Based on theory, research, and current practice, each student will compose a 300-500 word response that summarizes their thoughts on reading ins

The Research

Building Blocks

For Teaching

Children to Read

Third Edition

Put Reading First Kindergarten Through Grade 3

Third Edition

The Research Building Blocks for Teaching Children to Read

Put Reading First

Writers: Bonnie B. Armbruster, Ph.D., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign,

Fran Lehr, M.A., Lehr & Associates, Champaign, Illinois, Jean Osborn, M.Ed., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Editor: C. Ralph Adler, RMC Research Corporation Designer: Lisa T. Noonis, RMC Research Corporation

Kindergarten Through Grade 3

Contents

i Introduction

1 Phonemic Awareness Instruction

11 Phonics Instruction

19 Fluency Instruction

29 Vocabulary Instruction

41 Text Comprehension Instruction

This publication was developed by the Center for the Improvement of Early Reading Achievement (CIERA) and was funded by the National Institute for Literacy (NIFL) through the Educational Research and Development Centers Program, PR/Award Number R305R70004, as administered by the Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI), U.S. Department of Education. However, the comments or conclusions do not necessarily represent the positions or policies of NIFL, OERI, or the U.S. Department of Education, and you should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government.

The National Institute for Literacy The National Institute for Literacy, an agency in the Federal government, is authorized to help strengthen literacy across the lifespan. The Institute works to provide national leadership on literacy issues, including the improvement of reading instruction for children, youth, and adults by sharing information on scientifically based research. Sandra Baxter, Director Lynn Reddy, Deputy Director

The Partnership for Reading This document was published by The Partnership for Reading, a collaborative effort of the National Institute for Literacy, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, and the U.S. Department of Education to make evidence-based reading research available to educators, parents, policy-makers, and others with an interest in helping all people learn to read well. The findings and conclusions in this publication were drawn from the 2000 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—Reports of the Subgroups.

The writers and editors express their sincere thanks to: • Isabel Beck, Douglas Carnine, Deborah Simmons, and Anne Sweet for

their careful reviews and suggestions

• Sandra Baxter and Andrew Hartman at the National Institute for Literacy for their guidance and support

• The Subgroup Chairs of the National Reading Panel for their thoughtful and thorough comments: Linnea Ehri, Michael L. Kamil, S.J. Samuels, Timothy Shanahan, and Gloria Correro

• Susan Klaiber, Everett Barnes, and Douglas Hamman of RMC Research Corporation for their conceptual and editorial contributions

• The teacher collaborative groups across the United States that provided valuable feedback

i

Introduction

In today’s schools, too many children struggle with learning to read. As many teachers and

parents will attest, reading failure has exacted a tremendous long-term consequence for

children’s developing self-confidence and motivation to learn, as well as for their later school

performance.

While there are no easy answers or quick solutions for optimizing reading achievement,

an extensive knowledge base now exists to show us the skills children must learn in order to

read well. These skills provide the basis for sound curriculum decisions and instructional

approaches that can help prevent the predictable consequences of early reading failure.

The National Reading Panel (NRP) issued a report in 2000 that responded to a

Congressional mandate to help parents, teachers, and policymakers identify key skills and

methods central to reading achievement. The Panel was charged with reviewing research in

reading instruction (focusing on the critical years of kindergarten through third grade) and

identifying methods that consistently relate to reading success.

The Panel reviewed more than 100,000 studies. Through a carefully developed screening

procedure, Panel members examined research that met several important criteria:

• the research had to address achievement of one or more skills in reading. Studies of

effective teaching were not included unless reading achievement was measured;

• the research had to be generalizable to the larger population of students. Thus, case

studies with small numbers of children were excluded from the analysis;

• the research needed to examine the effectiveness of an approach. This type of research

requires the comparison of different treatments, such as comparing the achievement of

students using guided repeated reading to another group of students not using that

strategy. This experimental research approach was necessary to understand whether

changes in achievement could be attributed to the treatment;

• the research needed to be regarded as high quality. An article or book had to have been

reviewed by other scholars from the relevant field and judged to be sound and worthy of

publication. Therefore, discussions of studies reported in meetings or conferences without

a stringent peer review process were excluded from the analysis.

These criteria are not new in the world of educational research; they are often used as a

matter of course by researchers who set out to determine the effectiveness of any educational

program or approach. The National Reading Panel embraced the criteria in its review to bring

balance to a field in which decisions have often been made based more on ideology than

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evidence. These criteria offer administrators, teachers, and parents a standard for evaluating

critical decisions about how children will be taught to read. In addition to identifying effective

practices, the work of the National Reading Panel challenges educators to consider the

evidence of effectiveness whenever they make decisions about the content and structure of

reading instruction programs. By operating on a “what works” basis, scientific evidence can

help build a foundation for instructional practice. Teachers can learn about and emphasize

methods and approaches that have worked well and caused reading improvement for large

numbers of children. Teachers can build their students’ skills efficiently and effectively, with

greater results than before. Most importantly, with targeted “what works“ instruction, the

incidence of reading success should increase dramatically.

This guide, designed by teachers for teachers, summarizes what researchers have

discovered about how to successfully teach children to read. It describes the findings of

the National Reading Panel Report and provides analysis and discussion in five areas of

reading instruction: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and text comprehension. Each section defines the skill, reviews the evidence from research, suggests

implications for classroom instruction, describes proven strategies for teaching reading skills,

and addresses frequently raised questions.

Our understanding of “what works“ in reading is dynamic and fluid, subject to ongoing

review and assessment through quality research. This guide begins the process of compiling

the findings from scientifically based research in reading instruction, a body of knowledge that

will continue to grow over time. We encourage all teachers to explore the research, open their

minds to changes in their instructional practice, and take up the challenge of helping all

children become successful readers.

iii

iv

Phonemic Awareness Instruction

Phonemic awareness is the ability to notice, think about, and work with the individual sounds

in spoken words. Before children learn to read print, they need to become aware of how the

sounds in words work. They must understand that words are made up of speech sounds, or

phonemes.

Phonemes are the smallest parts of sound in a spoken word that make a difference in the

word’s meaning. For example, changing the first phoneme in the word hat from /h/ to /p/

changes the word from hat to pat, and so changes the meaning. (A letter between slash

marks shows the phoneme, or sound, that the letter represents, and not the name of the

letter. For example, the letter h represents the sound /h/.)

Children can show us that they have phonemic awareness in several ways, including:

• recognizing which words in a set of words begin with the same sound (“Bell, bike, and

boy all have /b/ at the beginning.“);

• isolating and saying the first or last sound in a word (“The beginning sound of dog is

/d/.“ “The ending sound of sit is /t/.“);

• combining, or blending the separate sounds in a word to say the word (“/m/, /a/, /p/—

map.“);

• breaking, or segmenting a word into its separate sounds (“Up—/u/, /p/.“).

Children who have phonemic awareness skills are likely to have an easier time learning to

read and spell than children who have few or none of these skills.

Although phonemic awareness is a widely used term in reading, it is often misunderstood.

One misunderstanding is that phonemic awareness and phonics are the same thing. Phonemic

awareness is not phonics. Phonemic awareness is the understanding that the sounds of

spoken language work together to make words. Phonics is the understanding that there is a

predictable relationship between phonemes and graphemes, the letters that represent those

sounds in written language. If children are to benefit from phonics instruction, they need

phonemic awareness.

The reason is obvious: children who cannot hear and work with the phonemes of spoken

words will have a difficult time learning how to relate these phonemes to the graphemes

when they see them in written words.

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1

2

Another misunderstanding about phonemic awareness is that it means the same as

phonological awareness. The two names are not interchangeable. Phonemic awareness is a

subcategory of phonological awareness. The focus of phonemic awareness is narrow—

identifying and manipulating the individual sounds in words. The focus of phonological

awareness is much broader. It includes identifying and manipulating larger parts of spoken

language, such as words, syllables, and onsets and rimes—as well as phonemes. It also

encompasses awareness of other aspects of sound, such as rhyming, alliteration, and

intonation.

Children can show us that they have phonological awareness in several ways, including:

• identifying and making oral rhymes;

“The pig has a (wig).“ “Pat the (cat).“ “The sun is (fun).“

• identifying and working with syllables in spoken words;

“I can clap the parts in my name: An-drew.“ • identifying and working with onsets and rimes in spoken syllables or one-syllable words;

“The first part of sip is s-.“ “The last part of win is -in.“

• identifying and working with individual phonemes in spoken words.

“The first sound in sun is /s/.“

PHONOLOGICAL AWARENESS

Phonemic awareness is only one type of phonological awareness.

Broader phonological awareness • Identifying and making oral rhymes • Identifying and working with syllables in spoken words

Narrower phonological awareness • Identifying and working with onsets and rimes in spoken syllables • Identifying and working with individual phonemes in words spoken

(phonemic awareness)

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THE LANGUAGE OF LITERACY

Here are some definitions of terms used frequently in reading instruction.

Phoneme A phoneme is the smallest part of spoken language that makes a difference in the meaning of words. English has about 41 phonemes. A few words, such as a or oh, have only one phoneme. Most words, however, have more than one phoneme: The word if has two phonemes (/i/ /f/); check has three phonemes (/ch/ /e/ /k/), and stop has four phonemes (/s/ /t/ /o/ /p/). Sometimes one phoneme is represented by more than one letter.

Grapheme A grapheme is the smallest part of written language that represents a phoneme in the spelling of a word. A grapheme may be just one letter, such as b, d, f, p, s; or several letters, such as ch, sh, th, -ck, ea, -igh.

Phonics Phonics is the understanding that there is a predictable relationship between phonemes (the sounds of spoken language) and graphemes (the letters and spellings that represent those sounds in written language).

Phonemic awareness Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate the individual sounds—phonemes—in spoken words.

Phonological awareness Phonological awareness is a broad term that includes phonemic awareness. In addition to phonemes, phonological awareness activities can involve work with rhymes, words, syllables, and onsets and rimes.

Syllable A syllable is a word part that contains a vowel or, in spoken language, a vowel sound (e-vent; news-pa-per; ver-y).

Onset and rime Onsets and rimes are parts of spoken language that are smaller than syllables but larger than phonemes. An onset is the initial consonant(s) sound of a syllable (the onset of bag is b-; of swim, sw-). A rime is the part of a syllable that contains the vowel and all that follows it (the rime of bag is -ag; of swim, -im).

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What does scientifically based research tell us about phonemic awareness instruction? Key findings from the scientific research on phonemic awareness instruction provide the

following conclusions of particular interest and value to classroom teachers:

Phonemic awareness can be taught and learned. Effective phonemic awareness instruction teaches children to notice, think about, and work

with (manipulate) sounds in spoken language. Teachers use many activities to build phonemic

awareness, including:

• Phoneme isolation

Children recognize individual sounds in a word.

Teacher: “What is the first sound in van?”

Children: “The first sound in van is /v/.”

• Phoneme identity

Children recognize the same sounds in different words.

Teacher: “What sound is the same in fix, fall, and fun?”

Children: “The first sound, /f/, is the same.”

• Phoneme categorization

Children recognize the word in a set of three or four words that has the “odd“ sound.

Teacher: “Which word doesn’t belong? Bus, bun, rug.”

Children: “Rug does not belong. It doesn’t begin with /b/.”

• Phoneme blending

Children listen to a sequence of separately spoken phonemes, and then combine the

phonemes to form a word. Then they write and read the word.

Teacher: “What word is /b/ /i/ /g/?”

Children: “/b/ /i/ /g/ is big.”

Teacher: “Now let’s write the sounds in big: /b/, write b; /i/, write i; /g/, write g.”

Teacher: (Writes big on the board.) “Now we’re going to read the word big.”

• Phoneme segmentation

Children break a word into its separate sounds, saying each sound as they tap out or

count it. Then they write and read the word.

Teacher: “How many sounds are in grab?”

Children: “/g/ /r/ /a/ /b/. Four sounds.”

Teacher: “Now let’s write the sounds in grab: /g/, write g; /r/, write r; /a/, write a; /b/,

write b.”

Teacher: (Writes grab on the board.) “Now we’re going to read the word grab.”

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• Phoneme deletion

Children recognize the word that remains when a phoneme is removed from another

word.

Teacher: “What is smile without the /s/?”

Children: “Smile without the /s/ is mile.”

• Phoneme addition

Children make a new word by adding a phoneme to an existing word.

Teacher: “What word do you have if you add /s/ to the beginning of park?”

Children: “Spark.”

• Phoneme substitution

Children substitute one phoneme for another to make a new word.

Teacher: “The word is bug. Change /g/ to /n/. What’s the new word?”

Children: “Bun.”

Phonemic awareness instruction helps children learn to read. Phonemic awareness instruction improves children’s ability to read words. It also improves

their reading comprehension. Phonemic awareness instruction aids reading comprehension

primarily through its influence on word reading. For children to understand what they read,

they must be able to read words rapidly and accurately. Rapid and accurate word reading

frees children to focus their attention on the meaning of what they read. Of course, many

other things, including the size of children’s vocabulary and their world experiences, contribute

to reading comprehension.

Phonemic awareness instruction helps children learn to spell. Teaching phonemic awareness, particularly how to segment words into phonemes, helps

children learn to spell. The explanation for this may be that children who have phonemic

awareness understand that sounds and letters are related in a predictable way. Thus, they are

able to relate the sounds to letters as they spell words.

Phonemic awareness instruction is most effective when children are taught to manipulate phonemes by using the letters of the alphabet. Phonemic awareness instruction makes a stronger contribution to the improvement of reading

and spelling when children are taught to use letters as they manipulate phonemes than when

instruction is limited to phonemes alone. Teaching sounds along with the letters of the

alphabet is important because it helps children to see how phonemic awareness relates to

their reading and writing. Learning to blend phonemes with letters helps children read words.

Learning to segment sounds with letters helps them spell words.

If children do not know letter names and shapes, they need to be taught them along with

phonemic awareness.

Relating sounds to letters is, of course, the heart of phonics instruction, which is the

subject of the next section of this booklet.

Phonemic awareness instruction is most effective when it focuses on only one or two types of phoneme manipulation, rather than several types. Children who receive instruction that focuses on one or two types of phoneme manipulation

make greater gains in reading and spelling than do children who are taught three or more

types of manipulation.

One possible explanation for this is that children who are taught many different ways to

manipulate phonemes may become confused about which type to apply. Another explanation

is that teaching many types of manipulations does not leave enough time to teach any one

type thoroughly. A third explanation is that instruction that includes several types of

manipulations may result in teaching children more difficult manipulations before they

acquire skills in the easier ones.

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Phoneme manipulation When children work with phonemes in words, they are manipulating the phonemes. Types of phoneme manipulation include blending phonemes to make words, segmenting words into phonemes, deleting phonemes from words, adding phonemes to words, or substituting one phoneme for another to make a new word.

Blending When children combine individual phonemes to form words, they are blending the phonemes. They also are blending when they combine onsets and rimes to make syllables and combine syllables to make words.

Segmenting (segmentation) When children break words into their individual phonemes, they are segmenting the words. They are also segmenting when they break words into syllables and syllables into onsets and rimes.

SOME COMMON PHONEMIC AWARENESS TERMS

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Questions you may have about phonemic awareness instruction

Which activities will help my students acquire phonemic awareness? Your instruction to increase children’s phonemic awareness can include various activities in

blending and segmenting words. Clearly, however, you should provide your students with

instruction that is appropriate for their level of literacy development. If you teach younger

children or less able, older readers, your instruction should begin with easier activities, such

as having children identify and categorize the first phonemes in words. When the children can

do these activities, move on to more difficult ones.

Which methods of phonemic awareness instruction will have the greatest impact on my students’ learning to read? You can use a variety of teaching methods that contribute to children’s success in learning to

read. However, teaching one or two types of phoneme manipulation—specifically blending

and segmenting phonemes in words—is likely to produce greater benefits to your students’

reading than teaching several types of manipulation.

Teaching your students to manipulate phonemes along with letters can also contribute to

their reading success.

Your instruction should also be explicit about the connection between phonemic

awareness and reading. For example:

Teacher: “Listen: I’m going to say the sounds in the word jam—/j/ /a/ /m/.

What is the word?”

Children: “Jam.”

Teacher: “You say the sounds in the word jam.”

Children: “/j/ /a/ /m/.”

Teacher: “Now let’s write the sounds in jam: /j/, write j; /a/, write a; /m/, write m.”

Teacher: (Writes jam on the board.) “Now we’re going to read the word jam.”

Which of my students will benefit from phonemic awareness instruction? Phonemic awareness instruction can help essentially all of your students learn to read,

including preschoolers, kindergartners, first graders who are just starting to read, and older,

less able readers.

Phonemic awareness instruction can help most of your students learn to spell. Instruction

can be effective with preschoolers, kindergartners, and first graders. It can help children from

all economic levels.

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How much time should I spend on phonemic awareness instruction? You do not need to devote a lot of class time to phonemic awareness instruction. Over the

school year, your entire phonemic awareness program should take no more than 20 hours.

Your students will differ in their phonemic awareness. Some will need more instruction

than others. The best approach is to assess students’ phonemic awareness before you begin

instruction. Assessment will let you know which students do and do not need the instruction,

which students should be taught the easier types of phoneme manipulation (such as

identifying initial sounds in words), and which should receive instruction in more advanced

types (such as segmenting, blending, deletion/addition, and substitution).

Should I teach phonemic awareness to individual students, to small groups, or to the whole class? In general, small-group instruction is more effective in helping your students acquire phonemic

awareness and learn to read. Small-group instruction may be more effective than individual or

whole-group instruction because children often benefit from listening to their classmates

respond and receive feedback from the teacher.

Do we know enough about the effectiveness of phonemic awareness instruction for me to implement it in my classroom? Yes. Bear in mind, however, that phonemic awareness instruction is not a complete reading

program; it cannot guarantee the reading and writing success of your students. Adding well-

thought-out phonemic awareness instruction to a beginning reading program or to a remedial

reading program is very likely to help your students learn to read and spell. Whether these

benefits are lasting, however, will depend on the comprehensiveness and effectiveness of the

entire literacy curriculum.

Phonemic awareness is • the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate individual sounds—phonemes—

in spoken words. Phonemic awareness is important because • it improves children’s word reading and reading comprehension. • it helps children learn to spell. Phonemic awareness can be developed through a number of activities, including asking children to • identify phonemes, • categorize phonemes, • blend phonemes to form words, • segment words into phonemes, • delete or add phonemes to form new words, and • substitute phenomes to make new words. Phonemic awareness instruction is most effective • when children are taught to manipulate phonemes by using the letters of

the alphabet. • when instruction focuses on only one or two rather than several types of

phoneme manipulation.

SUMMING UP

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Phonics Instruction

Phonics instruction teaches children the relationships between the letters (graphemes) of

written language and the individ