The Foundation of Literacy:
Explicit, Systematic, and Intense
TIMOTHY SHANAHAN
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT CHICAGO
WWW.SHANAHANONLITERACY.COM
Importance of Early Literacy

Early reading problems tend to persist and lead to other academic
problems (Barr & Parret, 1995; Cunningham & Stanovich, 1999;
Fletcher & Satz, 1982; Entwistle & Hadyuk, 1988; Jacobson, 1999;
Juel, 1988; Shaywitz, et al., 1999)

Early reading performance is predictive of life success (Ritchie &
Bates, 2013)

Studies show that it is possible to dramatically reduce the incidence
of early reading problems (Allington, 2014; Fletcher & Lyon, 1998;
Torgesen, 2006)
Nature of Struggling Readers

There are many reasons why students may struggle in reading
(e.g., poverty, second language learners, disabilities, individual
differences)

However, while etiology may differ, what students need to learn
to become successful readers is going to be the same (how
much attention needs to be accorded to the various essential
components may vary)
More than Foundational Skills

This morning my focus will be on Foundational Skills, that is those basic skills
that need to be mastered relatively early in the reading process (skills that
are foundational to more complex and more sophisticated processes that
develop later)

These foundational skills are not the only reading skills that matter, or even
the only skills that require attention in the primary grades (Stuebing, Barth,
Cirino, Francis, & Fletcher, 2008)

I won’t be talking directly about reading comprehension or learning from
text or composition—though ultimately the entire point of teaching
foundational skills is to provide advantages in these valued outcomes
Many Routes to Reading

Stipulation: There are many different methods and instructional practices
for teaching reading—including some that don’t provide the kind of
instruction that I’ll describe this morning--and they all seem to work to
some extent

However, while all methods seem to teach some kids to read, there is
variability across approaches with regard to how efficient they are, how well
students come to read, how many kids learn to read, or how long-lasting
their advantages are

Need to focus on the most powerful approaches given the needs of our
students
Nature of Research Evidence

Value of research evidence is two-fold: allows for improvements that
would not occur without research and allows for rational governance

Research evidence varies in the nature of the claims that it allows,
quality/relevance of the work, and amount of research evidence
available

There are systematic ways of evaluating and synthesizing research
evidence

Magnitude of effect matters
Research on Foundational Skills

National Reading Panel (2000)

National Early Literacy Panel (2008)

National Literacy Panel for Language Minority Children and Youth (2006)

Individual studies completed since those reports
Components of Literacy
Letters
Oral reading fluency
Phonological awareness
Vocabulary/Language
Phonics
Reading comprehension
High frequency words
Writing/Spelling
Foundational Skills and Knowledge
Letters
Oral reading fluency
Phonological awareness
Phonics
High frequency words
Spelling
Beginning Reading

Alphabetic writing system: This means that a set of letters is used to
transcribe the sounds of phonemes in a language (rather than attempting to
transcribe the meaning directly)

To read an alphabetic script it is necessary to go from script to sound to
meaning

Knowing how to use the letters to cue access to meaning is essential in
reading
Logographic System
What do you need to read in an alphabetic
system?

Knowledge of the written symbols—the alphabet (names, sounds,
recognition)

Ability to hear phonemes

Ability to match phonemes to letters or patterns accurately and fluently
enough to approximate words in oral language

Enough knowledge of language/meaning to be able to self-evaluate
effectiveness
Letters

Letter name knowledge is one of best predictors of later reading
achievement (Adams, 1990; Hammill, 2004; Scarborough, 1998;
Schatschneider, et al., 2004; National Early Literacy Panel, 2008)

Letter name knowledge is an important indicator of later reading
disability (Gallagher, et al., 2000; O’Connor & Jenkins, 1999; Torppa,
et al., 2006)

Alphabet knowledge remains significant even when controlling
for age, SES, oral language, phonological awareness, or IQ
(NELP, 2008)
Letters (cont.)

There are studies of the teaching of alphabet knowledge, but none of
these studies have reading outcomes

However, studies suggest that letter name teaching in combination
with phonological awareness or decoding is beneficial to reading
achievement—and phonological awareness development more rapid
when letter names known (Kim et al, 2010)

Studies show best letter name learning occurs when the instruction is
combined with letter sounds (Piasta & Wagner, 2010) and that it is
important to separate similar letters (visual and aural)
Indiana Standards
Print Concepts
K.RF.2.1 Demonstrate understanding that print moves from left to right across
the page and from top to bottom.
K.RF.2.2 Recognize that written words are made up of sequences of letters.
K.RF.2.3 Recognize that words are combined to form sentences
K.RF.2.4 Identify and name all uppercase (capital) and lowercase letters of the
alphabet
Phonological Awareness

PA is the ability to detect, manipulate, or analyze the auditory aspects
of spoken language independent of meaning

Phonemic Awareness refers to the ability to hear and manipulate the
sounds within words (it is a part of Phonological Awareness)

Development of PA progresses from distinguishing gross sounds
(words, syllables) to finer-grained sounds (phonemes)

The instructional goal is to enable children to be able to easily and
quickly fully segment the phonemes within words
Phonological Awareness (cont.)

National Early Literacy Panel (2008) reviewed nearly 68 studies
showing that phonological awareness was a strong predictor of later
reading achievement

PA remains a significant predictor even controlling for age, SES,
alphabet knowledge, oral language, IQ, or prior decoding ability

NELP meta-analyzed approximately 50 studies finding that instruction
in PA in pre-K and/or K (alone, combined with AK, combined with
phonics) led to significant impacts on PA, AK, Reading, Spelling
Phonological Awareness (cont.)

NRP meta-analyzed more than 51 studies finding that phonemic
awareness instruction in K, 1, and remediation led to significant
improvements in phonemic awareness, decoding, reading
comprehension, and spelling (NICHD, 2000)

NLP (2008) found that phonemic awareness instruction was
beneficial for second-language students

More recent studies show that the benefits of such teaching
persist for a longtime (Roberts & Meiring, 2006)
Phonological Awareness Skills
Skills

Word separation

Phoneme blending

Syllable segmentation

Phoneme segmentation

Onset/rime

Phoneme addition

Phoneme identity

Phoneme substitution

Phoneme isolation

Phoneme deletion
Instruction of PA

Has to be done orally; students have to hear the sounds (not
with text clues)

Brief intensive instruction

Instruction should emphasize 1-2 skills at a time

Progression is from grosser sounds to smaller sounds (wordssyllables-phonemes)

Should be combined with alphabet instruction
Indiana Standards - K
Phonological Awareness

K.RF.3.1 Identify and produce rhyming words.

K.RF.3.2 Orally pronounce, blend, and segment words into syllables

K.RF.3.3 Orally blend the onset (the initial sound) and the rime (the vowel and
ending sound) in words.

K.RF.3.4 Tell the order of sounds heard in words with two or three phonemes,
and identify the beginning, middle (medial) and final sounds.

K.RF.3.5 Add, delete, or substitute sounds to change words.
Indiana Standards - 1
Phonological Awareness

1.RF.3.1 Students are expected to build upon and continue applying concepts
learned previously.

1.RF.3.2 Blend sounds, including consonant blends, to produce single- and multisyllable words.

1.RF.3.3 Add, delete, or substitute sounds to change single-syllable words.

1.RF.3.4 Distinguish beginning, middle (medial), and final sounds in singlesyllable words.

1.RF.3.5 Segment the individual sounds in one-syllable words.
Phonics

Phonics refers to instruction aimed at teaching the alphabetic
system of English; includes sound-symbol correspondences and
the relationships between spelling patterns and pronunciations
of words. Decoding from print to pronunciation.

But does phonics instruction help given the inconsistencies of
English spelling patterns?
ghoti
ghoti

Enough

Women

Nation
English spelling highly consistent

Examination of most frequent 20,000 words in English reveals high
percentage of consistency (Venezky, 1970)

But consistency depends not just on sound-symbol relationships but on the
position of the letters in words and on morphology

“Ghoti” couldn’t happen in English, and there are benefits to
phonetic/orthographic “inconsistencies” like cat/s/ and dog/z/
Phonics

However, there are far more rules, patterns, consistencies than we
could possibly teach (Apfelbaum, Hazeltine, & McMurray, 2013)

There has long been controversy over phonics: the controversy is not
whether students need to decode or not, just whether such
instruction is helpful/necessary (Barr, 1972; Biemiller, 1970)

Theory: Explicit teaching of phonics does not teach reading per se,
but provides readers with a handle on some of the most useful
consistencies and sets them off to pay attention to other patterns
that might help
Phonics (cont.)

NELP examined 70 studies on decoding instruction (includes
those PA studies noted earlier); found that such instruction in
preschool and kindergarten had moderate to large impacts on
students’ reading and spelling development and on various
emergent literacy skills

NRP examined 38 studies on phonics instruction and found that
such teaching in grades K-2 and with older remedial readers
had a positive impact on decoding and fluency and on reading
comprehension and spelling as well K-2.
Phonics (cont.)

NLP found explicit decoding instruction to be beneficial to
English learners as well (though there are only a few studies
with this population and the effect sizes were smaller than for
native English speakers)

Studies continue to accumulate supporting these same
conclusions (e.g.,Cihon, Gardner, Morrison, & Paul, 2008; Ehri,
Dreyer, Flugman, & Gross, 2007; Savage, Abrami, Hipps, &
Deault, 2009; Vadasy & Sanders, 2012a, 2012b)
Phonics (cont.)

Effective phonics instruction is explicit and systematic

Multiple years of phonics instruction were better than single
years

Virtually all programs of phonics work with young children
(NRP, WWC)—however, thoroughness matters

No single phonics sequence did better than any other

Spelling
Phonics (cont.)

Phonics instruction should include lots of opportunity for
students to decode and encode words

Important to develop a “mental set for diversity” (Apfelbaum,
Hazeltine, & McMurray, 2013)

Important that texts are consistent with the decoding skills
being taught (Guthrie & Seifert, 1976; Venezky & Johnson,
1973)
High frequency words

Words differ in their frequency in the language (some words are used
a lot and others appear rarely)

In English, the 300 most frequent words in the language (and their
derivations) make up about 75% of all the words one sees in texts—it
can be useful to know these words especially well

Also, the origins of our language are complex: the alphabetic
properties of English are complex—this is particularly true of some of
the most common words in the language (e.g., the, of, where); can be
easier to memorize these rather than decoding them
High frequency words (cont.)

Sight vocabulary refers to words that someone can read “as if” they
were not decoding—appears like they are effortlessly pulling them
back from memory and recognizing them as a whole

Given the value of high frequency words it would make sense that
students learn these as “sight words”

However, the story is more complex than that—student memory for
words is highly dependent upon decoding (phonics makes words
“stickier”); sight vocabulary is to a great degree an outcome of
decoding (Ehri, 2005)
High frequency words (cont.)

Teaching sight vocabulary can improve fluency and comprehension
(Griffin & Murtagh, 2015)

Teach words by focusing attention on the order of letters (not
mnemonics, pictures, etc.) and work with them both in isolation—
interval training—and in context (Browder & Lalli, 1991; Fossett &
Mirenda, 2006)

Visualization is essential
High frequency words (cont.)

Texts used in K-1 should include decodable text along with high
frequency words

Direct work on memorizing words should be minimal (lots of
programs are overdoing this now)

My goal: 100 most frequent words by end of Grade 1, and 300 most
frequent by end of Grade 2
Indiana Standards
Phonics

K.RF.4.1 Use letter-sound knowledge to decode the sound of each consonant
(e.g., dog = /d/ /g/; soap = /s/ /p/).

K.RF.4.2 Blend consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) sounds to make words.

K.RF.4.3 Recognize the long and short sounds for the five major vowels.

K.RF.4.4 Read common high-frequency words by sight (e.g., a, my).

K.RF.4.5 Identify similarities and differences in words (e.g., word endings, onset
and rime) when spoken or written.
Indiana Standards
Phonics
 1.RF.4.1 Use letter-sound knowledge of single consonants (hard and soft
sounds), short and long vowels, consonant blends and digraphs, vowel teams
(e.g., ai) and digraphs, and r-controlled vowels to decode phonetically regular
words (e.g., cat, go, black, boat, her), independent of context.
 1.RF.4.2 Decode one-syllable words in the major syllable patterns (CVC, CVr, V,
VV, VCe), independent of context.
 1.RF.4.3 Apply knowledge of final –e and common vowel teams (vowel digraphs)
for representing long vowel sounds.
 1.RF.4.4 Recognize and read common and irregularly spelled high-frequency
words by sight (e.g., have, said).
 1.RF.4.5 Read words in common word families (e.g., -at, -ate).
 1.RF.4.6 Read grade-appropriate root words and affixes including plurals, verb
tense, comparatives (e.g., look, -ed, -ing, -s, -er, -est), and simple compound
words (e.g., cupcake) and contractions (e.g., isn’t).
Indiana Standards
Phonics

2.RF.4.2: Use knowledge of the six major syllable patterns (CVC, CVr, V, VV, VCe,
Cle) to decode twosyllable words, independent of context

2.RF.4.3: Apply knowledge of short and long vowels (including vowel teams)
when reading regularly spelled one-syllable words.
2.RF.4.4: Recognize and read common and irregularly spelled highfrequency
words and abbreviations by sight (e.g., through, tough; Jan., Fri.).


2.RF.4.5: Know and use common word families when reading unfamiliar words
(e.g., - ale, -est, -ine, -ock).

2.RF.4.6: Read multisyllabic words composed of roots, prefixes, and suffixes;
read contractions, possessives (e.g., kitten’s, sisters’), and compound words.
Indiana Standards
Phonics

3.RF.4.2: Understand the six major syllable patterns (CVC, CVr, V, VV, VCe,
Cle) to aid in decoding unknown words.

3.RF.4.4: Read gradeappropriate words that have blends (e.g., walk, play)
and common spelling patterns (e.g., qu-; doubling the consonant and adding
– ing, such as cut/cutting; changing the ending of a word from –y to –ies to
make a plural).
Oral Reading Fluency

Oral reading fluency refers to the ability to read text aloud with
accuracy, speed, and proper expression.

It is not a pure skill but an amalgamation of skills (e.g.,
decoding, comprehension)

Developmental pattern: initially accuracy is especially
important, but as students proceed through the grades speed,
and eventually. prosody become more important (e.g., higher
correlations with reading comprehension)
Oral Reading Fluency (cont.)

In second grade, fluency explains about 85% of the variation in
reading comprehension (this declines over time, but is still important
in Grade 8)

NRP reviewed 16 experimental studies showing that fluency could be
taught explicitly and that such instruction had a positive impact on
decoding, word recognition, fluency, and reading comprehension
(with students in grades 1-4, and with struggling readers in grades 112)
Indiana Standards

K.RF.5: Read emergent reader texts, maintaining an appropriate pace and using
self-correcting strategies while reading.

1.RF.5: Orally read grade-level appropriate or higher texts smoothly and
accurately, with expression that connotes comprehension at the independent
level.

2.RF.5: Orally read grade-level appropriate or higher texts smoothly and
accurately, with expression that connotes comprehension at the independent
level.

3.RF.5: Orally read grade-level appropriate or higher texts smoothly and
accurately, with expression that connotes comprehension at the independent
level.
Explicitness

Explicit teaching is intentional

Explicit teaching makes sure that students have a clear idea of what is being
taught, why it is being taught, and how to use it

Explicit (or direct) teaching includes telling or explanation, but it also may
include modeling, guided practice, and independent practice

Because the teaching is explicit it is possible to monitor success and to
provide reteaching
Oral Reading Fluency (cont.)

Research has continued to accumulate supporting the teaching of
oral reading fluency in the primary grades and to struggling readers
through secondary school (Chard, Vaughn, & Tyler, 2002; Marr,
Algozzine, Nicholson, & Dugan, 2011; O’Connor, White, & Swanson,
2007; Schwanenflugel, Kuhn, Morris, Morrow, et al., 2009)

Basically, the studies reveal that oral reading practice with feedback
and repetition with “frustration” level texts improves fluency
(modeling can help, too)
Systematic

Systematic teaching refers to the importance of having a clear and
consistent sequence of instruction

A systematic program will present a planned sequence of skills which
ensures coverage of essential knowledge and sufficient thoroughness of
coverage
Intensity

Sufficient amounts of time

Pooled practice

Opportunities for reteaching

Opportunities for review

Teaching students not just the patterns, but how to use the patterns (e.g.,
blending practice)

Overteaching (spelling not just reading)
Summary

Students do best in reading when they receive substantial amounts of
teaching and practice in phonological awareness, phonics, sight vocabulary,
oral reading fluency

This instruction needs to be explicit, systematic, and intense

And it needs to be provided in the context of explicit instruction and
practice in other essential aspects of literacy (e.g., vocabulary/language,
reading comprehension, writing)