The Strategies, However, Were Usually Defined by Examples

Good Quotes

Afflerbach, P., Pearson, P., & Paris, S. (2008, February 1). Clarifying differences between reading skills and reading strategies. Reading Teacher, 61(5), 364-373.

The strategies, however, were usually defined by examples,

such as rehearsal, chunking, and imagery,

rather than by explicit definitions of the scope, conscious

use, or deliberate goal orientation of the actions.

There was no account of the strategies used by

accomplished readers or of the strategies that developing

readers must learn. We agree with Alexander,

Graham, and Harris (1998) that strategies represent intention:

A reader who is strategic intends to use strategies

to work toward a goal, be it comprehension of a

textbook chapter, appreciation of a poem, or understanding

instructions for assembling a bicycle.

Intention, however, does not describe what the actions

are, how they are learned, or how they can be taught. 366

Davis’s nine potential component skills of

comprehension

1. Word meanings

2. Word meanings in context

3. Follow passage organization

4. Main thought

5. Answer specific text-based questions

6. Text-based questions with paraphrase

7. Draw inferences about content

8. Literary devices

9. Author’s purpose 367

“Reading strategies are deliberate, goal-directed attempts to control and modify the reader’s efforts to decode text, understand words, and construct meanings of text. Reading skills are automatic actions that result in decoding and comprehension with speed, efficiency, and fluency and usually occur without awareness of the components”

or control involved. The reader’s deliberate control,

goal-directedness, and awareness define a strategic

action. Control and working toward a goal characterize

the strategic reader who selects a particular path to

a reading goal 368

For example, identifying onset-rime

patterns and decoding new words by analogy with familiar

words can be taught and practiced deliberately

as strategies when teachers model and guide young

readers through the process. Teaching these kinds of

reading strategies explicitly helps children understand

what they are doing and why it is important—two crucial

features of learning that may escape children who

are given daily worksheets to practice the skills without

the cognitive explanations. Thus, even “basic”

skills benefit from being taught as strategies initially,

but the goal is fluent, proficient, automatic recognition

of letters, phonemes, and words over time. 370

The Web and Reading Instruction

Phase one

(print automation) features drill-and-practice applications with technology

as the teacher and students as passive learners. Phase two (expansion

of learning opportunities) features learner-centered, tool-based

activities rather than the passive delivery of content. Technology is a

tool in the hands of students and teachers. Phase three is data-driven virtual

learning. This phase is marked by the use of the Internet for learning

and teaching as well as management of information. 3

Research principles

that must be applied to judge Web-based reading programs include:

(a) systematic, empirical methods that draw on observation or experiment;

(b) rigorous, independent analyses that are adequate to test stated hypotheses

and justify conclusions drawn; (c) measurements or observational methods

that provide reliable and valid data across evaluators and observers, and

across multiple measurements and studies; (d) experimental or quasi-experimental

designs in which individuals, entities, programs, or activities are assigned

to different conditions and with appropriate controls to evaluate the

effects of the condition of interest, with a preference for random assignment

experiments; (e) experimental studies with sufficient detail and clarity to allow

for replication; and (f) rigorous, objective scientific reviews in peer-reviewed

journals or approval by a panel of independent experts. 9

Supporting

the Pew data, the NetDay (2003) survey of 210,000 students

from 3,000 schools (October-November 2003) found that students use

the Internet at home, primarily for communication, games, and information

searches. If these data are correct, school use of the Web needs to

improve. 10

Web-based K-12 reading instruction is a potential beacon of innovation

in a chaotic world of challenges, and, obviously, teachers and students

are starting to use it. 11

Reading and its development insights form brain science

As the visual word form

area computes orthographicphonological

connections, its greater

activation in English could reflect the

multiple levels of spelling-sound

correspondence important for

decoding English (e.g., reading BOMIC

by letter-sound conversion or by

analogy to COMIC). Readers of

Chinese show relatively more

engagement of visuo-spatial areas,

presumably for recognising complex

characters (Siok et al., 2004). 36

It is much

easier to segment a word like

“ragazza” (Italian for “girl”) than a

word like “strength”. The phonological

structure of the Italian word is

CVCVCV, whereas for the English

word it is CCCVCC. Only five per cent

of English monosyllables follow a CV

pattern. Most syllables in English have

complex phonology (CVC, CCVC,

CVCC). To become literate in English,

the brain must deal with both of these

problems. To paraphrase Frith (1998),

the English-reading brain must learn

an inconsistent alphabetic code rather

than a consistent one, and must learn to

break up rather complex whole word

sounds into sound constituents in

order to make sense of this code. 36

Phonological awareness is essentially the brain’s ability to distinguish and represent the sound structure of language. An illiterate adult does not

have the same phonological awareness

skills as a literate adult, and language

representation in the illiterate brain

differs from language representation in

the literate brain. 36

As reading develops, brain

areas initially active in the right

hemisphere become disengaged, and

the left hemisphere takes over

(Turkeltaub et al., 2003). Studies of

children with developmental dyslexia

show that, atypically, right

temporoparietal cortex continues to be

used during reading. 37

Assistive Technology for Reading

In

our work with schools, we have seen

assistive technology break down

barriers to full literacy in two ways: as a

reading support, meaning that computerbased

applications help students with

learning disabilities successfully access

grade-level text as they read, and as a

reading intervention, meaning that the

technology helps students strengthen

and improve their overall reading skills. 73

combine text-reader software with digital versions of textbooks (not quote) 74

Teachers

have found that students with disabilities

are more likely to reread text passages

several times for clarity when using Read

& Write Gold than when listening to the

text being read aloud by a teacher. 74

One of the greatest problems that

poor readers face is a deficit in background

knowledge in many subject

areas. 74

Literacy Instruction for older struggling readers

Not surprisingly, almost half of the schools offered no

explicit reading instruction beyond fourth grade, except for the most

disabled readers or unless it were labeled an elective. Approximately onethird

of the schools offered a semester-long remedial reading course at

each grade level, but instruction was usually independent of regular curricular

material. About 60% of the schools surveyed required students to

take a developmental reading course (usually in sixth grade) for one

semester or a full year. Developmental courses are not remedial in nature

and usually emphasize sophisticated strategies for better comprehension.

Some schools that did not offer special reading courses reported that their

content area teachers taught reading. In other instances, the responsibility

for reading instruction fell solely on the language arts teachers. 125

For many the of students with reading problems, the

increased academic challenges and inability to develop minimum skill

competencies result in more than half (50.3%) leaving school before

obtaining a high school diploma (U.S. Department of Education, 1994). 126

Thus, reading instruction should

allow for plenty of practice to help students recognize and use sound

reading strategies while focusing on meaningful contextual experiences

(Guthrie, Alao, & Rinehart, 1997). Too much emphasis on isolated skills can

result in word calling, reduced motivation, and a lack of comprehension

(Dymock, 1993; Educational Research Service, 1995; Schifini, 1997). 126-7

This array of student-based factors suggests that procedures for

teaching reading at the middle and high-school level must center on

meaningful and practical activities. We take the liberty here to distill these

factors into a few important principles. First, the reading program must be

relevant and intrinsically motivating because adolescents need to see the

value in what they do. Second, it must assure that students’ lack of skills is

mostly hidden from view because students with reading difficulties are

often self-conscious about their lack of skills. Third, students should have

some control over their own learning, because adolescents do not always

like to be told what to do. Finally, the program should build on student

strengths rather than on weaknesses, on success rather than failure,

because adolescents are not apt to spend more time on tasks on which they

have already tried and failed.127

When in stage 2, learners who do not become

fluent readers never learn to recode words accurately and rapidly, which

precludes establishing lasting associations between a sequence of letters in

spellings and the phonemic parts of a word’s pronunciation. Only when

learners have built a solid repertoire of visual-phonological connections in

lexical memory are they able to read fluently and reliably. 131

A factor that promotes automaticity is practice and repeated

readings, especially when the level of reading is such that students make

few mistakes (LaBerge & Samuels, 1974; Samuels, 1997). Thus, classroom

routines that afford students the opportunity to practice reading fluently

foster automaticity. 131

Although the ability to recognize sound-symbol

relationships is important, it is certainly not sufficient for comprehension.

Students must also call upon their prior knowledge and use context clues

to extract meaning from what they read. There is growing evidence that

computer-based effects such as animation and sound enable students to

make these connections (Matthew, 1996). 133

Interactive Comprehension Instruction

Thus, specifically modeled

and practiced comprehension strategies are a

foundation to garner student interest through the

development of reading competency. An interactive

think-aloud provides a means for modeling,

scaffolding, and practicing. It offers struggling

readers the opportunity to see and hear how proficient

readers approach a text, and it allows advanced

students to engage in conversations that

draw on their prior knowledge. 378

Having now observed 65 lessons in which teachers

like Maria model their thinking of disciplinespecific

texts, we identified four dimensions of

think-alouds: vocabulary, comprehension, text

structures, and text features. 380

Computer based reading instruction for young children

Sight word instruction regained

attention because of the increasing number of students with

disabilities in general education classrooms (Browder & Xin,

1998). Although some educators propose that children learn

to read and write through ample interaction with meaningful

and authentic environments, an extensive review indicates

that this approach seemed to have weaker effects for children

at risk (e.g., children with a disability or disadvantaged

children) (Stahl, McKena, & Pagnucco, 1994). In other words,

young children or children at risk should be taught with

explicit skills instruction. 5-6

The program was

developed based on a constant- time-delay teaching procedure

and involved animations and video segments from children’s

cartoons. This study addressed three research questions.

1. Can young child with developmental disabilities learn sight

word recognition through a multimedia computer program?

2. Can young child with developmental disabilities learn

nontarget information (definitions) through

observation?

3.Can young child with developmental disabilities

generalize target behaviors or incidental learning

information across materials? 6

Parental Nurturance Promotes Reading

nurturant parenting during the child’s preschool

years was associated with reading achievement at age 8 and was found to

contribute significantly to growth in reading from ages 4 to 8. However, counter to

expectations, nurturance was not associated with children’s reading ability at age

4. It is possible that the lack of a significant finding in this case resulted from the

restricted range of Time 1 reading scores. An alternative possibility is that very

young children’s reading skills are primarily based on maturation. Cognitive abilities

and the role of nurturance may become cumulative, increasingly contributing

to reading growth as children mature and move into elementary school. However,

this hypothesis seems less likely given that phonological ability was also unrelated

to reading ability at age 4 in this sample.

Children in this study who were living in a richer social–emotional environment

(as indicatedbya nurturant primary caregiverwhoreportedandappeared tobewarm

across settings and situations) were more likely to improve their reading at a faster

rate than those in a less warm and supportive relationship with their primary caregiver. 65

Brain-behavior relationships in reading acquisition

Brain activation

may thus be a central mediating factor between a cognitive

precursor skill like PA and ultimate reading achievement. 643

Specifically, at higher PA levels, children were generally reading at an

above-average level, regardless of background. However,

at lower PA levels, a disparity began to emerge such that

most children from higher socioeconomic backgrounds

were still reading relatively well, whereas many children

from lower socioeconomic backgrounds were struggling.

This interaction held even when verbal IQ was taken into

account. Thus, the relationship between PA and reading

achievement is modulated by SES, such that this relationship

is exaggerated under low-resource conditions but

attenuated under high-resource conditions. 643

Brain activation may thus be a central mediating factor between a cognitive

precursor skill like PA and ultimate reading achievement. 643

The left occipito-temporal region supports the development of visual expertise allowing skilled readers to rapidly combine the letters of a word into an integrated visual percept while the left perisylvian region is involved in phonological processing in normal readers. Importantly, brain–behavior relationships have been demonstrated in these regions, such that a child’s phonological skill level is positively predictive of the degree of activation observed in these regions while the child performs a reading task in the scanner. 643-644

Specifically, we predict

that the strength of the association between PA and

brain activity will be increased in an environment with

low exposure to literacy-based (and other) resources.

Conversely, in an environment with plentiful access to

resources, the influence of PA on brain activity may, to