Put Reading Instruction Research

Times are changing. Literacy is not only a problem that the English teacher has to deal with. Literacy is defined as the ability to read and write (Oxford Dictionaries). However, you have to use different skills to read a novel than you do with reading a science question. So it only makes that literacy should be taught in different ways for each different subject. It does a student no good to be able to physically read a science question but have no idea what it’s asking for. The last five years have seen unprecedented attention given to the literacy achievement of adolescents in secondary schools in the United States. Spurred by the release of flat or declining reading scores on national tests. (Donahue, Daane & Grigg, 2003). This could be easily linked to a lack of literacy techniques being taught in schools.

he most fundamental responsibility of schools is teaching students to read. Indeed, the future success of all students hinges upon their ability to become proficient readers. Recent scientific studies have allowed us to understand more than ever before how literacy develops, why some children have difficulty, and what constitutes best instructional practice. Scientists now estimate that fully 95 percent of all children can be taught to read. Yet, in spite of all our knowledge, statistics reveal an alarming prevalence of struggling and poor readers that is not limited to any one segment of society:

Content area teachers can implement strategies and scaffold learning when planning and designing instruction so that students will actively engage in literacy. According to Dobbs, content area reading instruction includes: the information present in the text, and the instructional plan teachers use to help students understand the content (2003, p.3). Vacca, Vacca, & Mraz explain that in order to plan instruction effectively, teachers must be aware of the explicit and functional dimensions of content literacy. The explicit aspect of content literacy involves the development of skills and strategies that enable students to comprehend what they are reading. Functional instruction focuses more on the application of strategies needed to derive knowledge from a variety of sources of information.” (2014, p. 134). Forget defined literacy as “listening, thinking, reading, and speaking in such a way that information and ideas are processed and communicated to the benefit of self and society” (2003, p. 5). Content area teachers need to plan and design lessons so that students will actively engage in literacy. Forget goes on to discuss that poor performance in schools can be do to a lack of basic literacy skills. Therefore, teachers need to implement the skills and strategies found to be successful in literacy to ensure

Comprehension is also an important factor when speaking of literacy. Students should be taught the many strategies that will help them with comprehension and word recognition. In my experience in a first grade classroom I used many of these strategies. Within my lessons I included the activation of prior knowledge to construct meaning, the use of context clues in a sentence, pictures clues, predicting, and drawing inferences about ideas or characters in the text. I always made sure that I modeled the strategy for the student before they set of to do it.

This is a very important component in education to be aware of and when you are a teacher. I interviewed a first-grade teacher at my local elementary school to gain more information about the processes that our local schools go through for professional training, interventions, and in the classroom to ensure that students are developing their abilities in reading. My main focus was on what our school’s process was, how support is given, professional training offered, and what more is needed to be done to increase success for students.

Reading is a means of language acquisition, of communication, and of sharing information which is essential in being a productive member of society. If and when a student missed an opportunity to learn the skills necessary for reading, it’s has a profound impact on their lives. As educators we realize that teaching all children to read requires that every child receive excellent reading instruction. We are also aware that children, who are struggling with reading must receive

Although for awhile, phonics had lost some of its popularity, research has proven its usefulness when teaching children to read. Without explicit instructions in phonemic awareness and phonics a student is in danger of learning issues. The Headsprout Reading Basics program can prevent these issues from occurring through explicit instruction in phonemic awareness,

As I arrange this reflective analysis paper on topics that relate to a foundational course and specifically searching for the modules that have given me the most information, taught me something new or expanded my knowledge on a specific topic of reading, I have come to realize how far I have come since I began this adventure. I began these courses after graduating from Marshall with my bachelors. I chose this path because of my love for reading and teaching reading. I have come to realize that these courses have enabled me to become a more effective reading teacher and I now have been given the skills, strategies and techniques that I needed to teach a child to read. I know that I will always need to keep up with classes and new techniques, but feel that I am much more capable of teaching reading than before I started these courses. The course 653 Literacy Acquisition helped me to improve and further develop my educational philosophies and beliefs. So, I chose to speak about the first lesson that was expected of me in this class, Module 1 Literacy Theories, Beliefs and Practices.

As mentioned before, The National Reading Panel in 2000 and the No Child Left Behind Act signed in 2001 defined there five components as the most important to teach in reading instruction: phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, comprehension and fluency. Phonemic awareness is defined as the knowledge that spoken words can be broken apart into smaller segments of sound known as phonemes. Phonics is defined as the knowledge that letters of the alphabet represent phonemes, and that these sounds are blended together to form written words. The component three, fluency, which is the ability to recognize words easily, read with greater speed, accuracy, and expression, and to better understand what is read. The fourth component, vocabulary, is defined as teaching new words, either as they appear in the text, or by introducing new words separately. The fifth component is comprehension, comprehension is defined as understanding what

According to Adams, students who struggle with phonemic awareness will struggle with “how sounds work in print...they will not have the ability to “listen inside a word” and “listen to the sounds they hear”” (Adams, n.d, p. 119). According to Cooter and Reutzel, students need to understand that “spoken language is made up of smaller units such as phrases, words, syllables and phonemes” (Cooter & Reutzel, 2016, p. 116). Along with letter knowledge instruction, phonemic awareness sets students up to succeed in the crucial skills of decoding, fluency and comprehension. If students are aware of the letters, the sounds they make, and how to manipulate the beginning, middle and ending sounds in words. These skills make the complex of decoding easier because students know how to recognize letter sounds and can manipulate them. Students can use their oral language skills, phonemic awareness, and background knowledge when they sound out a word to see if it makes sense. Thus, when students increase their reading accuracy, they are improving their fluency, when they improve their fluency, they are more likely to understand what they are reading, which builds comprehension. This process is going to be more difficult for the student, if the student does have an adequate knowledge of phonemic

Why is Fluency so important? Fluency is important because a student who can read with ease rather than hesitation can learn and comprehend what their reading rather than trying to concentrate on sounding out words and not comprehending anything. Fluency is several things put together that make a reader successful. Those aspects that make readers successful are automaticity, reading rate, prosody, phrasing, and comprehension. Wendy Ward states “The ultimate goal of fluency is to read silently and concentrate on comprehension rather than decoding individually words.”

Deriving lessons from an exhaustive review of research, consultations with experts, and public hearings, the members of the National Reading Panel (National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, 2000) highlighted five essential components of effective reading instruction, as follows: (1) phonemic awareness – instruction designed to teach children the ability to focus

The panel goes on to explain detailed methods to teach the different standards. Beginning with phonemic awareness, early in education, the findings conclude that children who have direct instruction improved their reading skills more that children who did not receive this instruction. The understanding that oral language is made up of connected phonemes gives children the foundation to read and write. Once a child has phonemic understanding, the

My philosophy of literacy is centered on providing a learning environment rich in authentic literature, instruction that is engaging, fun, and balanced, collaborative, and also involving families in the child’s education. My ultimate goal of literacy instruction is to help children become lifelong readers and writers by providing the skills necessary to comprehend, construct, and make meaning of text, speak, and write. (Torgesen, 2002). According to the National Reading Panel, there are five essential components that must be taught in effective reading programs: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and reading comprehension. (Reading Horizons). According to Konza (2014), reading instruction should be changed to six foundational reading elements, adding oral language and early literacy. I also believe that early literacy should be

Of the five key elements of reading instruction encompassing phonics, phonemic awareness, comprehension, vocabulary, and fluency - fluency is responsible for producing the desired result - proficient readers (Rasinski, 2006). Fluency instruction influences word knowledge, reading speed, and oral accuracy. Further, forms of guided oral reading and practice, such as shared readings, promotes reading growth in elementary grades (2006). Additionally, it impacts reading comprehension and reading scores.