The Literacy Initiative Is Effective For Teaching Beginning Reading Skills

Moat argues that learning to read is in fact not a natural process and students need explicit phonics instruction. Furthermore, the English alphabetic writing system cannot be learned simply from print exposure: students need to be taught how to develop phonological awareness to sound words out to help them learn how to read and without the support of context-based word recognition. Whole language’s legacy is still embedded in educational practices despite being disproven by scholars, thus Moat advocates for updating state language-arts standards, assessments, and textbooks to reflect direct, explicit phonics-based instruction as the best approach in teaching literacy. She also notes that teacher licensing requirements and preparation programs also need to be informed of effective literacy instructions that is supported by

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:

Literacy instruction is a large focus to the curriculum we as educators follow at Remsen Elementary. Remsen strives for excellence in literacy education and provides a variety of instruction literacy plans in order to support student learning. As stated by our district, “Explode the Code”, Wilson’s Fundations (grade K-3), Leveled Literacy Intervention Curriculum, and Literacy Centers are used with fidelity. Along with these primary instructional resources, interventions and supplemental learning opportunities help teachers to monitor student progress closely through a carefully conceived, supported, and sustained Response to Intervention program (elementary level), and the use of purposeful and comprehensive assessment and progress monitoring program (grade PK-12) to measure student growth and achievement. Furthermore, our “Guide to Response to Intervention (RTI) and Instruction” details our full curricula and materials at REMSEN, PK-12” (REFERENCE WEBSITE).

In every school across America, effective practices of reading instruction are being discussed. Calkins (2012) suggests that over 85% of students being tested on grade level literacy standards are non-proficient. Research suggests that students, who are unable to read proficiently by third grade, are not predicted to ever learn to read or have successful lives when they reach adulthood (Martinez, 2008). For these reasons, it is important that districts implement literacy models and instructional reforms that have been well researched and shown to be successful. The instructional reform method of Balanced Literacy is being used throughout the country to meet the challenging standards of the Common Core. Teachers will need

Phonemic awareness is a vital role in literacy instruction. Many schools and districts adopt a commercially published basal reading program and it becomes the cornerstone of their instruction ( (David Chard, n.d.). We also know that through investigation and research it has shown us that word-recognition instruction and instruction in oral language skills related to word recognition were inadequately represented. (David Chard, n.d.) The same researchers have found that the reading passages that students are reading didn’t relate to the words they were learning. In order for students to read at grade level or above a supplemental program should be implemented. I have found that at my school we are lacking a phonics program that will reach different students abilities and make them successful in reading. My goal for this paper is to show my district that using a supplemental phonics program aside from our basal phonics program will prove beneficial to strategic readers who fall below grade level.

The Wilson Reading System (WRS) is marketed for students from grades 2 to 12 who are not making sufficient progress with their current Tier 2 intervention and need a more intensive intervention at Tier 3. It is used most often with students in upper elementary to high school. The program can also be used with adults who need remedial reading services. Specifically, the program is based on the Orton-Gillingham approach to reading instruction. This approach relies on direct instruction, incorporates ideas of “how” and “why” individuals learn to read, and explores multi-sensory methods (auditory, visual, and kinesthetic). It is intended for individuals who have problems with phonological awareness or orthographic processing.

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.

Creating and implementing effective lessons for a literacy learner who is struggling with reading and writing takes much effort and appropriate resources. Throughout the Literacy Development course, I have gained much insight and resources that have become valuable tools in addressing students’ literacy needs. Each week, I conducted lessons and activities that targeted the needs of many students, but my initial focus on was on one particular student. His individual reading level, spelling development, and writing abilities were analyzed and the recorded data was used

Based on their first research question: Do students at risk for reading difficulties who receive supplemental reading intervention using guided reading approach have better outcomes in word identification, phonemic decoding, reading fluency, and reading comprehension, relative to students who receive reading intervention using an explicit , sequential approach, (pg. 269), it was hypothesized that the guided reading group would perform leaps and bounds over the explicit group, but as the results show, there was no significant difference between these two groups. Based on their second research question: Do students who receive supplemental guided reading or explicit instruction intervention have better reading outcomes than those who receive the reading instruction

The focus of chapter four will center on the findings of a longitudinal study that determined the long-term impact on student outcomes of students who are successfully exited from early literacy programs. For purposes of this study, up to five years of data from five cohorts of grade-two students from a suburban school district in Connecticut who participated in an early literacy program will be employed. This data will then be compared to grade level data points from state and district reading assessments. This study seeks to determine if these students can sustain the ability to read at or above grade level as they progress through school. Further, those students in the cohort who were near grade level reading benchmarks and did not receive any additional interventions beyond grade two will also be evaluated to determine if this early literacy program provided the essential foundation from which students could continue to progress.

How did you learn to read? Most of us do not put much thought into this question, but learning to read is a difficult task. According to Cervetti and Hiebert, the National Reading Panel identified five essential components that a teacher should use during reading instruction, which gives the student the highest chance of being an effective reader (2015, p. 548). These five essential components are also called five pillars of reading instruction. They are Phonics, phonemic awareness, vocabulary, fluency and comprehension. This paper will describe each of the five pillars, how they are related, the benefits, as well as give some effective methods of teaching phonics and phonemic awareness. It will continue by addressing the relationship between reading assessment and instruction and end by identifying ways to address the needs and different learning styles of a student. This paper will start by looking at a definition of phonics and phonemic awareness, then move onto the role that each play in learning to read, how they are related, the benefits and effective methods of teaching both.

Johnson and Howard (2003) designed a study to determine the effectiveness of the AR program in relation to reading achievement and vocabulary development. The study took place in seven schools within an inner city school district serving high poverty students. There was a total of 755 students in Grades 3-6 that participated in the study. Data were generated using pretest and posttest scores of the Gates-MacGinitie Reading Test.

The questions that are addressed by the researcher are: what are the components of elementary school classroom reading programs that promote the reading growth of students with reading difficulties? What are the strengths of these programs and how can these strengths be used to help educators design or implement other effective reading programs? The article discusses six classroom programs that help improve reading in struggling students. The researcher’s intention with writing the article was to help other teachers and educators in implementing their own reading programs. The six elementary school classroom reading programs discussed are: the Book Club Program, Concept-Oriented Reading Instruction, Fluency-Oriented Reading Instruction, the Four Block Approach, the Kamehameha Early Education Program Whole Literacy Curriculum, and Success for All. The reasons for choosing the listed programs are these programs have been proven to effective with struggling readers, were used in diverse public schools, were based on reading research and practice and provided a significant amount of progress of struggling readers by the program developers and researchers through qualitative and/or quantitative measure of the success students have reached through the program.

I am appreciative for the valuable information I obtained from this course. I intend to incorporate the researched practices into my reading program. Allington addressed several critical components of instruction necessary to ensure reading interventions are delivered with the best intentions and students are responding successfully to the reading interventions. However, my “aha-moments” included the topics: the volume of reading, matching students’ independent and instructional reading levels to appropriate texts, expert interventionist, matching intervention to the classroom curriculum, and group size.

Reading is crucial to students’ success. There are numerous research and studies conducted in the search for an effective strategy for reading at all levels. In middle and high school, where struggling readers are rampant, the need of intense and explicit instruction, and the mastery of reading behavior, should be implemented in order for the students to demonstrate comprehension skills (Faggella-Luby & Wardwell, 2011; Gillian, Dykes, Gerla, & Wright, 2011). However, there are only a few teachers who practice independent reading in their classrooms. Teachers are tied with other components of