Keith T. Greaney

Effects of rime-based orthographic analogy training on the word recognition skills of children with reading disability

The aim of this study was to determine whether metacognitive strategy training in the use of rime spelling units would be an effective intervention strategy for children with reading disability. Thirty-six disabled readers were randomly assigned to 1 of 2 training groups, a rime analogy training group or an item-specific training group. Posttreatment measures were taken at the completion of the training, and 1-year follow-up data were obtained from the 2 training groups and a sample of 20 normally developing readers. Systematic strategy training in the use of rime spelling units produced generalized achievement gains and transfer to uninstructed materials and was more effective than training that focused on item-specific learning and sentence-level strategies. The superior posttreatment performance of the rime analogy group over the item-specific group was maintained.

Why the New Zealand National Literacy Strategy Has Failed and What Can Be Done about It: Evidence from the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) 2011 and Reading Recovery Monitoring Reports.

For the past 15 years, the New Zealand government has initiated major efforts to reduce persistently large inequities in achievement outcomes in literacy education, including the development of a national literacy strategy. The aim of this study was to provide an analysis of the factors that have contributed to the failure of this strategy and what can be done to overcome the problem. We began by presenting evidence in support of the claim that the national literacy strategy has failed, drawing on data from the PIRLS 2011 study and the latest annual monitoring report of Reading Recovery (RR) data. We then identified three interrelated factors as contributing to the failure of the national literacy strategy: (1) a constructivist orientation toward literacy education, (2) the failure to respond adequately to differences in literate cultural capital at school entry and (3) restrictive policies regarding the first year of literacy teaching. In the final section of the paper, we reviewed research in support of what we maintain is the most effective strategy for reducing the literacy achievement gap: the use of differentiated instruction from the outset of formal schooling that takes into account interactions between school entry reading-related skills (high versus low literate cultural capital) and method of teaching reading (constructivist versus explicit approaches). We also argued that RR should be replaced with an intervention program that is based on contemporary theory and research on reading and targets those struggling readers who need help the most.

The Contribution of Educational Psychology to Intervention Research and Practice

Advances in psychological theory have made significant contributions to the considerable progress that has been achieved in intervention research and practice, especially in the past two decades. This article presents a discussion of the major conceptual and methodological issues that have arisen in intervention research, with a focus on interventions for children with learning problems, particularly reading problems. Examples from our own research are presented to illustrate how conceptual and methodological factors in intervention research can be taken into consideration in the design of intervention studies.

Pedagogical Constructivism in New Zealand Literacy Education: A Flawed Approach to Teaching Reading

In this chapter, we argue that no progress has been made in reducing the literacy achievement gap in New Zealand because the constructivist, multiple cues model of reading adopted by the MoE is fundamentally flawed. The chapter is divided into three sections. The first section provides an overview of the development of pedagogical constructivism in New Zealand literacy education. The second section summarizes arguments and evidence against the constructivist, multiple cues model of learning to read. The third section argues that explicit instruction in word analysis skills and strategies is helpful for all children and crucial for some, most notably struggling readers and children with limited reading-related knowledge, skills, and experiences at school entry.

Is Reading Recovery an Effective Early Literacy Intervention Programme for Children Who Most Need Literacy Supports

Reading Recovery (RR) is a programme developed in New Zealand by Marie Clay (1985) in the late 1970s and early 1980s to help children identified as making only limited progress in reading after a year of formal reading instruction. The programme was implemented throughout the country in the mid- to late 1980s to assist those children whose reading progress falls in the lowest 15%–20% of the enrolment cohort in any given school. Clay (1987) was very confident about the effectiveness of RR. She claimed that it is a programme which should clear out of the remedial education system all the children who do not learn to read for many event-produced reasons [i.e., environmental, cultural, or economic causes] and all the children who have organically based problems but who can be taught to achieve independent status in reading and writing despite this. (p. 169)

Teacher Knowledge Needed for Differentiated Early Reading Instruction

Differentiated instruction in reading refers to teachers’ use of research-based assessment procedures and instructional strategies to cater to the differing skill needs of beginning readers (see Chapter 8 of this volume). To provide for effective differentiated instruction, it is important for teachers to have an understanding of how reading and writing develops. Attaining that understanding, however, is frequently a problem.

Meeting the Needs of Beginning Readers through Differentiated Instruction

In Chapter 6 of this volume, Tunmer, Greaney, and Prochnow argued that the rigidly constructivist approach to literacy instruction in New Zealand has been a major contributing factor to the failure of New Zealand’s national literacy strategy and the large variation in literacy scores on international surveys, such as the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS). Prochnow, Tunmer, and Arrow, in Chapter 7 of this volume, extended this argument by showing that the failure to respond adequately to differences in literate cultural capital at school entry triggers Matthew effects in reading, which further helps to explain New Zealand’s comparatively high levels of variability in test scores. In this chapter, we argue for differentiated instruction as an approach that is better suited to overcoming the differences in literate cultural capital at school entry than the current “one-size-fits-all”, rigidly constructivist method.

Findings from New Zealand’s Participation in the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study in 2001, 2006, and 2011

In Chapter 1, Tunmer and Chapman suggest that little or no progress has been made in reducing New Zealand’s persistently large inequities in literacy achievement outcomes because the adopted national literacy strategy of “doing more of the same but better” has failed. This chapter presents evidence in support of this claim that comes from the latest Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS 2011). The report, which was released in December, 2012 (Mullis et al., 2012), includes trend data based on the PIRLS 2001 and 2006 studies (Mullis et al., 2003; Mullis et al., 2007).

Teachers’ use of phonics, knowledge of language constructs, and preferred word identification prompts in relation to beginning readers*

Abstract New Zealand’s approach to literacy instruction is predominantly whole language. Explicit code-orientated literacy instruction is not favoured, however, most teachers are believed to include phonics in their literacy lessons. No study has been reported on phonics use in New Zealand schools. Survey responses on the use of phonics instruction from 666 primary school teachers were analysed. We also assessed knowledge of the basic language constructs related to early reading success with 55 teachers participating in a professional development program on literacy teaching. A word identification prompt task based on six common word error scenarios experienced by beginning readers was also administered. Results of the phonics survey revealed that 90% of teachers indicated they used phonics in their literacy instruction. Knowledge of basic language constructs was variable: phonological and phonemic knowledge were generally good, but understanding of phonic and morphological constructs was relatively weak. Only 40% of initial word identification prompts were focussed on word-level information; the remainder (60%) were based on context or were non-specific. The implications of these findings for beginning readers are discussed.

Literacy Performances of Young Adults in New Zealand: Outcomes of School-Based Literacy Instruction

The following email to the first author of this chapter tells not only of the emotional consequences during adulthood of reading failure in school but also of a solution that she found for her reading difficulties. Tammy (not her real name) wrote: I was one of the many that wasn’t able to learn in school. When someone is unable to read and spell life just seems to happen and your own dreams are hardly ever realised because you need these skills to be able to do most things. Along with that, the feelings of worthlessness and not belonging have such a huge impact. As an adult I have learnt about phonological awareness, how is it that I never knew sounds made up all the words of the English language. I have since learnt to read and spell far better than I ever could of imagined. (Email abridged. 27 February, 2014)