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How and Why Children Learn About Sounds, Letters, and Words in Reading Recovery Lessons

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How and Why Children Learn About Sounds, Letters, and Words in Reading Recovery Lessons DOCUMENT RESUME ED 437 616 CS 013 828 AUTHOR Fountas, Irene C.; Pinnell, Gay Su TITLE How and Why Children Learn about Sounds, Letters, and Words in Reading Recovery Lessons. INSTITUTION Reading Recovery Council of North America, Columbus, OH. PUB DATE 1999-00-00 NOTE 12p. PUB TYPE Guides Classroom Teacher (052) Journal Articles (080) Reports Research (143) JOURNAL CIT Running Record; v12 n1 p1-6,10-11,13-14 Fall 1999 EDRS PRICE MF01/PC01 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS *Beginning Reading; Classroom Research; *Classroom Techniques; Learning Activities; *Learning Processes; *Literacy; Primary Education; Word Recognition IDENTIFIERS Lesson Structure; *Orthography; Phonological Awareness; *Reading Recovery Projects; Word Learning ABSTRACT This article takes a look at Reading Recovery lesson elements to compare the teaching and learning within the lesson components to several areas of learning that have been identified at the national level as important to children's literacy learning. The lesson elements examined in the article are: (1) phonological awareness; (2) orthographic awareness; and (3) word learning in reading and writing. The article states that the first two areas of knowledge, and the way they are interrelated, contribute to young children's growth in the ability to solve words while reading for meaning, while the third area strongly supports learning in the first two areas and also helps to accelerate early learning in literacy. These elements together contribute to the child's development of a larger process in which the reader uses "in-the-head" strategies in an efficient way to access and orchestrate a variety of information, including meaning and language systems, with the visual and phonological information in print. The article provides a definition and description of each of the three foundational components of early literacy. It describes and discusses seven components of the Reading Recovery lesson, identifying within each the potential for supporting children's learning in the areas of phonological awareness, orthographic awareness, and word recognition. Contains 3 figures and 15 references. (NKA) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. How and Why Children Learn about Sounds, Letters, and Words in Reading Recovery Lessons Irene C. Fountas Gay Su Pinnell BEST COPY AVAILABLE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Office of Educational Research and Improvement EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE AND This document has been reproduced as DISSEMINATE THIS MATERIAL HAS received from the person or organization BEEN GRANTED BY originating it. Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction quality. 07r. Bu_sselI Points of view or opinions stated in this document do not necessarily represent TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES official OERI position or policy. INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) 1 Running 44444444 [ READING A Review of Theory and Practice for RECOVERY' Reading Recovery Teachers COUNCIL Record OF NORTH AMERICA Fall 1999 Volume 12 No. 1 In This Issue ... How and Why Children Learn about Sounds, Letters, How and Why Children Learn about Sounds, Letters, and Words 1 and Words in Reading Recovery Lessons The Talents of This Teacher 2 Irene C. Fountas Gay Su Pinnell To Reading Recovery Training 3 Trainer of Teacher Leaders Trainer of Teacher Leaders Tracing the Orange Lesley College The Ohio State University Alphabet Bedboard 6 Cambridge, Massachusetts Columbus, Ohio Editorial Board 7 Editor's Corner 7 Meeting in the lesson compo- Copyright Notice 7 national nents to several areas Spotlight 8 goals for of learning that have Work-based Learning Through literacy achieve- been identified at the Cooperative Education ment means teach- national level as impor- Success for RR in Wyoming ing all children, a tant to children's litera- Visiting Abroad challenging task cy learning. These ele- To Save a Child 10 since some, for a ments are: (1) phono- The Ghosts of Christmas 11 variety of reasons, logical awareness; (2) My "No Fear" Story 12 require more teaching than others. A key to orthographic awareness; and, (3) word Speak Up! 12 meeting this challenge is early intervention learning in reading and writing. The first That Deadline Looms! 13 that catches students before they fail and two areas of knowledge, and the way they A Flower 13 before they fall so far behind their peers are interrelated, contribute to young chil- WANTED 14 that they cannot profit from classroom dren's growth in the ability to solve words Publications and Products 14 instruction (Torgeson, Wagner, & Rashotte, while reading for meaning. The third area Membership Application 15 1997). strongly supports learning in the first two The Last Word 16 It makes sense to design our interven- areas and also helps to accelerate early Reading the Environmental Print tions in a way that is consistent with what learning in literacy. These elements togeth- The Right Attitude we know from research about "what er contribute to the child's development of Discovery works" for young children who find read- a larger process in which the reader uses Behind the "Clean" Glass? ing and writing difficult to learn. Well in-the-head strategies in an efficient way to In Need of a Bandage designed and delivered interventions are access and orchestrate a variety of informa- worth the investment of resources. Reading tion, including meaning and language sys- The Running Record Recovery is a research-based program that tems, with the visual and phonological Published by RRCNA is designed to support young children to information in print. 1929 Kenny Rd., Suite 100 build effective reading and writing process- A recent book, Preventing reading dif- Columbus, OH 43210 www.readingrecovery.org es (Askew, Fountas, Lyons, Pinnell, & ficulties in young children (Snow, Burns, & © 1999 RRCNA Schmitt, 1999). We teach those children Griffin, 1998), reports the findings of the All rights reserved. who have been identified as the lowest National Committee on the Prevention of The Running Record is published achievers in their classes, and we work Reading Difficulties in Young Children. twice a year (Fall and Spring). with them intensively until they become The committee reported that reading inter- Submission of articles, teaching anecdotes, and poetry independent readers and writers. ventions should provide a strong founda- are welcome; all submissions will go through a review process. Please enclose 3 copies of each submission, a Marie Clay's original research on tion for these young learners, including the photograph (non-returnable) and a self-addressed, young readers was the impetus for the development of phonemic awareness, stamped envelope for correspondence. Photos will be orthographic awareness, familiarity with used on a space available basis. Send submissions to: design of the Reading Recovery lesson. Judith C. Neal, Editor Since the initial design, Reading Recovery words, and important concepts about print. The Running Record procedures have been continually refined in Reading Recovery is designed to build this California State University, Fresno response to Clay's research as well as other strong foundation. School of Education & Human Development research from many different perspectives. An important observation is that young 5005 N. Maple, M/S 202 In this article, we take a look at readers who have difficulty are mostly of Fresno, CA 93740-8025 Reading Recovery lesson elements in order average intelligence, and they may have FAX (559) 278-0376 to compare the teaching and learning with- Email [email protected] continued on next page 3 Page 2 The Running Record 1144 Fall 1999 How and Why Children Learn ... continued from previous page problems resulting from multiple and language and its sounds to conscious differing causes. They require one-on- observation and analysis. They can tell one instruction from a teacher who is when words start like other words or end able to use a balanced range of like them. Awareness of the sounds in approaches in an intensive and individu- words is a strong predictor of reading alized way. With appropriate interven- achievement (Lomax & McGee, 1987). tion, almost all children experiencing Phonemic awareness (sometimes called difficulty can learn to read, provided phoneme awareness) is the ability to instruction is intensive and begins early hear individual phonemes in syllables. (Vellutino, Scanlon, Sipay, Small, Pratt, "Phonological awareness, or phonologi- Chen, & Denckla, 1996). Reading cal sensitivity, is the ability to attend Recovery is a multi-dimensional inter- explicitly to the phonological structure vention that allows us as teachers to of spoken words, rather than just to their tailor instruction to the needs of these meanings and syntactic roles. This meta- highly diverse individual children. linguistic skill involves treating language In Reading Recovery lessons, chil- as the object of thought rather than dren learn letter-sound relationships in merely using language" (Snow, Burns, & several different ways, and they are Griffin, p. 111). taught to apply that knowledge in carry- ing out real reading and writing tasks. 2. Orthographic awareness. Different components of the lesson fos- The orthography of language refers ter the use of sounds and letter corre- to the spelling systemthe letters and spondence; however, all instruction is letter clusters that represent the sounds directed toward helping children learn and words of the language. Orthographic `how words
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