EARLY LITERACY RESEARCH Findings Primary-Grade Teachers Will Want to Know

14 T H E I N S I D E T R A C K

D. Ray Reutzel

What is the place of handwriting in early literacy? Why is letter- name learning so important? Read this article to find answers to these and other early literacy instruction questions.

arly literacy development is among the So, in crafting this article, I eventually decided most fleeting yet vitally important phases to share answers to a few literacy research ques- of literacy development. All primary- grade tions that have come from my teacher colleagues teachers intuitively know that if young in recent years. I invite you to take a journey with Echildren get off to a good start, they will rarely stum- me across the topical terrain of selected questions ble along the path of academic progression. On the asked me about the findings of early literacy instruc- other hand, if they do not, these young learners often tional research. Although this is not intended to struggle throughout their school careers (Snow, be an exhaustive review of early literacy research, Burns, & Griffin, 1998 ). I have endeavored to select questions and topics I My initial inclination when preparing this believe will pique the interests of many primary- update of early literacy research was to share a grade teachers across the U.S. and around the summary of the findings of the National Early globe. I begin with the seldom-discussed question Literacy Panel ( 2008 ) and then discuss how these of handwriting. findings expand and update the earlier findings of the National Reading Panel (National Institute Handwriting: Who Needs It These of Child Health and Human Development, Days? 2000 ). But as I immersed myself in this task, to When I was a student in the K–12 school system in be frank, I was less than enthused about writing California during the 1960s, my sixth- grade teacher, yet one more exegesis of the findings of these Mr. Silva, gave me a D in handwriting. I can still two significant but also already well- publicized remember my father ’ s response. He looked me national panel reports. square in the eyes and said, “Son, this just won ’t Instead, I decided to take a somewhat unusual do. Tomorrow we begin work on your handwrit- approach. Having worked with teachers in schools ing every night.” The next six weeks were a crash across the nation and around the world in profes- course in fluent, legible handwriting at the hands of sional development for more than 30 years (more than 4,000 classroom observations), I am often asked D. Ray Reutzel is dean of the College of Education at the University of questions on a variety of early literacy instructional Wyoming, Laramie, Wyoming, USA; e- mail [email protected] . topics for which I provide evidence-based answers.

EARLY LITERACY RESEARCH: FINDINGS PRIMARY- GRADE TEACHERS WILL WANT TO KNOW an accountant father. The practice gave Vekaria, 2014 ; Peverly et al., 2007 )! So, “Handwriting needs me very legible handwriting, just like in an era of teaching with Common my father ’ s. Core State Standards (CCSS), why to be returned to the Fast- forward some 15 years, and I should elementary teachers care about found myself writing on a chalkboard teaching young students handwriting— elementary language in front of my five- member master ’ s especially when the English Language degree committee defending my MA Arts Standards (K–12) neglect hand- arts curriculum.” thesis. After filling three chalkboards writing altogether? with information to answer questions, Achieving fluent transcription of I turned around to see one of my com- handwritten letters is an essential pre- The takeaway message is clear: mittee members shaking his head with a requisite for achieving many, if not all, Handwriting needs to be returned frown. He then sternly reprimanded me of the other CCSS writing standards. to the elementary language arts cur- and said, “I hope your handwriting on Students in early childhood, as well as riculum. When handwritten letter the chalkboard in your classroom is far college students, who lack transcription transcription becomes fluent, young more legible than it was for us today!” fluency often struggle to get their ideas students can turn their attention Frankly, over the past several decades, written down quickly enough to remem- to higher-level cognitive processes I was one of those who welcomed the ber what they were thinking about as that allow them to compose high- move away from handwriting in the they write (Berninger, 1999 ; Graham quality written texts across a wide elementary language arts curriculum & Weintraub, 1996 ). And even though range of genres, as required in today ’ s (Christensen, 2009 ). I and my like- handwriting transcription fluency is Common Core writing standards. minded teacher colleagues questioned considered a low- level skill, it appears the value of handwriting instruction to be nonetheless consistently related to Phonemic Awareness: Of in an already overcrowded language and an accurate predictor of the amount Rhyme (Rime) and Reason arts curriculum and particularly in an and quality of the texts students pro- M a r i l y n A d a m s ’ s ( 1 9 9 0 ) b o o k increasingly technologically oriented duce—of students’ creativity of thought, Beginning to Read , published by the world. In short, I believed what many organization, coherence of ideas, com- Massachusetts Institute of Technology teachers believed—that handwriting prehensiveness of topical coverage, and Press, was one of the first publications instruction could be neglected without clarity of expression (Biemiller, Regan, to raise public and professional aware- penalizing students. I was wrong. & Gang, 1993 ; Christensen, 2009 ; Jones ness of phonological and phonemic Research over the last 30 y e a r s c o n - & Christensen, 1999 ; Graham, Harris, awareness. By 2000, the Report of the tinues to show that handwriting speed & Fink, 2000 ; Meltza, Fenton, & Persky, National Reading Panel had firmly and legibility, or what some call tran- 1 9 8 5; P e v e r l y e t a l . , 2 0 0 7; S c h l a g a l , established phonemic awareness as scription fluency, predicts everything 2007 ). Even in the current age of com- one of the two best predictors of future from a student’ s quality and quan- puting technology, Connelly, Gee, and reading achievement and an essential tity of written compositions to his or Walsh ( 2007 ) found a high correlation ingredient in evidence- based reading her ability to take notes and the scores between handwriting speed and typing instruction. and grades he or she receives on exams speed; thus, children who struggle with As the value of teaching phone- in college classes (Peverly, Garner, & automatic letter transcription fluency mic awareness gradually crept into early also struggle with automatic keyboard- childhood classrooms after the turn of ing as well. the millennium, specific components of “Students…who lack Christensen ( 2009 ) summarizes the phonemic awareness instruction became transcription fluency research quite succinctly: firmly entrenched in preschool and kin- Taken as a whole, correlational studies dergarten classrooms. As viewed through struggle to get their indicate that the ability to produce letters the lens of developmentally appropri- automatically accounts for a remarkably ate practices, early childhood educators large proportion of the variance in com- often accounted rhyming and alliteration ideas written down positional fluency, and depending on the age of students, a large proportion of the activities to develop phonemic aware- quickly enough...” variance in quality of written text (p. 168). ness as developmentally appropriate for

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achievement in young children than “Research has shown that phoneme-level time spent on rhyming and alliteration. skills account for unique variance in students’ This is not to suggest, however, that early childhood educators totally aban- future reading scores, after controlling for don rhyme and alliteration activities; rather, it is to point out the transitory the effects of rhyming ability in children.” value of these activities in relation to the more sustained outcomes associated with phonemic awareness instruction 4- and 5- year- old children. It also didn ’ t phoneme segmentation and blending focused on phoneme- level activities. hurt that there were plentiful, acces- activities. Results showed that 4- and sible, and familiar resources available, 5- year- old children taught segmentation Alphabet Letter Names and such as poems, songs, chants, and raps, and blending experienced significantly Sounds “Rn ’ t” So Easy to for teaching rhyming and alliteration greater gains in phonemic awareness Learn that early childhood teachers could use and letter-sound knowledge than chil- Twenty- three years ago, I authored to immediately engage young students dren taught with rhyme and alliteration an article titled “Breaking the Letter- in learning phonemic awareness. As a activities. In 2008, Yeh and Connell rep- a-Week Tradition: Conveying the former kindergarten teacher, I, too, was licated these findings in a second study Alphabetic Principle to Young all in on this one! showing that instruction emphasizing Children,” published in Childhood In fact, Runge and Watkins ( 2006 ) phoneme segmentation, blending, and Education (Reutzel, 1992 ). The gist of found, in one-factor analytic study, that letter- sound relationships was not only this article back then was that teach- phonological awareness was composed more likely to promote phoneme aware- ing alphabet letters at the rate of one of two major constructs: (1) rhym- ness but also more likely to promote letter per week, as was the “standard ing and (2) phoneme identification future reading ability than rhyming, practice” in most kindergarten class- and manipulation. Unfortunately, the alliteration, or vocabulary activities, rooms at the time, deserved to be drawn long- standing hypothesis that rhymes even for highly disadvantaged children into question. Since that time, a great might be a developmental precursor of as young as 4 years old. In a follow- up deal of research has been reported on young children ’ s full phonemic aware- discussion of the National Early Literacy how young children learn alphabet let- ness (Goswami & Bryant, 1990 ) has Panel ’ s ( 2008 ) meta- analysis of early lit- ters. It turns out that teaching alphabet yet to find strong support in research. eracy research, Phillips and Piasta (2013 ) knowledge to young children, some- Instead it appears that, for younger read- noted, “Some evidence suggests that thing that ostensibly seems easy to ers, that reading skill is better predicted teaching rhyming alone may not suffi- teach in the minds of many laypersons by phonemic skills than rhyming skills ciently promote advancements in overall and even other K–12 educators, is actu- (Hatcher, Hulme, & Snowling, 2004 ; phonemic awareness skills (Hatcher ally quite a complex, abstract task for Hulme, 2002 ; Muter, Hulme, Snowling, et al., 2004 ; Hindson et al., 2005 ; Phillips young children to achieve. Complete & Stevenson, 2004 ). Research has shown et al., 2008 ) “ (p. 103). and total mastery of all alphabet let- that phoneme- level skills account for As much fun as promoting phone- ters is a universal prerequisite in order unique variance in students’ future read- mic awareness through rhyming and for students to make progress in reading scores, after controlling for the effects alliteration activities may be (and as ing and writing. Alphabet knowledge is of rhyming ability in children. However, much continuing allure these activi- the single best predictor of later read- rhyme skills alone account for no unique ties may have for many early childhood ing and writing success (National variance after controlling for phoneme- educators), the takeaway message Early Literacy Panel, 2008 ). In addition, level skills (Yeh & Connell, 2008 ). from research is this: Focusing early recent research has also demonstrated In 2004, Yeh evaluated two phonemic awareness instruction on some interesting new findings about approaches for teaching phone- blending, segmenting, and manipu- the order(s) in which young children mic awareness to young children in a lating phonemes has been shown to develop their knowledge of the alphabet quasi- experiment: (1) rhyming, allit- produce greater improvements in pho- and how teachers can most effectively eration, and story activities and (2) nemic awareness and future reading help them to do so.

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EARLY LITERACY RESEARCH: FINDINGS PRIMARY- GRADE TEACHERS WILL WANT TO KNOW

In the past decade, research has F i g u r e 1 L e s s o n T e m p l a t e f o r T e a c h i n g 1 2 - M i n u t e L e t t e r N a m e a n d L e t t e r S o u n d identified six evidence-based alpha- Lesson Objective bet letter learning orders through Students will learn the name, the sound, and how to write the symbols for the upper- and lowercase which young children may acquire letter T/t. knowledge of alphabet letter names Supplies and sounds (Justice, Pence, Bowles, & • Bag of mixed alphabet letters Wiggins, 2006 ). The first learning order • Washable markers and lapboards is called the own-name effect. The own- • Copies of enlarged print page name effect states that young children • Highlighter tape most easily and quickly learn the let- Explanation ters found in their given or first names. Today, you will be learning to name, say the sound of, and write the upper- and lowercase letter T/t. The strongest effect is for the first letter Learning the letter name, the letter sound, and how to write upper- and lowercaseletter T/t will help you to read and write many new words. in the first name, such as J for Jamal (Hoorens & Todorova, 1988 ; Treiman Letter Name Identification This is the uppercase letter T. (Write and show the uppercase form of the letter.) This is the lowercase & Broderick, 1998 ; Treiman, Levin, & letter t. (Write and show the lowercase form of the letter.) Let’s practicenaming this letter. What is this Kessler, 2007 ). The second learning letter? T/t. (Point in different order to upper- and lowercase letter T/t at least three times.) order is the alphabetic-order effect . The Letter Sound Identification alphabetic- order effect is that letters The letter t makes the /t/ sound. Say the /t/ sound with me: /t/, /t/, /t/. What is the sound of the letter t ? at the beginning or end of the alpha- /t/ (Point to upper- and lowercase letter T/t at least three times, asking students to make the sound of bet are learned more quickly and easily the letter.) than those letters ordered in the middle Sort the Letters of the alphabet (McBride- Chang, Here are some upper- and lowercase letter T/t’s. (Show bag with 6–8 upper- and lowercase T/t magnetic 1 9 9 9 ) . T h e t h i r d i s t h e letter-frequency letters, foam letters, or dye cuts.) They are all mixed in this bag. We need to sort these letters into effect , which states that the more fre- upper- and lowercase categories. (Begin with a closed sort, and in subsequent review lessons, use an quently exposed letters are in printed open sort.) I’ll put each letter on the board, and if it is an uppercase letter T, you say, “Uppercase T, /t/.” If it is a lowercase letter t, say,“Lowercaset, /t/.” (Place letters on whiteboard one at a time for students to materials, the more quickly and easily identify and sort.) they are learned (Fry, 2004 ; Hanna, Find the Letters Hanna, Hodges, & Rudorf, 1966 ). The Now, let’s see how many letter t’s we can find on this page. (Be sure to pick short pages of enlarged fourth is the letter-name pronunciation print with no more than four lines of print. Run a pointer underneath the words in each line of print.) effect . This effect occurs when a let- When you see a letter t, point to the t. (Call on one student to come up and place a piece of highlighter ter ’ s sound is heard as the letter’ s name tape over the letter t on the enlarged print page. You can also pass out a copy of a 3- or 4-line page out is pronounced. The fifth, the conso- of a children’s picture book and ask students to find a certain number of letter t’s on the page, using a highlighter pen or crayon. Using a timer or stopwatch to increase intensity, pacing, and motivation is nant phoneme acquisition order effect , also advised.) states that young children learn con- sonant letters’ names and sounds Write the Letter (Name and demonstrate the proper formation of the uppercase T.) The uppercase letter T starts at the easier when they are mastered earlier top of the line and goes straight down to the bottom of the line. Then it has a straight line across the top. in children ’ s oral language develop- (Next, name and demonstrate the proper formation of the lowercase t.) The lowercase letter t also starts ment (Justice et al., 2006 ). And the sixth at the top of the line and goes straight down to the bottom of the line. Next, make a line that crosses learning order is the distinctive visual the other line between the middle and top of the line. (Pass out white boards, gel boards, or lap boards features letter-writing effect . The letters and ask students to take letter dictation. Ask students to write 3–6 dictated upper-and lowercase T/t letters, and also quickly review other letters learned. Have students write and cover their letter. Then of the alphabet are recognized through ask them to show you, using a choral response mode, the letter they wrote. Using a sticky note or clip detection of a smaller set of distinctive board, notice when students show you their written dictated letters which were successful and which visual features, which include (1) ter- may need additional help in small-group settings.) minations, (2) straight lines, (3) curved lines, (4) diagonal lines, and (5) inter- sections (Fiset et al., 2008 ; Gibson, 1969 ; set of distinctive visual features before to quicker mastery of letter transcription Townsend & Ashby, 1982 ). Teaching teaching them how to write all of the (Pantina, 1957 ). James and Engelhardt students to fluently produce this smaller alphabet letters has been found to lead ( 2012 ) found that the production of

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handwritten alphabet letters activated children may want to consider chang- 1 9 8 3 ) . A c c o r d i n g t o A d a m s ( 1 9 9 0) , c h i l - areas of children ’ s brains identified as ing up the order and focus for teaching dren from middle- class families arrive the “reading circuit” more than any the alphabet as they teach a letter a at first grade having experienced 1,000 other sensorimotor training. day, rather than a letter a week, to pro- to 1,700 hours of one-on- one story- Research by Jones and Reutzel ( 2012 ) vide the recommended 6–7 distributed book reading as well as another 1,000 + showed that letter- a- day instructional review cycles per year. Teaching stu- hours of print experience in their homes pacing was significantly more effective dents brief, multicomponential alphabet and communities. In comparison, chil- than letter- a- week pacing in promoting letter lessons daily followed up with dren coming to first grade from families students’ mastery of the alphabet letter multiple review cycles provides strong in poverty typically have experienced names. They attributed this finding to support for young students’ alphabetic only 25 hours of storybook reading and a total of 6–7 distributed reviews of the knowledge acquisition. less than 200 hours of general guidance alphabet letters in a single academic about the forms and nature of print. year, compared to only 1.5 distrib- Concepts About Print: Don ’ t Consequently, there are likely to be uted reviews when pacing instruction Assume It! some children in every classroom who at a letter a week. Neuman (2006 ) cau- Marie Clay ( 1972a , 1991 ), perhaps need concepts about print (CAP) assess- tioned teachers of young children that more than anyone else, was responsi- ment and instruction. as important as alphabet knowledge is, ble for drawing educators’ attention to The National Early Literacy Panel it should not require an hour per day of the oft- overlooked and seldom assessed (2008 ) identified CAP and print aware- instructional time in pre- K and kinder- importance of print awareness and print ness as 2 of 10 variables that were garten classrooms. Piasta and Wagner concepts. She maintained that as chil- moderately to strongly predictive of ( 2010 ) found that the most effective dren learned to read, they needed to later literacy proficiency. Johns ( 1980 ) alphabet knowledge instruction is mul- develop clear understandings about found that proficient first- grade read- ticomponential, meaning that lessons basic print concepts such as letters, ers performed significantly better on should include learning activities that words, sentences, directionality (top, the CAP test (Clay, 1972a , 2000 ) than require letter recognition, naming, bottom, left, right, first, last, etc.), and did average or below- average first- grade associating the symbol with a sound, book handling, and they needed to be readers. In 1987, Lomax and McGee writing, discriminating the letter to be able to connect these concepts to the tested a five- component model where taught from other letters, and categoriz- academic or instructional terms used CAP influenced letter awareness; letter ing letters into upper- and lowercase, to to refer to them. Clay ( 1991 ) cautioned awareness influenced phonemic aware- name a few. Jones, Reutzel, and Clark years ago, “Teachers cannot assume that ness, phonemic awareness influenced (2012 ) describe just such a multicom- beginning readers can isolate for atten- phoneme (sounds)- grapheme (letters) ponential alphabet knowledge lesson tion the things that labels refer to. If they awareness, which ultimately influenced format that requires only about 12 min- cannot and the teacher uses the terms the word- reading component of the utes per day to teach, as shown in without checking, the teaching- learning model. CAP also directly influenced the Figure 1 . interaction goes astray” (p. 141). phoneme- grapheme component in the With knowledge that there are multi- Where do children acquire print model. Morris, Bloodgood, Lomax, and ple learning order effects associated with awareness? They get it from seeing Perney ( 2003 ) tested another model and young students who are learning alpha- environmental print and seeing people found that concept of word , one element bet letters and names, teachers of young use print for various purposes (Hiebert, of CAP, followed awareness of beginning consonants in words but preceded full phonemic segmentation, which in turn led to word recognition. Reutzel, “‘Teachers cannot assume that beginning readers Young, Fawson, Morrison, and Wilcox can isolate for attention the things that labels refer ( 2003 ) found that students’ classification as “Conventional Readers” by their level to.... [W]ithout checking, the teaching- learning of knowledge on the CAP test (Clay, 1972a , 2000 ) reliably predicted how interaction goes astray’ (p. 141).” well these same students could read

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environmental print when degraded from its original context to simple black- “An immersion approach to teaching CAP and- white block print. Taken together, in kindergarten produced significant effects on it appears that assessing and teaching CAP may not be the single most impor- reading readiness and word-reading test scores.” tant element of early reading instruction, but it certainly seems to provide a bridge to later literacy proficiency. ubiquitous practice. Often embed- Nevertheless, over the intervening Reutzel, Oda, and Moore ( 1989), in ded within a writers’ workshop, process years, dedicated classroom teachers have an experimental study, found that an writing approaches involve teachers found ways to implement the process immersion approach to teaching CAP and children in a variety of prewriting approach to writing in classrooms with in kindergarten produced significant activities such as minilessons to define relative success. effects on reading readiness and word- audience, purpose, discourse styles, So, just how powerful is the pro- reading test scores. The immersion planning, resource use, and drafting. cess writing approach for improving approach embedded CAP instruction Following a prewriting phase, which students’ writing quality in elemen- in a shared reading where the teacher results in the production of a first draft, tary classrooms? Graham & Sandmel would operate on the enlarged print as process writing approaches next involve (2011 ) reported a meta-analysis of pro- if all children in the class were seated teachers and children in conferenc- cess writing studies including studies in her lap. Children could hear their ing, revising, and editing to improve the of primary- grade students in classroom teacher using unfamiliar CAP termi- quality of the first draft. At the conclu- settings. They reported a mean average nology and at the same time see the sion of the process writing approach, weighted effect size of .34 of a standard teacher pointing, framing, highlighting, students and teachers disseminate their deviation (small effect size) with 84% of matching, and so on as she referred to writing using a variety of activities and the comparisons resulting in a positive the print features verbally. A real favor- media such as an author ’ s chair, books effect for writing process approaches. ite in this immersion approach was the placed into the classroom library, or dig- Consequently, one is safe in conclud- “verbal punctuation” technique, where ital books shared on the school ’ s website. ing that process writing was consistently children and teacher read a text and give Process writing approaches became superior to other traditional writing each punctuation mark a sound and a popular in the mid- 1980s, stemming approaches to which it was compared. hand motion. An engaging and humor- from the early work of scholars such as On the other hand, process writing is ous example of verbal punctuation can Donald Graves ( 1983 ), Janet Emig ( 1971 ), not without its critics. Cramer ( 2001 ) be found on YouTube by searching for Peter Elbow ( 1973 ), Lucy Calkins ( 1983 ), summed up the situation as follows: Victor Borge ’ s phonetic punctuation. and Glenda Bissex ( 1985 ). It is best to face this truth: the writing In conclusion, CAP are effectively As a former primary- grade class- process has its weaknesses; it is poorly taught to young children by immers- room teacher, I found the writing implemented in many instances; it is not ing them in shared reading experiences process model as embodied in descrip- a panacea. But it is a better candidate for using pointing, circling, framing, tions of the writers’ workshop difficult improving writing performance than the counting, highlighting, verbal punctu- to implement in a classroom of 25 + traditional approach…there is not suffi- cient evidence to cause us to abandon the ation, matching, and so on. As children primary- grade students. I guess I should writing process (p. 39). develop CAP, teachers can invite them to not have been surprised, since the orig- follow along using fingerpoint reading in inal research on process writing was Consequently, there seems to be their own copy of a text as they develop largely conducted by four research- good reason for primary- grade teachers increasing control of the visual system. ers (Calkins, Elbow, Emig, and Graves) and students to continue to use pro- working with a total sample size of cess writing approaches as embodied Of Workshops and Writing less than 25 participants. In fact, much in the near- ubiquitous practice of writ- Strategies: Writing in Early of this early writing process research ers’ workshop. Conversely, the effect Literacy consisted of a series of micro- studies size of the process writing approach, Process approaches to writing instruc- focused on the writing processes of indi- although consistent, was relatively tion in the primary grades are a viduals or small groups of students. small. One must wonder if there isn ’ t

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SRSD writing instruction follows a on teaching reading comprehension, I “If teachers…want sequence of instructional stages, not to was introduced to P. David Pearson and to ‘power up’ their be used as a “cookbook” but as a gen- Dale D. Johnson’ s (1978 ) book, Teaching eral format or framework for instructing Reading Comprehension . It was here I writers’ workshop, each SRSD writing strategy to the point first learned about micro and macro of self- regulation. The sequence of structures in text. Like many other edu- use…highly effective SRSD writing instruction begins with cators of my vintage, I had learned developing students’ background knowl- about Bloom ’ s Taxonomy of Educational SRSD writing edge, followed by discussions about the Objectives and asking questions at strategy to be learned; then teacher mod- higher levels of thinking, but I had never strategies.” eling, followed by guided, supported entertained the idea that analyzing a practice; and finally, independent perfor- text for its implicit structure would help a more powerful writing approach mance of the strategy. Students initially me as a learner organize, remember, teachers might use in addition to or work to memorize each acronym for the learn from, and make richer connections embedded within current process writ- several SRSDs to be taught. Students with my own background knowledge ing approaches to increase outcomes in also spend time analyzing well-written or with other texts I had read. Since that a CCSS writing environment. or considerate text examples of the genre time, I have wondered why, in my 30 + The answer to this question is a or type of writing they are learning to years of classroom observations and resounding yes! For many years now, produce with teacher guidance. Thus, content analyses of core reading pro- researchers Harris, Graham, Mason, the text examples students read become grams, I have observed so very little and Friedlander (2008 ) have been con- mentor texts or “windows” of under- teaching of text structure. Admittedly, ducting studies of powerful writing standing for them to learn about how to I have seen more teaching of story strategies called Self- Regulated Strategy produce a quality written product. structure than I have seen teaching of Development (SRSD). In a meta- If teachers of young children want informational text structures. This may analysis, Graham ( 2006 ) reports a mean to “power up” their writers’ workshop, explain why a recent large-scale, lon- effect size of 1.32 standard deviations there are more than 40 experimen- gitudinal observation study of reading (large effect size) for all examined effects tal studies showing the effectiveness of comprehension instruction in grades of SRSD writing strategy instruction. teaching students using Harris and col- K–3 revealed that primary-grade teach- This effect size is a whopping four times leagues’ ( 2008 ) highly effective SRSD ers spend very little time teaching text the average effect size on writing qual- writing strategies. As a complement to structures (Donaldson, 2011 ). ity and quantity realized from a process writers’ workshop, teachers of young The finding that primary- grade writing approach alone! children can embed SRSD instruction teachers spend little time teaching text Harris and colleagues ( 2008 ) describe within a writers’ workshop framework structure is especially concerning when writing strategies for enhancing word with little effort by replacing the miniles- viewed through the lens of implement- choice, writing stories, persuasive text, sons with SRSD lessons. During writing ing the CCSS for Reading, in which explanations, descriptions, and reports. time, teachers can then provide guidance Anchor Standard 2 is, at least in part, They provide additional strategies for and support and gradually release these focused on analyzing literature and teaching revising, test-taking, and plan- strategies to students’ self- regulated use informational texts for text structures. ning a writing project. Each strategy in producing quality and quantity writ- Teaching young children text struc- is easily remembered by the use of ing products that will address many, if tures to support reading comprehension several mnemonic devices, such as not all, of the current writing CCSS. in early reading may seem at odds POW + WWW ( P ick my idea; Organize with most teachers’ experiences. They my notes; W rite and say more + Who, Talking Text Structure: If might question how or why it would W h e n , W h e r e a n d W hat 2; How 2) or You Can Say It, You Can be important to teach young students TWA + PLANS (T hink before read- Read and Write It! text structures when the students are ing; think W hile reading; think After Prior to entering my PhD program in struggling to identify letters, associ- reading + P ick goals; L ist ways to meet 1980, I had never heard of text struc- ate sounds, decode unfamiliar words, goals A nd make N otes; S equence ideas). ture. During my first doctoral seminar and attain a level of reading fluency

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that would facilitate reading compre- listening comprehension, and grammat- Knowledge in Language and Literacy hension. Why, then, would a recently ical understanding. As a consequence, (SKILL) program (Gillam, Gillam, & published IES practice guide titled weakness in oral language in the early Laing, 2012 ; see www.eejecerc.usu.edu/ Improving Reading Comprehension in grades is increasingly viewed as a con- news/skill.php ). Results showed that Kindergarten Through 3rd Grade recom- tributing and causal factor affecting poor improving young language- impaired mend that primary- grade educators reading comprehension in later grades students’ knowledge of story structure explicitly “teach students to identify and (National Early Literacy Panel, 2008; and then applying this knowledge in use the text ’ s organizational structure Duke et al., 2013 ). the generation of oral “well- structured” to comprehend, learn, and remem- So then, what is the takeaway mes- stories significantly and positively ber content” (Shanahan et al., 2010 , sage from all of this research on early impacted these students’ listening and p. 17)? Preliminary research evidence comprehension instruction and oral lan- reading comprehension of stories. In suggests that students as young as 4 guage? It seems that if children can short, providing students story struc- may benefit from instruction that targets listen to texts read aloud, learn to iden- ture instruction while listening to stories the development of listening and read- tify the texts’ structural components and then applying this knowledge first ing comprehension skills by teaching and organization, and then use this text in oral language rather than in reading informational text structures (Culatta, structure knowledge to generate “text produced positive effects on later story Hall- Kenyon, & Black, 2010 ). structure talk” in spoken texts, their comprehension. In a longitudinal study, Oakhill and later reading comprehension is empow- Another message for teachers of Cain ( 2012 ) found that higher- level oral ered. The strongest evidence to date young children from these research find- language skills, such as inference and showing that oral language and story ings is this: There is no reason to delay the comprehension monitoring, at age 7 structure instruction improves listening teaching of reading comprehension strategies were reliable predictors of reading com- and reading comprehension has come such as text structure until children can read prehension at age 11. Cognitive profiles primarily from work with narrative texts fluently. Comprehension strategy instruc- of elementary school–aged students (Duff & Clarke, 2011 ; Gillam & Gillam, tion using story structure instruction with reading comprehension difficul- 2014 ; Gillam, Gillam, & Reese, 2012 ). and story maps can be effectively accom- ties have shown they often evidence Gillam et al. ( 2012 ) report results of plished while listening to stories and then simultaneous weakness in oral language a federally funded development proj- applied in oral language usage prior to comprehension and processing (Duff ect in which young language- impaired expecting students to apply this knowl- & Clarke, 2011 ; Duke, Cartwright, & students were first taught the causal edge to the reading or writing of stories. Hilden, 2013 ). In fact, Catts, Fey, Zhang, structure within the setting of narra- A logical extension of these find- and Tomblin (1999 ) found that approx- tive text structure elements (e.g., setting, ings should be considered for teaching imately 70% of students with poor problem, goals, episodes, and resolu- informational text structures to reading comprehension in the second tion), then this instruction was coupled young children. To begin informa- grade had also demonstrated significant with storytelling instruction and guided tional text structure instruction, young oral language deficits in kindergarten. practice using wordless picture books as students need to be taught about typ- Similarly, young students with poor lan- initial scaffolds working toward inde- ical informational text structures guage skills in kindergarten have been pendent storytelling. Students’ reading such as description, sequence/proce- shown to be at a higher risk for devel- comprehension for stories was assessed dural, problem- solution, cause- effect, oping reading comprehension problems from the baseline of the intervention to compare-contrast, and mixing or mul- in later years (Catts, Fey, Tomblin, & the conclusion the development proj- tiple uses of these within a single text. Zhang, 2002 ). Notably, Nation, Cocksey, ect that resulted in the Supporting Teaching students to study an author ’ s Taylor, and Bishop ( 2010 ) found that oral language weaknesses in poor com- prehenders at age 8 were not a simple “ There is no reason to delay the teaching of consequence of students’ reading comprehension impairment; rather, they reading comprehension strategies such as text reflect persistent prior weaknesses in expressive and receptive language, structure until children can read fluently.”

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F i g u r e 2 G r a p h i c O r g a n i z e r t o R e p r e s e n t a S e q u e n t i a l - C y c l e T e x t S t r u c t u r e of texts can help even the youngest of students construct more complete, con- nected, and coherent mental models of meaning and knowledge as they actively listen to oral readings of narrative and informational texts.

Wrapping Up: Little- Known Findings on Early Literacy Early literacy instruction sets the stage for all later literacy progress. If the foundations of literacy are secured early on, then students are placed on a trajectory leading to probable academic success in later schooling. The specific questions I addressed about early literacy instructional practices and research described here weren’ t those that have been pro- pelled to the center stage of prominence in the past—phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, or comprehension (National Reading Panel, 2000). Rather, they were in most cases related to additional elements of early literacy recommended by the National Early Literacy Panel ( 2008 ), such as oral language, concepts about print, letter- name knowledge, and writing. By adding these vital elements to early literacy instruction, teachers will be able to more completely and effectively address the requirements of the CCSS in English use of headings, subheadings, diagrams, the students a visual of the text ’ s orga- language arts and provide students with photos, and so on in informational text nization using a graphic organizer, in an effective programmatic framework helps them to unpack the way a text this case perhaps a sequential or cyclic for acquiring the necessary early liter- may be organized. For example, sup- visual, as shown in Figure 2 . acy understandings, concepts, and skills pose a first- grade teacher, Ms. Gilly, was Once students see the text ’ s for literacy success in primary- grade going to read aloud the book A Butterfly organization or structure visually rep- classrooms. is Born by Melvin Berger ( 1993 ). She resented, it is often helpful for teachers

begins by taking her students on a to closely reread the text aloud with REF ERENCES guided “text feature walk” through the students in a shared reading to fill in A d a m s , M . J . ( 1 9 9 0 ) . Beginning to read: Thinking book to determine how the author has the slots in the graphic organizer. Over and learning about print. Cambridge, MA : MIT Press . organized the presentation of informa- time, teachers engage students in scaf- B e r n i n g e r , V . ( 1 9 9 9 ) . Coordinating transcription. Once this is done, she assists her folded “text talk,” where they orally tion and text generation in working memory during composing: Automatic and con- young students in determining if this describe, compare and contrast, enu- structive processes. Learning Disabilities text is a narrative or informational text. merate steps in a procedure, explain Quarterly, 22 ( 2 ), 99 – 112 . Biemiller , A. , Regan , E. , & Gang , B . ( 1993 ). After they decide it is an informational cause and effect or a problem and solu- Studies in the development of writing text, it is helpful for Ms. Gilly to show tion, and so on. Studying the structure speed: Age, task and individual differences

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(Unpublished manuscript). Toronto, Canada : E m i g , J . ( 1 9 7 1 ) . The composing processes of twelfth H i e b e r t , E . H . ( 1 9 8 3) . Developmental patterns University of Toronto. graders. Urbana, IL : National Council of and interrelationships of preschool chil- B i s s e x , G . ( 1 9 8 5 ) . Gnys at wrk: A child learns to Teachers of English . dren’ s print awareness . Reading Research write and read. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Fiset , D. , Blais , C. , Ethier-Majcher , C. , Arguin , Quarterly, 16 ( 2 ), 236 – 260 . University Press . M . , B u l b , D . , & G o s s e l i n , F . ( 2 0 0 8 ) . Features Hindson , B. , Byrne , B. , Fielding-Barnsley , R. , C a l k i n s , L . ( 1 9 8 3) . Lessons from a child: On the for identification of uppercase and lower- Newman , C. , Hine , D.W. , & Shankweiler , D. teaching and learning of writing. Portsmouth: case letters . Psychological Science, 19( 11 ), (2005 ). 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