Diane Dahl, M.ED.
Supervisor of Special Services,
Reading Specialist
Ultimate goal of reading
instruction
 The ultimate goal of reading instruction is for children
to become sufficiently fluent to understand what they
read.
 To read grade-level material with comprehension
 To motivate students to want to read
 To prepare students to be successful in college and
career
Scary statistics
Our research shows that, under current
conditions, the level of academic
achievement that students attain by eighth
grade has a larger impact on their college
and career readiness by the time they
graduate from high school than anything
that happens academically in high school.
From: The Forgotten Middle (ACT, 2008)
Adults with lower levels of literacy and education are
more likely than adults with higher levels of literacy
and education to be unemployed or to earn an income
that falls below the poverty level (Kutner et al., 2007).
Furthermore, adults without a high school diploma or
postsecondary education are more likely to be
incarcerated than adults with higher levels of
education (Harlow, 2003).
From: Reading on Grade Level in Third Grade: How Is It Related to High School
Performance and College Enrollment? (2010)
Average annual 2008 earnings of workers 18 and older
 without a high school diploma- $21,023
 with a high school diploma- $31,283
 with a bachelor’s degree- $58,613
 with an advanced degree- $83,144
From: Back to School (U.S. Dept. of Commerce, 2010)
Reading is a complex
skill/process
 Requires many sub-skills
 Requires coordination of many
simultaneous processes
 Failure of any one of these skills or
processes results in some type or
degree of reading difficulty
The Many Strands that are Woven into Skilled Reading
(Scarborough, 2001)
LANGUAGE COMPREHENSION
BACKGROUND KNOWLEDGE
VOCABULARY KNOWLEDGE
LANGUAGE STRUCTURES
VERBAL REASONING
Skilled Readingfluent coordination
SKILLED
READING:
of word
reading
and
fluent execution and
comprehension
coordination of word
recognition and text
processes
comprehension.
LITERACY KNOWLEDGE
WORD RECOGNITION
PHON. AWARENESS
DECODING (and SPELLING)
SIGHT RECOGNITION
Reading is a multifaceted skill, gradually acquired over years of instruction and practice.
Process of skill acquisition
 Novice level
 Conscious processing
 Time-intensive
 Expert level
 Mostly unconscious processing- automaticity
 Much faster
How memory works
 You sense something (see, hear, smell, etc.)
 That piece of information stays in immediate memory
for 15-30 seconds.
 If rehearsed immediately, info moves to short term
memory (15-30 minutes)
 If the info is elaborated upon or processed, it can move
to long-term memory.
 Info should be reviewed 10/24/7 for true retention
Motivation and student selfefficacy
 Factors that affect motivation
 Intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivation
 Self-efficacy
 what a person believes they are capable of doing
Attribution theory
(Weiner, 1980, 1992)
• An individual’s success at a task can be viewed as…
– Internal or external (factors in us vs. in the environment)
– Stable or unstable
(directly related to our behavior)
– Controllable or uncontrollable
(changeable or not)
• …and can be attributed to one of four factors
– Ability
(internal, stable, no personal control)
– Task difficulty
(external, stable, no personal control)
– Effort
(internal, unstable, learner-controlled)
– Luck
(external, unstable, no personal control)
Attribution theory (cont.)
 How people attribute their success or failure will
determine future behavior in regard to this type of
task
 People will attribute success or failure to whatever
factor enables them to retain a positive self-image.
 It is best for students to believe that their behavior
and effort (not external factors) leads to success or
failure.
How is reading typically acquired?
 NOT a natural process- requires instruction
 FIVE PILLARS OF READING INSTRUCTION
 Phonics
 Fluency
 Vocabulary
 Comprehension
 Phonemic awareness
Phonological/Phonemic awareness
• Phonological awareness-
Overall understanding that oral speech can be broken
down into smaller units- sentences, words, syllables,
individual sounds (phonemes)
 Phonemic awarenessThe understanding that words are composed of
individual sounds (phonemes) which can be
manipulated to create new words.
Phonics
 The relationship between the spoken sounds
(phonemes) and the written letters (graphemes) that
represent those sounds.
 Used in reading (decoding) and spelling (encoding).
 A child’s phonics knowledge can be assessed by
analyzing his errors in reading and spelling- random
errors are rare.
Fluency
• Speed, accuracy, and prosody (phrasing) while reading
• Automatic word recognition and decoding leaves
cognitive resources for comprehension
• Miller’s number of items (7+/- 2) in working memory
• Reduces the time required to read a text, decreasing
fatigue and frustration
• Benchmark fluency rates by grade
Oral Reading
Fluency (ORF)
Target Rate
Norms
Developed and reported
by: Hasbrouck, J., &
Tindal, G. (2006) ORF
Norms: A valuable
assessment tool for
reading teachers. The
Reading Teacher, 59(7),
636–644. Hasbrouck, J.,
& Tindal, G. (2005) Oral
Reading Fluency
Normshttp://www.brtproje
cts.org/publications/techn
ical-reports.
Oral Reading Fluency (ORF) Target Rate Norms
Fall
(WCPM)
Winter
(WCPM)
Spring
(WCPM)
1
2
3
4
30-60
50-90
70-110
10-30
50-80
70-100
80-120
30-60
70-100
80-110
100-140
5
6
7
8
80-120
100-140
110-150
120-160
100-140
110-150
120-160
130-170
110-150
120-160
130-170
140-180
Grade
Source: Adapted from “AIMSweb: Charting the Path to Literacy,” 2003, Edformation, Inc. Available
atwww.aimsweb.com/norms/reading_fluency.htm. Data are also adapted from “Curriculum-Based Oral
Reading Fluency Norms for Students in Grades 2 Through 5,” by J. E. Hasbrouck and G. Tindal, 1992,
Teaching Exceptional Children, 24, pp. 41-44.
Vocabulary
• Most vocabulary is learned orally through conversation
and read-alouds
• Can be learned through reading, but more difficult
(dependent on ability and text density)
• Must be taught and reinforced repeatedly
• Be aware of idioms and culturally American concepts
when working with ELL’s (drive-in, cut-offs, gonna,
wanna, etc.)
The Effects of Weaknesses in Oral Language on Reading
Growth
(Hirsch, 1996)
Reading Age Level
16
15
High Oral
Language in
14
Kindergarten
13
5.2 years difference
12
11
Low Oral Language
10
in Kindergarten
9
8
7
6
5
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
Chronological Age
13
14
15
16
Comprehension
• Strategies should be taught orally while students are
still learning to read fluently.
• Listening comprehension does not replace reading
comprehension
• Be aware of idioms and culturally American
practices/schema when working with ELL’s
(birthday parties, Field Day, Mischief Night)
• Be cautious about interpreting accurate read-aloud as
comprehension. Require students to explain or
summarize to demonstrate comprehension
Skilled beginning reading requires…
 Automatic sight-word recognition
 Automatic or fluent decoding of non-sight words
 Many poor comprehenders really lack one of the above
skills- if oral comprehension is not a problem, it’s
probably not a comprehension issue.
High-frequency words
(sight words)
 Comprise at least 60-70% of all text.
 Automatic recognition is required for fluent reading.
 Some decodable, others not
 Require repeated exposures to master
 Incidental exposures vs. intense, concentrated
exposures
 Make sure each exposure is paired with the CORRECT
pronunciation- practice makes permanent
 Several lists- Dolch, Fry, others.
Teaching sight words
 Student needs to accrue the “magic number” of
exposures, paired with correct pronunciation to
cement the word in long-term memory
 In isolation until automaticity is reachedflashcard procedure
 If student has letter-sound knowledge, this
should happen more quickly.
 Daily multiple opportunities to read aloud should
reinforce current sight words
 Other ways of teaching sight words quickly
Phonic skills acquisition sequence
 Single consonant sounds
 Consonant blends ((bl, cr, st, etc.)
 Consonant digraphs (ch, sh, th, wh)
 Short-vowel sounds
 Long- vowel patterns
 R-controlled vowel sounds
 “Weird” vowel sounds (vowel digraphs and
diphthongs) (ow, oy, oo, etc.)
Phonics assessment and
instruction
 Assessment
 Informal phonics inventory (Stahl)- others?
 Frequency- end of each MP
 Analyze errors to determine starting point
 Instruction
 Goal is MASTERY- 90% or better to move on
 Accuracy then speed (fluency)
 Accountability and documentation
So…..
How do we improve
student reading
scores????
What Really Matters for Struggling
Readers (Allington, 2012)
1. Kids need to read a lot
2. Kids need books they can read
3. Kids need to learn to read fluently
4. Kids need to develop thoughtful
literacy.
1. Kids need to read a lot
 John Guthrie suggests that increased
practice results in increased
proficiency. In order to accelerate
struggling readers, they need more
practice. The problem is that
struggling 4th graders may need 3-5
hours a day of successful reading
practice.
Reading Volume of
Fifth-Grade Students of Different Levels of Achievement
(Based on In and Out of School Reading Logs)
Achievement Minutes of Words per
Percentile
Reading
Year
per Day
90th
40.4
2,357,000
50th
12.9
601,000
10th
1.6
51,000
2. Kids need books they can read.
•Reader-text mismatch causes
frustration.
•Text choice- 95% accuracy= just right (5
finger rule)
•Student choice enhances motivation
•Multiple sources of leveled books
DRA book levels
 Based on word count, text complexity, sentence length
 Essential for teachers to understand
 Students should be able to read multiple books
FLUENTLY at a level before he is assessed and moved
up.
 Assessment levels correspond to text levels
DRA book levels
 Based on word count, text complexity, sentence length
 Essential for teachers to understand
 Students should be able to read multiple books
FLUENTLY at a level before he is assessed and moved
up.
 Assessment levels correspond to text levels
Stages of book levels
 Repeated, patterned, memorized books with picture




support (DRA A-2)
Books containing only sight words with picture support
(DRA 3-6)
Books containing mostly sight words, but requiring
decoding of short and long-vowel words (DRA 8-14)
Books with sight words, requiring decoding of short, long,
and r-controlled vowel words, diminishing picture support
(DRA 16-24)
Books with sight words, requiring decoding of all simple
vowel patterns, plus decoding of multi-syllable words, little
picture support. (DRA 28+)
DRA levels 1-16
DRA level
Word count
Dolch words
(# and %)
Short/long
decodable words
Total
1
16
12
(75%)
3
(19%)
15/16
94%
2
36
30
(83%)
3
8%)
33/36
92%
3
46
34
(74%)
1
(2%)
35/46
76%
4
53
40
(75%)
7
(13%)
47/53
88%
6
71
47
(66%)
12
(17%)
59/71
83%
8
86
52
(60%)
30
(35%)
82/86
95%
10
134
82
(61%)
15
(11%)
97/134
72%
12
137
65
(48%)
19
(14%)
84/137
61%
14
203
130
(64%)
9
(4%)
139/203
68%
16
266
164
(62%)
30
(11%)
194/266
73%
2-1 Reader
(random story)
653
104 (53%)
35
(18%)
139/196
71%
3-1 Reader
(random story)
578
367 (63%)
114
(20%)
481/578
83%
Book leveling
practice
3. Kids need to learn to read
fluently.
•Enhances comprehension and viceversa
•Shortens task-completion time
•Increases student motivation to
read
Struggling readers are….
•more likely to read material too
difficult for them.
•asked to read aloud more.
•interrupted more often and quickly.
•more likely to wait for prompts.
•more likely to be told to sound it out!
…while better readers…
read books at their level.
are asked to read silently.
are expected to self-monitor and correct.
are only interrupted at the end of a waiting
period.
are asked to reread and cross-check, not to
sound out!
4. Kids need to develop thoughtful
literacy.
 No more “read, remember, and recite”
(p.129)
 Conversation and connections
 Summarize, analyze, synthesize, evaluate
 Vocabulary instruction
 Literate conversations
Conclusions