Focus on Teaching:

http://www.readingrockets.org/article/203

By: Sharon Vaughn, Marie Tejero Hughes, Sally Watson Moody, and Batya Elbaum (2001)

There are a variety of grouping formats that have been proven effective for teaching reading to students with learning disabilities: whole class, small group, pairs, and one-on-one. This article summarizes the research and implications for practice for using each of these grouping formats in the general education classroom.

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3785/is_200404/ai_n9398882

Teaching for Literacy Engagement

Guthrie, John T

In our theoretical framework, reading engagement entails multiple perspectives on reading that consist of motivational dispositions, cognitive strategies, conceptual understanding, and social discourse. Possessing these attributes, engaged readers are typically higher achievers than less engaged readers, who show fewer of these qualities or less integration among them. Because engaged readers spend 500% more time reading than disengaged students, educators should attempt to increase engaged reading time by 200%-500%. This may require substantial reconfigurations of curriculum. However, engaged reading is unique because it is both an effective means to achievement (engaged students improve in reading more than disengaged students) and a valued end or educational outcome. A research gap today is the lack of refined, empirical understanding about classroom practices that promote engagement. We designed Concept-Oriented Reading Instruction (CORI) to foster engagement through conceptual themes, hands-on experiences, self-directed learning, interesting texts, classroom discourse, and time for extended reading. For professional development, we attempt to convey the experiences, theory, beliefs, performances, and texts that will enable teachers to implement and generate instruction for engaged reading and learning.

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3785/is_200401/ai_n11826117

Early Literacy Screening in Kindergarten: Widespread Implementation in Virginia

Invernizzi, Marcia

Early success in reading is predicated on a child’s ability to accurately and effectively master core literacy constructs (e.g., phonological awareness, alphabet knowledge, concept of word, and grapheme-phoneme correspondence) and to exercise these understandings in a comfortable sociocultural context. In recent years, educators, legislators, and policymakers have shown great interest in creating an effective and instructionally useful diagnostic screening tool for identifying children at risk for early reading difficulties. In response to this charge, the Phonological Awareness and Literacy Screening-Kindergarten (PALS-K) was developed. Through Fall 2003, more than 430,000 kindergarten students in Virginia had been screened using PALS-K. The purposes of this paper are to (a) describe the PALS-K instrument, (b) examine its effectiveness in screening for poor beginning literacy skills, and (c) discuss the educational and policy implications of the results of statewide literacy screening efforts.

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3785/is_200601/ai_n16452268/print

Informational Texts as Read-Alouds at School and Home

Yopp, Ruth Helen

The role of informational text in primary-grade classrooms has been the subject of much discussion in recent years, and there is converging evidence that young school children have few opportunities to engage with this genre. The studies described here expand the research base to include preschool (Study 1) and home (Study 2) exposures to informational text as read-alouds. School data included 1,830 read-aloud titles from 1,144 teachers of preschool through third grade. Home data included 1,847 titles reported by the parents or other family members of 20 kindergartners over the course of a school year. The findings suggest that in both of these environments-school (including preschool) and home-children have far less exposure to informational text than narrative text. Further, a trend was revealed suggesting that boys may be read proportionately more informational texts in their homes than girls.

http://www.childrenofthecode.org/interviews/cunningham.htm

Dr. Anne Cunningham, is the Director of the Joint Doctoral Program in Special Education with the Graduate School of Education at Berkeley and the Historian of the Society for the Scientific Study of Reading.  She is the co-author of “What Reading Does For The Mind” and numerous other articles and research papers related to reading.

The following interview with Dr. Anne Cunningham was conducted at the studios of KCSM (PBS) Television in San Mateo California on September 5, 2003.  Dr. Cunningham elegantly balances public school reading teaching experience with rigorous scientific research work and university level teacher training. She is dedicated to making a difference in the lives of children by helping them learn to read more effectively.

Identification and Assessment To Prevent Reading Failure in Young Children
By Joseph K. Torgesen

Children who get off to a poor start in reading rarely catch up, yet few
school districts have any systematic means for early identification of
those at risk of reading difficulty. Here’s how to change that.

Article from the American Educator, Spring/Summer 1998. Adobe acrobat
format (pdf).  Please click here to find and download the article.

http://www.cori.umd.edu/overview/

Concept-Oriented Reading Instruction (CORI) is a program designed by John Guthrie and Allan Wigfield to incorporate reading strategy instruction and inquiry science in interesting and unique ways for students. The goals of CORI are to increase students’ reading comprehension, reading motivation, and science knowledge. The CORI program equips participating teachers with the skills to accomplish these classroom goals through interactive professional development workshops and established CORI guidelines.

http://www.tea.state.tx.us/textbooks/materials/decodtxt.htm

The following is a summary of the range and average of decodability in
designated reading selections in the five conforming first grade reading
programs. While “potential for accuracy” is not a requirement for state
adoption, the potential for accuracy is included as it provides useful
information that reflects the non decodable words that have been taught and
the expected ease with which a student might read a passage.  (report from
the Texas Education Agency, 2000)

http://www.indiana.edu/~reading/phonics/faq/decode.html

Decodable text is sentences and stories composed of words that use the
sound-spelling correspondences that children have already learned and a
limited number of sight words. As the children learn more sound-spelling
correspondences, the texts become more sophisticated in meaning, but
initially they are very limited. Decodable text provides children the
opportunity to practice their new knowledge of sound-letter relationships in
the context of connected reading.

by Dr. Patrick Groff
Professor of Education Emeritus
San Diego State University

http://www.nrrf.org/decodable_vs_predictable.htm

The idea of “decodable words” is one of the basic principles of direct,
intensive, systematic, early, and comprehensive (DISEC) instruction of a
prearranged hierarchy of discrete phonics information. Soon after the
alphabetic code (the concept that each speech sound in a language can be
represented by a letter) was conceived, a method of teaching this phonics
information to novice readers was devised.  Professor Groff discusses the
comparison between the meaning of “decodable” and “predictable” as means of
introducing children to reading instruction.