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Parental Information "Every child reading at grade level by grade three" is a political goal in the right direction, but requires greater mobilization of resources than appears on the current political horizon. Reading (decoding, or sounding out words) below the 30%ile is likely to cause difficulty in school. Schools do not have the resources to provide the intensive intervention that appears to be necessary for at least 10-15% of students. The only available resource may be the parents. In her 1998 presentation at the TRI spring forum, Dianne McGinness, author of Why Our Children Can't Read, stated that parents "need to do for their children what public education cannot." In the same spirit, Don McCabe, author of over 40 books on teaching reading, wrote a tutorial book for students entitled If it is to be, it is up to me, and a companion book for parents, entitled If it is to be, it is up to us to help. What can parents do to improve the reading outcome for their child? If students below the 20-30th percentile in reading are going to develop effective reading skills, they need consistent support. The most likely source is their family. Parts of the reading process are technical, and parents will want some outside help. However, in most cases, parents will continue to be the difference between their student becoming an effective reader or remaining among the 75% of poor readers who never achieved grade-level reading. To provide the needed support, parents need to know what needs to be done. They need materials that systematically address the known obstacles to reading. They also need support: sufficient instruction to feel comfortable using the materials, feedback on progress, and encouragement to persevere. The purpose of the home reading-support program is to provide this kind of support, and in particular to help your family. 1) Learn what specific knowledge and skills your child needs to develop. 2) Help your child develop automaticity beginning at his/her current level of reading skill. 3) Develop a plan for building effective reading skills. 4) Coordinate into your plan the best that your school can offer. 5) Use technology to build self-confidence, vocabulary, general knowledge, and writing skills. There is no quick fix for reading problems. However, the most intensive studies, the NIH studies, offered no more than 80 hours of one-on-one instruction to achieve their 93-95% results. Parents are already providing more. With adequate information and support, many should be able to beat the best of the current research studies. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. Working steadily over time, students who realize "If it is to be, it is up to me," can make substantial progress and develop a level of reading proficiency that will benefit them for life. Statistics can be found in the article "Why Parents Must be Part of the Solution" 1) Learn what specific knowledge and skills good readers have and your child needs to develop. Read the Texas Alternative Document Texas
Alternative Document for ELA and Reading 2) Help your child develop automaticity, beginning at his/her current level of reading skill. The cause(s) of most reading problems can be objectively defined and measured.
Regardless of the underlying cause(s) of your child's reading difficulty, s/he needs support to develop automaticity (reading words automatically) at his/her current level of reading. Every bit of automaticity that is developed, even at low levels, lessens the load on phonemic awareness, working memory, word retrieval, and attention, and makes it easier to keep trying and eventually master the challenges of reading. Most (not all) reading difficulties begin with poor awareness of the number, order, and type of sounds within a syllable (phonemic awareness). It is relatively easy to determine if, for example, a student can process 3-sound words, has difficulty with 4-sound words, and misses most 5-sound words. "Process" means read and spell words, both real and nonsense, that have the stated number of sounds and use only basic sound-symbol associations that the student knows. (Nonsense words are important to assure that the student is not just handling words that he has memorized.) Your child needs to build fluency within this current level of phonemic awareness. At this time s/he should avoid words (or syllables) with more than this number of sounds when practicing to build reading and spelling fluency. Working with words outside the range of his/her phonemic awareness forces him/her to guess and memorize, strategies that cannot support reading proficiency. To build fluency in reading text, current research supports timed practice in reading and re-reading selections of "decodable text." Decodable text has at least 90% of the words that could be read by a student using the word attack skills that s/he has been taught. Decodable text is NOT the same as "phonics readers." First, there must be an agreed upon sequence for the orderly instruction of the knowledge and skills that must be mastered for accurate reading. Then, authors must write reading materials that follow that sequence. Our home support program provides materials for fluency practice that are synchronized with your child's reading progress. Most students enjoy reading against a stopwatch and seeing their times improve. Appropriate practice for 10 minutes a day starts the process. [RETURN TO TOP OF PAGE] 3. Develop a plan for building effective reading skills. A. PHONEMIC AWARENESS At the most basic level, your child needs to be able to easily pronounce the sounds we use in English (Level 1) and to read (Level 2) and write (Level 3) a basic set of symbols representing those sounds. When these become automatic, your child can take notes in class and write rough drafts that anyone could read. Practicing with 2-sound words (Level 4) and 3-sound words (Level 5) provides an opportunity to clear up any other questions about the sounds of the language, a basic way to represent those sounds, and the letters of the alphabet. Practicing with 4-sound words (Level 6) provides the opportunity to handle consonant blends. (This is the phonologic challenge of English that is referred to in A Reading Crisis?). Level 7 completes the alphabet, reviewing letters that lack their own sounds and borrow from others (y, c, qu, x, g as the j sound). Because efficient handling of 5 sounds per syllable is generally enough to support reading, the appropriate goal for phonemic awareness is 5 sounds (per word or syllable). In addition, your child needs to be consistent in orally dividing multi-syllable words into syllables. Phonemic awareness can be improved as the student blends sounds into words (reads) and segments words (for spelling). However, for phonemic awareness to improve, complete segmentation seems necessary for fully exposing the sound structure of the word and allowing explicit mapping of those sounds to the available symbols. (The student's thought process in mapping known sounds to the spelling of a word might go like this: Mom said this is the word "clean." "Clean" does makes sense here and it has four sounds: /k/ /l/ /ee/ /n/. I have seen the /k/ sound written as the letter c, and I know what l and n stand for. There is only one sound left, the /ee/ sound, so the letters ea might be another way of writing the /ee/ sound. Cool!") To help students with weak phonemic awareness, avoid adding sounds that aren't there, such as referring to the letter c as the symbol for /ku/. Adding the extra /u/ sound to words makes the blending task more difficult for students with difficulty in blending (and/or working memory). (Blending /ku/ /a/ /tu/ will produce cu-a-tu, not the desired "cat.") Conversely, when the student does not completely segment words (such as when a student segments "best" as /b/ /e/ /st/), the student misses an opportunity for scaffolded interaction that would lead him to fully segment (/b/ /e/ /s/ /t/) and sharpen his phonemic awareness. When processing four-sound words is becoming secure, your child is ready to (Level 8) extend his knowledge of sound-symbol associations beyond the most basic way to write the sounds of English. There are over 650 ways to represent the 40+ sounds of English. (This is the orthographic challenge is referred to in A Reading Crisis?) An intermediate goal is to learn 150 of the most common sound-symbol relationships in English. Readers have an awareness that "boat" and "vote" look right, but "voat" and "ngyxi" don't. This "orthographic awareness" depends on knowledge of English spelling/reading patterns (orthographic knowledge). Good readers have a great deal of this knowledge, but are not aware of where they got it. They were not taught it. The same processes that allow good readers to extract this information subconsciously while reading (working memory, segmentation, blending, word retrieval, orthographic processor,...) are, when functioning less well, responsible for poor readers (Fletcher). Presentation of these patterns within real words appears to be more effective than lists of sound-symbol associations ("long a = a_e, ai, ay, ei, eigh..."). By keeping the words within the student's current level of phonemic awareness, the student has good access to the word's sound structure and can learn to extract the orthographic (symbol) features that correspond to the phonologic (sound). Practice needs to be two-way, from sound to symbol (the sound /oe/ occurs in toe, vote, bow, boat, soul, dough, beau), and from symbols to sound (for example, the spelling ow has different sounds in words like cow and show). The reading clinician will help you use lists from the book Reading Reflex to provide systematic practice in learning 150 sound-symbol associations. This is a useful base for reading. When these are mastered, the reading clinician can guide you in using AVKO Educational Research Foundation materials to systematically extend knowledge of the spelling/reading patterns of English. [RETURN TO TOP OF PAGE] B. SUFFIXES The 150 sound-symbol associations open up a lot of interesting vocabulary. However, for the vocabulary to be truly useful in everyday reading and writing, the student needs to become automatic in processing inflectional endings (-s, -'s, -ed, -er, -est, -ing) (Levels 8, 9, 10). These endings are consistent in their spelling and meaning (-ed for past tense, for example), but
Inflectional endings provide a natural opportunity to introduce strategies for reading and spelling multi-syllable words (Level 11). Practice with a group of common beginnings (con-, re-, ...) and endings (-ble, -ness, -tive, ...) further extends word-attack skills at the multi-syllable word level. Surprisingly, the phonemic structure of multi-syllable words is often simpler than single syllable words. By introducing appropriate strategies for handling multisyllable words, the range and interest level of text that is "decodable" increases greatly (even while working within the current level of phonemic awareness). Finally, your student needs to learn to handle derivational endings (mostly Latin endings such as action, anxious...)(Level 12). They are not pronounceable by basic sound-symbol associations and often cause major changes in the root word (anxiety-> anxious). They are somewhat difficult. They have an increasingly important role in vocabulary from late elementary school and beyond.[RETURN TO TOP OF PAGE] C. FLUENCY Each time the student advances a level up the orthographic ladder (from basic sound-symbol associations through derivational endings), the materials that are appropriate for fluency practice also advance. The critical concept for fluency is decodable text: 90% of the words in reading selections need to be decodable by the student using word attack skills that he has learned. When the student has achieved some facility with the different orthographic structures (Levels 1-12), he is ready to put away decodable texts and use the Lexile Framework to guide reading practice. The Lexile Framework provides a consistent way to measure readability of text (and the student's reading comprehension). It may be most helpful in directing practice to develop vocabulary. [RETURN TO TOP OF PAGE] D. COMPREHENSION So far comprehension has not been mentioned. This is because instruction in comprehension strategies tends to be inefficient when decoding skills are weak. Slow, inaccurate decoding quickly overloads working memory and attention. As decoding skills improve, comprehension instruction can be more effective. Verbalization-visualization is a generalized approach to comprehension and is a good place to start. Nanci Bell publishes the program, which is said to treat "concept imagery dysfunction." Concept imagery means information is stored in what could be described as visual images. It is believed that comprehension and recall of information depend on how effectively the individual builds mental images of that information. The concept is intuitively attractive: Einstein once said that he couldn't solve a physics problem if he couldn't visualize it; Penfield (the Montreal neurosurgeon who pioneered surgery for epilepsy) found many areas of the brain where mild electrical stimulation evoked vivid remembrances that were reported in the form of pictures. There have been no controlled studies on the concept. However, students who have learned to build pictures systematically as they read appear more focused and reflective in their study habits, and often report greater satisfaction in reading and improved school performance.[RETURN TO TOP OF PAGE] 4.) Focus your plan on clear, measurable goals, incorporating the best that your school offers. Avoid modifications that induce complacency without progress. Accommodations and modifications (504 or IDEA) that reduce the already minimal Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) or inflate grades are not a substitute for helping improve actual reading skill. Schools do not have the resources to bring "every child to read at grade level by grade three...." The nearly universal practice of inflating grades (giving an A for work that is not equivalent to the work done for an A by another student in the same class - see Chris vs. Montgomery) and lowering expectations (modifications of school requirements, often justified as helping self-esteem) does not prepare the student for transitioning into adult life. Frank discussion of goals (and the availability of the means to attain those goals) is better for the student than setting goals that are so vague as to be incomprehensible. (A first grader in a Houston school had the following goal: "The learner will make measurable progress toward mastery of the essential elements at grade level with modifications." The goals for a sixth-grade Houston-area girl were: "She is to keep a notebook, hand in assignments, and ask for help when necessary.") Another inappropriate goal is passing the state TAAS test. Texas universities and community colleges do not accept TAAS results. Instead, entering students have to take another test (the TASP). While the TAAS passing rate is at its highest ever, so too is the number of college freshman who fail the TASP literacy screen and are required to take remedial literacy courses. (Over half of Texas public-school seniors who apply to Texas universities and community colleges end up in these freshman remedial courses. The cost to Texas taxpayers is $ 90,000,000 per year. California, Alaska, and New York City schools have similar figures.) There is little time to lose. Students who are not reading at grade level by the end of grade 1 (Juel), and who have not caught up by the end of grade 3 (Shaywitz), stand little chance of reading at grade level without drastic action. If the numbers of students needing drastic action is large, there is no possibility of the schools doing it. To preserve their student's future, the families must set the goals and take charge.[RETURN TO TOP OF PAGE] 5.) Use technology to buy time for intervention, while building self-confidence, vocabulary, general knowledge, and writing skills. Until reading is accurate, young students need to have interesting stories read to them. Explore the new vocabulary. Talk about what the story means. Reading is the main source for growth of vocabulary and background information (two major factors in comprehension), and poor readers are essentially cut off from this source. Reading and discussing with your student will help build his vocabulary so that, when his/her decoding is better, s/he will have the vocabulary knowledge to support comprehension. As students get older, the amount of reading grows exponentially (doubles from sixth grade to ninth and doubles again by senior year). Reading that mass of text to a student would be difficult - even if acceptable to the older student -- and does not provide any support for building note-taking and organization skills. Assistive technology can help. Assistive technology here refers to a computer equipped with speech synthesis that can read anything that appears on the screen. Call for a convenient time to view an evening news clip (Houston Channel 13) from several years ago. In the TV interview, one of my son's sixth-grade teachers and his principal talked about how the support helped him and could help others. From 6th grade (1988) through graduation, my son used such a system to read his textbooks, make notes, write papers, and study. In the 15 years I have worked with this technology, hardware has dropped from $30,000 dollars (that's why I wrote my son's system) to the cost of a standard Windows 95 or 98 multi-media machine ($600-1500?). Reading software (Kurzweil 3000) has dropped below $1000. At the same time, speech quality, features and ease of use have improved greatly. This technology allows your child to see and listen to his/her textbook on screen, make notes, and learn to organize information. Initially the student prepares for class by listening to the textbook the night before (as though it were a story). This tends to improve confidence, understanding and participation in class. Later, s/he can start to collect important information from the textbook on screen. In gradual steps, s/he can refine the process and learn to take notes. Beyond school, s/he can independently listen to novels, including many classics and titles from Accelerated Reader, as well as anything that comes over the Internet. Scanning software (below $3000) allows new titles to be added. Read & Write (formerly known as textHELP!) is another helpful tool. It adds speech to virtually any Windows 95 or 98 application, along with a sophisticated spell checker, dictionary, and thesaurus - all talking. This is a useful tool for supporting writing and spelling skills, as well as for getting through these kinds of schoolwork more efficiently. [RETURN TO TOP OF PAGE] Why Parents Must be Part of the SolutionThe most common reason for reading problems is difficulty in decoding (getting the word off the page -- turning print back into spoken language). The single largest contributor to adult reading comprehension is rapid, automatic, accurate decoding (Shaywitz). Certain measurable processing skills are now known to be NECESSARY for reading. A student with high ability in these skills learns to read (decode) quite easily. Students with lower ability in these skills (the bottom 20%) are almost guaranteed to have significant difficulty in reading. This impacts negatively on their education, self-esteem, and preparation for adult life. Everyone learning to read and write English must overcome two hurdles, one involving the sound structure of the English language (phonology) and the other involving the symbol system (orthography). (See A Reading Crisis? for a brief explanation of these concepts.) To the extent that instruction were effective in teaching strategies to deal with these hurdles, virtually all students would learn to read (decode) at grade level. The current status of reading achievement can be summarized as follows: * The minimum standard for reading (decoding) might be set at the 30th percentile (Torgesen). Stated another way, decoding skills below the 30thpercentile are likely to impair learning. * Students do not outgrow reading problems. 88% of students who are below grade level in 1st grade remain below grade level in 4th grade and have lost a year in oral language comprehension compared to their average-reading classmates (Juel). 74% of students who are seriously impaired readers at the end of third grade remain seriously impaired in ninth grade (Shaywitz). * National Institutes of Health (NIH) intervention studies show that 93-95% of all students could achieve above the 30%ile in reading accuracy in elementary school. However, to achieve this, NIH studies provided 40-80 hours of intensive, one-on-one instruction to students in the bottom 10-20%ile (Torgesen, Vellutino). * Intensive instruction is necessary. "[A]lmost all of the children in our prevention study required at least this level of intensity of one-on-one instruction in reading ... in order not to fall far behind their classmates.... For a significant proportion of the children more intensive instruction than we are currently providing may be required" (Torgesen). * Classroom intervention is insufficient for these students. "We do not know of any regular classroom program, even exemplary ones like those reported... in this volume, that have shown they are capable to teaching all children to read well in the context of the whole class" (Torgesen). (Data is available on Success for All, Alphabetic Phonics, SRA Reading Mastery, Scottish Rite, Phono-Graphix, Lindamood.) Barbara Foorman, whose NIH-funded studies in the Alief school district (Houston area) looked at classroom interventions, now frequently states that she wishes her studies had included this kind of instruction. (They didn't.) * These students usually need additional support beyond the initial intensive intervention. Torgesen writes: "Even in a remedial effort such as ours that produced very large improvements in the accuracy of children's word recognition skills, the children still obtained an average standard score of approximately 75 on the Word Reading Efficiency measures." In everyday language, this means these students read slower than 95% of their classmates. * Without automaticity, some students will lose the gains from initial intensive intervention. I recently tested a boy from north Texas who had had 450 hours of intensive instruction through a California-based tutorial chain. For each of two summers (225 hours each summer) he made "impressive" gains, only to lose most of the gain during the following school year. A Houston family paid a tutor from the same California chain to live with them and tutor their son intensively for six weeks. Over the next school year he also lost much of his original gains. My son experienced a similar loss in the school year following an intensive summer intervention. Only after he graduated from high school were we able to string together the consistent support that brought him to adult-level reading at the age of 23. * The federal education law requirement to provide a "free appropriate education" does not require any substantive level of reading. In fact, half of all students are excluded from the law before they reach even the 16th percentile!
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