Design Experiments on Efficient and Effective DecodingSpelling Instruction in the Primary Grades: Th

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Design Experiments on Efficient and Effective
Decoding-Spelling Instruction in the Primary
Grades The Development of Student and Teacher
Knowledge
Robert Calfee rcalfee_at_citrus.ucr.edu Kimberley A.
Norman knorman_at_fullerton.edu Kathleen M. Wilson
kathleen.wilson_at_ucr.edu Guy Trainin
guytrainin_at_hotmail.com Kathleen Wasserman
kathwasserman_at_aol.com AERA April 11, 2001
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Design Experiments in Early Reading Acquisition
Year One Lessons from the Trenches K. Wilson
April 11, 2001
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Research Hypotheses

• Explicit, vowel-centered curriculum
• Metaphonic Principle
• Articulatory phonological awareness
• Instructional diversity

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Curriculum Map
Reading/Writing Community
Word Work
Making Sounds
Making Words Short Vowels
Making Words Long Vowels
Compound Words
Projects
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Program Features

• Lessons fit a thin "slice of time
• Instruction focuses on full engagement through
  doing, reflecting, and explaining.
• Connects metacognition to language learning
• Review lessons build connections across
  interruptions

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Design Experiments

• The rigor of systematic experimentation combine
  with the realities of the classroom
• Key Components
• Realistic Environment
• Systematic Variations
• Systematic Observations
• Assessment
• Flexibility

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Designed Variations 1999
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Research Context

• Participants
• 260 First Grade Students
• Large Urban School District
• Four Schools
• 17 classrooms
• 51 males
• Ethnicity 45 Caucasian, 40 Hispanic, 7
  African American, 3 other

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Core Model Lesson Plan
Building Words Long Vowel A Review
Jv Organization 8-12 students Direct
instruction Time 10-12 min 4 Materials
Butcher paper Letter cards A E consonants
? Review Review start with CVC word. Add
-e and review buddy rule. The glue letter also
reaches around when we add -ed and -ing. Why?
Discuss. Today we learned two more endings,
-er and -est. Can somebody show us how to add
those onto the end of the word? And when we want
the vowel to remain short, we must double the
consonant. That way the glue letter doesnt
reach its buddy. It still says its short
sound. B Check What would these words say?
Have students read words aloud. Mix short and
long vowel sounds, and different endings.
Concentrate here on reading and recognizing the
patterns rather than producing them with letter
tiles.
Connect We have been working on the long A
sound. The people who lived a long time ago and
invented English spelling decided to use what
letter to show this sound? Make short /a/ sound
and write letter on board as part of word tap.
See back.. This word says tap. How did those
people decide to show the word tape? Discuss
and write on board. What about taping? And
how do we change tape to taped? Can someone
explain how the A knows to say its name?
Looking for a buddy... Weve talked about
tap, tape, taped, and taping. But how
do we write words like
tapped and tapping? Thats what were
going to talk about today.
z Organize First, lets feel what sounds are in
the word tapping. Repeat word articulating
clearly. What do you feel at the beginning of
the word? At the end of tap? Tongue tapping,
lips popping. Use neck cards. What is the
vowel in /tap/? Is that the short or long sound?
What ending do we need to add? Use -ing neck
card. Demonstrate that this vowel must say its
name b/c of buddy rule. Solicit ideas for how to
spell tapping. I'll give you a hint. How
many letters can the glue letter reach around?
And if there are two letters, will the glue
letter say its name or sound? If we were to add
another letter, what letter would we choose?
The same one that's already there so we don't
add any new sounds. Let's try it now. Add
extra P. Ask glue letter to explain why it says
short sound.
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Word Building Endings
e
s
ing
er
ed
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Talking about Articulation
Teacher asks What did your mouth do to
make the first sound when you read the word
pat? Lets say that first sound. What was it?
Yes, /p/. What are you feeling in your mouth
when you say that sound?
Students respond Its a popping sound! The
air pops out. My lips are closed and the air
pops them open a little. My tongue is resting
on the bottom. I am making this sound in the
front of my mouth, and I dont turn on my
voicebox.
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Talking about Metaphonics
Teacher asks I noticed that you spelled dime
d-i-m-e. How did you know to build fit that way?
Students responds I stretched it out so I
could hear the sounds better. The first sound
/d/ is a popping sound I make in the middle of my
mouth. My voice box is vibrating, and my tongue
is touching the roof of my mouth, so it has to
start with a d. The i is saying its name, so
buddy e is at the end to remind it to do that.
The last sound I hear is /m/. Thats a nosey
sound and my lips are together, so its an m.
Dime!
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Schools and SES, do they impact scores at the
beginning of first grade?

• Tile test
• Range 0-140
• Includes
• Decoding
• Spelling of synthetic words
• Real word reading
• Sentence reading
• Sentence construction

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Natural Variation Example

• Jane four years teaching experience, felt that
  she had a particularly tough class to teach
• Dropped out of the program by block 2 and then
  decided to come back
• Planned curriculum variations (5
  blocks)Articulation, Articulation, Augmented
  Word Building, Long Vowel Simultaneous, Ending
  System Simultaneous

Planned Time
Metaphonics
Actual Time
Articulation
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Articulation across the Blocks
Low Fidelity
High Fidelity
Focus on Word Building
Focus on Articulation
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Teaching metaphonics
Answers that reflect profound knowledge uncommon
in first graders -Draws connection between the
word and another word- It says pat, which is
like cat. -I heard the sounds of each letter- p
says /p/ -I sounded it out. -My
mommy/teacher taught me.-I just know it.
Standardized scores M 100 SD 25 Differences
were statistically significant at p.001 Note
no scores for block 1
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Long Vowel Introduction
Serial X Simultaneous Ending
system
Spelling Block 4
Spelling Block 3
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Introduction of the ending system
Simultaneous Introduction
Sequential Introduction
Spelling Block 5
X
X
6.8
5.6
Spelling Block 4
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Word Work 1999 results IRAS- sentence reading
N109 not all students were available for both
pre and post tests
8 - Slowly the women ascended the steep and icy
mountain. 6 - About three miles from the harbor
Rays boat was caught in an unexpected
current. 4 - The kitten was scared and climbed
up the tree. The girl tried to reach it but she
had no luck. 2 - Ann wants Mom to bake a cake.
Mom cannot do it, she has to go to work.
Post
Pre
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SAT9 Reading Results by Teacher Fidelity
2
SAT9 Reading (standard score)
1
0
-1
-2
Low Fidelity High Fidelity

Reading Fall Grade 1
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Word Work 1999 results SAT9 (end of 2nd grade)
District N2519 WW students N224 Differences
were not significant at the beginning of first
grade SAT9 results at the end of second grade are
statistically significant
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Sat9 Reading by Classroom
District Mean
Class Means
School Means
3
3
2
2
3
3
1
3
1
1
2
3
1
1
2
Program Fidelity 3high 1low
School A
School D
School C
School B
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Word Work 1999 results SAT9 (end of 2nd grade)
District N2519 WW students N224 Differences are
statistically significant
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SAT9 Spelling by Classroom
District Mean
Class Means
School Means
Program Fidelity 3high 1low
School A
School D
School C
School B
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Word Work Year One Lessons

• An explicit, vowel-centered curriculum is
  effective and efficient for teaching decoding and
  spelling skills.
• Articulation and metaphonics can be learned by
  regular primary students, producing positive
  results in reading and spelling.
• Natural variations are very strong and require
  greater care in designing curricular variations