Teaching Archives - Reading Recovery Council of North America

Dr. Sam’s Advice for the Start of the School Year: Follow the Child, not the Program

Dr. Sam’s Advice for the Start of the School Year: Follow the Child, not the Program

KT Crandall2025-08-12T07:57:38-05:00August 12th, 2025|Classroom Teaching, General, Latest News|

Republished with permission of Dr. Sam Bommarito, author of Dr. Sam’s Advice for the Start of the School Year: Follow the Child, not the Program: https://doctorsam7.blog/2025/08/09/dr-sams-advice-for-the-start-of-the-school-year-follow-the-child-not-the-program-2/

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Getting your literacy program off to a good start.

For the past five years, I’ve advocated for a centrist approach to literacy instruction. That means using ideas, practices, and programs from all sides. What should that look like as we start the school year? What that should look like is allowing teachers to follow both the Art and Science of reading instruction.

First, teachers should take care to directly and explicitly teach the students strategies they need for both decoding and comprehension. That means using a gradual release model. Most importantly, that means making sure strategy instruction goes beyond naming strategies or applying strategies. Strategy instruction needs to include helping students INTERNALIZE AND USE THE STRATEGIES. A simple way to check whether this is happening is to periodically ask students to share what strategies/combinations of strategies they’ve used lately. That thought —that they need to learn to use combinations of strategies — is often overlooked. However, it is supported by research going back as far as the NRP report.

Explicit, systematic phonics instruction should be a necessary but not sufficient component of each district’s literacy program. It can take the form of a synthetic phonics program. For most students, that is the program that best works for them. It should also systematically teach them orthographic knowledge and how to use it to unlock words. Take care about program implementation. There is some research indicating that when teachers teach orthography, students often fail to learn it and, most importantly, fail to use it. Make certain that any program you adopt does. I’ll say more about this in a minute.

There are two problems.

First, the exclusive mandated use of synthetic phonics programs has produced unclear results. Too often, what happens is that decoding improves, but comprehension does not. Read the research from England. Read the research from the United States indicating that reading achievement scores have remained flat for decades, including the era since the SOR movement has taken hold. As a matter of fact, NAEP scores dropped last year. Check out what folks like Bowers, Johnson, Thomas, Wyse, and Bradbury have reported about the research cited in the current rush to use what some call SOR. In addition to these critics, some folks in the SOR community have championed alternatives to OG-style synthetic phonics, such as linguistics-based phonics. Programs using that form of phonics have consistently outperformed the more traditional OG-based phonics. Also, check out what Seidenberg has said about OG and its limits and limitations. A close look at ALL the research will indicate that it is far from settled science. Choosing what form of phonics program to use is often a buyer-beware situation.
Second, some students thrive on using an analytic approach to phonics rather than a synthetic phonics approach. Yet, despite this, these students are often denied access to this approach. The Achilles’ heel of the analytic approach is that it is sometimes done in a way that is not systematic. There is a simple fix to that problem. When using “follow the child” schemes like those advocated by folks like Billy Molasso, teachers need to track what sounds have been taught and periodically fill in any gaps that may arise. As a centrist, I strongly advocate ensuring that children have access to all forms of phonics so that the program can fit each child’s needs. Well-designed three-tiered instruction can allow this to happen. So…, my advice around this issue is simple. Make sure you fit the students’ phonics instruction to what each student needs. Make sure that both synthetic and analytic phonics instruction is available to students as needed. Both these forms of instruction can scaffold students to use the orthographic information readers need to decode text effectively. LINK, LINK

Motivation matters. Recently, there has been some pointed criticism of SOR programs regarding motivation. Teaching reading should be done in a way that encourages the student to want to read. Rasinski’s research around repeated reading and his newly minted Fluency Development Lesson provides instruction that builds fluency and comprehension while motivating students of all ages to want to read. Work by folks like Eric Litwin, Ann Chase, Chase Young, and David Harrison has clearly demonstrated the efficacy of using music, poetry, and Readers’ Theatre to develop the fluency skills readers need. When I am asked what to do for older readers who have not yet developed their sound-symbol knowledge, I often recommend that teachers investigate ways to use music, poetry, and Reader’s Theatre to build that information. It is a win/win situation since the readers not only develop the needed sound-symbol knowledge but are also motivated to use it to read.

Wide reading in self-selected material matters. Somewhere in the rancor of the current debate about reading instruction, an important fact has been ignored. Wide reading in self-selected texts builds readers’ background knowledge, which is crucial to reading comprehension and builds a student’s vocabulary. In the process of reading self-selected materials that the student finds relevant to their lives, students’ reading improves.

Finally, remember that building background knowledge is necessary but not sufficient to teach comprehension LINK, LINK. There are decades of research demonstrating that teaching students to UNDERSTAND AND USE comprehension strategies does dramatically improve students’ reading. Even SOR advocates like Shanahan have pointed out the flaws in Willingham’s suggestion that teachers spend less time teaching comprehension strategies LINK.

I could add more things to the to-do list for getting off on the right foot this school year, but I think I’ve given you a good starter set of ideas. I’m currently lining up other educators to talk about how to get literacy instruction off to a good start. At the end of the day, my answer to that remains: use practices informed by all the research. That includes direct, explicit instruction in both decoding and comprehension, balancing the time spent on decoding and comprehension instruction LINK, and making motivation a key component in all that you do. I hope you have a wonderful start to your school year.

Until next week, Happy Reading and Writing.

Dr. Sam Bommarito (aka, the guy in the middle taking flak from all sides)

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About the Author

Dr. Bommarito is retired from full-time teaching after a 51-year career in education. That career included teaching at almost every grade from K through graduate school. He taught reading courses to teachers at both the graduate and undergraduate levels. He’s made numerous presentations at ILA (formally IRA) conferences, including national conferences. In spring 2022, he was a featured speaker at the LitCon conference. Most of his career was spent working in Title 1 buildings as a reading specialist and/or staff developer. Those buildings were often highly successful, as demonstrated by national awards from the Secretary of Education In addition, He twitters daily about his various literacy endeavors (@DoctorSam7).

A Smarter, More Reliable Way to Level Reading Materials for Students

A Smarter, More Reliable Way to Level Reading Materials for Students

KT Crandall2025-05-20T08:43:50-05:00May 20th, 2025|General, Latest News, Reading Recovery Teaching|

Matching students with books at just the right reading level is critical—but not always easy. Traditional leveling systems often rely heavily on content features alone, which can lead to unreliable results and mismatches between students and texts.

In their recent article, Validation Analysis During the Design Stage of Text Leveling, researchers Jerome D’Agostino and Connie Briggs introduce a more robust, research-driven approach called integrated leveling. This method doesn’t just rely on expert judgment or surface features—it blends those with proven test development practices, like field testing and item analysis, to validate the complexity of each text.

Interestingly, the initial book levels assigned by review committees actually aligned quite well with how students performed during testing. Field testing helped fine-tune the levels and confirm where each book truly belongs on the difficulty scale, but the expert judgments were largely on target from the start. That’s good news—it suggests that with the right validation processes, we can trust the professional insights of educators and still strengthen them with data.

So, what does this mean for teachers? Integrated leveling offers a more accurate, evidence-backed way to identify student reading needs, inform instruction, and track growth over time. It’s a thoughtful balance of educator expertise and empirical validation—one that leads to better reading support for every student.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE

References:

D’Agostino, J. V., & Briggs, C. (2025). Validation Analysis During the Design Stage of Text Leveling. Education Sciences, 15(5), 607. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci15050607

Be the Teacher You Know You Can Be: Principles of Practice

Be the Teacher You Know You Can Be: Principles of Practice

KT Crandall2025-05-06T08:43:40-05:00May 6th, 2025|Classroom Teaching, General, Teaching|

by Peg Grafwallner

Today, more than ever, teachers have taken the blame for everything wrong in education: blame for students’ poor academic performance, failed district mandates and school initiatives, and student apathy and laxity. Teachers, however, are suffering from their own dispiritedness: phrases like “compassion fatigue, “job-related stress,” and “teacher burnout” are now a part of teacher vernacular. According to the National Council on Teacher Quality (2023), the “number of teacher preparation completers has declined steadily over the past decade—a nearly 25 percent drop.” We don’t need to read another alarmist telling us the profession is “in trouble.” It is no wonder that the teaching profession remains a questionable career for many people.

We know all of this and yet there are new teachers coming into the field. Studies Weekly explains, “New teachers have so much to offer your school. They bring a fresh perspective on education, knowledge of modern teaching strategies, and a desire to start their career with a bang. When supported by school leadership, new educators can dramatically improve student performance.” These “excited recruits” (Grafwallner, 2017) can support students in ways, perhaps, that had not been thought of before. Their connection to technology and virtual learning, as an example, can be instrumental in offering students opportunities beyond the walls of the classroom.

Likewise, we need to support veteran teachers. Veteran teachers choose to remain in the field for a variety of reasons: years of service, relationships with colleagues, respect for administration, and yes, knowing that their students need them. Beck, Lunsmann, and Garza (2020) “found that the teachers [who left the profession] missed their relationships with their students. Thus, students may help to retain teachers as well.” We cannot underestimate the relationship between teacher and student – we know that “students are more likely to learn when they feel cared for and valued by their teacher” (Bergin as quoted in Consiglio, 2022); clearly, without these veteran teachers, student academics could suffer.

Indeed, we encourage others to join us in our profession, and not because of the adage, “misery loves company,” but rather, because we know our students need quality teachers who are willing to accept the challenges within the profession. But they also realize that change, though slow, is possible, at least within their classroom.

Where can we find that change? Oftentimes, among ourselves. We often look to each other for inspiration, comfort, and best practices in a field that has been overwhelmed with textbook lobbyists and “activists” who have never taught a day in their lives. We want to motivate those who are thinking of becoming teachers, we want to cultivate those who need extra support to stay in the field, and we want to appreciate those who stay to mentor our novice teachers amid the noise of the profession. In short, we want to emulate those who create classrooms of warmth and safety while applying research-based lessons with proven academic results for all student abilities.

To this end, teachers often adopt a “Principles of Practice” mindset without even realizing it. They create a classroom guided by a tenet, a belief, a conviction that they believe in so passionately that it encompasses their teaching life. As a novice English teacher, I vividly remember just trying to stay afloat: designing intriguing and engaging lesson plans, completing all expected school and district paperwork, offering worthwhile and process-oriented feedback, grading without bias or stereotypes, making empathetic and supportive phone calls home, attending all district and school mandated meetings, and a myriad of other “duties as assigned.”

But amid all these expectations, I realized I had adopted a principle of practice – a tenet that guided my classroom culture, my students, and my teaching. I wanted to be equitable. According to Dictionary.com, “equitable” means “characterized by equity or fairness; just and right; fair.” Of course, this definition is subjective; but if you dig a little deeper, some of the synonyms are “objective,” “impartial,” and “just.”

I tried to act upon these synonyms and did my best to reflect them in the classroom. I extended deadlines for students who needed them. I allowed extra time on tests for students who suffered from text anxiety. I shared my notes and personal resources for students who had limited resources. In short, I tried to see my students as individuals with singular experiences and singular situations. As a result, I focused on being equitable and created that precept as my principle of practice.

I wanted my students to know, through my teaching, grading, and in conversation, that I saw them as individuals and would teach and grade accordingly. I wouldn’t succumb to the “one-size-fits-all” style of teaching, but rather offer multiple ways of knowing, doing, and grading. As an example, as an English teacher, I offered a choice. When we read Homer’s The Odyssey, we used a variety of media: an abridged version, a graphic novel, a hip-hop recording, and film excerpts. When students showed their learning, they were able to role-play a scene, take a written test, or write their own version. In giving students choice, students were able to show me what they could do; not what I assumed they could do. I created a just classroom in teaching and grading, one that saw students as individuals with their own experiences and how those experiences could shape their learning.

In addition, I wouldn’t allow students to feel anything but welcomed and nurtured in my classroom, by me and by fellow classmates. As an example, I reached out to every student before they walked in the door, we paraphrased the vigorous learning intention and scaffolded success criteria so students were clear on the expectations, and we listened to each other as we discussed, argued, and ruminated during classroom analysis. My principle of practice was a part of the foundation of my classroom culture and a part of the success of my students.

I had, indeed, created a principle of practice in the classroom and within my mindset without making that an explicit priority. Looking back, I’m not sure if my principle of practice was based on how I was raised, on my own educational journey, my student teaching experience, or a combination of living life. I do know; however, that I believed heartily in justice and made it a cornerstone of my teaching.

As you think about the world of education today, it has truly taken on a life of its own. We can wring our hands and get caught up in the minutia that causes education to be the polarizing matter it is today, or we can create or adopt a principle of practice that can support us, support our teaching, and support our students in moving forward.

In short, let’s move on from blame and dejection; let’s take what has worked in classrooms led by quality teachers applying their principals of practice in the classroom. Let’s embrace these principles, modifying and revising for our comfort and our students’ needs, and let’s offer ourselves as notable examples of what is working in the classroom.

Join us as we become the best teachers we can be!

About the author

Peg Grafwallner, M.Ed., is an Instructional Coach/Reading Specialist in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, with nearly 30 years of experience. In collaborating with educators, Peg models, coaches, and assists teachers in creating comprehensive literacy lessons meant to enhance skill-building. Peg is a blogger, author, national, and international presenter whose topics include coaching, literacy, pedagogy, and inclusion. She is also the author of Lessons Learned from the Special Education Classroom: Creating Opportunities for All Students to Listen, Learn and Lead; Ready to Learn: The FRAME Model for Optimizing Student Success; Not Yet … And That’s Ok: How Productive Struggle Fosters Student Learning and Clearing the Path for Developing Learners: Essential Literacy Skills to Support Achievement in Every Content Area.

You can follow Peg on X (formerly Twitter) at https://x.com/PegGrafwallner, Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/PGrafwallner, Bluesky at https://bsky.app/profile/pgrafwallner.bsky.social and LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/peg-grafwallner-08aa2577/.

References

Center for Professional Education of Teachers. (n.d.) Principles of Practice. https://cpet.tc.columbia.edu/principles-of-practice.html

Consiglio, B. (2022, March 7). “Positive teacher-student relationships lead to better teaching.” University of Missouri College of Education and Human Development. https://cehd.missouri.edu/2022/03/positive-teacher-student-relationships-lead-to-better-teaching/

James, R. J. (2024, January 9). Make classrooms, not hallways, the heart of belonging. ASCD. https://ascd.org/blogs/make-classrooms-not-hallways-the-heart-of-belonging

Grafwallner, P. (2017, September 5). “Coaching the novice teacher.” Edutopia. https://www.edutopia.org/article/coaching-novice-teacher/

Homer. (1999). The Odyssey. Robert Fagles (Translator). Penguin Classics.

Howard, C. (2022, September 14). “How school leaders can support new teachers.” Studies Weekly. https://www.studiesweekly.com/support-new-teachers/

Saenz-Armstrong, P. (2023, August 23). “Data brief: How do trends in teacher preparation enrollment and completion vary by state? National Council on Teacher Quality. https://www.nctq.org/blog/Data-Brief:-How-do-trends-in-teacher-preparation-enrollment-and-completion-vary-by-state#:~:text=The%20total%20number%20of%20teacher,drop%20of%20more%20than%2025%25

Kingfishers, Tuataras, and Sheep, Oh My! Rethinking Book Introductions by Kathleen A. Brown

Kingfishers, Tuataras, and Sheep, Oh My! Rethinking Book Introductions by Kathleen A. Brown

KT Crandall2025-04-22T11:19:05-05:00April 22nd, 2025|Latest News, Reading Recovery Teaching, Teaching|

Ever discover a book that you think is a perfect choice for a student or group, and realize you are unable to give a proper book introduction? Perhaps you are unfamiliar with the topic and lack sufficient knowledge about the subject or content.

In the early days of Reading Recovery, we had limited book choices. Many of our texts came from Australia or New Zealand. Much of our book collection in the early 90s was fictional texts, with a small number of non-fiction books. As more appropriate non-fiction texts became available, our book introductions needed to shift. In the U.S., we were thrilled to add the Ready to Read series and PM Readers to our collections. Unless we increased background knowledge about the book’s content, we were giving surface-level introductions, which limited student access. We knew little about the animals, settings, activities, vocabulary, and language structures in books that were created for a different population, from another part of the globe. What we failed to realize in our excitement was the need to do some research about the content in the new books we were introducing, if we were to provide students with an entry point into a different type of text. This is still true today, as we become more skilled at introducing a variety of texts with different demands in a Reading Recovery or classroom setting.

Fictional texts are narratives featuring invented characters, animals, and events. This type of text tends to have friendly language that flows well and is easy to anticipate, with adequate picture support.

“A typical fiction narrative consists of an opening, the presentation of a problem, a series of events, a climax in which the problem is solved, followed by “falling action” in which loose ends are tied up” (Fountas, I.C., & Pinnell, G.S., 2017, p. 282).

Non-fiction texts are based on real people, places, and events. The format of the text is different than fictional text, and the language structures tend to be more technical. There is a greater demand for vocabulary knowledge as well.

“Non-narrative text structures include expository, persuasive, and procedural. With expository texts, information is typically organized into categories. When you read an informational text, you may notice headings and subheadings” (Fountas, I.C., & Pinnell, G.S., 2017, p. 282).

Fortunately for beginning readers, fiction and non-fiction are presented in a narrative non-fiction format, which means the story contains facts and is easier for students to read. Crafting a narrative nonfiction or non-fiction book introduction differs from a narrative text.

Marie Clay instructs us to take the time to read the new book and take inventory as to what is accessible to the individual student while examining book format, content, language structures, and visual information. Clay states, “Using the new book, she will introduce something novel to his primed processing system” (Clay, M.M., 2016, p. 113). The new book, by design, is selected to push the boundaries of the student’s learning without unsettling it.

As the teacher, if you select a text for a particular student who is interested in birds, but does not fully understand the content or vocabulary in the new book, then your introduction and support during the first read will be limited and shallow. For example, if a student is interested in birds, but has limited knowledge about birds that live in New Zealand, then the text is likely to be a challenge or too hard. If the subject matter is foreign to us as educators, it will be the same for our students.

The more a student knows about the book, the better he can access the text, which propels readability, improves comprehension, and fosters fluent reading.

“The teaching goal is to settle these new things into the integrated networks of knowledge that this child already controls. The teacher aims to have the child read the book fluently. The outcome should be that the reader is keen to move on to the next exciting exposure to new things” (Clay, M.M., 2016, p. 114).

If we neglect to write an introduction that prepares the student for success and improved literacy processing on the first reading of the new book, we have not done our due diligence.

“Reading Recovery students are entitled to inclusive introductions in order to proficiently read nonfiction materials. It is our responsibility to carefully plan book introductions designed to activate prior knowledge and incorporate some of the content and structures that may be difficult for our students to access on their first read. (Anderson, N., & Eure, N., 2007, p. 64).

The more you know about a topic, the more comfortable you feel reading the text, talking about the subject matter, and writing about it.

Reshaping Book Introductions

In this next section, I wrote surface-level book introductions, provided facts about select animals, and then wrote a more comprehensive book introduction to compare the differences. The introductions I crafted are generic examples. They are not tailored to a particular student. I caution you not to use these introductions in your lessons without revising them to meet the needs of your individual students.

Think about the two types of book introductions. How can doing a little extra research about a topic make all the difference in supporting a student’s overall understanding of the new book?

Surface Level Introduction

“Lizard Loses His Tail” by Beverley Randell

This is a story about a bird named Kingfisher who wants to have a lizard for lunch.

Facts about Kingfishers in New Zealand

Kingfishers are particularly active in the early morning. They need to eat regularly and wake up hungry. They are up bright and early in search of food. In open country, insects such as cicadas, beetles, stick insects and weta are caught, along with spiders and small vertebrates, including lizards, mice, and small birds.

Facts about Lizards in New Zealand

Predators of lizards – rats, mice, moreporks, cats, magpies, mynahs, starlings, and kingfishers.

Many lizards can self-amputate or “drop” their tails, also known as tail autotomy. This is a natural self-defense mechanism that occurs when a lizard is grabbed by a predator or senses a threat. Lizards have a remarkable ability to spontaneously grow new cartilage in response to a skeletal injury.

Comprehensive Introduction

In this book, a bird named Kingfisher, who lives in tall trees, looks for lizards to eat. What the Kingfisher does not know is that lizards can lose their tails when birds swoop down to catch them. Let’s find out what Kingfisher ends up having to eat at the end.

Surface Level Introduction

“Old Tuatara” by Joy Cowley

This is a story about an Old Tuatara that has many animals visit him while he is asleep.

Facts about Tuatara in New Zealand

Tuatara are a rare reptile found only in New Zealand. They are the last survivors of an order of reptiles that thrived in the age of the dinosaurs. Tuataras can live for over 100 years.

While they bask in the sun during the day, adult tuataras are primarily active at night, when their food (insects, lizards, birds, and eggs) is most abundant.

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Comprehensive Introduction

In this book, a lizard named Old Tuatara relaxes in the sun to warm his body. All the animals that come to visit him think he is asleep. Old Tuatara is not asleep. He is waiting to catch his favorite insect. Let’s find out what Old Tuatara had for lunch.

Surface Level Introduction

“The Waving Sheep” by Beverley Randell

Jessica and Daniel went out onto the farm to look for mushrooms. Instead, they found a sheep on his back. Let’s see if they can help the sheep.

Facts about Sheep in New Zealand

Sheep farming has played a crucial role in New Zealand’s history and economy, with sheep once outnumbering people significantly.

When sheep fall on their backs in New Zealand, they are considered “cast” and may struggle to get up, potentially leading to distress and death if not assisted. This is often due to a heavy, wet fleece, especially during winter, or being pregnant.

Comprehensive Introduction

Jessica and Daniel live on a farm, with cows and sheep. While out looking for some mushrooms, Daniel notices a sheep on his back waving his legs back and forth. The sheep cannot get up on his own since his wool is heavy and wet from the rain. Let’s see who helps Jessica and Daniel get the sheep back on his feet.

Surface Level Introduction

“Joey” by Beverley Randell

In this book Mother Kangaroo and her baby are in danger of getting eaten by some dogs.

Facts about Kangaroos in Australia

Kangaroos are adapted to a variety of habitats, from open plains to forests and woodlands.

Female kangaroos have a pouch where they carry their young, called joeys.

Kangaroos use their strong tails for balance while jumping.

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Comprehensive Introduction

Mother kangaroos carry their babies in their front pouch. A baby kangaroo is called a Joey and that is what Mother Kangaroo names her baby-Joey. When danger comes, the baby usually stays inside the pouch. In this story, when a pack of dogs are near, Mother Kangaroo pushes the baby out of her pouch to hide him in the tall grass from the dogs. Let’s find out if Mother Kangaroo’s trick works and if Joey is safe.

Closing Thoughts

With technology and search engines at our fingertips, it does not take long to do a little investigation about a new topic. This wise investment of time enhances your knowledge base, enriches conversation with students, and spills over into engaging writing opportunities. It may even expand the use of different genres with the students you teach.

“Building children’s deep and wide knowledge does not happen by accident. Teachers must deliberately and intentionally create literacy-learning opportunities focused on expanding children’s content knowledge” (Gibson, S.A., & Moss, B., 2016, p. 65).

I encourage you to work with a colleague or within your professional learning community in crafting book introductions using narrative non-fiction and non-fiction texts based on the profile of a particular student or group. Examine running records to discover if well-crafted book introductions have a direct correlation to students’ literacy processing, fluency, and comprehension. Furthermore, survey writing samples to see if there has been a shift in genre or style.

As Dr. Seuss says it best:

“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.

“You will find magic wherever you look. Sit back and relax, all you need is a book.”

About the Author

Kathleen A. Brown has worked for 37 years as a classroom teacher, literacy specialist, staff developer, and Reading Recovery teacher. She has served as the Reading Recovery teacher leader in a large urban district in California for the last 22 years. Kathleen has provided early literacy training and coaching for the district and has presented at local, state, and national conferences. Kathleen serves on the Reading Recovery Council of North America board as secretary and is affiliated with St. Mary’s College.

References

Clay, M. M. (2019). An observation survey of early literacy achievement. Heinemann.

Clay, M. M. (2016). Literacy lessons designed for individuals. Heinemann

Eure, N. & Anderson, N. (2007). “Processing Behavior: Early Readers and Nonfiction Text.” Journal of Reading Recovery, Spring 2007

Fountas, I.C. & Pinnell, G.S. (2017) Guided Reading Responsive Teaching Across the Grades. Heinemann

Gibson, S.A. & Moss, B. (2016) Every Young Child a Reader. Teachers College Press

The Print, Not the Pictures, Contains the Message

The Print, Not the Pictures, Contains the Message

mfarynowski2023-07-11T13:35:10-05:00July 11th, 2023|Reflections and Commentary, Teaching|

By Laura Ramos & Mary Ann Arellano

Descubriendo la Lectura (DLL) is designed for first graders having difficulty learning to read and write in classrooms where literacy instruction is in Spanish. For more information, visit https://readingrecovery.org/dll/.

After reading bicicleta (bicycle) correctly in a new text, Juan stops and excitedly says, “Maestra, si quito cleta, dice bici. Yo siempre digo bici.” (Teacher, if I take the cleta away, it says bici. I always say bici). He then continues reading, proud of this new discovery.

Juan’s journey in DLL began in February of 2023. He entered DLL with a very primitive understanding of how print works. He was able to identify 58 letters, and he could write 18 simple (mostly 2-3 phoneme) high-frequency words. The numerous omissions of phonemes when attempting words that consisted of more than three phonemes indicated that listening for sequences of phonemes in longer or multisyllabic words was still in development. Juan scored 9/25 on the Concepts about Print task. His interactions with the CAP booklet revealed that he did not appear to understand that print contains the message and that he was still negotiating the concept of letter and word. His inability to attend left to right across a word made it difficult for him to detect any changes in word or letter order, and, as a result, he could not match 1:1 or read the level 1 text.

Given that his strengths were writing vocabulary and letter identification, his DLL teacher hypothesized that developing his ability to hear and record phonemes in sequence (phonemic awareness) while extending both his reading and writing vocabularies might be an entry point for Juan to engage with print more effectively.

In the first lessons after ‘Roaming around the known’, Juan learned to clap words and listen to their parts. He also learned how to say words slowly and attend to the sequence of phonemes independently. This prepared him for the introduction of Elkonin boxes. Juan quickly learned to manipulate counters while listening attentively to the sequence of sounds.

One day, while attempting fiesta in writing, Juan slowly articulated the word while moving his finger under the sound boxes. He then quickly recorded “ fyesta.” His uncomfortable gaze seemed to indicate that he was quite certain that something was amiss.

T: ¿Qué piensas? (What do you think?)

J: Pointed to the y and said, “No es la y.” (It’s not the y.)

T: “La y se oye bien pero no se ve bien.” (Y sounds right, but it doesn’t look right) “La /ie/ en fiesta se ve como la palabra bien que sabes escribir.” (The /ie/ in fiesta looks like a word you know how to write). This short interaction allowed Juan the opportunity to hear the diphthong and consider how it is similar to the /ie/ embedded in a word he can read and write. By slowing down to listen carefully to the sequence of phonemes, he was better equipped to consider both the sound sequence analysis and the visual letter analysis and come to understand what sequences are and are not possible in Spanish. “The brain is required to listen for and find the sounds and, in an instant, link these to appropriate letters.” LLDI pg. 93.

During the reading of a new text, Juan encountered the word brazos (arm). He initially attempted barri, possibly predicting (not guessing) barriga (belly) based on the context, dad’s chunky stature in the picture, and based on some of the print details. Juan appeared to detect that the sequence of letters in the text did not match the prediction in his brain. He quickly adjusted his response to match the word in the book. It appears that he was developing the understanding that it is important to check the sound sequences against letter sequences when evaluating his predictions in reading. “Cross-checking occurs when the child can hear the sounds in a word he speaks and checks whether the expected letters are there.” LLDI pg. 136.

During the reading of the running record, Juan predicted the word controló(control)/consolar (console). This initial substitution not only fit the context of the story, but it was also incredibly visually similar. He immediately self-corrected at the point of error.

T: Curious as to what the child noticed, asked “¿Cómo sabes que ésta palabra no es controló?” (How do you know that this word isn’t controló?).

J: Pointed to the s and responded, “No tiene la t.”(It doesn’t have a t) Clay reminds us, “They are not just guessing. They are computing the likelihood of the features that they recognize belonging to the word they have predicted.” LLDI pg. 145. This also seems to indicate that he carefully considered both sound sequences and letter sequences in order to verify his response since both words fit the context. He was effectively using print detail from left to right across the word. “A left to right scanning through a word is critical in reading because letter order matters.” LL pg. 147.

As Juan’s phonemic awareness skills became stronger, his DLL teacher noticed that his reading and writing vocabularies also began to expand. “And it is clear that becoming aware of phonemes is essential for becoming good at word recognition (Ehri & Sweet, 1991)”. LLDI pg. 93. These known words in reading and writing became useful in helping him solve unknown words.

While composing, Juan wanted to write audifonos. Although he made the decision to put this new word in boxes, he was unsure of how to record the diphthong/au/.

T: “¿Haz escuchando otra palabra que se escucha como audífonos?” (Have you heard a word that sounds like audífono?) “The child needs to hear how this new word sounds like a word he already knows.” LLDI pg. 105.

J: ¡Auto!

T: “¡Si, audifonos empieza como auto!” (Yes, audifonos starts like auto!) T demonstrates the similarity in a familiar book with the word auto.

In this interaction, Juan was able to use a word he had read in a familiar book to help him solve a novel word in writing. “Massive practice with text reading also builds a network between letter sequences and sound sequences between what is seen and what is heard. This massive practice allows the visual perception to become quick, efficient, and automatic, allowing the reader to focus on context and read with fluency.” LLDI pg. 112.

During the reading of a new text, Juan stopped at the word mientras. After failing to initiate a response, the teacher interjected and broke the word into syllables with a small card.

T: “¿Conoces una palabra que parece a ésta?” (Do you know a word that looks like this?)

J: Thought for a moment, then responded “İMielİ, İComo en el libro de Osito Marcos!” (Miel! Like in the Baby Bear book!) Mien….tras! He went on to comment, “Y tras es como tres!” (And tras looks like tres!)

Two things were helpful. First, when Juan stopped at the new word, mientras, the teacher prompted him to look at the print, searching for something that he knew about that word. Second, the teacher broke the word into a useful cluster, allowing Juan an opportunity to access his personal core of known. This may have been particularly useful given that the word mientras has three consonants in the middle. The break made the syllables more accessible to Juan. The syllable break may have also contributed to Juan noticing the tras cluster in mientras and linking it to tres! How smart is that! “Knowing many high-frequency words increases the child’s resources for solving new words in both reading and writing by analogy with words he already knows,” LLDI pg. 153.

Twelve short weeks later, Juan read the text level 18 fluently. He demonstrated the ability to solve flexibly by using both the print and the context. For example, when he encountered the word transformo, he said trans slowly and then quickly segmented the for-mo. When he encountered the word aguantamos, he segmented a-guan-ta-mos quickly while integrating the meaning and structure. “When the child’s series of lessons ends and he is reading a text of appropriate level he should be able to solve a multisyllabic word (one that is new, not yet familiar, or unexpected) within continuous text without slowing up too much and by working flexibly with word parts and clusters of letters from an awareness of how words work.” LLDI pg. 126. On the writing vocabulary task, Juan wrote 46 words. He demonstrated the ability to manipulate phonemes in creative ways while working with similar spelling patterns. For example, he wrote: para-pero, mira-miro-mire, caminar-mirar, dos-los, veo-velo. Juan scored 22/25 on CAP. His almost perfect score and his interaction with the test booklet indicate that Juan clearly understands that print contains the message. In fact, he was so attentive to letter sequences that he quickly detected the changes in letter order (vool/voló, auga/agua).

In closing, Juan’s DLL lessons helped him learn to look at print in efficient and effective ways by incorporating phonemic awareness, phonics, and problem-solving behaviors that enabled him to decode unknown words in flexible ways while reading and writing authentic continuous text.

Laura Ramos and Mary Ann Arellano are both RR/DLL Teacher Leaders in Amarillo ISD.

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