The Five Components of Reading Discussed - Treasures ...

[pic] Essential Elements of Literacy A Research Alignment Katylee Hoover, Senior Researcher June 2008 | |
|If literacy opens the door of opportunity, will all of California's |
|students be able to cross the threshold to literary success? |
| |
|Macmillan/McGraw-Hill answers yes to this question. Their history has |
|been to help every child learn to read, write, and communicate and to |
|help every instructor teach literacy skills in the most effective |
|manner possible-a practice that continues today with |
|California Treasures K-8 Comprehensive Literacy Program. |
| |
|The California Treasures program will guide students across the |
|literacy threshold to mastery of the skills and strategies they need to|
|become successful in higher education and the workplace-because |
|California Treasures is anchored in salient and consequential research |
|about what works. | Building Literacy for Life Requires a Synergy of Skills River formation and a student's advance to literacy share much in common. A
mighty river, such as California's longest, the Sacramento, is a synergy of
smaller mountain streams that begin in the Cascades, coalesce, and join
larger rivers-the Feather, McCloud, and American. This powerful, united
force travels many miles before reaching its destination, the Pacific
Ocean. Literacy is much like the longest river in California. It is a
coalescence of skills that are developed over time into the most commanding
of lifelong endeavors. The streaming skills of Phonemic Awareness, Phonics,
Fluency, Vocabulary, and Comprehension flow together to form the Reading
Competency a child needs to be successful early in school. But the literacy
stream is not yet mighty. Robust reading skills must be reinforced and
joined by cogent Writing and compelling Communication skills before they
can coalesce into that powerful force known as Literacy. Each element
contributing to mastery exists within the context of the whole, and each
builds upon the other to become an integral part of lifelong competence.
With reading, writing, and communicating practiced and mastered, a
student's advance to literacy reaches its natural destination-one bordered
only by the horizon-the sea of knowledge. Because of the strong dependency of the components that make up literacy,
the teaching and learning milieu must be rich and connected. Literacy is
formative-it is strengthened and enriched as it develops. It is vital to
all other endeavors and accomplishments in life. This document presents
each of the essential ingredients of literacy-reading, writing, speaking,
and listening-aligned with the California Reading/English-Language Arts
Framework and Content Standards, supported by current research, and
demonstrated in the California Treasures (Macmillan/McGraw-Hill) reading
curriculum. The findings apply to California students, kindergarten
through eighth grade, who are on differing individual achievement levels,
including English Learners (EL) and students who are reading and
communicating below grade level. California Treasures is designed to meet the specific literacy needs of
California's teachers and students. The program content is aligned to
national and state standards and assessment. The curriculum is grounded in
scientifically based research and the wisdom and expertise of those
recognized as most knowledgeable in literacy instruction. California
Treasures is designed for the inclusion of all students, depending on their
special needs, such as students whose first language is not English, those
who are approaching grade level, and those in need of brief intervention on
their way to mastery. The program also includes students who need
enrichment in fundamental areas, those who are succeeding on grade level in
need of maintaining literacy skills, and students achieving beyond grade
level who may be gifted in specific areas of literacy such as writing
composition or analyzing advanced texts. The curriculum is permeated with
literature selections and reading and writing strategies that are designed
to reach students who have traditionally struggled with literacy and need
motivation to reach mastery-typically adolescents and low achievers. California Treasures begins in kindergarten with the formation of a
substantial foundation based on the Five Essential Elements for Reading.
This foundation sets students up for success as they move from the primary
grades through upper elementary and middle school on their way toward
mastery in literacy. Throughout the progression of grades, the curriculum
reinforces "The Big Five"-phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency,
and comprehension-as students learn to read for meaning and progress toward
one million words annually by middle school. In order to illustrate the way the elements of a typical primary lesson
flow together and are reinforced, we include here an example of a
kindergarten lesson. The day begins with the Morning Message that
reinforces high-frequency words and phonics elements previously taught.
During this time, the Weekly Theme is also introduced. The lesson moves on
to Oral Language, giving time for students to relate their prior knowledge
to the background information that they will need for new learnings. During
this point in the lesson, specific oral vocabulary that relates to the
theme is introduced. While reading a selection related to the theme in the
Big Book, students focus on listening comprehension. New high frequency
words are introduced through a rhyme that is related to the theme. Lessons
on Phonemic Awareness and Phonics follow. The lesson concludes with writing
opportunities that incorporate the high frequency words, phonics, and
Weekly Theme.
As students move into the upper elementary grades, they scaffold new
concept construction upon the foundation set forth in the primary grades.
Foundational skills and new skills join, reinforce, and spiral as students
reach mastery of the elements of literacy. Lessons are explicit and direct,
incorporating clear explanations of concepts and skills, teacher modeling,
guided practice with the teacher and peers, and independent practice.
Additional small-group instruction on all priority skills is incorporated
into the scaffolding to reinforce the skill structure where needed. When
students encounter areas of difficulty, they join a group for reinforcement
and enrichment until the skill is mastered, but they do not leave the whole
group for this intervention.
Intervention components blended with California Treasures are available on
an as-needed basis in grades one through six. These interventions provide
research-based instructional reading strategies designed specifically to
accelerate reading for below-grade-level readers and to reteach previously
introduced content. Through the interventions, students receive
supplemental practice and positive feedback. Teachers monitor student
progress continually and are provided with the tools to pinpoint problems
early so that students can receive the help they need exactly when they
need it. Most important, students continue in the whole group with their
peers while receiving the directed instruction in decoding and fluency,
comprehension strategies and skills, and language arts-writing composition,
grammar, spelling-while they are becoming proficient readers and writers.
The Importance of Research in Literacy The federal government commenced its most sustained commitment to literacy
with the landmark Reading First initiative. Based on years of
scientifically based research findings, the goal of Reading First is to
provide children with effective reading instruction in the early grades so
that, as a nation, we may ensure that all children grow up to become
literate adults.
Learning to read, write, and communicate and-for teachers-teaching literacy
is work that requires the most effective materials available because
literacy is foundational for all other learnings. In fact, the National
Institute for Literacy's Partnership for Reading (2000) states that
"success in school starts with reading." Research is now available that
suggests how to give each child a good start toward that success.
Increasingly, federal, state, and local requirements in every area focus on
the need for research-verified instructional strategies, methods, and
approaches. Macmillan/McGraw-Hill Reading has stepped up to this challenge
by identifying highly regarded research related to effective literacy
instruction, summarizing relevant instructional recommendations based on
that research, and then showing how those recommendations are incorporated
into the Macmillan/McGraw-Hill California Treasures Reading Curriculum.
In this document, we outline:
. A Synopsis of Findings for Macmillan/McGraw-Hill built in conjunction
with the work of Interactive Educational Systems Design, Inc. (IESD), and
their analysis of research-supported best practices related to
instruction of struggling adolescent readers, prepared for Glencoe/McGraw-
Hill.
. An alignment of research findings and California Treasures through a
Synopsis of Findings and Demonstration of Alignment (Hoover).
. An alignment of California Treasures and the California Reading/Language
Arts Framework and Content Standards (Hoover). This document is a user-friendly précis of the key research findings across
the components of Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening with the
addition of a Demonstration of Alignment that provides specific ex