© Crown copyright 2006 CPD session for teachers, practitioners and teaching assistants The simple view of reading

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© Crown copyright 2006 Aims of session To establish ‘the simple view of reading’ To consider the implications for our planning, teaching and assessment of reading in school

© Crown copyright 2006 ‘The simple view of reading’ from this… to this… Or, why are we changing knowledge of context Text phonic (sounds and spelling) word recognition and graphic knowledge grammatical knowledge

© Crown copyright 2006 The searchlights model This model is considered to encapsulate both reading accuracy and reading comprehension knowledg e of context Text phonic (sounds and spelling) word recognition and graphic knowledge grammatic al knowledge

© Crown copyright 2006 The searchlights model reading accuracy involves: phonics (sound and spelling) fast and automatic phonic decoding word recognition and graphic knowledge recognition of whole words and morphemes

© Crown copyright 2006 grammatical knowledge predictions from knowledge of syntax to make sense of strings of words, identify sense- making syntactic boundaries in sentences, and read with fluency and expression appropriate to the text knowledge of context predictions from context to aid comprehension The searchlights model reading comprehension involves:

© Crown copyright 2006 Strengths of the searchlights model It acknowledges that the reading process is complex It makes clear that a range of different types of knowledge are used in reading These different types of knowledge need to be acquired if children are to develop adequate reading skill

© Crown copyright 2006 Problems with the searchlights model It reinforces the seriously misguided opinion that phonic decoding and knowledge of printed words are optional searchlights but phonic knowledge and orthographic knowledge are both fundamental to skilled reading By trying to account for all the complexity of reading as it develops over time in one simple diagram, it inevitably confounds reading accuracy and reading comprehension

© Crown copyright 2006 There is now considerable evidence to support the need for a clear distinction between: processes concerned with recognising the printed words that comprise the written text and processes that enable the reader to understand the messages contained in the text Clear distinction between processes

© Crown copyright 2006 Successful reading demands both word level reading and the ability to comprehend what has been read This is formalised in ‘the simple view of reading’ ‘The simple view of reading’

© Crown copyright 2006 Word recognition ( the ability to recognise and understand the words on the page) and language comprehension ( the ability to understand language) are both necessary to reading Neither is sufficient on its own Reading comprehension is a product of word recognition and language comprehension ‘The simple view of reading’

© Crown copyright Word recognition Good language comprehension, poor word recognition Good word recognition, good language comprehension Poor word recognition, poor language comprehension Good word recognition, poor language comprehension Language comprehension

© Crown copyright 2006 ‘The simple view of reading’ Different skills and abilities contribute to successful development of each of the two dimensions Factor analytic studies of reading reveal more than a single underlying factor There are children with good word recognition skills who fail to understand what they can read There are children with poor word recognition skills who make better than expected sense of what they read

© Crown copyright 2006 Implications for teaching Teachers need to be aware that different skills and abilities contribute to development of word recognition skills from the skills and abilities that contribute to comprehension Teachers need therefore to keep these two dimensions of reading separate in their minds when they plan their teaching

© Crown copyright 2006 So that: they focus clearly on developing word recognition skills through phoneme awareness and phonics teaching repetition and teaching of ‘tricky’ words and they focus clearly on developing language comprehension through talking with children reading to children teaching comprehension strategies

© Crown copyright 2006 Possible activity Read or review the following position paper in Subject leader handbook: ‘The new conceptual framework for teaching reading: the simple view of reading’ In groups, discuss the implications for your planning, teaching and assessment of reading in class or in school

© Crown copyright 2006 References Muter, et al. (2004) Phonemes, rimes, vocabulary and grammatical skills as foundations of early reading development: evidence from a longitudinal study. Developmental Psychology, 40, 665–681 Nation, K. and Snowling. M. J. (1997) Assessing reading difficulties: the validity and utility of current measures of reading skill. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 67, 359–370 Oakhill, Cain and Bryant (2003), Children’s reading comprehension ability: concurrent prediction by working memory, verbal ability, and component skills. Pazzaglia, F., Cornoldi, C., and Tessoldi, P. E. (1993) Learning to read: evidence on the distinction between decoding and comprehension skills. European Journal of Psychology in Education, 8, 247–258 Spooner, A. L. R., Baddeley, A.D., and Gathercole, S. E. (2004) Can reading and comprehension be separated in the Neale Analysis of Reading Ability? British Journal of Educational Psychology, 74, 187–204