Development of Reading Stage 0: Prerequisites for Reading birth to beginning of 1 st grade Stage 1: Phonological Recoding Skills 1 st & 2 nd grades Stage 2: Reading Fluency 2 nd & 3 rd grades Stage 3: “Reading to Learn” 4 th – 8 th grades Stage 4: Higher Levels of Comprehension high school years

PRE-READING SKILLS READING FORMAT - left to right on line -top to bottom on page -text goes from extreme right (end of line) to extreme left (new line) - spaces signal beginning & end of words LETTER PERCEPTION - degree of confusability due to # of common features e.g., vertical/horizontal lines, curved lines, open vs. closed letters “d” and “b” “F” and “E” highly confusable

TESTING PHONEMIC AWARENESS Which Word Not Does Belong? 1. songlong pain wrong 2. hitpit fan kit 3. boattreat bank bunk 4. shoelight ship sheet

KEY PRE-READING SKILL Phonemic - recognizing that words consist of Awareness separable sounds *** IMPORTANT *** Predicts early reading achievement STUDY: ask 4 & 5 yr old children to tap when they hear a specific sound in a word, e.g., “it.” None of the 4 yr olds could do it, only some 5 yr olds could. Training helps, ask children to pick out word that is different. cot, pot, hat

THE COSTS OF WEAK PHONEMIC AWARENESS difficulty in learning to read words limits exposure to text delays automaticity in decoding delays skill in comprehension more limited vocabulary & knowledge base

PHONICS BASED APPROACH “I am hot,” said the pot. “I am wet,” said the pet. “I am cut,” said the nut. Get the pot. The pot is hot. Get the pet. The pet is wet. Get the nut. The nut is cut. I got the nut. The nut was cut. I got the pet. The pet was wet. I got the pot. The pot was hot.

WHOLE WORD APPROACH STRANGE BUMPS Owl was in bed. “It is time to blow out the candle and go to sleep.” he said with a yawn. Then Owl saw two bumps under the blanket at the bottom of his bed. “What can those strange bumps be?” asked Owl.

WHICH METHOD SHOULD WE USE? Question 1: How do skilled readers read? - They use direct, visually based retrieval from LTM That is, they recognize whole words - They employ fast and accurate decoding processes

WHICH METHOD SHOULD WE USE? Question 2: Which method provides a transition from less skilled to more skilled reading? - the phonics based approach enables a child to adopt a sounding out strategy when a word is not automatically recognized - & each correct pronunciation strengthens the tie between the written word and its auditory representation

SO, ONCE AGAIN, WHICH METHOD SHOULD WE USE? The case for the whole word method: It emphasizes direct, visually based retrieval from LTM, just like skilled readers, and reading for meaning The case for the phonics based approach: It emphasizes correct pronunciation of new words, enhancing the transition to automaticity of decoding skills Recommendation: Phonics based approach has the advantage, but a combination of both is best.

LEVELS OF COMPREHENSION Level 1: Lexical Access Definition – retrieve meaning of printed word from long-term memory strawberry jamfruit bat traffic jambaseball bat

LEVELS OF COMPREHENSION Level 2: Proposition Assembly Definition - the process of relating words to each other to form meaningful units Can you break this sentence into its basic propositions? “The sick boy went home.” Propositions: “there was a boy” “the boy was sick” “the boy went home”

LEVELS OF COMPREHENSION Level 3: Proposition Integration Definition - involves combining individual propositions into larger units of meaning Level 4: Text Modeling Definition - processes by which readers draw inferences and relate what they are reading to what they already know.

If the balloons popped the sound wouldn’t be able to carry since everything would be too far away from the correct floor. A closed window would also prevent the sound from carrying, since most buildings tend to be well insulated. Since the whole operation depends on a steady flow of electricity, a break in the middle of the wire would also cause problems. Of course, the fellow could shout, but the human voice is not loud enough to carry that far. An additional problem is that a string could break on the instrument. Then there could be no accompaniment to the message. It is clear that the best situation would involve less distance. Then there would be fewer potential problems. With face to face contact, the lesser number of things could go wrong. John Bransford Vanderbilt Univ. A Founder of Cognitive Psychology Classic Problems: Understanding The Balloon Story

Classic Problems: Understanding The Balloon Story

Making Inferences Good comprehension requires that the reader make inferences, filling in missing details, etc. e.g., “She slammed the door shut on her hand” Inference: hurt her finger e.g., “Our neighbor unlocked the door” Inference: used a key e.g., “The river was narrow. A beaver hit the log that a turtle was sitting on (beside), and the log flipped over from the shock. The turtle was very surprised by the event.” Inference: Turtle was knocked into the water.