as a

unitary
skill

Kenneth Goodman
(1976)
There is no possible sequencing
of skills in reading instruction,
since all systems must be used
independently in the reading
process even in the first attempts
at leaving to read.

Integration
If a pattern is broken up into
discrete responses to be practiced
separately, the individual responses
may be practiced in a way in which
they will never be used.
That the learner may never see the

Vacca & Vacca (1986)

You cannot know a process by listing its ingredients or
labeling its parts, you must observe the effect of the
parts as they interact with each other. Acting together,
the parts compose an entity which is uniquely different
from the identity of any separate parts: Flour, sugar,
baking soda, salt eggs, and water can be listed as an
ingredients of a cake. Yet, the texture, weight, flavor, and
moistness of a cake cannot be related directly to any one
of the ingredients, but only the quality and result of the
interaction.

Equation:
Reading = Skill1 + Skill2 + Skill3
+ Skilln

Reconciling the
two views

Aulls (1982)
Obseervable unitary skill, we can define reading as a
level of proficiency in reading in reading text, or
components of text, with concomitant identifiable
subskills.

Advantages:
1. You have an analytic, manageable, and testable basis for designing
reading programs.
2. What you teach can be directly tested: therefore, you can asses the
extent to which instruction has influenced subskill learning.
3. You can teach reading in an orderly manner by providing small
linguistic units to be directly taught, practiced, and the applied
during text reading.
4. You can follow a specific sequence
5. You can estimate the level of mastery of discrete subskills by
comparing subskill knowledge proficiency in oral silent reading
performance.

You should provide enough and

regular opportunities for students to
read meaningful texts.
Learn to read by reading Downing
(1982)

Gutknecht & Keenan (1978; in Aulls,

1982)
The transfer using subskill to learning more complex
subskills is not the ultimate goal of reading instruction.
Rather, the purpose of learning each subskills is not to
transfer its use to natural reading contexts.

The ideas above point to these

implications.
1. If one is to learn to read, the subskills must be
consciously derived through direct instruction.
2. We must assume that every aspect of a subskill must
be mastered before introducing subskills or before
applying those that are learned to reading text.
3. The materials we make children read should take into
account their subskill knowledges enable them to
practice the application of the subskill they have
already learned.