William H. Rupley

Effective Reading Instruction for Struggling Readers: The Role of Direct/Explicit Teaching

Struggling readers are more likely to learn essential reading skills and strategies if the direct or explicit model of instruction is part of the teachers repertoire of teaching methods. Directly/explicitly teaching reading means imparting new information to students through meaningful teacher–student interactions and teacher guidance of student learning. In this approach, the teacher clearly leads the teaching–learning process. At the heart of the direct instruction method are explicit explanations, modeling or demonstrating, and guided practice. Direct/explicit instruction needs to be an integral part of learning the major content strands of the reading process—phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension.

Vocabulary Instruction for the Struggling Reader

ABSTRACT Childrens acquisition of vocabulary is essential for gains in reading comprehension and reading development. Struggling readers often do not make gains in their reading comprehension because they have a limited reading vocabulary. Enhancing the vocabulary development and growth for children who are experiencing reading difficulties enables them to better identify key concepts in text that they read, make inferences within and between texts, and increase their abilities to comprehend. Teaching vocabulary and the incidental learning of words should not be viewed as competitive forces that create a good/bad dichotomy. Instead, it should be acknowledged that learners develop vocabularies through both approaches, and that teachers need to know when students would benefit from explicit instruction that initially teaches word meaning by application in meaningful narrative and expository text (McKeown, 1993).

Building Prior Knowledge and Vocabulary in Science in the Intermediate Grades: Creating Hooks for Learning

Vocabulary knowledge is a salient factor influencing success both in and out of school. The specialized vocabulary knowledge in science represents the concept-laden hooks on which learning is hung and enables students to build prior knowledge through the expansion of these conceptual hooks. We have identified four levels of learners—struggling readers (SR), English Language Learners (ELL), breakthrough learners (BL), and conceptual learners (CL)—that are found in almost every intermediate and middle school classroom in the United States, including science. We propose a focus on science learning with strong theoretical and practical supports from reading and the purposeful combination of narrative informational text, textbooks, and hands-on science activities in a manner that is adaptable to the needs of all students in learning science.

Comparing Traditional Journal Writing with Journal Writing Shared over E-mail List Serves as Tools for Facilitating Reflective Thinking: A Study of Preservice Teachers.

To determine the conditions that would best encourage reflection in journal writing of preservice teachers in field-based reading internships, the degree of reflective content found in self-contained traditional journals was compared to the reflective content found in journal entries shared over e-mail list serves. Participants were 56 preservice teachers enrolled in reading internships in public schools operating in a variety of journal writing conditions in 1 of 5 semesters from fall 1999 through spring 2001. Results indicate that journals written under shared interactive e-mail conditions were significantly more likely to contain evidence of reflections than traditional journals. Reflections observed were also categorized into types described by Hatton and Smith (1995). Suggestions for implications for encouraging reflectivity during field-based internships in teacher education programs are presented.

A Comparison of Multiple-Strategy Methods: Effects on Fourth-Grade Students’ General and Content-Specific Reading Comprehension and Vocabulary Development

Abstract In this study, we compared the effects of two experimental multiple-strategy approaches (content-area comprehension and vocabulary) to typical fourth-grade social studies instructional practices. An 18-week, cluster-randomized study was conducted to estimate effects measured by normative-referenced reading comprehension and vocabulary measures and researcher- and district-developed measures of social studies vocabulary and content. Forty-eight teachers and their respective 903 students from 15 schools were randomly assigned by school to one of three conditions: content vocabulary, content reading comprehension, or typical practice. Experimental teachers participated in 6 professional development sessions over 21 weeks. Structural equation modeling results indicated reliable differences favoring both experimental conditions over typical practice on the social studies content measure and substantively important effects on content and standardized vocabulary measures. Students in the vocabulary intervention also outperformed typical practice peers on the curriculum-based vocabulary assessment. Effects of the comprehension and vocabulary conditions were comparable except for the significant effect of vocabulary on the curriculum-based vocabulary measure. Effect sizes for teaching quality on the standardized comprehension measure ranged from d = .26 to .32; however, these effects were not statistically significant.

Examining phonemic awareness and concepts of print patterns of kindergarten students

Abstract Necessary prerequisites for and at the same time powerful predictors of childrens success in beginning reading are the development of phonemic awareness and concepts of print. Students who are learning to read need to be taught how to consciously attend to phonemes and to develop an understanding regarding concepts about print. This study was two‐fold. First, we examined demographic characteristics that included gender, socioeconomics, preschool experience, and race to determine how these factors related to phonemic awareness and concepts of print development for kindergarten students. It was concluded that low SES children and Latino children were at greater risk of not developing phonemic awareness and concepts of print in kindergarten. Further data were collected and analyzed to examine low SES and Latino childrens knowledge of phonemic awareness and concepts of print development. The study found that, along with maturation, a diagnostic approach that guides phonemic awareness instruction and concepts about print enhances kindergarten students’ phonemic awareness and concepts of print development.

Introduction to Direct/Explicit Instruction in Reading for the Struggling Reader: Phonemic Awareness, Phonics, Fluency, Vocabulary, and Comprehension

Over the past 70 years, a number of major studies have demonstrated repeatedly the importance of the teacher to students’ learning to read. For example, Gates (1937) found that althoughmental age is correlated with beginning reading success, the type of teaching and the teacher’s expertise and effectiveness are equally important. In her landmark analyses of reading instructional methodologies, Jeanne Chall (1967) concluded that even more than the instructional materials, the teacher generally determines students’ success in learning to read. In addition, the importance of the teacher to student learning was apparent in a major investigation that compared different reading instructional methods at the first-grade level (Dykstra, 1967). The study noted wide differences in reading achievement among classes and school systems that were using similar instructional methods. These differences repeatedly underscore the importance of the teacher’s role in reading instruction. Regrettably, these early studies on effective teaching yielded little specific information about exactly what teachers did or should do in the classroom to make reading instruction effective. However, today as then, just being a pleasant, hard-working, and devoted person who is interested in students is clearly insufficient for teaching children to read. A consistent and important finding emerging from the scientific study of reading is an understanding of how to teach the majority of students to acquire basic beginning reading skills such as identifying words and reading connected text. Researchers have made tremendous strides in the past two decades in understanding what makes an effective reading teacher and what are the practices for teaching students how to read.

Translating Vocabulary Research to Social Studies Instruction: Before, During, and After Text-Reading Strategies

In the upper elementary grades, content-area text gains increasing importance as a primary source of reading and information. This article focuses on the specialized vocabulary demands of social studies texts and presents a framework of teaching and learning strategies based on vocabulary research. Strategies are introduced before, during, and after social studies text reading, illustrating how to develop and relate vocabulary knowledge to social studies concepts and content.

Language and Culture in Literacy Instruction: Where Have They Gone?.

An important, yet either often missing or under emphasized realization in both federal and state standards for literacy is that literacy is primarily a language process and culture is a reflection of language. As such, language and culture must be retained as essential components upon which reading instruction is based. Our nation and our states truly want individuals who can use literacy to learn and to enhance their quality of life as well as the quality of life of those around them. This article looks at essential considerations that must be given to the role of language and culture in literacy instruction.

Structural components of single word recognition: Activation of orthographic, meaning, and phonological processors

Abstract This study examined the roles of orthographic, meaning, and phonological processors in childrens word recognition. Children at each of three age levels, 6–7, 8–9, and 10–12 were tested using a word recognition test, the Reading Decoding Subtest of the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children. Each word was decomposed into eight structural components based upon Adams’ (1990) model of word recognition. The structural components were: number of graphemes, syllables, morphemes, consonant digraphs, vowel digraphs, r‐controlled vowels, consonant blends, and silent markers. For all three age levels, within‐subject regression coefficients of the eight variables on right/wrong score exhibited the same direction of regression but relative importance varied. Graphemic complexity accounted for the highest amount of variance at each level, with other variables shifting across age in a pattern consistent with a stage development model of word recognition.