By: Dr. Monica Bomengen

Reading is not a skill that comes naturally. Even highly skilled readers had to be taught at some point. If reading came naturally, like speaking, most children would arrive at school already reading at a reasonable skill level. Simply showing a child a book does not teach him to read. Reading requires explicit and systematic instruction. For many children, the skills required to read must be broken down into smaller steps and practiced one at a time. For this reason, it is essential that reading teachers be thoroughly prepared and knowledgeable in their field. The following list includes terms commonly used when discussing teaching reading and struggling readers:

1. Accuracy is the ability to recognize words when they are read.

2. Decoding means that the reader is able to translate a word from print to spoken. It demonstrates that the reader understands the sounds that match the symbols (letters). It is also what happens when a reader deciphers a word by “sounding it out.”

3. Dyslexia is a language-based disability that affects both oral and written language. The most common manifestation of dyslexia is turning letters backward when one writes (“d” for “b,” for example), or mistaking one letter for another when reading.

4. Fluency is the ability to read accurately, swiftly, and with correct expression and comprehension. Fluent readers do not have to concentrate on decoding words, so they can pay attention to the meaning of what they read.

5. Literacy is reading, writing, and everything else involved in producing and understanding texts.

6. A language learning disability is a disorder that may affect the comprehension and use of spoken or written language as well as nonverbal language, such as eye contact and tone of speech, in both adults and children.

7. A learning disability is a disorder that affects one’s ability to either interpret what is seen and/or heard or to link information from different parts of the brain.

8. Naming speed is the rate at which one can recite memorized stimuli, including letters and numbers.

9. A child with oral language difficulties may exhibit poor vocabulary, low listening comprehension skills, or below-average grammatical abilities for his age.

10. Orton-Gillingham is a multisensory approach to remediating dyslexia created by Dr. Samuel Orton, a neuropsychiatrist and pathologist, and Anna Gillingham, an educator and psychologist.

11. Phonemic awareness is the ability to see, understand, and interact with the individual sounds in words. For example, a beginning reader demonstrates phonemic awareness by combining or blending the separate sounds of a word to say the word (/c/ /a/ /t/ - cat).

12. Phonics is a form of reading instruction based on the alphabetic principle that there is a predictable relationship between sounds and symbols (letters), and that this information can be used to decode words.

There is a substantial stream of research on the different techniques of teaching reading. The single most important factor in the quality of instruction in any academic subject is the effectiveness of the teacher. While it helps for the parents to understand the terminology of the world of reading instruction, it really is true that the teacher can make all the difference.

P.S.

You can learn about the latest research in the field of teaching reading in Reading Horizons Free E-Book: Surprising Findings of Reading Research

By: Dr. Monica Bomengen

Parents of young readers might be confused when hearing about the “reading wars” over how best to teach children to read. Since the 1980s, there has been a conflict between proponents of phonics-based reading instruction and those who favor the whole-language approach.

Phonics-based reading instruction is a methodology for teaching young children to read and spell words. The teacher introduces a series of spelling rules and teaches the child to apply phonetics (how the letter combinations sound out loud) to decode words based on their spellings. Phonics attempts to break written language down into small and simple components.

In the simplest terms, “whole language” is a method of teaching children to read by recognizing words as whole pieces of language. Proponents of the whole language philosophy believe that language should not be broken down into letters and combinations of letters and “decoded.” Instead, they believe that language is a complete system of making meaning, with words functioning in relation to each other in context. 

It is rare to find reading instruction that is purely whole language. Most teachers of whole language reading use “embedded phonics.” This is a technique wherein children are instructed in letter-sound relationships when they read text (as opposed to being taught the relationships in isolation prior to practicing reading). This is an indirect method of using phonics instruction. Whole language reading instruction requires that students memorize words so that they can recognize them on sight. These are called “sight words.” Embedded phonics instruction is always conducted using literature to provide context, and teachers use this strategy when the opportunity presents itself, rather than systematically and in isolation from literature.

In explicit phonics instruction, children learn the rules as well as the exceptions to them, and they are not taught to memorize words. Reading researchers have verified that memorization of sight words has not been proved to increase reading fluency (the speed with which a reader can read and comprehend text).

These “reading wars” over phonics vs. whole language instruction have been debated for more than a hundred years, primarily due to the complexity of the English language. Horace Mann argued that phonics should not be used at all. The Dick and Jane readers that many parents may remember fondly were an outgrowth of the anti-phonics movement of the middle twentieth century. However, by the 1950s, phonics began to increase in popularity due to the number of students who had difficulty with the “look/say” approach to reading used in the Dick and Jane reading series.

The debate has shifted over time since the introduction of the whole language philosophy of teaching reading. The whole language approach, which emphasized identifying words using literary context and barely focusing on sounds, could not be reconciled with the phonics focus on individual sounds’ correspondence to letters and letter combinations. For that reason, a polarized dichotomy arose and created a raging debate. Congress commissioned panels to study the teaching of reading and the U.S. Department of Education conducted its own research and reviews.

Today, most teachers in the United States combine phonics with some elements of whole language, particularly those that emphasize reading comprehension.

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Free E-Book: Using Research to Reach Struggling Readers

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By: Shantell Berrett, Reading Horizons Reading Specialist

Finding the right fit for a struggling reader can feel like a daunting task. Resources, like assessing to find a reading grade or Lexile level, can be complicated and while usually accurate, may still not lead to a good fit. There are three simple tips that can help on this quest of creating a successful match between reader and book.

Tip 1: 

If the reader struggles with more than 3-5 words a paragraph, the text is too difficult. It is that simple. Minus names, students should not have to struggle with more words than that per paragraph or they will become frustrated and quickly give up. 

Tip 2: 

When possible, students should pick books that interest them.  Teachers and parents need to allow lots of options for students.  The options shouldn’t necessarily be compiled because they are what the teacher or parent likes.  Be open minded that your student may want to read, may be something you would never pick up.  If they are interested in it, they are more willing to make the effort to read it.

Tip 3: 

Because the amount of effort expended in the task of reading for a struggling reader is roughly three times of what a non-struggling reader expends, reading should be done in short chunks of time. Reading should be done in no longer that 10-15 minute segments with a max of about 30-40 minutes a day. Simply reading more--for those who struggle because they are stuck at the word level--WILL NOT improve their reading. It will only increase frustration. They need proper intervention before more reading becomes a useful practice. 

In short, keep it simple. If a reader can choose a story that interests them and one that they do not have to struggle extensively with, they will be more likely to actually read it. Keep the time short and the reading simple.

P.S.

Share tips and questions about teaching struggling readers in the comment section of this post!

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By: Shantell Berrett, Reading Horizons Reading Specialist

Along with hours of preparation and work, a new school year bears anticipation and excitement of a new beginning. It is a new chance for creating opportunities for success for both students and teachers. There are three tips that can help ensure success with Reading Horizons reading program this year.

Tip 1

Summer often leaves students in need of a refresher at the first of the new school year to remember skills learned before the break. Taking the first four to six weeks to review the phonics skills learned in Reading Horizons will help students recall and reinforce strategies that they can use throughout the school year to handle unfamiliar words and build new vocabulary. (Click here to find a scheduled outline of how to review these skills in four to six weeks.) 

Tip 2

When students learn phonetic or comprehension strategies they still may have a difficult time applying them in context reading. Be very clear and give explicit, visual instruction as to how to do that. For example, when students get to a word they don’t know they should sound it out at least twice from the beginning to the end without stopping or guessing. This creates a new habit of processing phonologically and breaks the bad habit of skipping or guessing at unfamiliar words. If the student still does not get the word after sounding it out, walk them through steps to apply decoding strategies they have learned to figure out the word.

Tip 3

Give students numerous resources and accommodations for success. Some students have better success in reading by simply allowing them to use a paper or card to cover the page so that they can focus on one line at a time. Some need to learn to ask questions and connect with a paragraph or even sentence at a time instead of a page at a time. Taking 5 minutes with each student to ask them how they feel about reading, what the page looks like, and what helps them can make a huge difference. 

Results

Creating a safe environment that allows for learning styles and struggles supports students to find ways that really help them. Giving them the right type of instruction for decoding and helping them transfer those skills is a surefire way to set them up for success.

P.S.

Don't have Reading Horizons program? Check out our Online Workshop for teaching reading and see if any of our tips could help the effectiveness of your reading program:

By: Shantell Berrett, Reading Horizons Reading Specialist

When a student is struggling with reading there are certain signs or symptoms that show up consistently.  Everyone can struggle over unfamiliar words at times, so we are looking for repeating patterns that show up every time a student encounters text.
 
Sign 1: Reading for those that struggle is a slow, belabored process. It will take them much longer to read a passage than a student who isn’t struggling.  Because it takes more effort, they will often look away and take breaks.  Reading will be choppy and lack fluency and flow. 

Sign 2:  Those who struggle will handle the page very differently.  Because they tend to lack sufficient decoding skills to use with unfamiliar words, they look at the page overall and find words that they recognize as ones they have previously memorized.  They will ‘read’ those words while often skipping over sight words and stumbling through unfamiliar words.  Guessing and skipping will be common compensation strategies they apply when reading.

Sign 3:  It is not uncommon to have them appear to ‘read’ (automatically recognize) a word one line and when the same word appears a few lines later, act like they have never seen that word.  Struggling readers need to encounter a word 30 more times than an automatic reader before it is stored in their memory.  It takes a lot longer to build a sight vocabulary base.  (This is why decoding strategies are so important for these readers; there are only so many words they can memorize in this fashion.)

Sign 4:  When students are assessed for fluency, their scores will only improve within a particular reading passage and then drop back down when a new passage is presented to them.  True fluency is only accomplished when the student is phonologically processing the words from part-to-whole (left-to-right) and storing them in their memories phonetically, not as a memorized whole word.  What happens with repeated fluency practice on the same passage is that students will increase their speed and decrease error rate because they encounter the passage enough time to memorize the words.  This is why when given a new passage with unfamiliar words, their fluency score drops back down. 

Sign 5:  Those who struggle with reading will avoid reading like the plague. None of us like to do things that we are uncomfortable with or that take extreme effort.  We all avoid things we are not good at.  Struggling readers are the same way.

Struggling readers hurt. Their self-esteem is damaged and they lack hope in themselves and in ever being successful in reading.  Whatever we do to offer them hope and positive results will be more than worth our efforts.

To improve your teaching strategies for struggling readers, sign up for FREE access to Reading Horizons Online Workshop: