|
earlyreading.info
A New Website Will Provide Access to Reading
Research
By Jan Jenner
Since the introduction of the Reading First initiative
in March 2002, early reading literacy has become a national priority.
earlyreading.info is a website that provides online support for
those who are responsible for reading achievement in young children. The
website gives quick and efficient access to information about the five
essential components of reading and about reading instruction for pre-kindergarten
to grade 3 students. By linking to government, research laboratories,
and other reading websites, earlyreading.info enhances classroom
and home efforts to develop readers.
Objective 2.1 of the U.S. Department of Education Strategic Plan 2002-2007
is to “ensure that all students read on grade level by the 3rd grade”
(www.ed.gov/pubs/stratplan2002-07/index.html).
The earlyreading.info website is one aspect of the technical support
provided to states and schools to assist them in meeting this objective.
Because earlyreading.info links directly to other reading websites,
it enables quick access. Some of these sites are listed below.
- The U.S. Department of Education website for Reading
First and Early Reading First resources (www.ed.gov/offices/OESE/reading_resources.html).
- The Center for the Improvement of Early Reading
Achievement (www.ciera.org) and other
national research and dissemination centers throughout the United States.
- The 10 regional educational laboratories
(RELs), including one at Pacific Resources for Education and Learning
(www.prel.org).
The basic concept of earlyreading.info
is a 5 x 5 matrix with six nestled subcells. The horizontal cells are
grade levels, from pre-kindergarten to grade 3. The vertical cells are
the five reading components associated with the Reading First initiative:
phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension (see
sidebar). Nestled within each cell are the following categories of information:
knowledge/research, materials/resources, strategies/activities, assessment,
policy/standards, and family/community.
Users of the website can search for resources by selecting a grade level,
reading component, and information category (see figure). Users can also
conduct a keyword search.
Available at www.earlyreading.info, July 2002
In Preventing Reading Difficulties
in Young Children (1998), the Committee on the Prevention of Reading
Difficulties in Young Children explores reasons some children do not learn
to read as well as their peers. The results are presented in the context
of social, historical, and biological factors. The committee concludes
with recommendations and states: “Most reading difficulties can be
prevented. There is much work to be done, however, that requires the aggressive
deployment of the information currently available, which is distilled
in this report” (p. 13). The report, published by the National Academy
Press, is at www.nap.edu/books/030906418X/html/index.html.
The issue of identifying effective reading instruction practices was further
explored by the National Reading Panel (NRP) in Report of the National
Reading Panel: Teaching Children to Read – An Evidence-Based Assessment
of the Scientific Research Literature on Reading and its Implications
for Reading Instruction (2000). The NRP applied a methodology to limit
and focus their review of the voluminous amount of published reading research
available. After an initial screening of this research, the panel divided
into subgroups, conducted regional meetings, and determined topics and
subtopics to be studied. The five reading components included in earlyreading.info
parallel the areas examined in the NRP report; they are considered critical
areas in developing readers. The report, published by the National Institute
of Child Health and Human Development, is at www.nichd.nih.gov/publications/nrp/report.htm.
The development of earlyreading.info is a joint effort of the U.S.
Department of Education and PREL’s REL. The website will initially
be available to a select user group; it will be made available nationally
in July 2002.
Future plans include seeking permission to make key research documents
available for viewing and downloading in pdf format.
| |
Five
Reading Components for Early Readers
Phonemes are the smallest units of sound; these units of sound affect
meaning. Phonemic awareness refers to “the insight that every
spoken word can be conceived as a sequence of phonemes” (Committee
on the Prevention, p. 52 ). Phonemic awareness is “the ability
to notice, think about, and manipulate the individual sounds (phonemes)
in spoken words” (Armbruster, Lehr, & Osborn, p. 4).
Phonics refers to the relationships between written letters and
spoken sounds, as well as to “instructional practices that
emphasize how spellings are related to speech sounds in systematic
ways” (Committee on the Prevention, p. 52). Phonics instruction
“teaches children the relationships between the letters (graphemes)
of written language and the individual sounds (phonemes) of spoken
language” (Armbruster, Lehr, & Osborn, p. 12).
Fluency is “the ability to read texts quickly and accurately”
(Armbruster, Lehr, & Osborn, p. 22). It refers to the ability
to recognize the vast majority of words in a text quickly, allowing
the reader to focus on meaning. This recognition “includes
understanding text features that are related to text difficulty”
(Learning First Alliance, p. 16).
Vocabulary refers to an understanding of the definitions of words
and the variety of contexts in which the words are used: “Listening
vocabulary refers to words we need to know to understand what we
hear; speaking vocabulary refers to the words we use when we speak;
reading vocabulary refers to the words we need to know to understand
what we read; and writing vocabulary refers to the words we use
in writing” (Armbruster, Lehr, & Osborn, p. 34).
Comprehension is the ability to understand what is read; it calls
for “the ability to use general world knowledge, the ability
to get literal meanings and draw valid inferences from texts, and
the ability to use comprehension-monitoring and repair strategies”
(Committee on the Prevention, p. 62). In addition, the act of understanding
calls for the ability to use the visual, structural, and meaning
cues in a text.
|
|
Sidebar References
Armbruster, B., Lehr, F., &
Osborn, J. (2001). Put reading first: The research building blocks
for teaching children to read. Washington, DC: NIFL.
Committee on the Prevention of Reading Difficulties in Young Children.
(1998). Preventing reading difficulties in young children. Washington,
DC: National Academy Press.
Learning First Alliance. (2000). Every child reading: A professional
development guide. Baltimore, MD: Association for Supervision and
Curriculum Development.
Jan Jenner is a Reading Specialist associated with
Reading First initiatives for the Pacific REL.
back
to top
|