The Principles of Readability
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Teaching Vocabulary Across the Curriculum
Teaching Vocabulary Across the Curriculum William P. Bintz Learning vocabulary is an important instructional aim learning vocabulary. This research clearly indicates for teachers in all content areas in middle grades schools that enlargement of vocabulary has always been and (Harmon, Wood, & Kiser, 2009). Recent research, however, continues to be an important goal in literacy and indicates that vocabulary instruction may be problematic learning (National Institute of Child Health and Human because many teachers are not “confident about best Development, 2004). Educators have long recognized practice in vocabulary instruction and at times don’t know the importance of vocabulary development. In the early where to begin to form an instructional emphasis on word 20th century, John Dewey (1910) stated that vocabulary is learning” (Berne & Blachowicz, 2008, p. 315). critically important because a word is an instrument for In this article, I summarize important research on thinking about the meanings which it expresses. Since vocabulary growth and development and share effective then, there has been an “ebb and flow of concern for instructional strategies that middle school teachers vocabulary” (Manzo, Manzo, & Thomas, 2006, p. 612; can use to teach vocabulary across the content areas. see also Blachowicz & Fisher, 2000). At times, interest in My hope is that teachers will use these strategies to vocabulary has been high and intense, and at other times help students become verbophiles—“people who enjoy low and neglected, alternating back and forth over time word study and become language enthusiasts, lovers of (Berne & Blachowicz, 2008). words, appreciative readers, and word-conscious writers” (Mountain, 2002, p. 62). Research on vocabulary growth and development The importance of vocabulary Vocabulary has long been an important topic in middle Vocabulary can be defined as “the words we must grades education, but today it could be considered a know to communicate effectively: words in speaking hot topic (Cassidy & Cassidy, 2003/2004). -
Reading Inventory Technical Guide
Technical Guide Using a Valid and Reliable Assessment of College and Career Readiness Across Grades K–12 Technical Guide Excepting those parts intended for classroom use, no part of this publication may be reproduced in whole or in part, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission of the publisher. For information regarding permission, write to Scholastic Inc., 557 Broadway, New York, NY 10012. Scholastic Inc. grants teachers who have purchased SRI College & Career permission to reproduce from this book those pages intended for use in their classrooms. Notice of copyright must appear on all copies of copyrighted materials. Portions previously published in: Scholastic Reading Inventory Target Success With the Lexile Framework for Reading, copyright © 2005, 2003, 1999; Scholastic Reading Inventory Using the Lexile Framework, Technical Manual Forms A and B, copyright © 1999; Scholastic Reading Inventory Technical Guide, copyright © 2007, 2001, 1999; Lexiles: A System for Measuring Reader Ability and Text Difficulty, A Guide for Educators, copyright © 2008; iRead Screener Technical Guide by Richard K. Wagner, copyright © 2014; Scholastic Inc. Copyright © 2014, 2008, 2007, 1999 by Scholastic Inc. All rights reserved. Published by Scholastic Inc. ISBN-13: 978-0-545-79638-5 ISBN-10: 0-545-79638-5 SCHOLASTIC, READ 180, SCHOLASTIC READING COUNTS!, and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc. LEXILE and LEXILE FRAMEWORK are registered trademarks of MetaMetrics, Inc. Other company names, brand names, and product names are the property and/or trademarks of their respective owners. -
Building Reading Proficiency at the Secondary Level
BUILDING INTRODUCTION READING PROFICIENCY AT THE SECONDARY LEVEL A Guide to Resources Cynthia L. Peterson, Ph.D. David C. Caverly, Ph.D. Sheila A. Nicholson, M.S.Ed. Sharon O’Neal, Ph.D. Susen Cusenbary, M.Ed. Southwest Texas State University Southwest Educational Development Laboratory 211 East 7th Street Austin, TX 78701 ©Southwest Educational Development Laboratory, 2000. This guide is produced in whole or in part with funds from the Office of Educational Research and Improvement, U.S. Department of Education, under contract #RJ96006801. The con- tent herein does not necessarily reflect the views of the Department of Education, any other agency of the U.S. Govern- ment or any other source. You are welcome to reproduce Building Reading Proficiency at the Secondary Level and may distribute copies at no cost to recipients; please credit the Southwest Educational Development Laboratory as publisher. SEDL is an Equal Opportunity/ Affirmative Action Employer and is committed to affording equal employment opportunities to all individuals in all employ- ment matters. Available in alternative formats. CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ACKNOWLEDGMENTS iv INTRODUCTION 1 • How to Use the Guide 2 • How Resources Were Selected 3 PART I: PERSPECTIVES 6 • Struggling Secondary Readers: A Closer Look 6 • Informal Assessment 7 • Building Reading Proficiency at the Secondary Level 9 • Principles of Effective Reading Instruction 17 • Principles of Effective Professional Development 19 PART II: RESOURCES 22 • Five Questions Organize the Programs and Strategies 22 • Programs 23 • Strategies 23 • Definitions of Terms 70 PART III: PROCEDURES FOR COMPILING THE GUIDE 133 BIBLIOGRAPHY 136 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS his project was sponsored by South- • Dr. Shernaz García, The University of west Educational Development Lab- Texas at Austin oratory and prepared by a team of • Dr. -
Reading Disabilities: Why Do Some Children Have Difficulty Learning to Read? What Can Be Done About It? by G
Reading Disabilities: Why Do Some Children Have Difficulty Learning to Read? What Can Be Done About It? by G. Reid Lyon, Ph.D. The National Institute of Child Health & Human Development (NICHD) considers that teaching and learning in today’s schools reflect not only significant educational concerns, but public health concerns as well. Our research has consistently shown that if children do not learn to understand and use language, to read and write, to calculate and reason mathematically, to solve problems, and to communicate their ideas and perspectives, their opportunities for a fulfilling and rewarding life are seriously compromised. Specifically, in our NICHD-supported longitudinal studies, we have learned that school failure has devastating consequences with respect to self-esteem, social development, and opportunities for advanced education and meaningful employment. Nowhere are these consequences more apparent than when children fail to learn to read. Why? Simply stated, the development of reading skills serves as THE major foundational academic ability for all school-based learning. Without the ability to read, the opportunities for academic and occupational success are limited. Moreover, because of its importance, difficulty in learning to read crushes the excitement and love for learning, which most children have when they enter school. As we follow thousands of children with reading difficulties throughout school and into adulthood, these young people tell us how embarrassing and devastating it was to read with difficulty in front of peers and teachers, and to demonstrate this weakness on a daily basis. It is clear from our NICHD research that this type of failure affects children negatively earlier than we thought. -
Bridge of Vocabulary: Evidence Based Activities for Academic Success (NCS Pearson Inc, 2007)
The following information was based on information from Judy K. Montgomery’s book: The Bridge of Vocabulary: Evidence Based Activities for Academic Success (NCS Pearson Inc, 2007) There are 4 types of vocabulary: □ Listening □ Speaking □ Reading Writing The first two constitute spoken vocabulary and the last two, written vocabulary. Children begin to acquire listening and speaking vocabularies many years before they start to build reading and writing vocabularies. Spoken language forms the basis for written language. Each type has a different purpose and, luckily, vocabulary development in one type facilitates growth in another. Listening Vocabulary: The words we hear and understand. Starting in the womb, fetuses can detect sounds as early as 16 weeks. Furthermore, babies are listening during all their waking hours – and we continue to learn new words this way all of our lives. By the time we reach adulthood, most of us will recognize and understand close to 50,000 words. (Stahl, 1999; Tompkins, 2005) Children who are completely deaf do not get exposed to a listening vocabulary. Instead, if they have signing models at home or school, they will be exposed to a “visual” listening vocabulary. The amount of words modeled is much less than a hearing child’s incidental listening vocabulary. Speaking Vocabulary: The words we use when we speak. Our speaking vocabulary is relatively limited: Most adults use a mere 5,000 to 10,000 words for all their conversations and instructions. This number is much less than our listening vocabulary most likely due to ease of use. Reading Vocabulary: The words we understand when we read text. -
FAR Interpretive Report Sample
Interpretive Report by Steven G. Feifer, DEd, Rebecca Gerhardstein Nader, PhD, and PAR Staff Client Information Client name: Sample Client Client ID : LD Test date : 05/12/2017 Date of birth : 11/10/2009 Age : 7:6 Grade/Education: 2nd Gender : Female Examiner : Dr Williams This report is intended for use by qualified professionals only and is not to be shared with the student or any other unqualified persons. Sample Client Page 1 Interpretive Report 05/12/2017 Overview of This Report The Feifer Assessment of Reading (FAR) is an individually administered measure of reading ability normed for students in prekindergarten through college. The FAR contains individual tests of reading skills which are combined to form a Phonological Index (PI), a Fluency Index (FI), and a Comprehension Index (CI). The subtests which compose the PI assess phonological processing and decoding skills of words in isolation as well as in context. The FI is comprised of subtests that assess visual perception and orthographic processing of letters and words, as well as fluidity in pronouncing phonologically-irregular words. The CI contains subtests designed to assess the underlying factors involved in deriving meaning from print. The Mixed Index (MI), calculated by combining the PI and the FI, assesses for deficits in both phonological processing and orthographic processing skills. The FAR Total Index (TI), calculated by combining the PI, FI, and CI subtests, provides the most comprehensive and reliable assessment of overall reading proficiency. Each index score is expressed as a grade-corrected standard score scaled to a mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 15. -
Recharging Reading Success Getting Struggling Readers Back on Track
—Graeme Sloan/Education Week Braydan Finnerty, 2nd grade, chooses letter magnets off the board while doing a spelling exercise in front of the rest of the class at Beverly Gardens Elementary in Dayton, Ohio. Recharging Reading Success Getting Struggling Readers Back on Track EDITORS NOTE How Do Kids Learn to Read? What OPINION How can educators optimize literacy the Science Says ..........................................2 education among students who struggle to Connecting Reading & Writing ‘Is a read? In this Spotlight, learn how teachers These Schools Filled Vending High-Leverage Move’ .............................12 are implementing scientific research on Machines With Books. Will It Motivate Reading? .....................................6 Why I Created Book Groups for My reading into curriculum, how schools are Students ........................................................15 helping students foster a love of reading, A Look Inside One Classroom’s and how teachers are using writing to Reading Overhaul ......................................8 How to Make Reading Instruction compliment reading instruction. Much, Much More Efficient ................16 ‘Decodable’ Books: Boring, Useful, or Both?.............................................................. 10 Recharging Reading Success Published on October 2, 2020, in Education Week’s Special Report: Getting Reading Right How Do Kids Learn to Read? What the Science Says By Sarah Schwartz and Sarah D. Sparks ow do children learn to read? For almost a century, re- searchers have argued over the question. Most of the dis- agreement has centered on Hthe very beginning stages of the reading process, when young children are first starting to figure out how to decipher words on a page. One theory is that reading is a natural process, like learning to speak. If teachers and parents sur- round children with good books, this theory goes, kids will pick up reading on their own. -
Some Issues in Phonics Instruction. Hempenstall, K
Some Issues in Phonics Instruction. Hempenstall, K. (No date). Some issues in phonics instruction. Education News 26/2/2001. [On-line]. Available: http://www.educationnews.org/some_issues_in_phonics_instructi.htm There are essentially two approaches to teaching phonics that influence what is taught: implicit and explicit phonics instruction. What is the difference? In an explicit (synthetic) program, students will learn the associations between the letters and their sounds. This may comprise showing students the graphemes and teaching them the sounds that correspond to them, as in “This letter you are looking at makes the sound sssss”. Alternatively, some teachers prefer teaching students single sounds first, and then later introducing the visual cue (the grapheme) for the sound, as in “You know the mmmm sound we’ve been practising, well here’s the letter used in writing that tells us to make that sound”. In an explicit program, the processes of blending (What word do these sounds make when we put them together mmm-aaa-nnn?”), and segmenting (“Sound out this word for me”) are also taught. It is of little value knowing what are the building blocks of our language’s structure if one does not know how to put those blocks together appropriately to allow written communication, or to separate them to enable decoding of a letter grouping. After letter-sound correspondence has been taught, phonograms (such as: er, ir, ur, wor, ear, sh, ee, th) are introduced, and more complex words can be introduced into reading activities. In conjunction with this approach "controlled vocabulary" stories may be used - books using only words decodable using the students' current knowledge base. -
Subvocalization – Toward Hearing the Inner Thoughts of Developers
2011 19th IEEE International Conference on Program Comprehension Subvocalization – Toward Hearing the Inner Thoughts of Developers Chris Parnin College of Computing Georgia Institute of Technology Atlanta, Georgia USA [email protected] Abstract—Some of the most fascinating feats of cognition any significant effects hoping to be found when evaluating are never witnessed or heard by others, yet they occur daily a new tool. With instrumentation data, experimenters have in the minds of software developers practicing their craft. recorded actions, but little context and must substitute cog- Researchers have desperately tried to glimpse inside, but with limited tools, the view into a developer’s internal mental pro- nitive measures such as cognitive effort or memory retention cesses has been dim. One available tool, so far overlooked but with metrics such as ratio of document navigations to edits widely used, has demonstrated the ability to measure the phys- or frequency of revisiting a method. Talk-aloud protocols, iological correlates of cognition. When people perform complex like surveys, rely on self-reporting and require considerable tasks, sub-vocal utterances (electrical signals sent to the tongue, manual transcription and analysis that garner valuable but lips, or vocal cords) can be detected. This phenomenon has long intrigued researchers, some likening sub-vocal signals to indefinite and inconsistent insight. the conduits of our thoughts. Recently, researchers have even Within the past few decades, modern research disci- been able to decode these signals into words. In this paper, plines, such as psychology and cognitive neuroscience, have we explore the feasibility of using this approach and report collectively embraced methods that measure physiological our early results and experiences in recording electromyogram correlates of cognition as a standard practice. -
Students Who Are Highly Mobile and Reading Instruction
Reading on the Go! Volume 1: Students Who Are Highly Mobile and Reading Instruction Prepared for the National Center for Homeless Education by Patricia A. Popp, Ph.D. The College of William and Mary December 2004 NCHE Profile The National Center for Homeless Education (NCHE) is a national resource center of research and information enabling communities to successfully address the needs of children and their families who are experiencing homelessness and unaccompanied youth in homeless situations. Funded by the U.S. Department of Education, NCHE provides services to improve educational opportunities and outcomes for homeless children and youth in our nation’s school communities. NCHE is housed at SERVE, a consortium of education organizations associated with the School of Education at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. The goals of NCHE are the following: • Disseminate important resource and referral information related to the complex issues surrounding the education of children and youth experiencing homelessness • Provide rapid-response referral information • Foster collaboration among various organizations with interests in addressing the needs of children and youth experiencing homelessness • Synthesize and apply existing research and guide the research agenda to expand the knowledge base on the education of homeless children and families, and unaccompanied youth Website: www.serve.org/nche HelpLine: 800-308-2145 Contact: Diana Bowman, Director NCHE at SERVE P.O. Box 5367 Greensboro, NC 27435 Phone: 336-315-7453 or 800-755-3277 Email: [email protected] or [email protected] The content of this publication does not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the U.S. Department of Education, nor does mention of trade names, commercial products, or organizations imply endorsement by the U.S. -
Supporting Special Education Students with System 44™
Foundation Paper Supporting Special Education Students with System 44™ System 44 is a foundational reading program designed for the most challenged struggling readers in Grades 3-12. Intentionally metacognitive, System 44 helps students understand that the English language is a finite system of 44 sounds and 26 letters that can be mastered. System 44 was designed for students in Grades 3-12 reading at a BR-400 Lexile ® level, including Special Education students and English-Language learners. OVERVIEW OF THE SYSTEM 44 PROGRAM System 44 is designed so that the teacher, technology, and texts work together to deliver highly engaging, comprehensive, research-based instructional content to the older struggling reader. Through a combination of teacher-led and software-based instruction, the System 44 student is guided along a systematic path from phonemic awareness to fluent reading. System 44 includes research-based features designed for the most challenged older readers: Computer-Based Screening and Placement The Scholastic Phonics Inventory (SPI) collects data on students’ decoding accuracy as well as fluency. This helps to identify students whose lack of decoding proficiency impedes comprehension. The SPI uses real, as well as nonsense words, which assess students’ ability to apply decoding skills to unfamiliar words. Adaptive Software The System 44 adaptive software delivers, direct, systematic, research-based phonics instruction to students. Multiple points of entry allow students to work at the appropriate level based on their performance on the SPI. Independent Reading Beginning readers will always have something to read with the System 44 program. The Decodable Digest includes two passages for every sound-spelling correspondence taught in the program. -
Text Complexity by Dr
Author Monographs Text Complexity By Dr. Timothy Shanahan University of Illinois at Chicago Member, National Reading Panel; President, International Reading Association, 2006 Chair, National Literacy Panel and National Early Literacy Panel It would be too costly and All texts are not equal. Some texts inconvenient to perform the above- are harder to read and comprehend. explained process for every text, of Just as there are individual differences course, so a second fundamental in children, there are individual premise of readability measurement differences in the texts that we ask is that the measure must specifically children to read. Some children summarize only text features or read better than others, and there characteristics, and not how easily are a variety of reasons for these read the text has been in the past. On differences in reading abilities. The the basis of this enumeration of text same is true of texts. Some texts are features, the formula has successfully easier or harder, and there are several predicted reader comprehension for reasons for these differences. texts. The purpose of this essay is to describe what factors Readability measures have evolved since they first cause texts to differ and to explore the relationship of appeared. Now, most readability formulas only measure text difficulty and children’s learning. two factors: word complexity and sentence complexity (Klare, 1984). Thus, measuring the readability or What makes text complex? complexity of a text involves an evaluation of the words: counting the average number of letters or syllables, Since the 1920s, there has been interest in measuring checking the frequency of the words (common words text difficulty or readability (Lively & Pressey, 1923).