Kaylee Bouchard

EDU 351
SLO #6
Our book includes statements from research that have to do with many different aspects of
reading and reading instruction. Most importantly for this learning objective, I will discuss research
statements for phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension.
Torgesen, Wagner, Rashotte, Herron, and Lindamood (Reading and Learning to Read, pg. 133)
include that research on early-on reading development shows that phonemic awareness is a powerful
predictor of young children's later reading development. When children are able to hear and control
sounds within words as well as recognize that words are made up of individual sounds, they are better
able to identify unknown words while reading by sounding them out. Teaching children about
phonemes early on will benefit them when they begin phonics instruction.
Our text provides guidelines for contemporary phonics instruction (pg. 190) in which input is
included from many sources. Phonics instruction needs to be integrated into a total reading program
(Stalh), of the time provided, or less should be used for phonics instruction and practice. Children
learn new words by comparing them to words and patterns that they already know (Adams), therefore,
phonics instruction needs to focus on reading, rather than learning rules. Durrell shares that of the 286
phonograms that appear in primary-grade texts, 95% were pronounced the same in every word in which
they were found. Nearly 500 primary-grade words can be derived from only 37 consistent rimes (Wylie
and Durrell), therefore, phonics instruction needs to include teaching of both onsets and rimes.
The authors of our book also seek out input from other sources when giving strategies for
teaching phonics. Cunningham (pg. 191) says that children can benefit from physical actions when
learning the consonants, therefore teaching children consonants and consonant sounds by connecting
them to an appropriate action can be a great strategy. Cunningham (pg. 192) includes that the same
strategy used above also works well with children's favorite foods. Word ladders (Padak & Rasinski,
pg. 194) is a game where students create new words by adding, deleting, or replacing letters in words.

Rasinski and Padak (pg. 197) also share their ideas on making and writing words using letter patterns.
Within the topic of fluency, many people have their own opinions and thoughts to share.
Samuels (pg. 221) believes that the essential characteristic of fluency is the ability to decode and
comprehend at the same time, the less important characteristics are accuracy and speed. Rasinski (pg.
222) says that reading fluency is reading with and for meaning, and explains the three dimensions of
fluency; accuracy in word decoding, automatic processing, and prosody or prosodic reading.
Suggestions have been made for developing oral reading fluency, including these ones from
Rasinski (pg. 225); 1) modeling fluent, expressive reading, 2) provide scaffolding through assisted
reading, 3) practice fluency using phrases, and 4) consistently practicing reading text to get better.
Research provided by Downhower (pg. 225) shows that what students learn from repeatedly reading
one passage, partly transfers to the new passage, and word recognition, accuracy, automaticity,
comprehension, and attitude towards reading improve with repeated readings. Choral reading is another
strategy for developing reading fluency, while also developing reader's self-confidence, vocabulary
knowledge, motivation, and enjoyment of literature (Dowhower, Hasbrouck, & Schreiber, pg. 227).
Researchers have also found that the use of reader's theatre promotes fluency and interest in reading
(Griffith & Rasinski, pg. 228).
Vocabulary development is a predictor of both reading performance and school achievement
(Beck, McKeown & Kucan, pg. 246). Similar to Cunningham's beliefs, Edgar Dale (pg. 250) shares
that children learn concepts best through direct, purposeful experiences. Therefore, concepts are best
learned through the interactions we make with our environment. Our book shares six principles to
guide vocabulary instruction, each of which offer great findings and support. When teaching
vocabulary, Blackowicz, Fisher, McKeown & Beck (pg. 254) all agree that the words chosen for
students to learn, should be ones that students will read most often and that are useful for them to know.
Henry (pg. 255) believes that words should be taught in relation to others and shares four operations for
learning words and concepts; joining (asking children how words are related), excluding (asking

children to exclude the words that do not belong in a conceptual category), and selecting (children
make choices on words to use based on what they know, have experienced, or understand. A statement
from Pearson (pg. 256) states that we as teachers have been asking the wrong question when teaching
vocabulary. We need to be asking what it is that students already know about that they can use as an
anchor for new information. The fourth principle explains that words should be taught and used before
as well as after reading to help children develop language, vocabulary, and comprehension skills. This
is an idea that Goldenberg agrees with in his statement included in the book (pg. 257). Knowing and
teaching a word in depth means more than a child's ability to memorize. Neuman and Roskos (pg. 258)
state that teachers need to provide opportunities for students to use vocabulary in everyday
conversation, asking open-ended questions, initiating conversations, and giving feedback. The final
principle explains that promoting students' interest and engagement helps them to develop rich
vocabularies (Graves, pg. 258).
A large piece of comprehension is asking the question, did I get it? Harvey and Goudvis (pg.
280) state that comprehension involves deep thinking and being able to make decisions and turn new
information into knowledge. To develop student's comprehension abilities McLaughlin and Pressley
(pg 287) include that teachers need to instruct reading at multiple levels, including decoding skills,
vocabulary development, context cues, and more specific comprehension strategy instruction. Asking
questions is one strategy for developing comprehension skills and Athans and Devine (pg. 289)
recommend using fiction to teach students to ask questions about what they are reading. It is also
recommended that teachers be clear on the purpose of generating questions as well as foster higher
order questioning (Peterson & Taylor, pg. 289). QtA, or questioning the author is a strategy used for
teaching comprehension devised by Beck, McKeown, Hamilton, and Kucan, to demonstrate the kinds
of questions students need to ask in order to think more deeply and construct meaning about parts of
text as they are read.
An important aspect of teaching comprehension skills, is that students need to understand that

the strategies will help them think as they read (Brassell, Rasinski, Burkins & Croft, pg. 300). Teachers
need to provide the purpose for learning each strategy and students need to be given multiple
opportunities to use the strategies with a variety of complex texts. KWL (know, want to know, and
learned) is used to guide and motivate children as they read to acquire information from expository
texts (Ogle, pg. 301). Discussion webs are also useful as they require students to explore both sides of
an issue during discussion before drawing a conclusion (Alvermann, pg. 303). Relating what is being
learned to prior knowledge is an important part of teaching. Text connections are able to allow students
to make connections three different ways: text-to-self, text-to-text, and text-to-world (Harvey &
Goudvis, pg. 305).
The strategies and information that has been shared in our book have been a tremendous help as
I learn what it takes to be an effective educator. The experiences and scenarios that are included gave
me a first-hand view of how things work inside of classrooms and how I can do things best for students
to learn well all around.