John J. Pikulski, Ph.D. Sponsored by : Lou Massicci, Central Valley Representative

1. San Joaquin Valley’s Region VII Vocabulary Conference Achieving Reading Excellence: Building on the Strengths, Taking on the Challenges John J. Pikulski, Ph.D. Sponsored by: Lou Massicci, Central Valley Representative Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishers

2. “Facility in the language arts is the enabling skill that traverses academic disciplines and translates into meaningful personal, social, and economic outcomes for individuals.” California Reading/Language Arts Framework, p. 3

3. There has been no previous time in history when the success, indeed the survival, of nations and people has been so tightly tied to their ability to learn. Today’s society has little room for those who cannot read and write proficiently…The economy of high paying jobs for low skilled workers is fast disappearing. In contrast to only 20 years ago, individuals who do not succeed in school have little chance of finding a job or contributing to society. National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future, 1997

4. “The United States today is in a truly global environment, and competitor countries are not only wide awake, they are running a marathon while we are running sprints.” p. 253 Thomas L. Friedman. (2005). The world is flat:A brief history of the twenty-first century. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

5. Stubbornly Flat Reading Scores?

6. Average NAEP Reading Scores for the Nation

7. California Standards Test

8. “Criteria for Evaluating Instructional Materials: K-8” In California State Board of Education. (2007). Reading/language Arts Framework for California Public Schools: Kindergarten through Grade Twelve. (For adoption cycle beginning November, 2008)

9. Program Descriptions for each of the five programs • Program 1: Reading/Language Arts Basic Program, K-8 • Program 2: Reading/Language Arts - EnglishLanguage Development Basic Program, K-8 • Program 3: PrimaryLanguage/English Language Development Program, K-8 • Program 4: Intensive Intervention in Reading/Language Arts, 4-8 • Program 5: Intensive Intervention for English Learners, 4-8

10. Program 1: RLA Basic ProgramCurriculum and Instruction The basic program must offer comprehensive guidance for teachers in providing effective, efficient, explicit, sequential, linguistically logical and systematic instruction. The basic program must offer practice, application, and diagnostic support in all skills and strategies at the appropriate grade levels. This is the basic, comprehensive (what might in the past have been called the Basal) Program designed for developmental or accelerated readers, as well as those with mild difficulties.

11. Program 1: RLA Basic ProgramTime for Instructional Materials • 1 hour in kindergarten • 2.5 hours grades 1- 3 • 2 hours in grades 4,5,6 • At least 1 and up to 2 hours in grades 6,7,8 Must provide instructional content for 180 days of instruction for the following minimal time periods:

12. Program 1: RLA Basic ProgramRequired Instructional Elements to reinforce and extend the basic program • Extra Support for Struggling Readers, K-8 • Extra Support for English Learners, K-8 • Intensive vocabulary Support, K-3 • Reading Intervention Kit, 1-3, (but same kit can be used for all 3 grade levels).

13. Program 1: RLA Basic Program: Required Instructional Elements A. Extra Support for Struggling Readers K – 8 • Purpose is to provide guidance for teachers and support for students to successfully participate in, and progress through, the daily lessons in the basic program with their peers • 30 minutes of additional instructional materials daily

14. Program 1: RLA Basic Program: Required Instructional Elements B. Extra Support for English Learners, Kindergarten – Grade 8 • Purpose is to provide guidance for teachers and support for students to successfully participate in and progress through the daily lessons of the basic program with their peers • 30 minutes of additional instructional materials daily • Must provide: • Material that address the beginning, early intermediate, and advanced early levels of English-language proficiency. • Survival vocabulary and language, including, but not limited to language for obtaining necessities. • Acquisition of academic vocabulary. • Phonological, morphological, syntactical and semantic structures of English.

15. The Extra Support for Struggling Readers and the Extra Support of English Learners pieces have as their purpose, allowing success for students , K-8, who might be overly challenged by the instruction and materials that are part of the Basic Program. These pieces are to provide scaffolded support for success in the basic program by students who might otherwise have found the program inaccessible. It is encouraging to note that preteaching is specifically mentioned in the extra support material requirements.

16. Program 1: RLA Basic Program: Required Instructional Elements • Intensive Vocabulary Instructional Support, K-3 The Intensive Vocabulary Instructional Support Element is one of the most potentially powerful aspect of the new framework, one that is likely to have an impact far beyond the borders of CA. For this reason, I will review it and comment on it later in the presentation when I review the issue of vocabulary as it relates to the new framework.

17. Program 1: RLA Basic Program: Required Instructional Elements • Reading Intervention Kit, 1-3 • A classroom kit including five sets of strategic intervention ,technical skills materials, one set for each of the five key technical skill domains of beginning reading. • For use in tutorial or small group instructional settings. • Each set includes a minimum of 90, fifteen minute lessons • Each set includes periodic assessments. • The same classroom kit for grades 1 through 3 is acceptable. This kit is for students who are skill deficient; strategies and skills must be consistent with those used in the basic program.

18. Program 2: Reading/Language Arts - EnglishLanguage Development Basic Program, K-8Required Instructional Elements • Includes all the content required in RLA Basic Program 1 including: • Extra Support Struggling Readers • Extra Support for English Learners • Intensive Vocabulary Support • Reading Intervention Kit “The Reading/Language Arts – English-Language Development Program includes all content and the four additional instructional elements required in the Reading/Language Arts Basic Program as well as the additional one hour of daily English-language development instruction.” P. 296 The Framework.

19. Program 2: ELD Instructional Materials Requirements • Connected to, and consistent with the unit or theme of the basic program • Focused survival vocabulary and language, skills that are transferable from students’ primary language to English, academic vocabulary, oral language development, etc.

20. Program 2: ELD Instructional Materials Requirements (Continued) • One hour daily • The one hour may be segmented Program 2 appears to be Program 1 with the addition of a more intensive, one hour English language development component – one that it more extensive and intensive than the Extra Support for English learners component of the basic program.

21. Program 3: Primary Language/ELD Basic Program, K-8 • Comprehensive program in the key languages of the state for students K-8. • Designed for students on waiver as defined by Proposition 227. • Materials designed to ensure students are successful in acquiring English. • Must be submitted with ELD materials. • This program may not be submitted as part of the basic program; this program stands alone.

22. Program 3: Primary Language/ELD Basic Program • Parallels Program 2 including requiring: • Extra Support for English Learners • Intensive Vocabulary Support • Reading Intervention Kit • Extra Support for Struggling Readers • One hour of daily English Language Development Instruction Program 3 parallels Program 2, but is in the native language of students who speak a language other than English and who are on waiver as defined by proposition 227.

23. Program 4: Intensive Intervention Program in Reading/Language Arts, 4-8 • Stand alone, intensive, accelerated ; not part of the basic reading/language arts program. • Designed for learners in grades 4-8 whose academic achievement is two or more years below grade level who would not profit from instruction in the basic program. • 2.5 to 3 hours of daily instruction; 180 days of instruction.

24. Program 4: Intensive Intervention Program in Reading/Language Arts, 4-8 (continued) • Major goals are to teach students to read and to master content standards not previously mastered. • Must be designed so students gain two grade levels for every year of instruction and progress rapidly into the basic program at their grade level in two years or less. • Must have multiple levels and multiple points of entry.

25. Program 5: Intensive Intervention Program for English Learners, 4-8 • Stand alone, intensive, accelerated ; not part of the basic reading/language arts program. • Designed for English Learners in grades 4-8 whose academic achievement is two or more years below grade level, who would not profit from instruction in the basic program. • 2.5 to 3 hours of daily instruction/180 days of instruction.

26. Program 5: Intensive Intervention Program for English Learners, 4-8 (continued) • Major goal is to provide intensive English-language development that compliments and supports reading/language arts instruction. • Must be designed so students gain two grade levels for every year of instruction and progress rapidly into the basic program at their grade level in two years or less. • Must have multiple levels and multiple points of entry

27. Programs 4 and 5 are clearly stand alone alternatives to the basic program for students whose level of reading proficiency mitigate against success in Programs 1 or 2. They both have the very ambitious goal of providing sufficient instruction in 2 years or less to equip students with the competencies they will need to succeed in the basic program at their age appropriate grade level. The emphasis of Program 4 is mastery of previously missed competencies; Program 5 adds substantial English language development.

28. Areas of Major Concern Reflected in the 2007 Framework • Struggling Readers • English Learners • Vocabulary/Language Development An Area of Major Concern Expressed by California Educators • Writing

29. Writing Instruction:Two Major Concerns • Daily writing instruction was not sufficiently prominent in the current program. Teachers were prone to omit it. • Insufficient attention, instruction, and practice with prompts like those used in state writing assessments.

30. Vocabulary

31. California Reading/Language Arts Framework(Chapter 9: Evaluating Reading Programs) 12 Phonemic Awareness 02 Phonological Awareness 36 Phonics 12 10 Decoding 68 Vocabulary

32. Program 1: RLA Basic Program: Required Instructional Elements • Intensive Vocabulary Instructional Support, K-3 • Provide additional vocabulary development (beyond that in the basic program) for students who need extra vocabulary support. • Purpose is to increase oral (listening and speaking) vocabulary of students with limited vocabularies, including EL’s, students with disabilities, struggling readers, and students who use African American vernacular English. • Must provide a list of logically sequenced vocabulary words which are beyond grade level reading; the lists must be supported by research.

33. Zeno 1995 Word Frequency list • Analyzed texts from kindergarten through college level. • Established a list of 17.25 million words. • The vast majority of words appeared less than once per million running words of text. • Only 107 words appeared 1,000 or more times per million words – high frequency words whose meaning need not be taught. • 5,586 words appeared between 10 and 300 times per million words. • This list could be reduced to 3,886 words just by grouping words whose meaning was transparent because of inflectional endings (act - ed, ing, s). • This list of 3,886 account for 80% of the word corpus through college, 90% of the words through 9th grade, and approximately 92% of the words on prominent reading tests through fourth grade. Hiebert, E. (2005). In Hiebert, E. & Kamil, M. (Eds.) Teaching and Learning Vocabulary. Earlbaum.

34. Zeno 1995 Word Frequency list (continued) • Many of the 3,886 words are NOT general academic vocabulary that need to be taught in a reading program, including: • Words whose primary function is syntactical (a, ain’t, am, and, an, are, aren’t, as) • Proper first names (Abraham, Adam, Alan, Albert, Alex, Alexander, Alfred, Alice) • Geographic terms (Africa, African, Alaska, America, American (s), America’s, Arizona • Many of the words can be effectively clustered morphologically for instructional efficiency (act –ed, ing, s; action –s; active, activity. Assist, assistance, assistant.)

35. Zeno 1995 Word Frequency list (continued) • I estimate (roughly) that the list could be reduced by about a third by eliminating words that are not general academic and through making morphological clusters, leaving roughly 3,500 words which would constitute a “core general academic” vocabulary list • 500 words per year K-6 • Pre-K????????? • Of course, it is not that simple! • Words have multiple meanings • Frequency and difficulty are not the same • No recent studies of word difficulty • Situating words in meaningful contexts

36. Program 1: RLA Basic Program: Required Instructional Elements • Intensive Vocabulary Instructional Support, K-3 (continued) • Must include narrative and expository texts which link to the units and themes in the basic program. • Must provide for 15 to 20 minutes of additional instruction. • Requires instruction with 8 to 10 words per week in K; 10 to 12 words in 1 and 2; 15 to 18 words in grade 3. • Requires periodic review and extended use. • Weekly pre and post assessments of new words. This is a more general oral language enhancement component rather than a scaffolding component for the basic program like the extra support pieces.

37. “Academic language – the more difficult, abstract, technical, and specialized vocabulary and concepts used in texts and tests.” (p.305) Interpretation: this refers to mature, advanced, sophisticated vocabulary needed for success in academic and professional settings--- not just vocabulary from academic disciplines or content areas. Improvement of academic language and vocabulary will not take place unless the content and concepts underlying that language are taught.

38. Three Major Reasons for Teaching/Developing Vocabulary • To facilitate/enhance students’ comprehension of a text they are to read. • To equip students for success in educational settings and in life. • To enhance students appreciation of the pleasures to be derived through language.

39. Types of Words • Conversational – Beck’s Tier 1 – address, afraid, agree, airplane, alive, alone, angry. • Selection/Concept – Musher, Iditarod, chilblains, • Academic • Core Academic – Beck’s Tier 2 –Abandon, abundant, accurate, advantage, agriculture, alternative, analyze. • Content Academic – Beck’s Tier 3? – acid, amendment, algae, atom, arctic, bacteria, • The “jargon” of reading and writing(e.g. Summary, Plot, Theme, Main Idea) • Interesting/Rare/Morphologically useful

40. Published reading are tools that are necessary for effective reading instruction, but those tools are effective only in the hands of a skilled professional teacher. Reading programs and materials are akin to a set of advanced, expertly designed surgical instruments; necessary for the work of a skilled surgeon, but ineffective, and downright dangerous in the hands of an unskilled, poorly prepared surgeon or layperson.

41. Building on Prior Professional Development • California, through AB 466 and more recently through SB 472, has made major commitments to professional development in reading instruction • 40 hours of targeted development at grade level. • 80 hours of grade level intense follow up development that is program specific. • Districts throughout CA have committed additional resources to develop expertise in areas such as: • Universal access • English Learners • Classroom Management • Differentiated reading through guided reading groups • Writing, etc.

42. Major Conclusions From USOE Cooperative First Grade Studies “To improve reading instruction, it is necessary to train better teachers of reading rather than to expect a panacea in the form of materials.” Bond and Dykstra, 1967

43. “It is recognized that good teachers Are the most important element in learning. The single most important strategy for achieving America’s education goals is to recruit, prepare and support excellent teachers for every school.” National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future, 1997