Systematic, Explicit Beginning Reading Instruction

Systematic, Explicit Beginning Reading Instruction Inventory of Essential Knowledge and Skills
|Teacher Observed: | |Date & Time: | |Observer & Observer Role | |School & LEA: | The Inventory can be used by states, LEAs, schools, colleges of education,
organizations offering alternative certification, and individual teachers
to plan and evaluate professional development in reading, as well as to
monitor the fidelity of implementation of a Reading First core reading
program.
Copyright 2004 Martin Kozloff and David Gill
Watson School of Education
University of North Carolina at Wilmington
INSTRUCTIONS
The Inventory compiles some of the most important scientifically-based
research on reading. Sources are at the end. The Inventory can be used by
states, districts, schools, colleges of education, organizations offering
alternative certification, and individual teachers--to plan and evaluate
professional development in reading. The Inventory can also be used by
administrators to evaluate the implementation of a SBRR-based reading
program in a classroom. Items address either (1) cognitive knowledge (definitions, principles,
reasoning) revealed by teachers' descriptions, discussions, or
explanations; or (2) practical knowledge revealed in teaching and
assessment activities. Persons using the Inventory need to develop
questions to ask and activities to observe relevant to the items. The scale on the right-hand column, below, provides four choices for rating
a teacher's knowledge on each item. These four choices are as follows-
using phonemic awareness as an example. 4) Highly competent/Highly satisfactory. Cognitive knowledge is
comprehensive, detailed, and accurate; practical knowledge is highly
technically proficient. Virtually no improvement is needed. For example, regarding cognitive knowledge, a teacher (a) states a
definition of phonemic awareness that includes all important features;
(b) states how phonemic awareness predicts future reading achievement
and explains how this is so; (c) describes fully six or more forms of
phonemic awareness (e.g., sound and word discrimination, segmenting,
blending, rhyming, phoneme deletion) and compares and contrasts these
by identifying the elementary knowledge required by children to use
each one. Regarding practical knowledge, a teacher (a) states several concrete
and valid objectives regarding instruction in phonemic awareness; (b)
presents steps in a general strategy for teaching (for example) onset-
rime and justifies each step; (c) enacts the strategy, revealing fluent
skill at clearly communicating information and instructions, modeling,
prompting, error correction, timely reinforcement, and group and
individual tests of acquisition. (3) Competent/Satisfactory. Cognitive knowledge is broad, somewhat
detailed, and generally accurate, but has some gaps and/or important
details are needed. Practical knowledge is technically proficient but
some weaknesses need to be remedied. For example, regarding cognitive knowledge, a teacher (a) states a
definition of phonemic awareness that includes some main features but
leaves out several other features to complete the definition; (b)
states that phonemic awareness predicts future reading achievement but
provides little information on how this is so; (c) describes two or
three forms of phonemic awareness (e.g., sound and word discrimination,
segmenting), but not in full detail; and (d) compares and contrasts
these by identifying the elementary knowledge required by children to
use each one. Regarding practical knowledge, a teacher (a) states several concrete
objectives regarding instruction in phonemic awareness, but these are
not sufficiently concrete or clear; (b) presents most steps in a
general strategy for teaching (for example) onset-rime and justifies
each step; (c) enacts the strategy, revealing skill at clearly
communicating information and instructions, modeling, prompting, error
correction, timely reinforcement, and group and individual tests of
acquisition, but the teacher's performance is not quite fluent and
involves more than a few minor errors. (2) Marginally competent/Unsatisfactory. Cognitive knowledge contains
some main ideas but has many gaps and is superficial. Practical
knowledge is barely technically proficient; it contains several of the
right elements but has many weaknesses and/or errors.
For example, regarding cognitive knowledge, a teacher (a) states a
definition of phonemic awareness that includes a only few main features
and leaves out most features needed to complete the definition; (b)
states that phonemic awareness predicts future reading achievement but
gives an erroneous explanation of how this is so; (c) describes two or
three forms of phonemic awareness that are incorrect in important
details. Regarding practical knowledge, a teacher (a) states an objective
regarding instruction in phonemic awareness, but the objective is not
sufficiently concrete; (b) presents few steps in a general strategy for
teaching (for example) onset-rime and does not justify the steps; (c)
enacts the strategy, but often fails to communicate information and
instructions clearly or adequately to provide modeling, prompting,
error correction, timely reinforcement, and group and individual tests
of acquisition. (1) Not competent/Highly Unsatisfactory. Cognitive knowledge is narrow,
superficial, and/or contains many errors. Practical knowledge is
virtually absent. For example, regarding cognitive knowledge, a teacher (a) states a
definition of phonemic awareness that is either wrong or identifies
almost no features; (b) does not state that phonemic awareness predicts
future reading achievement; (c) describes two or three forms of
phonemic awareness but the descriptions are incorrect in important
details. Regarding practical knowledge, the teacher (a) states an objective
regarding instruction in phonemic awareness but the objective is really
not relevant to that skill; (b) presents few steps in a general
strategy for teaching (for example) onset-rime but these steps
generally are improper; (c) enacts the strategy, but generally fails to
communicate information and instructions clearly or adequately to
provide modeling, prompting, error correction, timely reinforcement,
and group and individual tests of acquisition The Inventory is divided into sections. These are (A) The reading problem
in America; (B) Language; (C) Curriculum design; (D) Systematic, explicit
reading instruction; and (E) Classroom techniques of systematic, explicit
instruction. Each item below completes the statement, "The teacher..." [Brackets
identify essential features of the knowledge or performance relevant to an
item, and sometimes resources relevant to and/or the authors of an item.]
|Teacher | |Evidence of Behavior or |
|Competency | |Knowledge |
|Hig|Com|Mar|Not|EXAMPLE FORM |Fre|Occa|Infr|
|hly|pet|gin|Com|PRACTICAL KNOWLEDGE |que|sion|eque|
|Com|ent|all|pet| |ntl|ally|ntly|
|pet| |y |ent| |y |Obse|or |
|ent| |Com| | |Obs|rved|Neve|
| | |pet| | |erv| |r |
| | |ent| | |ed | |Obse|
| | | | | | | |rved|
| |x | | |1. Arranges seating so all students can easily |x | |[pic|
| | | | |see and hear (e.g., in a semi-circle) and so | | |] |
| | | | |the teacher can easily see and hear and touch | | | |
| | | | |each student (e.g., to reinforce). | | | |
|x | | | |2. Sits in direct line of vision those students|x | | |
| | | | |who have more difficulty learning. | | | |
| | |x | |3. Scans the group frequently while presenting | | |x |
| | | | |a task to see that all students are attending | | | |
| | | | |and performing relevant actions, such as | | | |
| | | | |following the written text with their finger. | | | | DESCRIPTION of FORM ITEMS |A. Scientifically Based Reading Research |
|A1. Cites major findings regarding: |
|(1) The relationship between social class and reading achievement. |
|(2) The relationship between early reading achievement and later |
|reading |
|achievement. |
|(3) The likelihood that reading difficulties will be remedied |
|depending on children's |
|grade level. [See Felton & Pepper, 1995 Foorman et al., 1998 |
|Good, Simmons, and |
|Smith, 1998 IDEA, 2002-2003 Juel, 1988 Torgesen, 1998] |
| |
|A2. Identifies and discusses the implications for instruction of |
|research findings on factors affecting reading achievement and |
|reading