Teaching the Language Skills, Reading - Essay Example

Running head: Teaching the language skill: Reading Teaching the language skill: Reading [The of the appears here] [The of the institution appears here] Introduction This paper introduces the factors which are critical in teaching the language skill of reading. An overview of past literature highlights the current trend supporting an eclectic approach to teaching reading to young pupils; that is, the teacher uses whichever strategies most effectively develop reading skills among his/her students (Burrell, 1998). These strategies include bottom-up strategies (such as phonics and look-and-say) and top-down strategies (such as extensive reading, use of context and pictorial clues). Much of the support for eclecticism comes from first-language texts. They have to be drawn upon to guide practice in the teaching of reading to young second-language pupils in primary classrooms as the Teaching English to Young Pupils (TEYL) literature is relatively limited, although some useful texts are available (Moon, 2000). It is a believed by many parents that inborn intelligence will control how well their kids learn to read no matter what type of instruction is given, however, the evidence suggests otherwise. It has been proved that, in general, IQ has very little bearing on early reading ability. Only recently, the researchers have found that children who have difficulty learning to read usually have acceptable level of IQs (Rayner et al. 2002). Analysis It is a fact that teaching children to read well in their early age obviously helps to develop a priceless lifetime habit; thus, it is not surprising that educators have placed enormous emphasis on finding the best way to teach these skills (Rayner et al. 2002). At one time, a great deal of debate in educational circles centred on whether whole-word or phonics instruction was the most effective way of teaching reading skills. But over the past decade or so, arguments have revolved around the relative merits of phonics and whole-word's successor, whole-language. The concept of whole-language approach has been adopted by many teachers because of its intuitive appeal. As making reading fun ensures to keep children motivated, and learning to read depends more on what the student does than on what the teacher does (Rayner et al. 2002). But the prospect of keeping kids interested would not have been enough by itself to convince teachers to use the whole-language method. What really made it a success was an educational philosophy that empowered teachers to compose their own curricula and encouraged them to treat children as active participants, an enticing combination that was promoted with flair by some educator celebrities. The presumed benefits of whole-language instruction and the stark contrast to the perceived dullness of phonics led to its growing acceptance across America during the 1990s (Rayner et al. 2002). It has been clearly demonstrated that understanding how letters relate to the component sounds of words is critically important in reading. The research on the topic shows that there is no doubt about it: teaching that makes the rules of phonics clear will ultimately be more successful than teaching that does not. Admittedly, some children can infer these principles on their own, but most need explicit instruction in phonics, or their reading skills will suffer. This conclusion rests, in part, on knowledge of how experienced readers make sense of words on a page an understanding that psychologists have developed over many decades. One of the first researchers to investigate the nature of reading was James M. Cattell, an American psychologist of the Victorian era (Rayner et al. 2002). To test whether proficient readers were taking in words letter by letter or all at once, he performed a pioneering experiment, exposing subjects very briefly to whole words or to individual letters and asking them what they saw. He found that they were better able to report words than letters. Thus, it seemed apparent to him that people do not absorb printed words one letter at a time. (Such findings helped to motivate the creation of the whole-word method later on.) More recent research has refined our knowledge of this phenomenon. For example, studies that track eye movements during reading show that although people register each letter in a word as a separate symbol, they normally perceive all the letters in a word simultaneously (Rayner et al. 2002). When designing a teaching program for reading the following factors need to be kept in mind (Duffy-Hester 1999): 1) Balanced Reading Programs First of all, a reading program should be balanced, drawing on multiple theoretical perspectives (Duffy-Hester 1999). Many definitions and examples of balanced literacy instructional programs have been described in the literature (Baumann & Ivey, 1997). A balanced reading program may include not only a balance of teaching methods, but also a balance of theoretical perspectives. Goodman (1992) has criticized eclectic approaches to reading instruction, stating that "eclecticism, taking useful bits and pieces from here and there, is probably the best policy for teachers who have a sense of what they don't like but who don't have a well articulated belief system and knowledge base" (p. 361). Nevertheless, implementing a balanced or eclectic reading program should not imply a lack of theoretical grounding. As Stahl (1997) explained, "principled eclecticism is what good teachers have always done. This eclecticism is not just a little of this and a little of that,' nor is it the result of teachers' failure to commit to a particular philosophy" (p. 25). The challenge for teaches is to implement teaching programs based on a variety of theoretical perspectives (Duffy-Hester 1999). Duffy (1997) detailed how excellent teachers accomplish this goal through "conceptual selectivity" in which teachers "never follow a single program, theory, model, or philosophy, nor do they play a single role or employ one set of materials to the exclusion of others. Instead, the best teachers draw thoughtfully from various sources, play many roles and use many techniques and materials" (p. 360). Through implementing balanced reading instruction programs based on theoretical perspectives within and outside the field of reading education, it is more likely that support of the reading and overall literacy growth of the children will increase, particularly of children who struggle with reading. 2) Reading Aloud Daily On a daily basis, teachers should read aloud to students from a variety of genres and create opportunities for students to read instructional and independent level texts (Duffy-Hester 1999). Within their framework for early literacy learning, Fountas and Pinnell (1996) described how teachers can create opportunities for students to engage in reading and listening to a variety of texts. Through the elements of reading aloud, guided reading, shared reading, and independent reading, students hear quality literature read to them (reading aloud), read materials written on their instructional level with teacher guidance and minimal support (guided reading), read materials that may be too difficult for them to read independently with the support of other students and the teacher (shared reading), and read easy materials (independent reading). In so doing, students receive a balanced literacy that is likely to result in all students, including struggling readers, making progress in their reading and writing growth. 3) Reading Instructions should be assessed Reading instruction should be informed by and based on meaningful reading assessments (Duffy-Hester 1999). Many formalised teaching programs have utilized meaningful reading assessments such as informal reading inventories, portfolios, and anecdotal records to inform instruction. For example, they provided a way for teachers to document the reading skills or strategies students used well and those skills that needed focused instruction. In many reading programs, instruction is based not on students' needs as revealed through meaningful reading assessments, but rather on a prescribed scope and sequence of reading materials, skills, and strategies as dictated by basal reader teacher editions, curriculum guides, or commercial reading programs (Duffy, 1997). For struggling readers to make optimal progress, reading instruction must be responsive to their needs rather than based on a fixed scope and sequence. By using meaningful assessments to inform reading instruction on students' instructional levels, more struggling readers could be supported in regular classroom reading programs. As Gill (1992) concluded, "Lots of reading in materials that can be read with accuracy and fluency, lots of writing, and direct help with those features appropriate for each child when needed--these have been the necessary and sufficient circumstances for children for many generations" (pp. 451-452). 4) Form Multiple Goals Reading programs may be based on multiple goals for student success (Duffy-Hester 1999). Many of the teaching programs set and achieve, with varying degrees of success, different goals for students, such as improving their reading motivation, discursive practices, reading fluency and automaticity, word identification, comprehension, vocabulary, and reading of increasingly difficult texts. Programs that focus on a variety of reading goals are more likely to produce engaged readers who are skilled and strategic, motivated, socially interactive, and knowledgeable. Reading instructional programs that expect struggling and non-struggling readers to achieve multiple goals for reading instruction are likely to produce students who can and will read. Early and Ericson (1988) stated, "for all students, the ultimate goal must be: I can read it myself-- and I will'" (p. 42). To achieve this ultimate goal, eclectic goals for elementary school classroom reading programs that support struggling readers must be established and achieved (Duffy-Hester 1999). 5) Teachers should have power to Decide Teachers should use their practical, personal, and theoretical knowledge to decide and inform their reading instruction. There is no single prescribed or published reading program that meets the needs of all readers, as all teachers and students have unique strengths and needs and are members of distinct and diverse communities of readers and writers that they form with one another (Duffy-Hester 1999). Therefore, although teachers should use published research to inform the design of their reading programs, their implementation of these programs must also be paired with their practical knowledge of and beliefs about the best ways to teach reading to students. Aspects of reflective teachers' reading programs change over the course of the school year as they decide what students learned and what they still need to learn to become more proficient readers, and whether the teaching and the instructional environment they created was helping students to improve their reading. 6) Explicit Teaching The unambiguous teaching of word identification, comprehension, and vocabulary strategies may take place in conjunction with authentic reading tasks (Duffy-Hester 1999). Debate continues not so much on whether to teach phonics, vocabulary, and comprehension strategies, but rather on how and when to teach them. Some whole language advocates state that reading skills and strategies should be taught only when students show the need to learn them through the use of mini lessons. Some advocates of balanced literacy instruction explain that the explicit teaching of reading skills and strategies should occur, but only within the context of reading and writing. However, these may simply not arise for all the reading skills and strategies that students need to learn, or the teacher may not recognize or be able to teach children reading skills or strategies when they show this need perhaps due to the complexities of teaching in diverse regular classrooms. Additionally, phonics, comprehension, or vocabulary mini lessons that take place only in the context of reading and writing experiences may not be sufficient to teach struggling and non-struggling readers what they need to know to become more proficient readers (Duffy-Hester 1999). 7) Multiple Contexts Reading programs may provide multiple contexts for student learning. Hiebert and Fisher (1991) suggest two classroom structures that form the core of classroom literacy programs: task structures, or what students are doing, and talk structures, or the discourse that occurs among students and between students and teachers. These factors transcend arguments over the best approaches to teaching reading and focus instead on the design of optimal talk and task structures that benefit students with diverse literacy needs within the context of classroom reading programs (Duffy-Hester 1999). 8) Cater for All Students in general The design of the teaching program should be such so as to support the reading growth of all children, both struggling and non-struggling readers. In the teaching program both struggling and non-struggling readers should make progress in their reading abilities. Although admittedly not easy to accomplish, the goal of reading educators must be to design and implement reading programs flexible and diverse enough to accelerate the reading growth of all children. Strickland (1994) proposed procedures for the effective reading instruction of African American children who are at risk for school failure, and concluded that these guidelines "are learner centred and thus adapt to and support all learners, no matter who they are" (p. 334). It can be concluded that this same idea holds true in classroom reading instructional programs that support the growth of struggling readers: Quality reading instructional programs for struggling readers may be based on the same principles as programs for non-struggling readers. It is within these programs and principles that instruction must be individualized to meet the specific reading needs of each child (Duffy-Hester 1999). 9) Teachers Development Teaching staff development for pre-service and practicing teachers of reading may include providing opportunities for teachers to reflect on their practice (Duffy-Hester 1999). One of the greatest strengths of a good teachers training program is that it is continually evolving and supports teachers in becoming reflective practitioners. Rather than teachers attending a staff development session to learn about how to implement a particular reading program and then being expected to implement the program verbatim, BCP teachers learn how to make the program work for themselves and their students by trying out aspects of the program in their own classrooms, reflecting on how the program works, and modifying the program based on what they learn through their reflections. It has been found in past research that how to support practicing and pre-service teachers in becoming reflective educators, however, this research suggests ways to promote reflective teaching and was not intended to focus on the context of teaching; that is, teachers working with diverse students, including struggling readers, in actual classrooms over time. Perhaps through providing teachers with concrete models or frameworks of theoretically based reading programs in pre-service or in-service educational opportunities and then encouraging teachers to undertake teacher research or engage in formative experiments to explore how to modify and expand these programs in ways congruent with their own teaching situations, teacher educators can begin to make the elusive and needed link between research and practice related to teaching struggling readers. Conclusion By analyzing and reflecting on existing, research-based classroom reading programs and creating new programs based on meaningful reading research and principles of exemplary reading instructional practices, it can be hoped that more educators can and will design and implement reading instructional environments that better meet the needs of all children (Duffy-Hester 1999). References Baumann, J.F., & Ivey, G. (1997). Delicate balances: Striving for curricular and instructional equilibrium in a second-grade, literature/strategy-based classroom. Reading Research Quarterly, 32, 244-275. Burrell, A. (1998) Improving the teaching of reading, Primary Practice, 13, pp. 7-8. Duffy, G.G. (1997). Powerful models or powerful teachers An argument for teacher-as-entrepreneur. In S.A. Stahl & D.A. Hayes (Eds.), Instructional models in reading (pp. 351-365). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Duffy-Hester, Ann M. (1999) Teaching Struggling Readers In Elementary School Classrooms: A Review Of Classroom Reading Programs And Principles For Instruction,Reading Teacher, 00340561, Feb99, Vol. 52, Issue 5 Early, M., & Ericson, B.O. (1988). The act of reading. In B.F. Nelms (Ed.), Literature in the classroom: Readers, texts, and contexts (pp. 31-44). Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English. Fountas, I.C., & Pinnell, G.S. (1996). Guided reading: Good first teaching for all children. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. Gill, J.T. (1992). Development of word knowledge as it relates to reading, spelling, and instruction. Language Arts, 69, 444-453. Goodman, K.S. (1992). Why whole language is today's agenda in education. Language Arts, 69, 54-363. Hiebert, E.H., & Fisher, C.W. (1991). Task and talk structures that foster literacy. In E.H. Hiebert (Ed.), Literacy for a diverse society: Perspectives, practices, and policies (pp. 141-156). New York: Teachers College Press. Moon, J. (2000) Children Learning English (Macmillan). Rayner, Keith, Foorman, Barbara R., Perfetti, Charles A., Pesetsky, David, Seidenberg, Mark S. (2002) How Should Reading Be Taught Scientific American, 00368733, Mar2002, Vol. 286, Issue 3 Strickland, D.S. (1994). Educating African-American learners at risk: Finding a better way. Language Arts, 71, 328-336. Read More