Reading Summit Home Page
In his introduction, Terry Peterson said he had seen first hand the power of receiving help in learning to read. His son had experienced reading difficulties and fell behind in all subject areas including his favorite: math. With extra help, a special curriculum and four years of tutoring his son learned to read well and graduated from high school and college and is successful in his career testing new medicines. He introduced the NRC panelists present as Barbara Bowman, a researcher and advocate for extended education for early childhood caregivers, Susan Burns, Barbara Foorman, Dorothy Fowler, a National Board Certified Teacher teaching in Fairfax County Virginia, Catherine Snow, the chair of the research panel, Peg Griffin, Senior Research Associate with NAS, a specialist in literacy education and on teacher talk, Sally Shaywitz, currently doing MRI images of the brain to study the processing related to higher cognition, Dorothy Strickland, her past professions include being a teacher, a former special education teacher, and a former President of the International Reading Association, Elizabeth Sulzby, a researcher who studies early childhood development especially home instruction and the mother-child bond.
In this session, participants submitted questions to the panel and specific panel members were asked to reply. Panel members initials are indicated in front of their responses.
Q: How can the research on the teaching of metacognitive language skills be related to the teaching of content skills?
A: [DF] The report didn't specifically address the teaching of content skills. Because of the limited time in the classroom, reading instruction needs to relate to other content areas. Strategies for higher order thinking skills translate across subject areas. Children's vocabulary development is helped by reading lots of books. Children can read books in other subject areas to promote growth in those subjects. It's important for a classroom to have lots of books at many different reading levels for the many different levels of readers in a classroom.
Q: What is the role of technology and technology programs in supporting reading instruction?
A: [BF] We examined different types of technology programs: (1) ones that allowed children to use invented spelling, scribbles or initial letters to write stories and those that helped children to use slides and graphics to make multi-media presentations to demonstrate what they're learning (2) programs that read aloud children's writing, which help children with standardized spelling (3) storybook programs that present and read a story to a child along with follow up writing activities (4) skills programs. A note about invented spelling, children who use it in kindergarten and first grade hone phonemic and phonological skills, which strengthen reading development. The report was not specific about the use of technology programs.
Q: What about children who are having difficulties in reading after third grade?
A: [SS] The report focused on younger children. Research has shown that untreated reading difficulties are persistent. Things that help children without difficulties help children with difficulties. The same types of interventions work for younger or older children, however, older children need more intense intervention of longer duration.
Q: What talking points would you suggest for State Departments of Education to share with Institutes of Higher Education especially around the area of children with reading problems?
A: [CS] We recommend Table 9-1, related to teacher instruction. Think about what can be covered in pre-service instruction. In large urban school districts with many older teachers there is also a need for retraining of teachers already in service. Consider what the child needs to learn to read and what the teacher needs to know to provide that. Think about training in terms of opportunities for children to learn to read.
Q: We have a conflict with the research as tutoring is not recommended for working with children most in need of help and our program works with children most in need.
A: [CS] The report doesn't say that tutors should be kept away from the children most in need, but tutors can't be the only interventions for these children. Effective tutoring programs require good screening, good training and following of tutors. Tutoring must be coordinated with instruction. Tutors are best used to support development of fluency of reading. With preschool aged children, fluency practice means providing experience with rich oral language, having extended conversations. For children kindergarten and above, fluency means doing fun reading with books at a level below the child's frustration level.
Q: The report shows that preschool is crucial for reading development. Why not put a stronger focus on training for Head Start and other preschool educators?
A: [BB] The report is very clear about this. However, the wages of early childhood professionals don't support or reward high levels of academic training. We need to change public policy. We need to reward academic achievement for early childhood professionals. A method that hasn't been focused on that is important is training early childhood supervisors and coordinators to train their staff and support them in promoting literacy.
Q: How do we engage higher education institutions to teach teachers to be good reading teachers?
A: [DS] The curriculum for teachers needs to be integrated, uniform and not dichotomized. Higher education needs to give teachers a strong knowledge base, so teachers know all the pieces. Not all pieces of instruction need to be given to all children, but teachers need to know them to make informed decisions on what methods to use. I want to see professional development seminars at conferences like the IRA conference for teachers to discuss this issue.
Q: Where can we get a copy of the reading pillar illustration?
A: [SB] Can ARC put this up on their web site along with overheads from Catherine Snow's talk?
Q: How do you speed up vocabulary acquisition?
A: [CS] Preschool children acquire words orally. They learn by hearing. If you talk to, talk with children twice as much they'll learn twice as many words. Have interesting conversations with lots of words. Older children acquire vocabulary through reading itself. That's why reading instruction needs to work. One hour a day of reading provides two times more vocabulary development than a half-hour of reading a day. Television words are on a first grade level. Children need to have interesting and organized conversations with adults. Teachers need to think about these conversations and how to organize and promote them.
Q: Many families can't read to their children for 30 minutes a day because of low literacy skills. What do you suggest?
A: [BB] A parent is the most important person in a child's life. Parents' reinforcement of reading is the most powerful. Other adults and technology exist that can read to children, but parents' support and enthusiasm are critical. Preschools and primary schools must collaborate. Libraries and clubs and before and after school programs and schools must also collaborate. [ES] Other research on this involves multi-lingual families, where the amount of literacy in the home is unclear. Some schools have children read books repeatedly in school so the child can take the book home and read to the family at the emergent or conventional reading level.
Q: For these three groups: ESL children, non-standard dialect speakers, and children with English impoverished backgrounds, please discuss theoretical and practical issues.
A: [PG] LEP children learn to read best in the language in which they have strength. "Low monolinguals" are children who speak one language and are behind their peers in language development and may come from language impoverished backgrounds. For literacy development you need to have started even earlier with these children and catch them as soon as possible, but you don't do much differently in teaching reading. For non-standard dialect speakers and the question "How much do teachers need to know to work with these children?" the research is not solid on this. Different regional pronunciations can make trouble with curriculum materials, for example hearing sounds that are different in some dialects and the same in others. Curriculum won't help with this. Teacher preparation is important. [CS] There are two issues here. Non-standard dialect speakers are a high-risk group. One explanation is the sound differences. Another explanation is that dialect is not neutral. We think that some dialects are better, that our own are better, and there is social stigma involved. This subject requires optimal teacher preparation for teachers to have high expectations for all students. [DS] Teacher attitude is a serious issue. Knowledge of the dialect helps teachers know when a problem might occur, or be aware of one. This depends on a professional's knowledge base. These issues need to not delay reading instruction, which can happen along with the development of an oral language base.
Q: How would you advise governors and state legislatures on what to do to improve reading in their state?
A: [DS] When working with policymakers, make the NRC report accessible to people without reading backgrounds. Consider the State's standards development and articulation of standards. Link this report to the standards the State has invested in. Address investment at the policy level, the state level and move down. This information has many implications for allocation of resources. Resources affect implementation. [BF] Move off of the great debate between phonics and whole language and into integration and coherence. Teachers need to use an integrated, coherent approach. The greatest challenge is how to group for flexible, instructional grouping. It's important to put resources into early grades, not third grade and above where the high stakes accountability is. Research shows it's easier to help children at earlier stages. [BB] Advise states to provide preschool to all at-risk children. The state department of education should work with Head Start, and with all day care providers. Schools often don't know where children have been before they were five years old. Schools and states need to focus on this. [SS] We have a convergent research base to guide policy. A divergent group of researchers came together and found a convergent research base. The National Reading Panel is examining the research on instructional practice.
Q: In examining the research on reading the medical model was used. Were any other models used?
A: [SS] We tried to be as rigorous as possible. It's a model others have used in education. [CS] We used the public health model more than the medical model. Perhaps, because the report focuses on prevention you could say we used the "dental" model. [SS] We used the scientific approach. We put an emphasis on preventative measures. [ES] Different models of the reading process were used. The developmental model was used.
Q: In looking at student achievement across the grades, students in 2nd and 4th grades score higher in reading than students in 8th and 10th grades. What accounts for this drop?
A: [BF] Great reading initiatives at the early grades? The 4th grade slump is alluded to in our report. If children decode with effort then less attention is available to devote to the message of the text, which makes reading hard. As the burden on memory and attention increases with more complex text it makes reading hard. Upper grade teachers need to teach comprehension skills such as monitoring for understanding or summarizing text. Skills need to be taught around books. Teachers can lead discussions about books children read at their own level or books that are read aloud.
Q: How can we provide public support for staff development? How much staff development is enough?
A: [PG] At a recent Senate hearing Susan Burns testified about the process of simulation as a professional development technique. It would be interesting if policymakers were asked to simulate the process of being responsible for 20-30 five to six year olds. We could see if they needed help and support and collaboration. Seriously, professional development associations can help provide more public support for professional development. [CS] Professional development needs to be seen as a totally new beast. Not as workshops, but as something that is going on all the time. It should be a strand for a teacher. Reading specialists should be there to help and to coach others. Time should be scheduled for teachers to collaborate and to meet. Professional development needs to be part of the daily practice of schools. We need to rethink the organization of schools.