Research-Based Methods of Reading Instruction, Grades K-3

Sharon Vaughn Vaughn, Sylvia Linan-Thompson

• Publisher: ASCD
• Year: 2004
• ISBN:
  9781416615880
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

What does research tell us about how teachers can most effectively help young students learn to read? In Research-Based Methods of Reading Instruction, Grades K-3, Sharon Vaughn and Sylvia Linan-Thompson explore the research on reading, providing a comprehensive overview of the five core instructional areas and how each affects student achievement:

*Phonemic awareness
*Phonics and Word Study
*Fluency
*Vocabulary
*Comprehension

The authors include dozens of reading activities and lesson plans that teachers can use immediately, all of which have worked in actual classrooms and are grounded in solid research. A glossary and annotated resource lists will help you better understand key reading concepts and find reliable resources, including relevant Web sites.

Whether your students have special needs or show no apparent learning difficulties, this book will expand your repertoire of teaching strategies and help you put students on the road to literacy.

Chapter 1

Why Science Matters

Suppose that when Dr. Jonas salk perfected the polio vaccine and published the results, the medical community had not paid attention. After all, most of their patients did not contract polio, and they were accustomed to treating those who did with time-honored methods, such as iron lungs.

"New vaccines are not the way we approach things," these physicians might have said. "We really believe in the iron lung philosophy. Besides, staying well and getting well are natural processes, and we have faith that our patients will improve if given the right hospital environment."

Is this an absurd scenario? Yes. Scientific research has been the accepted method for establishing the medical procedures that revolutionized healthcare in the last century. Do we have rigorous, science-based research that could guide our decision-making in education? Yes, but the implications of the research have not been fully recognized, agreed upon, or implemented in the classroom.

Why not? For one thing, the medical profession matured and turned to scientific procedures at a much earlier date than did education. Also, results in education are much harder to observe. Being unable to breathe is much more obvious (and elicits much more sympathy) than being unable to read or compute. In general, medical interventions take effect much more rapidly and appear more dramatic than those in education. But most important, medical procedures are chosen and administered by practitioners trained at a professional level unmatched by many other fields. The fact that educators are not trained to a similar level makes it even more important that we use principles of scientific research to form the body of knowledge that serves as a basis for our classroom methods, and we must present these methods in an understandable, straightforward way.

How a Scientific Approach Helps Practicing Teachers

A science-based approach can reduce the influence of politicians, parents, school board members, and others and increase the influence of reading experts and teachers. As Walberg notes:

Educators are deluged by a huge amount of opinion and advocacy. Much of it is poorly conceived, ill written, and biased. Little is based on the findings of rigorous inquiry. For this reason, education has not made the fact-based productivity strides enjoyed by other professions and industries. (1998, p. ix)

Opinions on nonpedagogical matters such as salary schedules or bond issues should be valued, but educational materials and methods should be based in scientific research (to the extent possible).

It is not unusual to find teachers, principals, or members of school boards or state departments of education who have made important decisions that run counter to research findings. For example, Harris Cooper, a social psychologist, became a member of the school board in a district with a population of approximately 100,000. He soon realized that most school board members have dual roles as both advocates and accommodators:

Decision makers who are advocates on an issue would be tempted to ignore research or use it as a weapon, perhaps culling through the literature to find studies that supported their position while ignoring the conflicting literature. On the other hand, decision makers who view themselves as accommodators on an issue might have been more likely to want to know "what the research says."However, I can now see how, on occasion, accommodators might be motivated to actively avoid research findings. (1996, p. 30)

The above comments show that research is not always used in the way research scientists would hope or expect. Chall (2000) points out that the problem is not that pertinent research is nonexistent, but that its implications have not been recognized, agreed on, or implemented widely. It is crucial that administrators, teachers, and board members appreciate the value of scientific research in education.

What Is Science?

You probably have had many experiences with science, and not all of them positive. You may remember science classes where you were taught principles and reasons for these principles, or conducted experiments and interpreted the findings or memorized answers. Mostly, when you took science classes you were trying to understand a well-documented system of knowledge in a particular area. We define science as the development of an objective, consistent, documented system of knowledge based on rigorous, systematic observations that lead to hypotheses that are then tested and refined (Vaughn & Dammann, 2001). The scientific process conflicts with other approaches in that its goal is to publicly distribute the resulting information.

Why should you value science in education? Because techniques derived from scientific methods are useful. They get things done. In education, getting things done means students are better educated, more knowledgeable, more capable, and more informed citizens.

Not all educational undertakings require specific quantifiable results. Some, like the presentation of a humorous play, aim toward producing experiences, and some kinds of art are produced simply to express their creator's feelings. But if your mission is pragmatic, such as teaching reading, or science, math, the applicability of the scientific approach is indisputable.

There may be no organized human activities that are totally free of bias, political stands, or points-of-view based on wishful thinking or even noble intentions, but science stands out as being as free of these influences as possible. Still, educators sometimes resist scientific approaches that they feel may control or otherwise inhibit them. To counter this point-of-view, Stanovich (2000) points out that:

What science actually accomplishes with its conception of publicly verifiable knowledge is the democratization of knowledge, an outcome that frees practitioners and researchers from slavish dependence on authority; and it is subjective, personalized views of knowledge that degrade the human intellect by creating conditions in which it is inevitably subjugated to an elite whose "personal" knowledge is not accessible to all. (p. 402)

When teachers develop an understanding of scientific findings related to education, it gives them a powerful means to justify decisions and gain independence from the more traditional roles in which they have been cast, as well as a means to resist political pressures.

Are there alternatives to using science as the basis of our methods? It is apparent that our methods are not all based on science right now. What alternatives can there possibly be?

Folklore

Folklore is transmitted by word-of-mouth, as anecdotes, tales, and so-called facts are passed, sometimes with distortions, from one generation to the next. Though often composed of superstitions, folklore embraces a wide range of information. Folklore may be important for supporting school spirit and traditions, but it is an unreliable basis for teaching and learning.

Not all folklore in education is bad; though most of it is unproven, some of it is based on practice. Folklore can be a way of telling stories about previous principals and how they behaved or treated teachers. These stories can serve as ways of bringing the community of teachers together and remembering shared experiences. However, folklore can also be harmful by misleading educators to believe that the findings of educational research merely state the obvious and could be figured out by any good educator without conducting a study. Of course, 100 years of research in medicine, psychology, and education have taught us that the obvious is not always true.

Craft

Craft is a goal-oriented body of knowledge developed through trial and error, and is a more acceptable basis for knowledge than folklore. It is also far more compatible with science. Craft has been used to develop knowledge throughout human history; in fact, some of the great accomplishments of the past, such as the cathedrals of Europe, the circumnavigation of the globe, and some medical practices, were developed from craft-based knowledge. Though science often has its beginnings in craft, craft is not as rigorous, systematic, objective, or well documented as science—craft cannot claim the confidence, generality, or pertinence that science-based approaches can.

We can see the inefficiency of craft by comparing the growth of knowledge in the three centuries that the scientific method has been in existence to the thousands of years during which craft reigned alone. For example, though craft was helpful for centuries in Japan in the building of earthquake-resistant structures, rigorous scientific testing has extended that ability dramatically in the last 50 years.

As indicated above, science and craft are not mutually exclusive. Several of the attributes of the scientific approach were introduced at various times into the culture of craft. With time, scientific approaches were introduced into craft-based fields such as architecture, where they were used to develop and confirm technical aspects of the work. In medicine, the beneficial effects of various pharmaceuticals came to be tested and evaluated scientifically, leading to a systematic and growing body of knowledge that gives us effective methods and techniques in which we can have confidence. Because of this, participants in these areas come to be viewed as professionals. As Carnine (1999) notes:

A mature profession . . . is characterized by a shift from judgments of individual experts to judgments constrained by quantified data that can be inspected by a broad audience, less emphasis on personal trust and more on objectivity, and a greater role for standardized measures and procedures informed by scientific investigations that use control groups. (p. 9)

Education: Craft or Science?

Like many other disciplines, education has developed largely as a craft, though substantial science-based research has been established in many areas. The basis exists for education to build on this foundation and, following the example of its successful predecessors, embrace the scientific approach in order to develop into an effective and mature profession. Education is now poised to make the shift that medicine has already accomplished: that is, to a profession largely based on scientific evidence. "Until education becomes the kind of profession that reveres evidence," notes Carnine, "we should not be surprised to find its experts dispensing unproven methods, endlessly flitting from one fad to another" (1999, p. 3).

Our experience working with teachers in classrooms across the United States shows they are eager to learn and use effective instructional practices. Teachers want to make a difference. They want the quality of their students' lives to be improved because of their experience in their classroom. We are convinced that if teachers start on the road to effective research-based reading practices with their students, they will go a long way toward accomplishing these goals.

Annotated Bibliography

American Federation of Teachers (June, 1999). Teaching reading is rocket science: What expert teachers of reading should know and be able to do. Washington, DC: Author.

This document describes why preventing reading failure is a top priority for education. It describes the difficulty of learning how to teach reading, and asserts that many teachers are unprepared to assure that students are able to read words and obtain meaning from print. The document also presents a curriculum for teacher preparation and professional development in reading, and can be obtained from the American Federation of Teachers, 555 New Jersey Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20001-2079. (Ask for Item No. 372.)

Web Sites That Teach

http://www.nifl.gov.

The National Institute for Literacy (NIFL) is an independent federal organization that supports the development of high-quality state, regional, and national literacy services so that all Americans can develop the literacy skills they need. NIFL administers the Partnership for Reading and other programs that promote child and adult literacy.

http://www.nationalreadingpanel.org.

In 2000, the National Reading Panel issued a report entitled Teaching Children to Read, which provides meta-analyses of studies conducted in such critical areas of reading as phonemic awareness, phonics, and fluency. This Web site provides information on how to obtain a full copy of that report.

http://www.getreadytoread.org.

This Web site targets childcare workers and provides information about a "constellation of care" to encourage early literacy. Also included on the site are skill-building activities, frequently asked questions about building early literacy skills, information on programs and resources, training alerts, and research information.

Chapter 2

Phonemic Awareness

Children who enter school with phonemic awareness have a very high likelihood of learning to read successfully. Children who lack phonemic awareness have a great deal of difficulty learning to read. Obviously, children who come without phonemic awareness need to develop it! The question is not if but how. (Cunningham, 1999, p. 69)

This chapter provides an overview of phonemic awareness: what it is, how to assess it, and how to design instructional activities to promote it. Instructional classroom activities are provided to guide teachers and parents in the use of phonemic awareness skills with children.

What Is Phonemic Awareness?

Phonemic awareness, the most complex part of a phonological awareness continuum that includes rhyming and segmenting words and sentences, is the ability to identify the phonemes (smallest identifiable units of sound) of spoken language, and how they can be separated (pulled apart or segmented), blended (put back together), and manipulated (added, deleted, and substituted). You may have learned that a phoneme is the smallest sound in spoken language that makes a difference in words. For the purpose of reading instruction, a phoneme is a single sound that maps to one or more printed letters. For example, the word sat has three phonemes: /s/, /a/, and /t/. While there is no break between the sound segments, we can tell that there are three phonemes because we can compare sat to the word pat, where the initial /p/ sound is substituted for the /s/ sound; to the word Sam, where the final /m/ sound is substituted for the /t/ sound; and to the word sit, where the medial /i/ sound is substituted for the /a/ sound. Children learn to read more easily when they are aware of these phonemes.

In some words, letters combine to produce a single sound, as with the /sh/ in the word shrimp. We would say that there are five phonemes in shrimp: /sh/, /r/, /i/, /m/, and /p/. In the word check, we would say that there are three: /ch/, /e/, and /ck/. It is not always easy for young children to determine how many sounds a word has, but there are many activities to help them understand and manipulate the sounds in words. These activities, several of which are provided at the end of this chapter, are fun and teach children to understand that words are made up of many sounds.

Why Should I Teach Phonemic Awareness?

Children who begin school with little phonological awareness have trouble acquiring alphabetic coding skill and thus have difficulty recognizing words. (Stanovich, 2000, p. 393)

More than 52 peer-reviewed experimental studies reveal that there are significant positive benefits from explicit instruction in phonemic awareness, especially when combined with instruction in letter names (National Reading Panel [NRP], 2000). Phonemic awareness influences outcomes in word recognition and comprehension, as well as spelling, for all students except those with established learning disabilities.

As kindergarten teacher Margaret Fischer told us:

Learning to hear the sounds in words, manipulate these sounds, and segment them is essential for my students. I practice these activities 15–20 minutes a day with all of my students to assure that they have the building blocks of phonemic awareness to improve their success as readers. I understand that the benefits are not just improved phonemic awareness but that my students will be able to more readily read words and understand what they read...