The journal Education Week, together with Wilson Language Learning, recently ran a quiz about early literacy learning, in which they asked teachers and parents about appropriate techniques for children learning to read. Here’s a summary of their findings.
1. What is phonemic awareness?
Phonemic awareness is being able to recognize and manipulate the sounds in a language. It’s a critical early literacy skill.
2. What has been found to be ineffective in reading instruction, particularly concerning comprehension skills?
“Skill of the week” instruction is where the teacher works on comprehension skills sequentially without using a broader framework. It’s been found to be ineffective in reading instruction. Kay Wijekumar, a professor at Texas A&M University, explains, “Routines like these don’t give students a framework for identifying which are the most important pieces of information in a text.” It’s important to use words in context and tie skills to relevant student knowledge more than just using them for the exercise.
3. Contrary to common writing advice, a new study suggests that exposure to complex sentences like the passive voice in spoken language can benefit young learners in what way?
“Avoid the passive voice” is a common directive in writing assignments. But for new readers, exposure to passive construction — and other more complex sentences in spoken language — may help them develop better reading comprehension. A new study on early language acquisition indicates that preschool and kindergarten-aged children exposed to a wider array of spoken language had better comprehension of the passive voice and other complex sentences, and they were quicker to correct misunderstandings than peers with smaller receptive language. The study was published in the Royal Society’s Science journal.
4. Why is acknowledging students’ home languages and dialects important for supporting their reading development, particularly regarding phonemic awareness?
Acknowledging students’ home languages and dialects supports their reading development because it helps teachers understand how other languages and dialects differ from standard English, including things such as the number of phonemes, guiding more accurate assessment and instruction.
5. Decades of research indicate that what type of instruction is the most effective way to help beginning readers start decoding words?
Decades of research have shown that instruction in phonics — teaching children how letters represent sounds, and how to blend those sounds together to make words — is the most effective way to allow early readers to start decoding words.
6. Why is it important to teach high-frequency words, even those that might be phonetically irregular, early in a child’s reading journey?
In research, a “sight” word is defined as any word a reader can recognize automatically. The lists of sight words are composed of words that have a high frequency in text, with the hope that children will learn to read them on sight. Approximately 300 of these high-frequency words make up three-quarters of the words in printed English. When these high-frequency words become automatic for students, reading becomes easier, and they can turn their attention to the text’s meaning.
