Stages of Reading Development Education 574 University of Bridgeport Steven Rosenberg, Ed.D Spring 2012

Stages of Reading Development Jeanne Chall (1983)

Theory Learning and uses of literacy are the most advanced forms of intelligence. They depend upon instruction and practice.

Hypotheses 1. Stages of reading development resemble stages of cognitive development. Each stage has a definite structure which differs qualitatively from another. There is a hierarchical progression.

2. Reading is, at all stages, a form of problem solving in which readers adopt to their environment through the processes of assimilation and accomodation. Assimilation: The use of learned processes in reacting to new demands; we assimilate new information Accomodation: adaptation by changing or restructuring the old to accommodate the new. Adaptation: change to accommodate the new information

3. Individuals progress through the stages by interacting with their environment: home, school, community, and culture. Models Prior knowledge (including language) and or experiences Instruction Expectations

4. Measures of having reached a given reading stage will add to a further useful dimension to standardized and criterion -referenced testing. Such measures will add to the theoretical understanding of how reading develops, and how to help assist students move efficiently from one stage to the next.

5. The notion of successive stages means that readers “do different things in relation to text at each successive stage, although the term “reading” is commonly used for all stages

6. Successive stages are characterized by growth in the ability to read language that is more complex, less frequently encountered, more technical and more abstract, and by changing in how reading is viewed and used.

7. The reader’s response to the text becomes more general, more, inferential, more critical, and more constructive with successive stages.

8. The stages are also characterized by the extent to which prior knowledge is needed to read and understand the text. Generally, the more advanced the reading stage, the more the reader needs to know about the world and about the topic which he/she is reading.

9. At each stage, readers may persist in characteristic techniques or habits, that if continued too long, may delay or eventually prevent transition to the next stage. i.e. use picture cues to read words Read accurately but not fluently Read for facts, but can’t summarize what was read

10. Reading has affective as well as cognitive components. The reader’s attitude toward reading is related to those of his/her family, culture and school. At all stages of development, reading depends on full engagement with the text; its content, ideas, and values. Thus, motivation, energy, daring and courage are aspects to be considered in the full development of reading.

Stage 0: Pre-reading: birth to age 6 Exposure to books Listening to books “Reading” signs, box tops, etc. Writes name Plays with paper and pencils

Stage 0 cont’d The purpose of written language is being established; i.e. the goal is to get a communication from another person (i.e. the author). Written language, by its very nature, is more abstract Most early readers started out as early writers

Stage 0 cont’d Written language is more complex than is oral language: Its vocabulary is more uncommon, and its syntax is more complex.

Stage 1: Initial Reading or Decoding Grades 1-2 ages 6-7 (K-1) Sound-symbol correspondence What letters are for; letters represent phonemes (i.e. sounds in words) A. Linguistic awareness – Word awareness – Syllable segmentation – Phonemic awareness

Stage 1 B. Insight about the nature of the spelling system; letters and groups of letters; letter-sound relationships Able to read “simple” text containing high frequency words and phonetically regular words

Stage 2: Confirmation, Fluency, Ungluing from print Grades 2-3, ages 7-8 (1-2) Correspondence of print to knowledge Increased familiarity and fluency with print Reading achievement at the end of grade 3 is strong predictor of future reading ability Practice Reads simple and familiar texts with increased fluency Uses groups of letters or spelling patterns to decode unfamiliar words.

Can recognize many/most words automatically without recoding words to sounds; go from printed word to meaning directly. Automatic word reading means reading words without paying conscious attention to the process. This allows attention to be placed on the meaning of what is being read and not on the decoding of the words.

Stage 3 Reading for Learning the New- a first step A= grade 4-6 ages 9-11,B= grade 7-9 age Growing importance of word meaning and print knowledge; learning new words primarily through reading Learn the process of (1) how to find information in a paragraph, chapter, or book, and (2) how to go about finding information efficiently

Stage 3 cont’d Most new vocabulary is being learned through reading, and not by listening. The more words you know, the easier it is to learn new words. Those with decoding problems cannot learn this new vocabulary; “The rich get richer” Faster rate of word reading allows the reader to read and comprehend longer texts. Exposure to more texts allows the reader to learn about more advanced syntactic structures and styles or writing (I.e. complex sentences, dialogue). This in turn, allows them to better comprehend what they are reading.

Exposure to more texts allows the reader to learn about different text structures; narrative and expository. This in turn, allows them to better comprehend what they are reading. Reading is becoming more “meta-cognitive:” the reader has control to use different strategies based on their purpose; reading a novel at the beach vs. reading a textbook to get information for a report on the Civil War.

Stage 4 Multiple Viewpoints grade ages Reading widely from a broad range of complex material; can interpret, integrate and evaluate the information for their own purposes. Different genres. Continue to build up their vocabulary knowledge by experiencing unfamiliar words in a variety of contexts and thus extending their concept of it. Readers continue to build up a knowledge base. “The rich get richer”

Stage 5 Construction and Reconstruction College and beyond ages 18+ Reading is for one’s needs and purposes Reading serves to integrate one’s knowledge with that of others The reader can synthesize what is read from different texts and create new knowledge Reading is rapid and efficient

Cognitive Consequences of Literacy It has been hypothesized that we would not have been able to reach the stage of scientific (or logical) thought without the technology of written language in general, or alphabetic writing in particular. Since written language is permanent, it allows us to reread what we have written for the purpose of identifying whether our ideas are consistent (or logical). The fleeting nature of oral language does not lend itself as easily to such in depth analysis.

The reader too, can re-read this permanent form of language in order to increase his/her comprehension, and/or compare different texts for the purpose of discovering the consistency of the ideas. Prior to the development of written language, people were forced to memorize texts, and this did not afford them as much opportunity to analyze it. (Socrates was critical of written language because he feared that people would lose their ability to remember texts.)

Language (oral and written) is produced and received sequentially (over time). i.e. requires sequential analysis; one thing at a time. Pictures (i.e. t.v. and graphics) encourages parallel processing; process everything simultaneously; does not require processing the information into a precise sequence. Parallel processing helps to integrate information.

Most people process sequential and parallel information equally (approximately) Some people process sequential information better than parallel information Others process parallel information better than sequential information. The modality (i.e. auditory vs. visual) may be incidental to the type of processing required.