WEBVTT 00:00:00.560 --> 00:00:03.439 This is The Reading Instruction Show. I'm your 00:00:03.439 --> 00:00:07.339 host as always. The genial one, Dr. Andy Johnson. 00:00:07.639 --> 00:00:11.519 Topic of today's podcast is called Understanding 00:00:11.519 --> 00:00:16.239 Reading. The purpose. The reader will get a general 00:00:16.239 --> 00:00:20.539 sense of what reading is. The behavioral objective. 00:00:21.239 --> 00:00:23.920 The reader will be able to, or the listener, 00:00:24.440 --> 00:00:27.260 differentiate between a simplistic view of reading, 00:00:27.519 --> 00:00:32.479 SVR, and an interactive view of reading IVR. 00:00:33.560 --> 00:00:38.179 So let's define our terms up front. In academic 00:00:38.179 --> 00:00:41.320 writing related to reading instruction, it's 00:00:41.320 --> 00:00:45.579 easy to throw out terms higgledly -piggledly 00:00:45.579 --> 00:00:49.280 and assume that everyone has the same understanding. 00:00:50.240 --> 00:00:54.659 But too often this is not the case. And this 00:00:54.659 --> 00:00:58.380 has led to many of the misunderstandings, the 00:00:58.380 --> 00:01:01.899 un -understandings, and inaccuracies currently 00:01:01.899 --> 00:01:04.900 being propagated by my science of reading friends. 00:01:05.719 --> 00:01:10.819 So to avoid this, I am going to regularly define 00:01:10.819 --> 00:01:15.099 my terms in my podcast and in this book I'm writing. 00:01:15.280 --> 00:01:18.719 And this is from chapter one of a book I am writing 00:01:18.719 --> 00:01:22.819 called How to Teach Reading. Imagine that. So, 00:01:22.859 --> 00:01:27.060 important terms. Phonics. Putting sounds to letters 00:01:27.060 --> 00:01:31.280 and letters to sounds. Phonics instruction. Teaching 00:01:31.280 --> 00:01:36.680 children how to sound out words using phonics. 00:01:37.540 --> 00:01:41.060 The code. The arrangement of letters on a page. 00:01:42.379 --> 00:01:45.980 Decoding. Using phonics to sound out a word in 00:01:45.980 --> 00:01:50.640 print that is not recognized by the reader. Reading. 00:01:50.879 --> 00:01:54.780 creating meaning with print, and non -system 00:01:54.780 --> 00:01:58.859 reading instruction, isolated reading instruction 00:01:58.859 --> 00:02:04.760 that occurs outside the literacy system. Part 00:02:04.760 --> 00:02:08.379 one, understanding literacy. You can't very well 00:02:08.379 --> 00:02:11.659 teach something if you don't know what that something 00:02:11.659 --> 00:02:16.479 is. So let us first try to understand something 00:02:16.479 --> 00:02:23.710 about literacy. Literacy is a system. A system 00:02:23.710 --> 00:02:26.990 is a thing with a bunch of parts that interact 00:02:26.990 --> 00:02:32.710 with each other. A car engine is an example of 00:02:32.710 --> 00:02:36.810 a system. Each part within the system depends 00:02:36.810 --> 00:02:41.969 on all the other parts. Thus, a change in one 00:02:41.969 --> 00:02:46.189 part within the system impacts all the other 00:02:46.189 --> 00:02:50.800 parts. Also, the whole of any system is always 00:02:50.800 --> 00:02:55.599 more than the sum of its parts. Literacy is a 00:02:55.599 --> 00:03:00.240 system with five interacting and interdependent 00:03:00.240 --> 00:03:05.400 parts. Reading, writing, speaking, listening, 00:03:06.080 --> 00:03:12.020 and thinking. A change in one part impacts all 00:03:12.020 --> 00:03:16.229 the others. Thus, to most effectively enable 00:03:16.229 --> 00:03:20.789 all children to develop their full literacy potential, 00:03:21.490 --> 00:03:25.349 we must attend to each of the elements within 00:03:25.349 --> 00:03:30.689 the literacy system. This means that good reading 00:03:30.689 --> 00:03:34.789 instruction includes writing, thinking, speaking, 00:03:35.110 --> 00:03:41.090 and listening, as well as reading. Part two, 00:03:41.229 --> 00:03:46.580 the simplistic view of reading. To understand 00:03:46.580 --> 00:03:50.020 reading let's first understand what it's not. 00:03:51.199 --> 00:03:56.099 Reading is not merely sounding out words. However, 00:03:57.020 --> 00:04:02.520 quite a few people insist that it is. This misunderstanding 00:04:02.520 --> 00:04:07.240 is called the simplistic view of reading. The 00:04:07.240 --> 00:04:10.180 simplistic view of reading is strongly influenced 00:04:10.180 --> 00:04:14.759 by behavioral learning theories. According to 00:04:14.759 --> 00:04:17.800 the simplistic view of reading, readers first 00:04:17.800 --> 00:04:21.180 put sounds to each of the symbols they encounter 00:04:21.180 --> 00:04:25.459 on the page. These sounds are put together to 00:04:25.459 --> 00:04:29.189 create words. These words are put together to 00:04:29.189 --> 00:04:33.490 create ideas, and these ideas then magically 00:04:33.490 --> 00:04:37.449 flow from the page to the reader's head. Simple, 00:04:37.670 --> 00:04:44.420 yes? No, it's not simple. It's simplistic. According 00:04:44.420 --> 00:04:47.819 to the simplistic view of reading, once children 00:04:47.819 --> 00:04:51.720 can sound out words efficiently, the ideas will 00:04:51.720 --> 00:04:55.500 flow effortlessly from the page to their brains. 00:04:56.000 --> 00:04:59.079 Thus, the focus of reading instruction according 00:04:59.079 --> 00:05:03.319 to simplistic view of reading practitioners should 00:05:03.319 --> 00:05:09.399 be on sounding out words. Now, admittedly, the 00:05:09.399 --> 00:05:14.089 simplistic view makes good sense. The only problem 00:05:14.089 --> 00:05:17.750 is that it's simplistic and not very effective. 00:05:19.269 --> 00:05:22.850 This focus may lead to higher scores on sounding 00:05:22.850 --> 00:05:26.949 out word measures in the short term, but not 00:05:26.949 --> 00:05:29.509 on creating meaning. And that's the whole reason 00:05:29.509 --> 00:05:34.589 we read, is it not? So creating meaning. Don't 00:05:34.589 --> 00:05:39.800 misinterpret what I'm going to say here. Sounding 00:05:39.800 --> 00:05:43.579 out word instruction or phonics is important. 00:05:44.759 --> 00:05:49.160 Everybody in the world knows this. Everybody. 00:05:50.000 --> 00:05:53.819 And everybody agrees that direct and explicit 00:05:53.819 --> 00:05:59.279 phonics instruction is an essential part of early 00:05:59.279 --> 00:06:03.860 reading. Everybody knows this. But reading is 00:06:03.860 --> 00:06:08.850 much more than sounding out words. Reading is 00:06:08.850 --> 00:06:13.230 creating meaning with print. And meaning is created 00:06:13.230 --> 00:06:17.129 not simply by sounding out words, but by using 00:06:17.129 --> 00:06:21.410 the information in your head to make sense of 00:06:21.410 --> 00:06:25.970 the letter stuff that's on the page. This understanding 00:06:25.970 --> 00:06:31.269 is called the interactive view of reading. The 00:06:31.269 --> 00:06:34.689 information in your head interacts with the information 00:06:34.689 --> 00:06:40.019 on the page to create Meaning. Creating meaning 00:06:40.019 --> 00:06:45.300 is different from sounding out words. I can simply 00:06:45.300 --> 00:06:48.839 put sound symbols together for something written 00:06:48.839 --> 00:06:54.060 in Latin, but these letter clusters are meaningless, 00:06:54.300 --> 00:06:58.339 so I would be merely responding to letter sound 00:06:58.339 --> 00:07:03.779 symbols. And reading is much different from responding 00:07:03.779 --> 00:07:07.980 to stimuli. Ask any mouse in a skitter box if 00:07:07.980 --> 00:07:11.959 you don't believe me. Reading is creating meaning 00:07:11.959 --> 00:07:16.800 with print. This does not mean that sounding 00:07:16.800 --> 00:07:21.439 out words is unimportant. But since creating 00:07:21.439 --> 00:07:25.839 meaning is the whole purpose for reading, Sounding 00:07:25.839 --> 00:07:29.019 out word instruction is more apt to transfer 00:07:29.019 --> 00:07:33.980 to authentic literacy context if it occurs within 00:07:33.980 --> 00:07:38.300 the context of authentic meaning -making experiences. 00:07:39.899 --> 00:07:43.180 Non -system instruction. The last thing I want 00:07:43.180 --> 00:07:45.660 to point out about the simplistic view of reading 00:07:45.660 --> 00:07:50.459 is that it does not address reading within the 00:07:50.459 --> 00:07:56.069 larger literacy system. isolated reading instruction 00:07:56.069 --> 00:07:59.990 that occurs outside the literacy system is called 00:07:59.990 --> 00:08:04.889 non -system instruction. Here reading is taught 00:08:04.889 --> 00:08:09.430 as a separate series of sounding outward skills. 00:08:10.250 --> 00:08:13.069 And despite everything that's known about the 00:08:13.069 --> 00:08:16.569 interactions between reading and oral language 00:08:16.569 --> 00:08:25.279 and writing and listening and thinking, simplistic 00:08:25.279 --> 00:08:30.439 view of reading practitioners still use non -system 00:08:30.439 --> 00:08:34.799 reading instruction. And the question is, why? 00:08:36.259 --> 00:08:39.799 In the interactive view of reading, the interactive 00:08:39.799 --> 00:08:43.120 view of reading is influenced by constructivism, 00:08:43.620 --> 00:08:47.620 schema theory, and information processing theories. 00:08:48.090 --> 00:08:53.549 And according to the interactive view of reading, 00:08:54.230 --> 00:08:57.289 information in the head interacts with the information 00:08:57.289 --> 00:09:01.450 on the page to enable readers to create meaning 00:09:01.450 --> 00:09:06.370 with text. What's in the head is very important 00:09:06.370 --> 00:09:10.110 to the meaning -making process. To illustrate, 00:09:10.490 --> 00:09:14.950 I can read books about literacy instruction quickly. 00:09:15.480 --> 00:09:19.940 and retain much of the information. This is not 00:09:19.940 --> 00:09:23.759 because I'm so smart. Because I'm not. I'm rather 00:09:23.759 --> 00:09:28.700 ordinary. It's because my brain is filled with 00:09:28.700 --> 00:09:32.279 literacy things. I'm familiar with the words 00:09:32.279 --> 00:09:36.019 used and the concepts described, and those things 00:09:36.019 --> 00:09:40.320 are of interest to me. But when this same brain 00:09:40.320 --> 00:09:44.679 tries to read about dendrology, It takes me much 00:09:44.679 --> 00:09:48.379 longer and I retain very little information. 00:09:49.399 --> 00:09:51.580 There's nothing in my head, you see, related 00:09:51.580 --> 00:09:56.279 to dendrology. And since I have very little interest 00:09:56.279 --> 00:10:03.299 in dendrology, I soon give up. The same brain 00:10:03.299 --> 00:10:07.620 is used with both books. The variable was what 00:10:07.620 --> 00:10:13.179 is in the brain. Wait a minute. Don't you have 00:10:13.179 --> 00:10:15.500 to sound out a word before you can make sense 00:10:15.500 --> 00:10:19.600 of it? He said. Well, let me ask you this. How 00:10:19.600 --> 00:10:23.600 many words in this sentence is, if you're reading 00:10:23.600 --> 00:10:27.879 it, are you sounding out? What do you mean? Right 00:10:27.879 --> 00:10:30.840 now, as you're reading this sentence in the book, 00:10:30.960 --> 00:10:35.220 are you sounding out all the words? Oh, well, 00:10:35.539 --> 00:10:40.600 no, you are not. Well, but that's only because 00:10:40.600 --> 00:10:45.320 I know how to read. Exactly. And isn't that what 00:10:45.320 --> 00:10:49.840 we're trying to teach children how to do? Yeah, 00:10:49.899 --> 00:10:52.600 but how can you teach children to read if they 00:10:52.600 --> 00:10:56.980 don't sound out all the words? Exactly, and that's 00:10:56.980 --> 00:11:01.240 the topic of the next chapter. So, four lessons 00:11:01.240 --> 00:11:04.720 here. Number one, beginning readers need to read 00:11:04.720 --> 00:11:07.860 texts that contain words and concepts with which 00:11:07.860 --> 00:11:11.620 they are familiar. One of the most powerful strategies 00:11:11.620 --> 00:11:14.720 is called language experience or the language 00:11:14.720 --> 00:11:18.980 experience approach. Quite simply, students tell 00:11:18.980 --> 00:11:22.120 you things and the teacher writes them down and 00:11:22.120 --> 00:11:25.120 then students are able to use their words and 00:11:25.120 --> 00:11:28.419 experiences to learn phonics and practice reading. 00:11:29.240 --> 00:11:34.110 Direct and explicit Phonics instruction is provided 00:11:34.110 --> 00:11:39.429 within this meaningful context. Lesson two, students 00:11:39.429 --> 00:11:42.029 must be able to read things that are of interest 00:11:42.029 --> 00:11:46.470 to them. This means classroom libraries should 00:11:46.470 --> 00:11:50.649 be filled with high quality books and other reading 00:11:50.649 --> 00:11:55.950 materials at a variety of reading levels. Also, 00:11:56.190 --> 00:11:59.570 students must have daily opportunities to select 00:11:59.570 --> 00:12:03.529 books that are of interest to them. And part 00:12:03.529 --> 00:12:07.529 of this selection process is the freedom to stop 00:12:07.529 --> 00:12:10.090 reading things that are of little interest to 00:12:10.090 --> 00:12:14.009 them. Lesson three, reading instruction should 00:12:14.009 --> 00:12:16.730 include plenty of opportunities to read good 00:12:16.730 --> 00:12:20.809 books as well as to think, write, speak, and 00:12:20.809 --> 00:12:25.340 listen to others. This does not happen with non 00:12:25.340 --> 00:12:28.440 -system reading instruction, or when sounding 00:12:28.440 --> 00:12:32.100 out word skills are emphasized over meaning. 00:12:33.139 --> 00:12:36.799 And the fourth lesson. Everybody in the world 00:12:36.799 --> 00:12:40.179 believes that phonics instruction is essential 00:12:40.179 --> 00:12:44.240 for beginning readers. It's not the what of phonics 00:12:44.240 --> 00:12:47.460 instruction, rather it's the how and the how 00:12:47.460 --> 00:12:51.399 much of phonics instruction that's of issue here. 00:12:51.549 --> 00:12:54.750 This has been The Reading Instruction Show. I 00:12:54.750 --> 00:12:56.730 am your host, Dr. Andy Johnson.