Welcome!
Avoiding Instructional Casualties:
Matching the Instructional System
to the Developing Reader
2012 Indiana Non-Public Education Conference
October 18, 2012
Presenter: Pam Peroutky, Ed.D
Big Ideas
1. Learning to read is not a natural skill and must be
taught.
2. There is a great deal of research consensus on
teaching reading.
3. Scientists know the major brain-processing systems
involved in reading.
4. There are key instructional practices that are critical
for any beginning reader.
Why this matters
In a class of 24 kindergarten students, about how many:
Will come to school already reading?
Will learn to read regardless of the
instructional approach that is used?
Will require systematic, explicit, and
supportive instruction, as well as
additional opportunities to learn?
Will require systematic, explicit, and
supportive instruction, with
intensive opportunities to learn?
Will have a reading disability and
require special education services?
Points of Consensus
There are two main parts to reading:
– Accurate, fluent word recognition (decoding, memory words)
– Vocabulary/Language proficiency (comprehension)
– C=DxLC
A solid reading program should incorporate explicit,
systematic instruction in the alphabetic code
The majority of reading problems arise from failure to
acquire basic skills in word recognition
With appropriate instruction, virtually all but a small
percentage of our students can learn to read
Key terms
Explicit
Plain in language, distinctly expressed, clearly stated, not merely
implied
The sequence of teaching and teacher actions must be conspicuous
“I do, we do, you do”
Systematic
Characterized by a method or a plan
The skills that are needed to acquire the alphabetic principle cannot
be learned sporadically or opportunistically. To be effective,
instruction must be organized and sequential.
Instruction that follows the developmental sequence of skills
necessary to be a reader
Predictable Progression of Skills
Word Recognition:
Phoneme Awareness
Letter recognition and naming
Comprehension:
Oral language
Vocabulary
Listening comprehension
Letter-sound association
Blending letter-sounds
Decoding
Memory words
Automaticity
(“Mental Orthographic Images”)
Fluency
Text Comprehension
Big Ideas 1 and 2 Review
• Learning to read is not a natural skill and must be
taught.
– We learn to speak without formal instruction
– Reading must be taught
– There will always be a range of reading ability in any
classroom
– All but a small percentage of children can be taught to read
• There is a great deal of research consensus on teaching
reading.
– C=DxLC
– Explicit, systematic instruction is critical
Big Idea 3:
What the Brain Must Do to Read Words
Four-Part Processing Model
(experience; language)
Context
Processor
(vocabulary)
Meaning
Processor
(speech sound
system)
Phonological
Processor
(phonics)
Orthographic
Processor
(memory for
letters)
Big Idea 3 Review
• Scientists know the major brain-processing systems
involved in reading.
–
–
–
–
Phonological
Orthographic
Meaning
Context
• Readers must become proficient in accessing the text
(phonics) in order to activate meaning and context.
• All systems work seamlessly and in conjunction in a
proficient reader.
Good Reading Requires …
Accurate Word Reading, Fluency, and Comprehension
2 domains
Decoding
x
Phonics
PA
Comprehension
Vocabulary
Fluency
5 components
Text
Comprehension
Instructional Practices: Phoneme Awareness
• A phoneme is a speech sound that can be combined with other
speech sounds to make a word.
• Phoneme awareness is important for reading and spelling in an
alphabetic system. It is the “gateway skill” to reading.
• English has about 44 phonemes.
• Every language has a unique inventory of phonemes.
• English has about 15* vowel sounds, plus 3 r-controlled
combinations. (Linguists argue about /y/ + /u/, as in music).
• English has 25 consonant sounds.
• Phoneme awareness tasks “can be done in the dark.”
• What processor(s) come into play during phonemic awareness
instruction?
A Phonological Processing
Continuum
PreK
K
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Repetition of sentences, phrases, words
Word identification
Syllable manipulation (counting, blending, segmenting)
Onset-rime manipulation
Rhyming
Alliteration
Phoneme awareness
– Comparison/Matching
– Isolation
– Blending
– Segmenting
– Manipulation
Best Practices in Phoneme
Awareness
• Follow a progression of tasks
• At the pre-K level, the focus is on auditory discrimination to
phonological awareness
• Focus student attention on sound before introducing letters
• Make sure you are pronouncing phonemes correctly
• Encourage mouth awareness
• Introduce all sounds, including vowels
• Use sound spelling cards
• Use motions to help with instruction
• Phonemic awareness training should be no more than a few
minutes a day, focused in kindergarten
Instructional Practices: Phonics
• Phonics is the study of the relationship between letters
(graphemes) and the sounds (phonemes) they represent
• Consensus for phonics instruction is beyond
controversy.
• Phonics instruction should begin as soon as children
can identify 2 to 3 phonemes in spoken words and
when they know their alphabet letters.
• Instruction should continue until students know all the
major phoneme/grapheme correspondences and
syllable patterns and can attempt to decode any
unfamiliar word.
• What processor(s) come into play during phonics
instruction?
Important research to know
• Eye movement studies help us understand that
proficient readers perceive and register all letters in
words while reading. (Rayner et.al, 2001)
• Children in explicit phonics programs read words more
quickly and score higher in reading comprehension
than those in implicit phonics programs. (Christenson,
C.A. and Bowey, J.A., 2005)
Phonics Program Comparison
Systematic, explicit
• Preplanned scope and
sequence
• Easy to more difficult
• Cumulative review
• “I do, we do, you do”
• Guided practice to
independent practice
Incidental, Embedded
• Opportunistic, as
children make errors
• No predetermined
sequence
• Skills taught in minilessons, as needed
• Insufficient practice
for most students
Phonics Program Comparison
Systematic, explicit
• Look carefully at the
word
• Sound it out
• Check it (use context
to resolve meaning)
Incidental, Embedded
• Think about what
makes sense here
• Read the whole
sentence
• Look at the pictures
• Look at the first letter
• Sound it out
The power of phonetic
controls
“There is a period during beginning
reading instruction when all children
benefit from practicing letter-sound
correspondence in decodable text. To
immerse children in a print environment
without instruction in letter-sound
correspondence and practice in decodable
text is to doom a large percentage of
children to reading failure.”
(Foorman, Fletcher, Francis, 1997)
What Are Your Goals?
Students who…
Will…
Read texts that focus on high
frequency words
Use visual strategies for word
identification
Read from predictable texts
Memorize patterns, repetitive
language and rhyme
Read from decodable text
Develop a phonemic decoding
strategy based on spelling-sound
correspondences.
Big Idea 4 Review
There are key instructional practices that are critical for
any beginning reader
• Instruction/practice in phoneme awareness
(18-20 hrs./yr)
• Instruction/practice in phonological awareness
for pre-K
• Explicit, systematic phonics instruction
• The use of decodable text
Take Two Review
Big Ideas
Learning to read is not a natural skill
and must be taught.
There is a great deal of research
consensus on teaching reading.
Scientists know the major brainprocessing systems involved in
reading.
There are key instructional practices
that are critical for any beginning
reader.
How will this impact my teaching
or leadership?
Thank you!
Pam Peroutky
pam.peroutky@rowlandreading.org