Reading Initiative & Research Overview

1. Reading Initiative & Research Overview Marcia L. Grek, Ph.D. Florida Center for Reading Research Adapted for Franklin Community School Corp. Reading Initiative October 26, 2005

2. Questions for FCSC Reading Initiative • What exactly does our school personnel believe about teaching reading? • What does the ability to read and understand look like in our classrooms? • What is our common vision for literacy in FCSC?

3. To Support Our Initiative • Regularly scheduled meetings • Research to be shared • Modeling a strategy with our peers • Peer coaching and guided practice • On-site/off-site consultants, depending on needs/situations • Visiting functional sites (in and outside of the corp) • Study Groups • Action Research • University collaboration

4. Why a District Wide Initiative? • The whole of a school district is more than the sum of individual classroom parts. • A district wide commitment to a vision and set of strategic goals offers a coherence that is difficult to gain at the individual classroom or school level. • A district wide approach to beginning reading standardizes the common vocabulary, assessment, interventions, and expectations across grades and classrooms, which helps with mobility between classrooms. • A district wide model establishes a clear identity that embodies important features of successful organizations. • Everyone contributes their expertise, wisdom, and experience to a unified effort.

5. Three Definitions of Schools A series of autonomous classrooms that are connected by a common parking lot. A place where the relatively young watch the relatively old work. A complex organization that is built upon relationships that require individuals to work interdependently.

6. First Reader By Billy Collins I can see them standing politely on the wide pages that I was still learning to turn, Jane in a blue jumper, Dick with his crayon-brown hair, playing with a ball or exploring the cosmos of the backyard, unaware they are the first characters, the boy and girl who begin fiction. Beyond the simple illustrations of their neighborhood, the other protagonists were waiting in a huddle: frightening Heathcliff, frightened Pip, Nick Adams carrying a fishing rod, Emma Bovary riding into Rouen. But I would read about the perfect boy and his sister even before I would read about Adam and Eve, garden and gate, and before I heard the name Gutenberg, the type of their simple talk was moving into my focusing eyes.

7. It was always Saturday and he and she were always pointing at something and shouting, “Look!” pointing at the dog, the bicycle, or at their father as he pushed a hand mower over the lawn, waving at aproned mother framed in the kitchen doorway, pointing toward the sky, pointing at each other. They wanted us to look but we had looked already and seen the shaded lawn, the wagon, the postman. We had seen the dog, walked, watered and fed the animal, and now it was time to discover the infinite, clicking permutations of the alphabet’s small and capital letters. Alphabetical ourselves in the rows of classroom desks, we were forgetting how to look, learning how to read.

8. What is the most important single goal of reading instruction? To help students acquire all the skills and knowledge they need to comprehend text fluently.

9. LANGUAGE COMPREHENSION BACKGROUND KNOWLEDGE VOCABULARY KNOWLEDGE LANGUAGE STRUCTURES VERBAL REASONING LITERACY KNOWLEDGE SKILLED READING: fluent execution and coordination of word recognition and text comprehension. increasingly strategic WORDRECOGNITION PHON. AWARENESS DECODING (and SPELLING) SIGHT RECOGNITION increasingly automatic The Many Strands that are Woven into Skilled Reading (Scarborough, 2001) Reading is a multifaceted skill, gradually acquired over years of instruction and practice.

10. Seven Elements of an Effective Reading Model • A set of strategic, research-based, and measurable goals to guide instruction and learning • A valid and reliable formative assessment system to monitor progress in the early grades • Adoption and implementation of research-based reading programs that support the full range of learners • Adequate, prioritized, and protected time for reading instruction and practice • Differentiated instruction, grouping, and scheduling that optimizes learning • An integrated system of research-based professional and resource allocation

11. Goals for Reading Research 1. Learn about the purpose, content, and process, for reviewing instructional materials. 2. Learn how to access web-based reports and research resources. 3. Learn important factors to consider when selecting instructional materials that help accelerate learning for students who struggle with reading. 4. Learn about Immediate Intensive Intervention

12. Content of Research Reports • Description • Type of program: who, what, where, why • Materials • Instructional Design • Lesson Format • Assessment

13. As we research… • Why is it important? • What would it look like in a classroom? • Strengths/Weaknesses • What could we pull from it for our district? and/or What grade levels? • How important could this be for our vision?

14. What to Look for When Selecting Reading Programs: An Overview

15. Why be concerned with selecting reading programs? • We have evidence that curriculum matters. • Instruction that’s guided by a systematic and explicit curriculum is more effective, particularly with at-risk learners, than instruction that does not have these features. • Need excellent materials • Teachers do not have time to develop materials

16. Characteristics of Scientifically Based Reading Programs ★Instructional Content ★Instructional Design ★ Empirical Evidence

17. Instructional Content = Ingredients

18. Instructional Content • Core elements of scientifically based programs include explicit and systematic instruction in the following: • phonemic awareness • phonics • fluency • vocabulary • comprehension strategies

19. Phonemic Awareness Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate individual sounds in spoken words (Torgesen, 1998).

20. Phonemic Awareness • Research • PA improves word reading, spelling, and comprehension • Poor readers who enter first grade with weak PA are most likely to be the poor readers in fourth grade, critical skill for KDG. • Instruction • Auditory Activities • Needs to follow the developmental hierarchy of phonological awareness

21. Five Levels of Phonological Awareness Phonological Awareness Phonemic Awareness Phoneme Blending & Segmenting Onset-Rime Blending & Segmenting Syllable Blending & Segmenting Sentence Segmenting Rhyming & Alliteration

22. Phonics An understanding of the alphabetic principle—the relationship between phonemes and graphemes.

23. Phonics Research • “Systematic and explicit phonics instruction is more effective than non-systematic or no phonics instruction” (Put Reading First, p. 13). • “Systematic and explicit phonics instruction significantly improves children’s reading comprehension” (Put Reading First, p. 14).

24. Phonics Instruction • Systematic: pre-specified sequence of letter–sound correspondences taught in a logical order • most common sounds taught first • progresses from simple to more complex • once a few letter sounds are learned, students are taught a decoding strategy • students apply recently learned phonics to reading connected text • Explicit • taught directly (teacher modeling, providing guided practice, and independent practice)

25. Fluency • The ability to read text • quickly, • accurately, • and with proper expression (NRP 2000).

26. Fluency Research • “Repeated and monitored oral reading improves reading fluency and overall reading achievement” (Put Reading First, p. 24).

27. Fluency Instruction • Articulate the importance & provide modeling • Reading Levels • Monitor fluency progress • Oral reading with feedback • Variety of research based strategies • Repeated Readings, Timed, Partner

28. The knowledge of the meanings and pronunciation of words that are used in oral and written language. Vocabulary

29. Vocabulary Research & Instruction • Can be developed • directly (teach important, difficult, and useful words) • indirectly • Teach word learning strategies • How to use dictionaries and reference aids • How to use word parts to determine meaning of words • How to use context clues to determine meaning • Provide multiple exposures to words • Read aloud to students • Encourage independent wide reading

30. The ability to make sense of text and to monitor for understanding. Comprehension

31. Comprehension Research • “Text comprehension can be improved by instruction that helps readers use specific comprehension strategies.” • “Effective comprehension strategy instruction is explicit, or direct.” Put Reading First, pp. 49, 53

32. Comprehension Instruction • Monitoring comprehension (promoting metacognition – Thinking about your thinking) • Using graphic and semantic organizers • e.g., teaching the use of a Venn diagram to compare and contrast 2 characters from a story • Main Idea • Summarizing • Text Structure

33. Instructional Content = Ingredients

34. Instructional Design = Recipe

35. Instructional Design • Features of well-designed programs include: • explicit instructional strategies • coordinated instructional sequences • ample practice opportunities • aligned student materials

36. Explicit Instruction • Teacher Models and Explains • Teacher provides Guided Practice • Students practice what the teacher modeled and the teacher provides prompts and feedback – Error Correction Procedure • Teacher provides Supported Application • Students apply the skill as the teacher scaffolds instruction • Independent Practice

37. Coordinated Instructional Sequences Phonological Phonemic Awareness Phonics Fluency Vocabulary Comprehension Strategies

38. Instructional Content Phonemic Awareness Phonics Fluency Vocabulary Comprehension Instructional Design Explicit Instructional Strategies Coordinated Instructional Sequences Ample Practice Opportunities Aligned Student Materials Scientifically Based Reading Programs Recipe Ingredients

39. Reading Programs PLUS • Reading programs can make a valuable contribution to raising the reading achievement of at-risk students, however…

40. Reading Programs PLUS LEADERSHIP EFFECTIVE INSTRUCTION ASSESSMENT PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT SCIENTIFICALLY BASED READING PROGRAMS

41. Delicious Chocolate Cake!

42. Happy, independent, fluent readers!

43. NCLB Every child in America reading at grade level by the end of grade three. We have 8 years! 2013-2014

44. A model for preventing reading failure in grades K-3: The big Ideas 1. Increase the quality, consistency, and reach of instruction in every K-3 classroom 2. Conduct timely and valid assessments of reading growth to identify struggling readers 3. Provide more intensive interventions to “catch up” the struggling readers Not reading fluently at end of 1st grade (40-60 WPM) – Won’t catch up by 4th grade Not in 4th grade – Not in 9th grade…

45. 5 + 3 + ii + iii = NCLB 5 Five skills on which early reading instruction should focus 3 Three types of assessment to guide instruction Screening • Progress monitoring • Diagnosis • ii High quality initial instruction is critical • iii Immediate intensive interventions for children lagging behind in the growth of critical reading skills

46. Is the federal government advocating a “one size fits all” approach to instruction? Absolutely Not!

47. A central problem in reading instruction arises, not from the absolute level of children’s preparation for learning to read, but from the diversity in their levels of preparation (Olson, 1998)

48. We all know that children vary enormously from one another in their instructional needs. • To be most effective, instruction must be adapted to the needs of individual children.

49. One child may require extra instruction in phonemic awareness and phonics to get a good start in reading • Another child might require extra instruction in vocabulary • Another child may come to school with strong phonemic awareness and letter knowledge, and may require very little instruction in phonics to begin reading to build fluency • Another child may know very little about letters and sounds upon school entry, and may require special instructional support in this area for some time • Still other children will require extended practice to develop reading fluency

50. Interventions should be organized in tiers • Layers of intervention responding to student needs TIER I TIER II • Each tier provides more intensive and supportive intervention TIER III • Aimed at preventing reading disabilities