Foundations for Literacy: An Evidence-based Toolkit for the Effective Reading and Writing Teacher

1. Foundations for Literacy: An Evidence-based Toolkit for the Effective Reading and Writing Teacher Canadian Language and Literacy Research Network (CLLRNet)

2. The Importance of Teaching Reading and Writing “Given the pivotal role reading plays in and out of school and the cumulative long-term cost of illiteracy, early literacy intervention is critical” (Al Otaiba & Fuchs, 2002) • Early identification and effective instruction = prevention of reading problems • $32 billion increase in national income for every 1% increase in literacy scores

3. Exploding Reading Myths • Myth 1 - Learning to read, like learning to talk, is a natural process • Response from research: oral language develops naturally from birth; however, not all children will learn to read without proper instruction (Lyon, 1998; Pressley, 2006) • Myth 2 - Genetics rule: if a child has dyslexia, he or she cannot be helped • Response from research: Although dyslexia is influenced by genetics, most children with dyslexia can learn to read (Fletcher, Lyon, Fuchs, & Barnes, 2007; Olson, 2006)

4. Myths (cont) • Myth 3 - If you start at a disadvantage, you will never catch up • Response from research: Children who enter school at-risk for reading difficulties can become strong readers if they have skilled literacy teachers for two years in a row(Snow, Burns, & Griffin, 1998) • Myth 4 - After Grade 3, children are finished learning how to read • Response from research: Not every aspect of reading has been taught or learned before a child completes Grade 3 (Pressley, 2006)

5. K-W Chart

6. Types of Research Studies

7. Best Available Evidence EVIDENCE- BASED PRACTICE Teacher’s Expertise Ongoing Assessment Research into Practice Adapted from LinguiSystems, 2006

8. Knowledge of Core Language Structures 1) Phonemic Awareness: awareness of the individual speech sounds in language 2) Graphemes: spelling of the sounds 3) Phonological Awareness: all aspects of speech processing and production

9. Knowledge of Core Language Structures 4) Morphemes: sequences of sounds that form the smallest meaningful units of language 5) Spelling: established conventions of letter sequences and patterns 6) Vocabulary: words and their meanings 7) Grammar and Syntax: rules governing the correct formation of sentences

10. Discussion Questions • What are the types of research? • Why is keeping informed about recent research important for the teaching profession? • Why are these core language structures important for teaching?

11. Literacy Development • Goals of Literacy • To be able to construct meaning effectively from written text • To encode written text accurately in writing

12. Framework A(SEDL, 2008) Oral Language • Phonology - the sounds of the language • Syntax - including grammar • Semantics - including word knowledge/vocabulary • Linguistic knowledge - the ability to put together or understand proper sentences • Background knowledge + linguistic knowledge = language comprehension

13. Framework A(SEDL, 2008) Written Language • Concepts about print - child’s knowledge of form and purpose of written text • Phoneme awareness - ability to manipulate sounds in language • Alphabetic principle - letters and letter combinations represent sounds • Letter knowledge - letter appearance and sound • Lexical knowledge - knowledge of printed words • Cipher knowledge - understanding the rules for writing and spelling • Decoding skills - break sentences into words and units of meaning

14. Finding the Balance • The development of decoding skills • connecting sounds to print, learning rules for spelling and developing a knowledge of printed words • The development of oral language skills • building vocabulary, enhancing grammar by forming correct sentences and increasing listening comprehension

15. Components of Literacy Development 1. Concepts about Print/Print Awareness • Early exposure to text in the home environment influences print awareness • Multiple exposures = increased print awareness (Wood, 2004; Cunningham & Allington, 2007) • With a literacy-rich environment and explicit instruction at school, children can catch up with their peers (Cunningham & Allington, 2007)

16. Print Awareness Stage Child is aware of text Child understands how text works Activity/ Instruction Classroom is full of books, has print on walls Teacher points out text on walls and reads it; points out individual words; reads stories aloud to class 1. Concepts about Print/Print Awareness

17. Print Awareness Stage Child understands that text contains information Child learns to flip through books from beginning to end, holding them right-side-up Activity/ Instruction Teacher reads to group, shows book and talks about story Teacher shows title, author’s/illustrator’s names on cover, and back of the book 1. Concepts about Print/Print Awareness

18. Print Awareness Stage Child understands that text is read top to bottom and from left to right Activity/ Instruction Teacher follows words with finger while reading them aloud, and talks about how reading is from “this side” to “this side” and from the top of the page to the bottom 1. Concepts about Print/Print Awareness

19. Components of Literacy Development 2. Connecting Speech Sounds to Print/Decoding • Oral languageand print development must be closely integrated and coordinated in reading instruction(Blaiklock, 2004; Foorman, Chen, Carlson, Moats, Francis, & Fletcher, 2003; Schneider, Roth, & Ennemoser, 2000; What Works Clearinghouse, 2006b) • Elements of decoding include: letter knowledge, phonological/phonemic awareness, alphabetic principle and phonics

20. 2. Connecting Speech Sounds to Print/Decoding 2a. Letter Knowledge • Letter knowledge is not just reciting the alphabet! • It includes knowledge about: • letter names • upper and lower case letters • handling and grouping letters • word discrimination • Explicit Instruction: • Present upper and lowercase letters at random(Blair & Savage, 2006) • Learn appearance of letters • Teach letters with the sounds

21. 2. Connecting Speech Sounds to Print/Decoding 2b. Phonological Awareness • Definition: All aspects of speech processing and production • Regular exposure to activities that promote phonological awareness skills enhance reading development(Blachman, 2000) • Activities: • Syllable segmentation, Rhyming, Phoneme isolation

22. 2. Connecting Speech Sounds to Print/Decoding 2c. Phonemic Awareness • The awareness of, and ability to manipulate, individual sounds in words • Strong link between phonemic awareness and reading ability(National Reading Panel, 2000; SEDL, 2008) • Teaching phonemic awareness: • Sounds should be taught with letters • Simple phonemes (e.g., /p/, /b/, /t/, /s/), to vowel sounds, to complex phonemes (e.g., -ng /ŋ/, sh /ʃ/, ch /tʃ/) • Teach phonemes as one sound - do not add “uh” (e.g., ruh-ae-nuh for ‘ran’)

23. Phonemic Awareness Activities: • Phoneme addition • Phoneme deletion • Phoneme manipulation • Phonemic segmentation • Phoneme identity • Categorization • Blending

24. 2. Connecting Speech Sounds to Print/Decoding 2d. Alphabetic Principle and Phonics • Alphabetic Principle – understanding that letters and letter patterns in written words represent the phonemes in spoken words in systematic, predictable relationships • Phonics – teaching term for the study of the alphabetic principle

25. 2d. Alphabetic Principle and Phonics Synthetic Phonics Instruction • Teach specific pronunciation patterns (e.g., silent ‘e’ rule) as well as exceptions in irregular words (e.g., through) • Provide many examples to build sight word recognition of irregular words • Allow inventive spellings to practice connecting sounds with letter patterns; once the connection is made, correct spelling patterns should be emphasized.

26. Discussion Questions • What have I learned about print awareness and how to teach it? • What have I learned about decoding skills and how to teach them? • What are the elements required for decoding?

27. Components of Literacy Development 3. Vocabulary • Understanding the meaning of words • Explicit, direct instruction: • Discuss vocabulary before, during, after reading (Biemiller & Boote, 2006) • Teach a core vocabulary in developmental sequence (Biemiller, in press) • Teach written vocabulary that the child already knows orally • Start early and teach many words; children will remember up to 40% of words explicitly explained (Biemiller & Boote, 2006) • Teach at least 10 carefully selected words a week (Rupley & Ehri, 2008) • Teach oral vocabulary in Kindergarten and Grade 1; teach both oral and written vocabulary in Grades 2 and 3 (Beck, McKeown, & Kucan, 2002)

28. 3. Vocabulary Activities: • Explore words that are both spelled and pronounced the same but have different meanings and words that are spelled the same but are pronounced differently • Teach idiomatic expressions • Encourage students to think about new words in different contexts • Have students provide vocabulary to complete a context • Teach vocabulary in themes

29. Components of Literacy Development 4. Reading Comprehension • Construction of meaning from text (NRP, 2000; Snow, Burns, & Griffin, 1998) • Comprehension through instruction • Promote critical thinking skills • Use a wide variety of texts at appropriate level • Have students make connections between given text and other books, knowledge or their own experiences • Have students predict what will happen • Read aloud to students every day (FCRR, 2008; Rasinski & Padak, 2008) • Effective reading comprehension strategies • e.g., self monitoring, question answering, summarizing

30. Components of Literacy Development 5. Fluency • Fluency is the ability to read connected text accurately, quickly, and with expression(Kuhn & Stahl, 2003) • 40% of Grade 4 students read at low fluency levels (Daane, Campbell, Grigg, Goodman, & Oranje., 2005) • Fluency Instruction • Repeated readings + guidance and feedback • Fluency Instruction Activities • Choral reading, student-adult reading, tape-assisted reading, partner reading, readers theatre

31. Components of Literacy Development 6. Writing • Encoding speech sounds into text • Spelling • Handwriting • Composition • Writing Instruction • Brainstorming • Gathering, evaluating and synthesizing words/ideas • Creating connected text

32. 6. Writing • Five steps in writing development: • acquire knowledge • retrieve knowledge • plan text • construct text • edit text (Adapted from The Access Center: Improving Outcomes for All Students K-8, 2008a)

33. Writing activities: • Model writing frames, templates or graphic organizers • Break text down to its skeletal outline • e.g., story web • Have students combine sentences into complex sentences • e.g., Brownies taste good + Mary likes to eat brownies = Mary likes to eat brownies because they taste good • Have students insert descriptive words into plain sentences • e.g., Add black, big and quickly to: The spider ran up the wall = The big, black spider quickly ran up the wall (Wren, 2002b)

34. Discussion Questions • What have I learned about the importance of: • vocabulary development? • reading comprehension? • fluency? • writing? • How will I teach these key components?

35. Elements of Effective Instruction 1. Engagement and motivation - student and teacher 2. Systematically delivered, explicit instruction - graduated from easy to more difficult - synthetic and analytic instruction 3. Multisensory instruction 4. Scaffolding - before, during and after reading 5. Metacognitive strategies - modelling thinking

36. Elements of Effective Instruction 6. Assessment • Initial and ongoing assessment provides a basis for specific and appropriate instruction • Screening - letter knowledge, phonological awareness, oral vocabulary, naming speed (Desrochers & Glickman, 2007) • Progress monitoring - checks a student’s reading skills based on the school curriculum • Standardized or diagnostic testing - used to develop a profile of strengths and weaknesses by testing a wide variety of cognitive abilities

37. Elements of Effective Instruction 7. Intervention • Tier 1:mainstream high-quality, effective, evidence-based instruction provided to all students • Tier 2:additional instruction provided to students that require extra assistance; differentiated instruction within the regular classroom • Tier 3: more intensive instruction provided to students whose response to Tier 2 intervention was not adequate; student works with specialist outside of classroom (Vaughn & Klingner, 2007 )

38. 7. Intervention Differentiated Instruction • Low-cost intervention method • Matches instruction to the needs of students in the regular classroom • Classroom is organized into small groups based on students’ needs • Careful monitoring of student progress is needed

39. 7. Intervention • Shared Reading • teacher reads a text to all students, allowing each student visual access to the text • Guided Reading • teacher coaches and observes students reading aloud, and intervenes to guide as needed • students are taught to become more strategic, self-monitoring, comprehending readers. • Computer Assisted Learning • computer technology can assist teachers in reading instruction

40. Elements of Effective Instruction 8. Parental and Guardian Involvement • Good home-school relationship = mutual respect and communication between teachers and families • Keep parents informed: weekly newsletters/handouts including suggested activities • Programs with “explicit parent training” = most improved reading performance (Toomey, 1993)

41. Special Populations • English Language Learners • Need extra help in vocabulary building, grammar and comprehension • Learners from Low Socioeconomic Status • Need extra help in building pre skills for reading and writing success • Learners with Reading Impairments • Early identification and intervention is key • French Immersion • Reading difficulties often occur in both languages

42. Developmental Milestones for Reading and Writing • The kit provides reproducible milestone charts of expected reading and writing abilities • Kindergarten to Grade 6 • Remember, every child is different!

43. Concluding Themes • Become a knowledgeable and informed teacher • Provide quality instruction • Identify at-risk students right away and provide expert intervention and extra assistance • Provide differentiated teaching with small group attention • Emphasize balanced techniques, being sure that the foundation skills are taught explicitly and systematically • Provide multiple pathways to learning the foundation skills • Engage students so that they enjoy reading for life!

44. K-W-L Chart

45. Discussion Questions • What will I do next? • What should I change, or try in my teaching? • How will I apply this knowledge in a classroom?