[AAACE-NLA] The "Decoding of Words, Sentences, and Paragraphs

[Debbie Yoho]

I suspect the source of this problem is an over use or exclusive use of
phonics instruction. I don't think more research is needed.  If teachers
were taught that teaching is the ART of exercising judgment in chosing the
right tool at the right time with the right learner(s),  we wouldn't have
the problem.

Debbie Yoho
Division Director, TURNING PAGES/VOAC
   (formerly the Greater Columbia Literacy Council)
Secretary, SC Association for Adult Literacy Education
803-765-2555    fax  803-779-1657 
PO Box 1447, Columbia, SC  29202
yohogclc at earthlink.net

"True progress preserves order amid change and preserves change amid
order."  (John Morgan, You Can't Manage Alone)



> [Original Message]
> From: Art LaChance <ruhtra.glc at ellijay.com>
> To: National Literacy Advocacy List sponsored by AAACE
<aaace-nla at lists.literacytent.org>
> Date: 9/29/2008 10:35:54 AM
> Subject: Re: [AAACE-NLA] The "Decoding of Words, Sentences, and Paragraphs
>
> Tom
> I agree 1,000% with your view here. Over time we've developed a system 
> to help the student learn to read in "context". If the initial 
> assessment shows low reading levels, we sit down and show them how to 
> read in complete thoughts, or however one wishes to term it. I've seen 
> pure amazement in their eyes time after time. One young fella, 5th 
> grade, in our family literacy program, years ago, dropped his book in 
> his lap, and when he finally looked up at me with tears in his eyes - 
> "WHY didn't they just tell us that !!" Since that time I've found the 
> same problem in probably 99% of the adults who come in at the low skill 
> levels, say below 6-7th grade and especially in the below 5 ranges.
> And that's my question: Why is it that this issue isn't being looked at 
> more carefully in the early periods of reading development ? Maybe we 
> need more reee-search ??
>
> Thanks
>
> Art
>
> Art LaChance
> Gilmer Learning Center
> Ellijay, GA
>
>
>
>
> tsticht at znet.com wrote:
> > September 25, 2008
> >
> > The “Decoding” of Words, Sentences, and Paragraphs
> >
> > Tom Sticht
> > International Consultant in Adult Education
> >
> > Much discussion of teaching using alphabetics (phonemics; phonics) aims
at
> > learning to decode written words. Of course, this is necessary for
reading.
> > But beyond the word are the sentence and paragraph. Fluent reading may
> > depend to some extent on how well people can construct sentences and
> > compile them into paragraphs. The question arises, do more skilled
readers
> > develop a greater ability to construct sentences and compile them into
> > paragraphs?
> >
> > Ordinarily word, sentence, and paragraph construction are aided by the
use
> > of spaces between words. Sentences are marked by punctuation (capitals;
> > periods, etc.), and paragraphs are separated by spaces and sometimes
> > indentation of the first sentence in the paragraph. But how well can low
> > and high ability readers identify words, sentences, and paragraphs when
> > there is no spacing or punctuation to mark beginnings and ends of these
> > aspects of written language?
> >
> > To find out, in an exploratory study colleagues and I worked with 16 low
> > reading young adults with reading skills from 3.5 to 7.7 grade levels,
and
> > an average score of 5.5 grade level reading. We also worked with 18
college
> > students as high ability readers.
> >
> > We prepared four paragraphs of writing by typing all the words running
> > together, the sentences running together, and paragraphs running
together
> > with no spaces or punctuation. We then asked the adults to go through
the
> > materials and place a line between each word, a dot over each line that
> > separated sentences, and an x through the dots that separated each
> > paragraph.
> >
> > We found that on average the high ability readers accurately identified
99
> > percent of words, sentences with 77 percent accuracy, and paragraphs
with
> > 88 percent accuracy. For the low ability readers words were identified
with
> > 77 percent accuracy, sentences with  12 percent accuracy, and paragraphs
> > with 19 percent accuracy.
> >
> > This raises the possibility that in reading normal texts, low ability
> > readers may not achieve higher fluency skills in part because of a
weakness
> > in sentence meaning construction and paragraph meaning compiling skills.
> > Possibly alphabetics may provide effective word recognition while whole
> > language teaching may foster the development of sentence and paragraph
> > construction and compilation abilities. These are aspects of “decoding”
> > written language that I have not seen given attention in reading
research,
> > with either children or adults.
> >
> > Thomas G. Sticht, Email tsticht at aznet.net
> >
> >
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