Resources
We are a group of parents who have learned to TRUST OUR INSTINCTS and speak up when something isn’t quite right with our child’s reading progress. Whether you have a kindergartner or high schooler, a student enrolled in public or private school, we’re here to support any parent discovering a path toward empowered action-- lifting all Wyoming readers to new heights.
Structured Literacy
This a series of posts from our Facebook page that go over what structured literacy means. We posted a graphic of several components recently, now we'll break those down step by step. These are all components that have been researched for decades and have a convergence of data supporting their use. Phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, background knowledge, morphology, and comprehension, are all parts of structured literacy. “Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.”- Maya Angelou
We’ll start with Dr. Hollis Scarborough's Reading Rope (courtesy of Middle Tennessee State University). This was developed in 2001 after years of research. It includes everything a person needs to become a proficient, fluent reader. Starting with the basics of being able to distinguish and manipulate the different sounds in spoken words (phonemic awareness), sounding out words (decoding & spelling), and the split-second recognition of written words (sight recognition or orthographic mapping). These foundational skills are then supported by background knowledge of the world and varied topics, vocabulary knowledge that can help weave that with the background knowledge to further comprehension. These points are also woven into the structure of language- semantics and syntax, verbal reasoning, and knowledge of print (literacy knowledge).
The first skill needed to become a proficient reader is phonemic awareness (PA). This is a skill that can be started as early as preschool. In fact, many studies show that poor PA in kindergarten is a strong indicator of reading struggles as the student progresses in school. This graphic is the basics of how it becomes a mastered skill. Good PA means the student can hear and mentally manipulate the different sounds in spoken words automatically. Knowing how to do this helps children connect the sounds to the written letters to read words later. Children with a history of ear infections and/or a speech delay, even a minor one, often have great difficulty in mastering PA. Beginning PA is "say 'cat', now change the /c/ to /b/" student responds 'bat'. But it starts before this with a child being able to hear 'classroom' and say 'class' 'room' (phonological awareness). Mastered PA is "say 'soft', now change the /f/ to /l/" student immediately says 'salt' (note: even though the vowels changed, o to a, the sound did not, close your eyes and say both words).
Phonemic awareness turns into phonics instruction when written letters are added to the sounds. This is the process of learning the alphabetic principle; connecting the sounds you've heard since infancy to the written code. This connection allows students to decipher or decode words new to them and after successful attempts at decoding new words where the meaning is known or learned they move to fluent automatic reading. On the reverse, this process also enables spelling (encoding) to happen.
This is probably the most misunderstood part of the process of learning to read because no one really knew how it worked until neuroimaging met reading research. This image of the brain shows all the areas that activate in an average reading brain. Not only do several areas activate but the pathways between the different areas are sending info back and forth (the black arrows). If you decode a word successfully and you know it's meaning well then you only need to encounter the word 1-4 times before you can read it automatically. This is orthographic mapping or sight recognition. The brain is an amazing supercomputer; this will come up again in other posts. This isn't something that happens quickly for children learning to read; they need to have mastered phonemic awareness and the sounds the letters make for this process to happen efficiently. The word is not memorized as a whole, our eyes just transmit the string of letters so quickly we don't realize what's happening. There would be no reason for the area of the brain for speech and the area where meaning is stored to activate if the word were just stored visually. This is also what proves dyslexia is not a vision issue. The brain scans of people with dyslexia, or even those just struggling to learn that aren't dyslexic, are not so neat and pretty as the one in this image. The pathways between the areas on the left side of the brain are often missing or broken, like a channel on an old tv that's all static. So, their brains send everything over to the right side to try and figure it out. But that side of the brain is not made for language and it takes them much longer to process and it’s easier to make mistakes. Because it's not an efficient process orthographic mapping does not happen so easily either. The good news is if they are taught using structured literacy and given lots of extra practice, those areas start to rewire themselves. The key is to catch them as young as you can, the process is easier if done early or correctly from the start. They may never be a fast reader but they can learn and succeed.
Reading comprehension is the desired end goal of all reading instruction. Many ways reading is taught today gloss over or ignore the first three components of the reading rope already discussed. These fall under the word recognition part of the Simple View of Reading equation. Language comprehension is what a person understands if text is read aloud or in conversation. If 1 equals 100% in the equation you see how only a small deficit greatly drops the reading comprehension in the end.
Background knowledge is a very important part of the upper reading rope as it can greatly aid comprehension. This is also an area that can be taught even to our youngest learners. Reading storybooks to toddlers can be a good start, especially if you answer questions they may have as you read or ask them questions about the story. Reading can be an active, engaged activity, not just a passive one. Early grade teachers will also use stories like these to complement what they are teaching in class. Near Halloween, the teacher may pick a variety of fiction and non-fiction books about spiders or bats. As students get into the upper elementary grades and beyond having a wide knowledge base helps them read to learn. It gives new topics a place to connect to things they have already learned making retention of the new information much easier.
The research into vocabulary knowledge has shown how important it is and how to teach it. While we all pick up on some new words implicitly, or through hearing its use in context, the best way to learn is through explicit, intentional teaching. Not only do you learn a deeper meaning of the word but you also retain the information easier and longer. A dictionary can be a helpful tool when reading independently. But, when it comes to truly learning the meaning of a word they are often too concise to deliver a deeper understanding. Words also carry connotations that are not part of a dictionary definition. Even young children's storybooks are loaded with complex words. Teachers can not be entirely responsible for students vocabulary needs as children can pick up thousands of new words in a year once reading independently. But teachers can make sure the words they learn in class are valuable. Words they are unlikely to encounter in everyday speech but that can add depth to writing, words they will need as they progress in other areas of school such as science, and words that are part of word families. Vocabulary is most beneficial when it can be connected to other words (synonyms, antonyms, verbs, nouns, etc.) and background knowledge. These network connections only improve comprehension.
On a surface level of understanding language structure is fairly simple. It is semantics, syntax, and grammar. Semantics is the meaning of words and phrases while syntax is the way you can combine words to make clauses and sentences. While we all learn this in school, learning it to a mastery level makes not only reading easier but writing as well. Knowing how these work so well that you don't have to consciously think about them frees up your brain to the more complex task of what to actually say. You can put more thought into the artistry if you don't have to worry about the mechanics.
Verbal reasoning is the ability to make sense of metaphors and make inferences based on the information you were given in the text. Both of these are easier to do if you have breadth (number of words you know) and depth (how well you know them) of vocabulary and broad background knowledge. To be good at reading comprehension the reader needs to be able to build what's called a mental model. It is your brain's way of holding and connecting information as you read. The quality of the mental model you can build reflects on your ability to verbally reason. The more you use your vocabulary and background knowledge to make additional connections and inferences within what you read the better the model.
Literacy knowledge is really very simple. This is the ability to understand how a book is organized, what the different genres of writing are, and being able to tell the difference between formal and informal writing.
The equally important part of all the Reading Rope information is how to deliver it to kids. One: it should be delivered sequentially and systematically. There are certain ways to present the information that cause less confusion, like not teaching the letters b and d on the same day. Two: using explicit instruction with lots of teacher modeling and scaffolding for the kids who need it. This is also the "I do, we do, you do" method of which Dr. Anita Archer is a master. Three: it needs to be taught to mastery. In early grades, one skill often builds on the last in reading and writing and kids need to have mastered what's being taught for the next lesson to be meaningful. Mastery also means automaticity which frees up their working memory for the task at hand of learning the next lesson. This video of Dr. Archer from Middle Tennessee State University is an excellent explanation of explicit teaching.
