[AAACE-NLA] Misunderstandings About Reading

[Amy R. Trawick]

Since the National Reading Panel report is usually cited as the basis for 
these "essential components of reading, " I think another important point to 
make is that the NRP did not *identify* these five areas through a 
scientific analysis of experimental and quasiexperimental studies related to 
reading.  They decided on these five topics, plus teacher education and 
computer instruction, after soliciting public input, which identified *over 
30* possible topics (though, to be clear, the panel tentatively identified 
these prior to the public input process). The reasoning offered for the 
focus on these five is that they were identified previously by the NRC 
report Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children , through a review 
of studies using varied methodologies and focused only on preschool through 
K-3.  With limited time and resources, the NRP authors argue, it made sense 
to focus on these for their purpose as well.

So, the questions many think the panel answered (i.e., what are the most 
important things to teach students related to reading and how do we do 
this?) were not answered. The general questions that were attempted were 
basically: does instruction in phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, 
vocabulary, and comprehension improve reading (but "reading" is never 
defined) and what are effective ways to teach these? The panel did not even 
investigate other possible important or just as "essential" factors related 
to reading. Timothy Shanahan lists these topics that were considered, but 
not chosen:

  a.. tutoring
  b.. social organization
  c.. assessment instruments
  d.. amount of reading instruction
  e.. student beliefs, attitudes, and purposes
  f.. oral language
  g.. print awareness
  h.. world knowledge
  i.. home preschool and school-age influences
  j.. writing instruction
  k.. nature of text for reading instruction
  l.. materials, texts, basals, and so on in teacher preparation
  m.. parent involvement
  n.. status of what is happening in classrooms
  o.. spelling instruction
  p.. sight-word learning
  q.. use of worksheets
  r.. difficulty level of text
  s.. declarative knowledge
  t.. Reading Recovery
>From Research-based reading instruction: Myths about the National Reading 
Panel report , By: Shanahan, Timothy, Reading Teacher, 00340561, Apr2003, 
Vol. 56, Issue 7


The intro to the NRP report states, "It should be made clear that the Panel 
did not consider (the) questions (they asked) and the instructional issues 
that they represent to be the ONLY topics of importance in learning to read. 
The Panel's silence on other topics should not be interpreted as indicating 
that other topics have no importance or that improvement in those areas 
would not lead to greater reading achievement" (p. 1-3). Yet, the report HAS 
been interpreted to mean this very thing.

Since the group that prepared the parallel report for adults, 
"Research-based Principles for Adult Basic Education Reading Instruction," 
relied on the same NRP topics, these areas are now part of the adult ed 
canon as well. I am concerned that other important factors related to 
reading improvement are being overlooked in the professional development we 
offer because they have not (yet) been included in a government-sanctioned 
synthesis report. I'm curious if and how folks are dealing with this in 
professional development sessions dealing with "research-based reading".

Thanks much,

Amy

Amy R. Trawick
atrawick at charter.net

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Thomas Sticht" <tsticht at znet.com>
To: <aaace-nla at lists.literacytent.org>
Sent: Tuesday, January 04, 2005 3:46 PM
Subject: [AAACE-NLA] Misunderstandings About Reading


> Some Misunderstandings About Reading January 4, 2005
>
> Tom Sticht
> International Consultant in Adult Education
>
> The U. S. Education Department's web page for Reading First states
> "Reading First will provide funds to train teachers in the essential
> components of reading (phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary,
> comprehension). ,"
> http://www.ed.gov/programs/readingfirst/applicant.html
>
> This seems to me to contain certain misunderstandings about reading which
> I have summarized below, along with some other misunderstandings that I
> have seen in the literature on reading.
>
> Misunderstanding #1: Fluency is one of "the essential components of
> reading" that include alphabetics (phonemics,phonics), fluency,
> vocabulary, comprehension.
>
> Correction:  "fluency" is not a "component" of anything. Rather it is the
> quality of a performance. In reading it refers to reading that is executed
> without a lot of mistakes, not in a slow, halting, recursive manner but
> rather in a regular left to right, progressive moving, fairly rapid
> (around 200-250 words per minute) manner when reading materials of some
> familiarity.
>
> Misunderstanding #2: Vocabulary is one of "the essential components of
> reading" that include alphabetics (phonemics,phonics), fluency,
> vocabulary, comprehension.
>
> Correction: Vocabulary is a component of language, not listening or
> reading, though it can be acquired using either of these information
> pick-up processes.
>
> Misunderstanding #3: Comprehension is one of "the essential components of
> reading" that include alphabetics (phonemics,phonics), fluency,
> vocabulary, comprehension.
>
> Correction: Comprehension precedes reading and directs the reading
> process, not the other way around. Listening to speech is one way to
> comprehend language, reading graphic symbols is another. Children
> typically learn to comprehend by listening to speech before they learn to
> comprehend by reading. Comprehension is what the reader tries to achieve,
> but comprehension is not a component of reading, it is both a precursor to
> and a result of reading.
>
> Misunderstanding #4: Listening and reading are the same language 
> processes.
>
> Correction: Listening and reading are both information pick-up processes
> which may be used to construct language, but they are not language and
> they are not the same. You can do one in the dark, the other in a noisy
> room, but neither in a dark, noisy room. Languaging can be accomplished
> using tactual information pick-up processes, too.
>
> Misunderstanding #5: "First you learn to read, then you read to learn."
>
> Correction: Despite the wide-spread use of this old bromide, you always
> read to learn. Even when learning to read, one looks at the graphic
> displays and tries to learn (i.e., "read") them as symbols. First you read
> to learn to read graphic information as symbols then you read to learn
> some other new information forming new ideas expressed in graphic symbols.
>
> Misunderstanding #6: We can teach reading skills to children and adults.
>
> Correction: We cannot teach "skills." We can teach knowledge but skill
> must be developed through practice. We can coach for skill, and we can
> model skillful performance, but we cannot teach skill. When we teach
> phonics we are teaching knowledge of sight-sound correspondences, not
> decoding skill. The latter can only be developed through practice.
>
> Thomas G. Sticht
> International Consultant in Adult Education
> 2062 Valley View Blvd.
> El Cajon, CA 92019-2059
> Tel/fax: (619) 444-9133
> Email: tsticht at azznet.net
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> AAACE-NLA mailing list: AAACE-NLA at lists.literacytent.org
> http://lists.literacytent.org/mailman/listinfo/aaace-nla
> LiteracyTent: web hosting, news, community and goodies for literacy
> http://literacytent.org
>