SECTION III
Learning to Read and Write
CHAPTER 6
Comprehensive Literacy Instruction
A Research-Based Framework
Each summer the authors of this book hold a week-long literacy camp for students with complex communication needs (see the Camp ALEC web site at http://www.campalec.com/home). We teach classroom teachers, special educators, SLPs, and other professionals to administer diagnostic reading assessments. During the rest of the week, under our guidance, they explore and experiment with motivating reading and writing activities for the campers to expand their repertoires and contribute to a report detailing assessment results and instructional recommendations to families and the campersâ home schools.
Here are the diagnostic reading profiles of three recent campers, each a male adolescent with cerebral palsy, physical impairments, and complex communication needs (see Table 6.1). Jerrold can decode and read high schoolâlevel words and read seventh-grade texts with understanding, but he struggles to comprehend text above a fifth-grade difficulty level that is read aloud to him. He needs to strengthen his written language comprehension skills to grow as a reader. Marco can decode and read words at a ninth-grade level and understand texts at a third-grade level that are read aloud to him, but he struggles to read texts to himself with understanding if they are above a first-grade difficulty level. He needs to strengthen his print processing skills to grow as a reader. Jorge can understand texts up to an eighth-grade difficulty level that are read aloud to him, but he can read neither words nor texts above a first-grade level. He needs to strengthen his sight word and decoding skills to grow as a reader.
These are three adolescents with similar disabilities who use high-end speech-generating devices (SGDs) for their face-to-face interactions, and they each have very different needs as readers. It is a small wonder that teachers at every grade level and in every classroom find individual student differences challenging. In this chapter, we describe the theoretical foundation of a comprehensive literacy instruction framework you can use to more systematically organize instruction to address diverse student profiles such as these.
ORIGINS OF OUR APPROACH
Research focused on literacy in students with significant disabilities began in earnest in the 1990s with the creation of the Center for Literacy and Disability Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (https://med.unc.edu/ahs/clds); the authors of this book were involved in this work, each serving as director of the Center at different times. The Centerâs research initially focused on the learning needs of individuals with severe physical impairments and complex communication needs and expanded over time to include students with ASD, intellectual disabilities, deafblindness, Rett syndrome, Williams syndrome, and other developmental disabilities. The Centerâs earliest work primarily addressed emergent literacy, seeking to implement strategies and programs that enacted David Yoderâs (2001) argument that âno one is âtoo anythingâ to learn to readâ (p. 6).
Table 6.1.Reading profiles of three students with complex communication needs
Student | Word identification | Silent reading comprehension | Listening comprehension |
Jerrold | 12th grade | Seventh grade | Fifth grade |
Marco | Ninth grade | First grade | Third grade |
Jorge | First grade | First grade | Eighth grade |
We recognized from the start, however, that emergent literacy was necessary but not sufficient to address the literacy needs of individuals with significant disabilities. Both of us had the good fortune to study advanced reading methods with Jim CunninghamâDavid in the 1980s and Karen in the early 1990s. Jim was a wealth of knowledge and practice who told our classes, âIn the absence of truth, you must have diversity.â He meant there is no foolproof method of identifying a singular approach that will teach all children to read (i.e., basal reading series, commercial reading program, software, other curricular guide), and even the needs of individual children are not stable as they respond or fail to respond to instruction and intervention. He also pointed out to us that reading is a complex cognitive, linguistic, social, and cultural act. His conclusion was that what teachers needed to do, in the absence of such a âreading truth,â was to teach in diverse ways, but systematically rather than eclectically. Jim was advocating for comprehensive instruction long before the term gained popularity. We now discuss the theoretical foundation of comprehensive reading instruction, why comprehensive literacy is necessary for students with significant disabilities, and what it looks like.
THEORETICAL FOUNDATION: THE WHOLE-TO-PART MODEL
The whole-to-part (WTP) model of silent reading comprehension is the theoretical framework underlying our approach to reading instruction (Cunningham, 1993; Erickson, Koppenhaver, & Cunningham, 2017). The WTP model assumes that coordinated effort is required of three abilities, or whole partsâword identification, language comprehension, and print processingâin order to achieve the goal of reading silently with comprehension at every level of text difficulty (see Figure 6.1).
The model assumes that teaching students to read silently, not orally, and doing so with understanding, or comprehension, is the primary goal of literacy instruction in school. It is the ability to read silently with comprehension that changes lives. Over time, it enables students to read text of increasing length and difficulty more efficiently and with greater understanding (Morris et al., 2017). Silent reading with comprehension is the ability that can lead to lifelong learning; rich opportunities accompany this ability. We explain the components of the WTP model in more detail next.
Figure 6.1.Silent reading comprehension.
Word Identification
Word identification is the cognitive process of making print-to-sound links in order to translate printed words into their speech equivalents (Cunningham et al., 2004). For young, typically developing readers, word identification begins with spoken word identification; however, the process itself does not require speech and is achieved subvocally or even neurologically during silent reading (Erickson, Koppenhaver, & Cunningham, 2017). Word identification supports working memory, which enables readers to remember words and word order, assign prosody, and support comprehension (De Jong, Bitter, Van Setten, & Marinus, 2009; Eiter & Inhoff, 2010; Rayner & Pollatsek, 1989). Word identification can be achieved either automatically or consciously with decoding strategies (i.e., mediated word identification). Automatic word identification occurs when the reader gains access to a phonological representation of a word effortlessly from memory; this supports understanding, or reading comprehension, because it frees cognitive resources to be directed toward language comprehension (Samuels, Ediger, Willcutt, & Palumbo, 2005). Mediated word identification involves the conscious decoding of those words not automatically recognized. Decoding requires gaining access to letterâsound knowledge, or spelling patternâsound correspondences, in order to form a phonological representation for the target printed word. It also supports reading comprehension because it leads to automaticity over time (Share, 1999). This is one explanation for why beginning readers may struggle in comprehending textâthey are devoting extensive cognitive resources to mediating nearly every word they encounter. In presenting predictable texts to beginning readers, we attempt to decrease the burden of extensive mediated word identification and provide sufficient repetition with variety to increase automatic word identification.
Language Comprehension
Language comprehension comprises two componentsâknowledge of the world and knowledge of text structures. It represents an individualâs ability to comprehend written language, either while listening to a text read aloud or while reading silently. Knowledge of the world is language-based knowledge or experiences related to the topics and situations represented in any given text. Readers must not only possess relevant language-based knowledge but must also be able to gain access to that knowledge at the appropriate time in order for language comprehension to occur successfully while listening or reading. In addition, language comprehension requires knowledge of text structures, including syntax, cohesion, genre, and length (Mesmer, Cunningham, & Hiebert, 2012). (Syntax refers to the part of grammar dealing with the way sentences are constructed. Cohesion refers to the ways that ideas in a text are systematically linked to one another.) Without experience and familiarity with a variety of text structur...