them as they learn new information or complete assigned tasks. • How does it work? • The idea is that the teacher introduces a new concept or topic by demonstrating or modeling it to students. • Students are then given the opportunity to practice this concept as a class, then perhaps in a smaller group. • The student then takes what he/she has learned about the topic/concept and applies it independently.

10. Examples of Scaffolding • What are examples of scaffolding? • modeling, • demonstration, • prompts or guides, • essential questions, • scoring guides or rubrics, • graphic organizers.

11. Implications of Piaget’s and Vygotsky’s Theories • Provide students with hands-on experiences and opportunities to make discoveries. • Be aware of and plan for individual differences. • Children learn best when activities are developmentally appropriate. • Classrooms should be rich in verbal guidance through interaction with the teacher and with peers.

12. The Reader’s Role in the Reading Process • Louise Rosenblatt describes every reading act as an event, or a transaction, that involves a reader and a text. • Every reader takes a stance, or attitude, towards the text: • efferent: the focus is on obtaining or carrying away information from the reading. • aesthetic: the focus is on the reading experience, the rhythm of the words, the past experiences called up when reading

13. Approaches to Reading Instruction #1 • Bottom-Up • The kind of processing where meaning is derived from the accurate, sequential processing of words. • This model emphasizes a single-direction, part-to-whole processing of a text. • The emphasis is on the text rather than the reader’s background knowledge or language ability. • Instruction proceeds from simple to complex—children first learn names and shapes of letters, next they learn consonant sounds, followed by more simple and more complex vowel correspondence.

14. Approaches to Reading Instruction #2 • Top-Down • Learning to read should be holistic and natural through immersion in print. • Refers to how meaning is derived by using one’s background knowledge, language ability, and expectations. • Reading is a meaning-driven process. • Readers identify letters or words only to confirm their assumptions about the meaning of the text. • The emphasis is on the reader rather than the text. • Proponents of the top-down approach generally agree that comprehension is the basis for decoding skills, not a singular result, and meaning is brought to print, not derived from print (from www.sil.org).

15. Approaches to Reading Instruction #3 • Interactive • This model assume that skills at all levels are interactively available to process and interpret the text (Grabe 1988). • Good readers are both good decoders and good interpreters of text, their decoding skills becoming more automatic but no less important as their reading skill develops (Eskey 1988). • Belief that reading involves processing text and using one’s background knowledge and language ability. • It is a blending of both bottom-up and top-down.

16. Interactive continued • Skills are taught directly and systematically while also having students read whole books and write for real purposes. • To properly achieve fluency and accuracy, developing readers must work at perfecting both their bottom-up recognition skills and their top-down interpretation strategies. Good reading (that is fluent and accurate reading) can result only from a constant interaction between these processes. • Fluent reading entails both skillful decoding and relating information to prior knowledge (Eskey, 1988). From http://nadabs.tripod.com/reading/#interact

17. Reading and Writing Program for Today’s Students—10 Principles • Children learn to read by reading. • Reading should be easy—but not too easy (no more than 2-5% of words are difficult in a text). • Instruction should be functional and contextual. • Build bridges and connections between children’s experiences and what they are about to read. • Promote independence so that children are able to eventually use skills on their own. • Believe that all children can read and write. • The literacy program should be goal-oriented and systematic. • Build students’ motivation and sense of competence. • Build student’s language proficiency. • Use ongoing assessment to determine how students are progressing.

18. Highly Effective Teachers • Are caring and have high expectations • Balance instruction with skills being taught when needed, and the skills relate to the reading and writing being done by students. • Use every opportunity to teach and reinforce skills. • Use prompts and other devices to scaffold students’ learning. • Are well-organized with clearly established routines and maintain a classroom atmosphere of cooperation. • Have well-stocked classrooms with a variety of reading materials. • Match materials and tasks to what students are able to do—within their developmental levels.