Search results

Literacy demands have changed over the years and for success in society it is necessary to handle a wide range of texts and written information. The school has been criticized for not giving their pupils the necessary abilities to handle the kind of information they are faced with in society. One important dimension of literacy is reading comprehension, but even though much written information has the form of tables, drawings, graphs, etc. such presentations are most often accompanied by written text. This chapter focuses the comprehension of different kinds of written information, and data from different tasks are evaluated in light of the simple view of reading. A total of 132 grade 6 readers were given four reading comprehension tasks concurrently with a decoding task and a listening comprehension task. It was found that the sum of decoding and listening comprehension accounted for a larger part of the variance in all the reading comprehension tasks than the product of decoding and listening comprehension. The pupils' results on a naming task and morphological tasks from preschool accounted for significant parts of the variance in the comprehension of both plain text and text combined with tables and graphs over and above the concurrent decoding and listening comprehension results. Speed of orthographic identification in 2nd grade accounted for an additional, significant part of the variance in the plain text reading tasks. These results show that processing speed and linguistic knowledge, such as morphological knowledge, are important contributors to the comprehension of different kinds of written information. Even if speed of orthographic identification is especially important for comprehending plain texts, a broad linguistic and cognitive perspective seems to be important when preparing pupils to comprehend different kinds of written material.

Purpose: The purpose of this chapter is to provide research-based information to foster positive discussions about the need for phonics and phonemic awareness instruction in the primary grades. In order to read, students must possess secure knowledge of the alphabetic principle (i.e., that speech sounds are represented by combinations of letters in the alphabet) as well as the ability to aurally separate the distinct sounds (phonemes) that make up words.

Design: In this chapter, the authors provide essential definitions of phonics and phonemic awareness terms, highlight peer-reviewed research and best instructional practices, and clarify findings in relation to the recently renewed controversy over how to effectively teach reading to young children. The authors draw from respected research journals and years of classroom experience to provide recommendations to literacy teachers.

Findings: Explicit, systematic phonics instruction is crucial for beginning readers because most children will not intuit phonics concepts. To set the stage for phonics instruction (connecting speech sounds with their written representations), students must understand how to separate sounds in words. Therefore, instruction in phonemic awareness must be given independently of alphabetic representations; that is, students need to be able to hear the distinct sounds before mapping them onto written words. Once a student has mastered this understanding, however, instructional time need not be devoted to its development.

Practical Implications: This chapter contributes to the literature on phonics and phonemic awareness by clearly explaining the differences between the two concepts and their necessary inclusion in any beginning reading program. It includes practical activities teachers can use to develop these understandings in the classroom and provides research evidence to support their use.

Students with learning disabilities characteristically demonstrate unexpected underachievement and continued learning challenges in spite of appropriate instruction. Because reading is fundamental to competency of all future endeavors, reading interventions have been the focus of considerable public and professional attention. Intensive interventions that reflect students’ cognitive processing challenges, address the need for feedback, and take into consideration the learning environment have been associated with improved student learning outcomes.

While elementary and secondary struggling readers differ, the targeted reading skills are the same. At all levels, fundamental skills such as phonemic awareness, fluency, vocabulary knowledge, and comprehension are crucial to reading success. At the elementary level, phonemic awareness and the alphabetic principle are best taught through direct and explicit instruction; vocabulary instruction emphasizes word recognition. Fluency problems can be addressed through such activities as repeated or timed readings.

As students progress to the secondary levels, vocabulary demands become increasingly related to content acquisition, and a combination of generative and non-generative approaches to vocabulary instruction is recommended. At the secondary level, fluency practice is best coupled with comprehension instruction, which can include the explicit teaching of strategies and opportunities for students to work collaboratively. While there are no simple solutions to the challenges experienced by struggling learners, appropriate, differentiated, and intensive interventions can increase the likelihood of improved learning outcomes for these students.

Purpose – To provide educators an overview of instructional practices in reading that are associated with improved learning outcomes with students K-8 who have a mild-to-moderate learning disability.Design/methodology/approach – The chapter provides a conceptual framework to view the process of reading, discusses foundational reading skills necessary to master word reading, presents two approaches to teaching comprehension, and highlights ways to effectively teach vocabulary.Findings – The content of this chapter presents empirical evidence as well as specific examples for clinical practice.Research limitations/implications – This chapter highlights key practices that have been extensively researched and found to be associated with improved learning outcomes for all students, including those with learning disabilities (LD).Practical implications – The chapter offers a wealth of information to help educators more effectively provide reading instruction for struggling readers K-8.Originality/value of chapter – The information compiled in this chapter will help teachers impact learning and reading outcomes for all of their students, particularly those who have a mild-to-moderate LD.

Purpose – The chapter provides the reader with an overview of the major components of informal reading inventories (IRIs) and how they can be administered to answer specific questions about students’ reading behaviors. The focus then shifts to how IRIs can be used to help teachers target instruction to better meet students’ instructional needs.

Methodology/approach – The authors describe how educators can use the results of IRIs to analyze a student's strengths and areas of need, align those findings with research about six types (clusters) of readers (Valencia & Buly, 2004), and select one or more of the strategies recommended in the chapter to provide instruction related to that student's specific areas of need.

Practical implications – In addition to the numerous instructional recommendations provided for the six clusters of readers, the chapter includes a detailed scenario of how one teacher used the results of an IRI to plan instruction for a struggling reader, a process that could be replicated by educators who read the chapter.

Social implications – The chapter suggests how small groups of educators could work together to determine which of their students to assess with an IRI and, after assessing, to discuss how they will use the results to target instruction for those students.

To examine how vocabulary instruction can lead toward students connecting the known to the familiar with the unknown.

Theoretical advances in vocabulary acquisition and utility are discussed in relation to word reading and knowledge formation. Extending theory requires pedagogical planning and reinforcement to promote skill learning first toward preparing students to have the capacity to acquire vocabulary across the content areas and in turn, understand and apply that knowledge toward problem solving.

Students must be scaffolded toward connecting what they know with that which is familiar and eventually with the unknown; only then can we extend learning beyond our guidance and supervision. Students must be taught how and when to use vocabulary acquisition strategies so they are prepared to overcome difficulties associated with word meanings in independent reading.

It is timely for rich, varied, and complete vocabulary instruction to serve as the basis for learning across the curriculum. Words are the predecessors of tomorrow’s learning and we must consider how to best provide instruction for students who overuse sight words, text shorthand more than they write formally, and even substitute inappropriate language based upon a lack of vocabulary knowledge and ability to articulate their feelings.

Literacy research in Norway has focused on many areas. Dyslexia has been one main area for many years. The last years’ many approaches have been taken to understand how reading disabilities can be prevented and to understand the connection between the spoken and written language. A school reform reducing the age of admission to school from seven to six from 1997 has had the effect of stimulating research in the field of reading development.

Norwegian orthography is described as semi-transparent. Studies of Norwegian children show that even children with dyslexia break the alphabetic code rather easily. Also, Norway is an advanced, rich country with a clear commitment to equity. These are some reasons why Norway should get good results on international reading achievement tests. The results from different international reading assessments, however, have worried the Norwegian Government. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has clearly stated that Norway has a job to do in terms of equity. In most reading achievement tests, Norway shows a wider spread of outcomes than many other OECD countries. The Norwegian school reform of 1997 has not been a great success in the area of children's literacy development. The international results and the evaluation of the reform have led to a range of initiatives from the Government and to yet another reform with a new curriculum. In this new curriculum, there is a somewhat clearer focus on benchmarks to be achieved. There is, however, little concentration on what to do when children fall behind their peers for no apparent reason. The school authorities hope, however, that the initiatives that are taken will make a difference.

A substantial number of students read significantly below grade level, and students with disabilities perform far below their non-disabled peers. Reading achievement data indicate that many students with and at-risk for reading disabilities require more intensive reading interventions. This chapter utilizes the theoretical model of the Simple View of Reading to describe the benefit of early reading instruction, targeting both word reading and word meaning. In addition, evidence is presented supporting the use of word meaning instruction to improve accurate and efficient word reading for students who have failed to respond to explicit decoding instruction.

The purpose of this chapter is to present key characteristics of early reading text by describing a new series of researcher-developed early reading books that were specifically designed to address multiple criteria, including word structure or decodability, familiarity, repetition, high-frequency, syntax, and text cohesion. We describe the theoretical and empirical rationale that guided the design of the books, how we developed them, and their key features. This is followed by a technical analysis that describes the (1) characteristics of the target words used to guide the writing of the books and (2) characteristics of the text, such as the percentage of words on common high-frequency word lists, word counts, type-token ratio, sentence counts, unique sight words, unique decodable words, and content (i.e., picture-supported) words. The analysis demonstrates that the target words and the text in the books are consistent with our intended goal of simultaneously addressing multiple variables.

Purpose – To provide classroom teachers with an overview of a range of assessments that can be administered either individually or to a group.

Design/methodology/approach – The chapter is organized from early literacy skill assessments (both individual and group based) to comprehension and standardized tests.

Findings – Provides detailed information on skills required for each element of reading, design of assessment, intended purpose, and process of administration.

Research limitations/implications – This is not an exhaustive list, the authors strove to highlight the most reliable and practical assessments from a large body of possible choices.

Practical implications – This is a valuable source for classroom teachers who are provided with a wide-range of assessment choices covering the breadth of reading skills with extensive details on each.

Originality/value of paper – Teachers need a range of assessments to choose from to make decisions at the individual, class and school level.