What Do We Know About How Reading Should Be Taught

Introduction

Media presentations of how reading is taught tend to present debates on the teaching of reading as if there were a war between two approaches to reading. One of these approaches is usually represented as based on "sounding out" words; the other is usually referred to as "whole word" and represented as "guessing" by trying to recognise whole words from memory.

The latter is in fact a misrepresentation of particular approaches that aim specifically at meaning in reading, but, even so, the idea that most teachers take up one position or another in teaching reading is probably incorrect.

The most important aspect of reading is understanding. Without understanding, reading is, literally, useless. Anyone who can read English can probably "read" the following:

Kuipers flugen madsed derl nich scree

but no-one would seriously believe that they had understood it (it is, in fact, total nonsense). Hence, simply turning the words on the page into sounds is only "reading" in a very limited sense. Without understanding, reading the above "phrase" is of no real use.

How reading is taught in schools today

So today, reading instruction focuses on meaning. We think of readers as users of the language who are trying to "gain" or "construct" meaning from written texts. Reaching meaning is usually thought of as the result of combining three sets of strategies:

a strategy that uses the total sense of a sentence, or even of the whole passage, to identify unknown words.
Let's say we're reading the following the sentence and get stuck on the word represented by the dots: "The blue sedan drove along the....... at high speed". Our sense of the whole sentence (which we have been able to read to this point) tells us that the problem word has to be something like, "road", "freeway", "highway", "lane", "street". The possibilities are limited and we know enough about the world to identify the possibilities of what it is that sedans usually drive along. Hence, even if we recognise the first letter as "s", we would be unlikely to "guess" the word "sight".
a strategy that tells us the kind of word that fits the space in terms of its grammar.
No native speaker of English who's thinking about it would guess, "red" or "freezing" or "hollow" or "long" or "straight" instead of the words listed in the paragraph above, even though this list resembles that list somewhat - because a native speaker has a knowledge based on experience of the language that the kind of word which the problem word is, is a noun, not an adjective.
a strategy that relies on the way words look and sound.
If the word we can't identify is a short word, we'd probably eliminate "freeway" and "highway" from our list of possibilities. If it starts with "s", and we recognised "s" AND recognised that "l" and "r" made distinctly different sounds from "s", then we'd eliminate "road" and "lane" from the list of possibilities.

So, in trying to read the sentence, "The blue sedan drove along the....... at high speed", we're now left only with: a word that tells us what it is that cars drive along, that has to be a noun and that is a short word beginning with "s". Now for most of us, this kind of thinking occurs with such split second speed that we're almost never aware of it. In fact, experienced readers only realise any of this when they DO come to a word that they don't understand AND when that word is clearly going to be crucial to understanding the passage. But for beginning readers, or for children who have had trouble learning to read, these strategies have to be taught - and ALL of them have to be taught, since they don't work in isolation.

Thus, these days, students would be taught to:

make guesses about words they don't recognise based on what the whole passage or sentence is about. This would occur by learning to read both forwards in the sentence and back over what has been read already.
use their knowledge of the kind of word (grammatically) that the troublesome word is
sound the word and use letter recognition to identify the letters in the word.

How teachers help students understand what they read

Typically, when a student pauses/stops at a word, one of four things will occur:

the student will spend time over the word and get it correct
the student will go no further
the student will substitute a word that makes no sense
the student will substitute a word that does make sense, but is not the correct word

If we take these scenarios one at a time, teachers will typically
( This particular representation of teacher's prompting strategies comes from the work of Lyn Young of the NSW Dept of Education and Training.)

in case:

allow the student to read on, UNLESS they have spent so much time on the word that they may have forgotten the flow of the meaning - in which case, they will be told to start again from the beginning of the sentence or paragraph
ask the student to go back to the beginning of the sentence and to think of a word that
- makes sense
- sounds right (grammatically) and
- looks and sounds like the word on the page
ask the student to start the sentence again, read to the end of the sentence and think of a word that

makes sense
sounds right (grammatically) and
looks and sounds like the word on the page.

d.
have to weigh up whether to take the student back to the word.
They may NOT because they recognise that meaning is most important, that we ALL make such mistakes EVERY time we read, and that this mistake shows that the child understands what they are reading.
On the other hand, they MAY because they believe THIS student should recognise THIS word accurately - in which case, they will praise for a good attempt, but take the student back to the word and ask them to substitute for their chosen word one which mean the same, but looks and sounds like the word on the page.

Thus, students ARE encouraged to sound out words and to use letter recognition, but they are also encouraged to read ahead and read back and to make sensible guesses. In encouraging students to develop ALL of these strategies, teachers might have students engage in an activity that focuses on meaning, such as:

guessing at missing words in a text - a cloze exercise
taking a piece of text that has been scrambled and "unscrambling" it - a sequencing exercise.
The most important ingredient in a program of reading in school is that plenty of time is put aside for reading and that reading material that is enjoyable and likely to engage children's interests is available, These are exactly the same conditions that will encourage the pursuit of reading at home.

Sample Activities For Parents

(This list of ideas draws heavily on the work of Margaret Meek and Jeffrey Wilhelm.)

For pre-school children:

Above all else, read to them. Research has continually shown that being read to regularly before school age is a crucial predictor of literacy, and general academic, success.

Let them help you turn the pages.
Look at the pictures together and talk together about what you see.
Link known nursery rhymes, songs and jokes to their presentation in books.
As you read together, encourage the child to say aloud with you the words he/she knows (without turning reading into a test).
Point out examples of known words in the world around them (without making every shopping trip a test).
Let them have pencils and crayons and bits of paper for writing and drawing.
If you or the child wish(es) that the child learn the alphabet before he/she starts school, treat it as a game, using alphabet books.
Give books as presents.

Early school years/"infants" grades

Continue to read to/with them.
Continue to choose books that you can enjoy together.
Encourage the child to draw and write at home, perhaps cutting out pictures to add to their writing and to make into scrapbooks.
Encourage the child to copy the words of favourite songs, rhymes and jokes.
Give books as presents. Buy the child a bedlamp.

Primary/ elementary grades

Continue to read to/with them for as long as they wish to continue.
Read aloud together, allowing the child to "take over", especially in well known stories.
Use the strategies listed above to help your child when he/she seems to need/want it.
Simply encourage reading without turning it into a chore.
Give books as presents. Buy the child a bedlamp.

Early high school

Let the child continue to see that reading and writing play a part in the family's life
Put aside space and time for the child to write and keep his/her own books.
Talk to the Year co-ordinator at school about the amount/kind of reading and writing being done at school.
Teach your child to interrogate texts - use the newspaper and the television to discuss the different perspectives from which information is presented.
Discuss "public print" with the child.
Use the strategies listed above to help your child when he/she seems to need/want it.
Give books as presents

Adolescence

Share reading you've enjoyed with them, especially if they are keen, but indiscriminate, readers.
Make space for reading in the home.
If asked to suggest a book or share a reading experience, let it be known this is important to you.
Discuss the topics that your adolescent is expected to read about at school.
Use the strategies listed on above to help your child when he/she seems to need/want it.
Give books as presents

** Join/consult the Australian Children's Book Council for lists of books suitable, recent, well-written and enjoyable for different ages and interests.

What Do We Know About How Writing Should Be Taught?

The debates

Like reading, the teaching of writing is subject to huge debate, also often represented simplistically in the media. One perennial debate in this area is over how much grammatical knowledge is necessary to be a competent writer. This topic is discussed in the next section. Another debate, particularly strong in Australia since the mid 1980s is over the teaching of what are known as "text types" or "genre". The pro-text-type argument is that school subjects have different forms of writing in which their ideas are represented. Thus, there is a typical "type" of writing in which science is written, a typical "type" of writing in which history is written, etc. This school of thought argues that it is most important that students are explicitly trained in how these different text-types are structured - and that this training should be the central element in teaching writing.

The other side of the debate argues that there seems to be good evidence that the "typical" language of subjects might in fact be the very thing that "gets in the way" of students understanding those subjects. Thus, what prevents understanding of Science might indeed often be the language forms in which Science is presented to students. This side argues that more training in the language forms of the subject may just be giving students more, not less, of their very problem. This school of thought calls for a re-writing of the textbooks in language more accessible to students who are, as it were, "beginners", not experts, in particular subject areas.

Cutting across this debate is an approach to teaching writing concerned with an entirely separate issue - viz. the process itself. This approach is based on the assumption that students in schools ought to practise, as far as possible, the processes that "real" writers use - and that these might include:

some form of lead-up (eg research, note-taking, discussion)
an outline of ideas
drafts
revisions
getting the piece to readers who have a chance to respond.

The teacher has a role at each of these stages - though that role may include helping the student towards independence, such as teaching the student how to be a self-editor. Thus, compared to the days when the only feedback the student had from the teacher was after the piece was "corrected", one of the advantages of this approach to writing (sometimes called the "process-conference" approach) is that the teacher can be directly involved at each stage of the process.

Like many debates in education, the answer to this one probably lies in some eclecticism. Teachers need to be aware of when the language forms of a subject are presenting problems for students On the other hand, there is no doubt that, when not applied too rigidly, the particular language forms of particular subjects can be a device which gives students some basic support when presenting information in that subject.

Teaching the Skills and Craft of Writing

The writing workshop

Nancie Atwell's In the Middle is one of the best books written on teaching writing. Her ideas could be applied for classrooms from Year (Grade) 5 to Year (Grade) 11. Atwell describes a situation in the classroom very much like a writer's "workshop" in which the bulk of students' time is spent writing and in which effective editing and "conferencing" with the teacher are key features. In such a classroom, teachers have to balance teaching skills such as spelling and punctuation, while still improving students writing as a craft. They then have to balance these demands with not dampening students' own creativity and giving the bulk of time to student writing. They also need to do their direct teaching efficiently without repetition for every student.

Mini-Lessons

Atwell's answer to these issues is the mini-lesson. As part of the daily routine, the teacher conducts one short ten-minute period of direct teacher input at the beginning of the lesson. These mini-lessons each deal with either 'craft' or 'skills'. Craft lessons might deal with areas such as writing effective openings ; writing from particular points of view; using images; developing characterisation or writing in particular genre (such as monologues, dialogues etc.). Skill lessons deal with areas such as spelling, punctuation and grammar.

After the mini-lessons, the bulk of the students' time is spent writing.

Effective Editing

To be effective, editing needs to be approached in a systematic manner. Teachers should be trying to avoid the situation in which editing becomes little more than a quick spelling check as the line of students waiting for them to "check" drafts gets longer and longer. Editing is a useful and valuable part of the classroom routine when:

the students are explicitly taught how to edit for themselves
the teacher puts time aside for students whom he/she has chosen in advance to "conference" with together because they have some problem/strength/issue in common

For very young students, such as those just starting school, the approach teachers will generally take is to treat the students' marks on the page - even "scribble" - as the students' intention to convey a meaning. Over time, with teacher help, and with exposure to standard writing and spelling, these young writers will continually approximate the standard writing and spelling of adult forms.

Sample Activities For Parents

(These ideas are a compendium from those references listed by: Barry Dwyer, Bob Walshe, PETA, Judy Turner and the NSW Dept of Education.)

For pre-school children

Play "writing" in every possible way.
Let them have pencils and crayons and bits of paper for writing and drawing.
Encourage your child to write and draw.
Sometimes scribe for your child, then read back what you have written, pointing to each word as you say it.
Write with them/ let them see you writing.
Supply letters or words or names at your child's request.
If you or the child wish(es) that the child learn the alphabet before he/she starts school, treat it as a game, using alphabet books.
Make and post your own holiday cards and postcards with them.
Help your child to turn stories into "books" by stapling them into brightly illustrated covers.
Give pencils and crayons for presents.

Early school years/"infants" grades

Encourage the child to draw and write at home, perhaps cutting out pictures to add to their writing and to make into scrapbooks.
Sometimes scribe for your child, then read back what you have written, pointing to each word as you say it.
Provide a place at home for writing to happen - away from the TV.
Encourage the child to write to friends and relatives and to write in a personal diary
Encourage the child to copy the words of favourite songs, rhymes and jokes.
Write with them/ let them see you writing.
Write to your children - leave notes and messages for fun.
Make and post your own Christmas cards and postcards with them.
Help your child to turn stories into "books" by stapling them into brightly illustrated covers.
When it is requested, give help with spelling, punctuation and usage.
For presents, give pencils, pens, paper, envelopes, stamps, a desklamp, a diary, a dictionary, a thesaurus, coloured cardboard for folders and book covers.
Be alert to situations when your child can help with: grocery lists, notes at the end of your letters, sending cards, taking telephone messages, preparing invitations etc.
Where possible, encourage their familiarity with word processing and desktop publishing programs.

Primary/ elementary grades

Encourage the child to write to friends and relatives and to write in a personal diary
Provide a place at home for writing to happen - away from the TV.
Write to your children - leave notes and messages for fun.
Write with them/ let them see you writing.
Make and post your own Christmas cards and postcards with them.
Help your child to turn stories into "books" by stapling them into brightly illustrated covers.
When it is requested, give help with spelling, punctuation and usage.
For presents, give pencils, pens, paper, envelopes, stamps, a desklamp, a diary, a dictionary, a thesaurus, coloured cardboard for folders and book covers.
Be alert to situations when your child can help with: grocery lists, notes at the end of your letters, sending cards, taking telephone messages, preparing invitations etc.
Where possible, encourage their familiarity with word processing and desktop publishing programs.

Early high school

Let them continue to see that reading and writing play a part in the family's life
Put aside space and time for them to write and to keep his/her own books.
Talk to the Year co-ordinator at school about the amount/kind of reading and writing being done at school.
Encourage them to continue to write "books" for the younger members of the family.
When it is requested, give help with spelling, punctuation and usage.
Encourage, if possible, their increasingly sophisticated usage of word processing and desktop publishing programs, of email and of website design.

Adolescence

Continue to encourage their writing.
When it is requested, give help with spelling, punctuation and usage.
Encourage, if possible, their increasingly sophisticated usage of word processing and desktop publishing programs, of email and of website design.

References

Atwell, Nancie. In the middle: New understandings about writing, reading and learning. Portsmouth: Boynton/Cook.
Dwyer, Barry "Parents' guide to the basics", Rozelle: PETA.
Meek, Margaret. Learning to read . London: The Bodley Head.
NSW Department of Education "How to help your child become a better writer".
PETA "Language learning goes on holiday", PETA news, December, 1987.
Turner, Judy "Spelling in the total language program", Primary English notes, 46.
Walshe, R.D. "Evaluation of writing", Primary English notes, 40.
Wilhelm, Jeffrey You gotta be the book. NY: Teachers College Press.