What Every Adult Should Know About Reading and Writing Instruction
As an adult have you ever dreaded working on homework with a child? Helping a student with reading and writing homework can be a huge challenge. For many adults their elementary school instructions were vastly different than how current elementary students are taught today. Equip yourself with the knowledge of how to impact your child’s reading through balanced literacy and encourage young writers by acknowledging their developmental stage of writing.
Reading Instruction
“Bowzer was on his way to the …” first grader Anthony stopped and turned to Krista, his nanny, for help. “Sound it out,” Krista said, believing this would help Anthony decode the word. Anthony still stared blankly, so Krista started sounding out the word for him, “/k/—/a/ — /s/.” Krista stopped, realizing the next letter was silent and could not be sounded out. Not knowing what else to do, Krista resorted to telling Anthony, “Its castle.” Anthony continued to read but thought to himself, “How will I ever learn to read if not all words can be sounded out?”
Research has found that the “sound it out” response, a reading strategy that many adults emphasize with children, is not so often used by children compared to a variety of other strategies that are more effective for them to solve words (Compton-Lilly, 2005). Even though the usefulness of the strategy is limited, Education Professor Catherine Compton-Lilly identifies the “sound it out” strategy as a pervasive cultural model, having been passed down from generations of parents reading to their children (Compton-Lilly, 2005). C0mpton-Lilly interviewed her students’ parents and found that a majority of their own reading instruction consisted of being asked to sound words out (Compton-Lilly, 2005).
History of Reading Instruction
During the early 1990's there was a huge reading instruction debate between phonics and whole languages (Pressley, 2005). If you went to elementary school before the 1980's you most likely remember being taught to read solely through phonics instruction. Teachers assessed a student’s reading comprehension based on his or her fluency and speed (Marshall). If you are an analytical and/or auditory learner, you most likely excelled at learning to read through phonics (Marshall).
However, if you attended elementary school during the 1980's or early 1990's you may have jumped into reading through the whole language approach. Kenneth Goodman and Frank Smith developed this reading process with the idea that the reader, the text, and the language all interact together (Goodman, 1989). Teachers assessed students’ success of reading comprehension based on how well they could construct meaning from what they read (Marshall). The visual and tactical learners are the ones who flourished through the whole language approach (Marshall).
The Reading Wars ended with the compromise of Balanced Literacy. Balanced Literacy was able to take the benefits of both phonics and whole language and meet all learners. This instruction is balanced in many ways; first, it incorporates reading, writing, and word study, second, it gives students the opportunity to learn in large groups, smalls groups, and individually, and lastly, readers are taught to solve words using the three cueing systems: syntax, meaning, and visual (Hatt, Anderson, Madden, & Dickinson-Kelly, 2008).
“By using the balanced literacy approach within my classroom, I can differentiate the learning going on in my classroom so all students will grow and blossom into successful readers and writers.” — Kristine Malia, 4th grade teacher
Balanced Literacy
Teachers are embracing balanced literacy programs, such as The Daily Five, which allow students to learn to read by reading books. Who would have thought! It is through books and real world text that students learn how to solve words beyond just looking at the word. The authors of Catching Readers Before They Fall stress the importance of teaching a student to look at all the sources of information while solving words (Joahnson & Keier, 2002). Readers are able to solve words by paying attention to the meaning of the text (meaning), how the word fits within the structure of the sentence (syntax), as well as how the word looks(visual).
Teacher-Parent Communication
If only teachers would explain to parents and caregivers the strategies they equip students with to be successful readers, our “sound it out” culture would slowly die out. For example, a brief newsletter that includes an explanation of the three sources of information for solving words would help adults give children the glory of solving the words instead of blurting out the words for them.
Let’s revisit Krista and Anthony to see how one teacher’s newsletter gave Krista the support she needed to help Anthony solve words for himself.
As Krista opens Anthony’s home folder the next week she finds a newsletter from his teacher explaining to the parents different cues the students use to solve words when they get stuck. His teacher also attached a bookmark with pictures that remind students of these cues.
“The little pig ran away from the big, bad…” Anthony stopped and looked up at Krista. Krista thought back to the newsletter and decided to see if Anthony might be able to solve the word by using meaning. Looking down at the bookmark she pointed to the image of the picture book. “Can you tell me what is happening in the picture on this page?” Anthony looked up from the words to view the picture for the first time. He happily interpreted the picture telling Krista, “The wolf just blew down the pig’s house and he is running to the next house.” “That mean wolf” Krista replied, “Okay now try reading that sentence again.” As Krista suspected Anthony was now able to solve for the word, “wolf” because he had read with the meaning of the story in mind.
It is important that teachers are in constant communication with parents and caregivers because they help students continue their education at home. Not only do teachers need to find ways to get parents and community members involved in learning more about reading instruction, parents should be given updates on their own child’s progress (Compton-Lilly, 2005). Teachers and parents should act as a team, working together to help students reach their goals as readers. To the left is an example of how Anthony’s teacher communicates to his parents and nanny what his current reading strengths are and the goal he is currently working on to become a better reader. Just as baseball cards show the statistics and progress of the players athletic history, these reading cards are meant to motivate students to keep reading and demonstrate how they progress over the school year.
Writing Instruction
Maria runs up to greet her dad with a proud smile as she hands him her story about a superhero dog. She waits, hoping he laughs at the part when the dog runs into the tree. Instead, he grabs an eraser and tells her to re-write the word “fownd” to “found” and “seet” to “seat” and add a period after “tree”. “Now your story is ready to be turned in,” he says. Maria, however, was not looking for a good grade but for her father just to enjoy her story.
It is so easy as adults to be editors, trying to perfect the grammar and spelling of young children’s writing. But were you aware that practices such as making children correct all of their spelling errors or by not giving children the freedom to come up with their own spelling inventions can stunt the natural development of a child’s writing ability(Cusumano, 2008)? Although many adults consider good writing to be correct spelling and punctuation, writing is really the ability to communicate ideas (Cusumano, 2008).
The next time a proud beginner writer hands you his or her story, first look at the strengths of the writing and what idea or story they are communicating in their writing. Give them encouraging words that make them want to continue developing their skills as a writer instead of only pointing out the errors which ruins the excitement of writing.
As an adult it is important to recognize the different stages of writing in order that you may be aware of your own child’s developmental writing stage. When adults are able to recognize that a child is developmentally on track for learning to write, they are able to celebrate what the child can do instead of what they are not able to do yet. The following video breaks down each early stage of writing development, encouraging adults to consider the child’s development while reading their writing. The stages are adopted from the work of Richard Gentry and the Conventions of Writing Developmental Scale.
The next time you look at a child’s writing use the image on the left to acknowledge their developmental writing stage. Do not expect them to perform perfect work. Remember that a writer is someone who has the ability to communicates their ideas. If you do not have the ability to read a beginners writing make sure to ask them what their story is about, because it is important to recognize that by writing they are communicating their story.
Resolutions
Now it is up to you as parents and caregivers this knowledge of reading and writing into practice. Make homework time, a time of learning and encouragement instead of a time of frustration. By giving children helpful prompts to solve for words, you are helping them gain confidence in their ability to read and solve words. While looking over student’s writing homework accept their developmental writing abilities and instead of asking them to re-write their work until free of errors, spend time listening to their ideas and celebrate what they are able to do. Build up your learners self-esteem so they find joy in reading and writing.
References
Armbruster, B. B. (2002) Reaserch-Based instruction in reading [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from https://www2.ed.gov/admins/lead/read/rb/edlite-slide001.html
Compton-Lilly, C. (2005). “Sounding out”: a pervasive cultural model of reading. Language Arts, 82 (6), 441–451. Retrieved from http://274-01.wikispaces.com/file/view/Compton-Lily.Sounding%2BOut.LA-1.pdf
Cusumano, K. F. (2008). Every mark on the page: educating family and community members about young children’s writing. Language Arts, 86(1), 9–17. Retrieved from http://sawp.web.arizona.edu/Pubs/EveryMarkonthePage.pdf
Hatt, C., Anderson, D., Madden, M., & Dickinson-Kelly, L. A. (2008). Balanced literacy guide. Retrieved from http://www.a2schools.org/academics/files/bal_lit_guide_sept08.pdf
Isabell, V. (2010). Dialogue journals: a way to encourage emergent writers. Retrieved from http://commons.emich.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1211&context=honors
Johnson, P. & Keier, K. (2010). Catching readers before they fall. Portland, Maine: Stenhouse Publishers.
Malia, K. (2011). Balanced literacy reading program [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from, http://www.slideshare.net/kmalia/balanced-literacy-reading-program.
Marshall, P. (n.d.). Balanced literacy instruction: a truce for the reading war? Retrieved November 7, 2014, from http://www.k12reader.com/balanced-literacy-instruction/
Pressley, M. (2005). Balanced elementary literacy instruction in the United States: a personal perspective. Springer International Handbooks of Education, 13, 645–660. Retrieved from http://link.springer.com.proxyiub.uits.iu.edu/chapter/10.1007/1-4020-3201-3_33#
