Title: The Reading Crisis: Why Thousands of Colorados Kids Arent Learning to Read
1The Reading Crisis Why Thousands of Colorados
Kids Arent Learning to Read
- Debora L. Scheffel, PhDDirector, Competitive
Grants and Awards - Director, Colorado Reading First
- Jeanette P. Cornier, PhD
- Office of Learning and Results
- Colorado Basic Literacy Act
2- Every organization is perfectly designed to get
the results that it gets. - -David Hanna
3The Colorado Reading Conundrum
4How Did We Get Here?
- Horace Mann 1830s
- Alphabetic Method (letter names)
- Phonics (letter sounds)
5How Did We Get Here (cont.)
- Phonics Revolt 1930s
- Look-Say Sight Words (restricted vocabulary)
- Language Experience (non-restricted vocabulary)
- Phonics Re-Introduction 1940s
- Addition of Multi-Sensory Pedagogy and Remedial
Reading Approaches (Fernald, Orton, etc.)
6How Did We Get Here (cont.)
- Whole Language 1970s 1980s
- Reading, a psycho-linguistic guessing game
- Written language is naturally acquired
- A Balanced Approach 1990s
- Whole language
- Phonics
7How Did We Get Here (cont.)
- Standards and Accountability Movement
- Focus on student results
- Return on investment
- Convergence of scientifically based reading
research 2000s
8What is SBRR?
- Scientifically Based Reading Research
- Relies on experimental or quasi-experimental
studies (control/comparison and experimental
groups) - Uses dependent measures that directly assess
reading proficiency - Published in peer-reviewed journals
9http//www.nifl.gov/partnershipforreading/publicat
ions/science_research.pdf
10Scientifically Based Reading Research Findings
- Essential components of reading instruction
- Phonemic awareness,
- Phonics,
- Fluency,
- Vocabulary, and
- Text comprehension
- Instructional characteristics
- Systematic,
- Explicit instruction,
- Based on student data,
- In the 5 components of reading, and
- The relationships among these 5 components
11Five Components of Reading
Kameenui, Simmons, Coyne, Harn, 2003
12Phonemic Awareness The ability to manipulate
sounds.
Phonological Awareness An awareness of the
structures of spoken language, sentences, words,
rhymes and sounds.
Phonics The letter/sound relationship
Orthographic Knowledge Spelling patterns of a
language
13Oral and Written Relationship
- The oral rendition of
- /a/ /s/ /k/ /t/
The written equivalent A S K E D
14Reading Fluency
A consequence of fluency rather than a component
15Vocabulary
Beauty
16Comprehension
Preview/Predict Summarize Monitor/Clarify Evalua
te Generate Questions
Strategies
Sequence
Drawing Conclusions
Skills
Main Idea
Noting Details
17Changing Emphasis of Big Ideas
18Instructional characteristics
- Systematic,
- Explicit instruction,
- Based on student data,
- In the 5 components of reading, and
- The relationships among these 5 components
19Teaching Reading is URGENT
- The probability of remaining a poor reader at
the end of 4th grade, given a child was a poor
reader at the end of 1st grade was 88. (Juel,
1994) - Research shows that of the children who are
reading disabled in the 3rd grade, 74 remain
disabled in the 9th grade! (National Institute of
Child Health Human Development)
Therefore, we need to be sure instructional time
is spent using the most effective practices.
20(No Transcript)
21Teacher Knowledge of Scientific Reading Research
- Research convergence on what teachers need to
know - Current inservice teachers do not have this
knowledge base - Preservice teacher candidates are not receiving
the foundation they need in the findings of
scientific research on reading instruction
22Research convergence on what teachers need to know
Fluency
Vocabulary
Text comprehension
Phonemic awareness
Phonic decoding
Scope and Sequence of Instruction
Knowledge of English language structures
Morphology
Phonology
Syntax
Orthography
Semantics
23II. Inservice Teacher Knowledge
- Scientific studies of teacher knowledge of the
structure of English and preparedness to teach
reading consistently found - Inservice teachers have limited knowledge of
English language structures and they feel only
somewhat prepared to teach reading - Teacher training in language structures and how
to provide students with explicit reading
instruction resulted in both increased teacher
knowledge and increased student reading
achievement
24What do Teachers in Colorado Know?
- A Study of Colorado Teachers (Cornier, 2005)
- 183 Colorado Teachers were assessed
- 46 were K-3 teachers
- 24 were special education teachers
- 12 were elementary reading teachers
- 11 were speech/language specialists
- 7 were other (4-5 teachers or admin)
- 35 item assessment
- 20 multiple choice
- 15 true or false
25What do Teachers in Colorado Know?
- Alphabetic Principle Phonics Instruction
- Teachers need to know the difference between
speech sounds and the letters that represent them
in order to teach them to children and to assess
reading and spelling difficulties.
26What do Teachers in Colorado Know?
- How many phonemes or distinct speech sounds are
in this word? - Explain /e//k//s//p//l//a//n/ 7
- Only 13 of 183 surveyed Colorado teachers
answered this item correctly.
27What do Teachers in Colorado Know?
- Which of the following words has an adjective
suffix?
natural excitement capacity envision
carelessness
adjective noun noun verb noun
- Only 13 of 183 surveyed Colorado teachers
- answered this item correctly.
28What do Teachers in Colorado Know?
- True or False?
- Students who decode fluently and who also have
marked difficulty comprehending the ideas in a
passage are atypical or unusual in the overall
population of struggling readers? - Only 16 of 183 surveyed Colorado teachers
answered this item correctly.
29Teachers learn dated methodsFINAL Edition
USA TODAY - McLean, Va.Author Greg
ToppoDate May 23, 2006Start
Page D.10Section LIFEABSTRACT Many
educators have embraced the phonics approach, but
many others -- especially older teachers -- say
it offers children an incomplete picture of
reading and leads to heavily scripted lessons.
But Kate Walsh says that if education schools
embraced scientifically designed programs and
rigorous teacher training, "there would be far
less need for a scripted curriculum."
30III. Preservice Teacher Preparation
- The National Council on Teacher Quality, in May
2006, examined course syllabi and textbooks of
required reading courses from 72 randomly
selected schools of education - Only 15 of syllabi indicated basic exposure to
the scientifically based reading research and the
five components of reading - Only 4 of the 226 textbooks were found to address
the scientifically based reading research and the
five components of reading
31III. Preservice Teacher Preparation
- National Council for Accreditation of Teacher
Education (NCATE) Accreditation ? SBRR - National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ)
matched 13 NCATE accredited schools with 13 who
did not have NCATE accreditation and found no
significant differences in the schools of
educations inclusion of the scientifically based
reading research and the essential 5 components
of reading
32Where are we? What is our goal? What course
should we follow? How are we doing?
Our goal
Desired Course
We are Here
Actual Course
33Leverage Points for Change
- How do we get students what they need?
- Employ knowledgeable and effective teachers
- How do we get teachers to become knowledgeable
and effective? - Seek training in scientifically based reading
research practices through any institutions that
will provide it - How do we get parents and administrators to
expect their teachers to have the expertise to
teach students to read? - Disseminate information about the findings of
scientifically based reading research - If kids win, the adults win too!
34Thank you!