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The Reading Journey Asimpleviewofreadingdescribesthreecomponents–wordrecognition,makingmeaningandfluency.Whilstthissoundsastraightforwardrecipe,becomingareaderisactuallyalongerandmorecomplexprocessthanmanyofusrealize.Mostofthetime,skilledreadersdon’tneedtothinkabouttheprocessofreadingastheyread.Itrequireslittleoftheirconsciouseffortbecausetheyhavealreadymasteredthesmooth,seamlessintegrationofanumberofunderlyingcoreskills.Asthewell‐knownsportsclothingadvertisementsays,skilledadultreaders“Justdoit”.

Asskilledreaders,itiseasytolosesightofthejourneyoflearningtoread.Howeveradultshelpingyoungchildrenlearntoreadwillneedtoanalyseandthinkaboutwhatisinvolvedinthiscomplexprocess.

Scarborough(2001)providesamodelofskilledreading,likeningittoatightlywovenrope,madeupofanumberofsolidstrands.Shetalksoftwobroadsetsofsub‐skillsthatcontributetoreadingsuccess–languagecomprehensionandwordrecognition.Shestressesthataspectsoflanguage,suchasvocabularyknowledge,theabilitytoreasonandtheawarenessofgrammarandsentencestructure,needtobestrategicallyappliedasweread.Shealsodescribesthewordrecognitionsub‐skillsofphonologicalawareness,decodingandsightwordrecognition,whichmustbecomeincreasinglyautomaticinordertosupportfluentandaccuratereading.

Anotherusefulanalogyisthatreadingisakintotheconstructionofahouse.Allhousesneedasolidfoundation.Ifthebuildertakesshortcutsintheconstruction,thestabilityofthewholebuildingisatrisk.Thesamecanbesaidforlearningtoread.Youneedasolidfoundationofcoreskillstobetheessentialbuildingblocks.Theseskillsovertimebecomeincreasinglyaccurateandautomaticandthisallowstheattentionofthereadertobedevotedtounderstanding,thinkingandenjoyment.Iftherearegapsorweaknessesintheunderlyingknowledgeorprocessingskillsofthestudent,thenreadingwillbeerrorprone,aswellasslowandlaboured.

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BeginnerreaderandtheCompetentorSkilledreader–someessentialdifferences

Beginnerreadersarejustlearningthesub‐skillsofreadingandmayonlybeabletoattendtoonethingatatime.Unfamiliarwithanduncertainabouttherelationshipbetweensoundsandletters,theirreadingisoftenslowandhesitant.Theextraeffortthatbeginnerreadersneedtomaketodecipherthewordsonthepageissometimesattheexpenseofcomprehensionandfluency.Inaddition,theymaylooktothepicturesforcluesormakeaguessfromthecontextofthestory.Thesestrategies,ifoverused,arecounterproductiveinthejourneyoflearningtoread.

Beginnerreadersarelikeyoungchildrenlearningtowalk.Initiallyyoungchildrenusealltheirattentionandcognitiveenergytostaybalancedandfocusedenoughtotaketheirfirsttentativesteps.Graduallythroughpracticeandincreasedconfidencetheycanwalkwithoutholdingontothefurniture.Afterafurtherperiodofconsolidationtheyhavethecapacitytocarrysomethingwhilstwalkingortoeventowalkbackwards.Butearlyskillsarevulnerable–childrenmayfalloveriftheybecometiredordistractedorifthesurfacebecomesuneven.Eventually,howeverchildrenlearntowalkandevenrunwitheaseandwithlittleconsciousthought,evenwhilsttalking,eatingorlaughing.

Similarly,learningtoreaddemandsnearlyallofabeginnerreader’sattention,thinkingandenergy.Oncetheearlyskillshavebeenmasteredhowever,theattentionandmemory“load”isconsiderablyreduced.Newenergybecomesavailableforfurtherlearning.Newskillsarethenbuiltuponthissolidfoundation.

Incontrastskilledreaderscandoit“all”effortlesslyandstrategically‐recognizewords,comprehendthetextandreadwithfluency.Theyreadfluentlyandwithcomprehensionbecausetheyhavealsoachievedfluencyandautomaticityintheunderlyingprocessesinvolvedwithreading.Whenreading,skilledreaderscancallonmanyareasofknowledgealmostsimultaneously.Thismulti‐levelprocessingenablesthemtorapidlypredictandconfirmthetext.Howeverwhenthegoinggetstough,perhapswhenthemeaningofasentenceislostortheyencounteradifficultword,theycanrelyonsolidskillsandstrategiestoassistthem.Theskilledreaderisabletoconsciouslyapplyavarietyofstrategieswhenandifneeded.Theycanforexample,soundoutthepronunciationofamulti‐syllableplacename,accessknowledgeofspellingrulesandrhymepatternsorfigureoutawordanditsmeaningbyapplyingtheirknowledgeofspellingderivations.Forexample,theaboriginalword‘Kurrookarrook’(meaningkoalawithyoung)or‘insignificancy’.

Ifreadingisajourney,whohasthemap?

Afteranalysingtheresearchliteratureonreadinginstruction,theNICHD(2000)concludedthatthefollowingfiveelementswereessentialforeffectiveliteracyinstruction:phonologicalawareness,phonics(decoding),vocabulary,comprehensionstrategiesandfluency.

Allstudentswillbenefitfromtheteachersharingthe“readingmap”withthem.Somechildrenseemtomaketheirwayonthereadingjourneywithrelativeease,nomatterwhatteachingtheyencounter.Thisshouldnothoweverdistractteachersfromtheneedtohaveathoroughknowledgeofwhatisinvolvedinlearningtoread.Teachersmusthavethe“map”tohelpguideeachchildalongtheroad.Youngchildrenneedexplicitteachingandtheyneedtobegiventhe

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opportunitytoreachmasteryandautomaticityinthesub‐skillsthatcontributetoreading.Wemustalsoshowthemhowtodevelopandbringlanguagecomprehensionstrategiesintoplaybefore,duringandafterreading.

Anotheraspectof“havingthemap”isforteacherstoprovidetextsforyounglearnersthatmatchtheirskilllevelandthatareappropriatetotheirinterests.Itisalsoimportantthatteacherssharetheirreadingmapwiththeparents.Thiswillhelpparentsformrealisticexpectationsandappreciatetheirchild’seffortandprogressalongthereadingjourney.

Embarkingonthereadingjourney

Weacknowledgethatthereadingjourneybeginsalongtimebeforechildrencometoschool.Wecannotoverestimatetheimportanceofsharingstorieswithyoungchildren.Manyofourpreviousnewslettersdescribethisandmakesuggestionsaboutusingbookstoenhanceyoungchildren’slanguage.ForexampleNewsletternumber19(June2007)SharedStories–preparingforliteracy.

Decodingisoneoftheessentialskillsthatchildrenneediftheyaretobecomeindependentreaders.Decodingistheabilitytoapplyknowledgeofletter‐soundrelationshipstopronouncewrittenwordscorrectly(LoveandReilly,2009).Whilstslowatfirst,children’sdecodingbecomesquickerwithrepeatedpracticeuntiltheseearlywordsbecomesightwords.Adecodingstrategyprovidesstudentswiththekeytounlockingnewwordsinreading.Nolongerreliantontheteacheroradulttotellthemtheword,studentscanbecomeactivelyinvolvedindiscoveringwordsandpatternsforthemselves.Theycanbedescribedas‘selflearners’.

Hempenstallin2005saysgoodreadersknowthelettersofthealphabetandthesoundstheyrepresentandtheyknowhowtoblendthesetoformwords.Throughrepeatedcorrectreadings,theybuildupa‘neuralmodeloftheword’inthebrain–specificallytheparieto‐temporalarea.Overtime,otherareasofthebrainconsolidatethisneuralmodelsothatthewordscanberecognizedinstantlyandautomatically.Itissaidthatnormallydevelopingstudentsneedbetween4–14accurate‘soundingouts’tocreatethefirmlinksthatareneeded.Manyopportunitiestoseetheword,blendthesoundsandheartheassociatedspokenlabelarerequiredbeforeitwillbecomeasightword.

Somechildren,whoareatriskofliteracydifficulty,displayproblemswiththespeedofprocessinginformationandinparticularthespeedofprocessingsounds.Thesechildrenrequireconsiderablymoreexposurestosoundingoutwordsandblendingsounds.Thereforeitisreallycriticalthattheirearlylearningexperiencesincludestructuredsystematicinstructioninphonologicalawarenessandphonicsiftheyaretoachievetherequiredfluencyandautomaticity.

Ofcoursechildrenalsolearntovisuallymemorizesomeearlywords.Itislikelythattheywillsoonrecognizebysight,theirnameandothervisuallydistinctivewordsthattheyseefrequently,forexamplethesignforSTOPorCOLES.Forthosechildrenwithagoodvisualmemory,thiscaninitiallybeaverysuccessfulmethod.Howeverresearchshowsthatasastrategy,relianceonvisualmemoryaloneisonlyashort‐termsolution.Therearetoomanywordstolearnandchildrensoonreachtheircapacityforusingvisualmemoryalone.

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Ultimately,childrenwillneedthefollowingcoreskills:

‐ phonological(sound)awareness‐ makingaconsistentmatchbetweensoundsandlettersand‐ applyingthisknowledgetothetaskofbreakingwordsintocomponentletters‐ recallingtheirassociatedsoundsand‐ blendingthesetoformwords.

Preparingforthereadingjourney

Phonologicalawareness

Childrenwhoarefamiliarwiththephonologicalawarenessskillsofblendingsoundstomakewordsandbreakingwordsupintotheirsounds(segmenting)willbemoreconfidentwhentheyneedtoapplytheseskillstoreadingandspelling.Evenveryyoungchildrenenjoyplayingauditoryblendingandsegmentinggames,especiallywhenteachersexplainthetasksclearlyandusephysicalpropsforsupport.

• A‘robot’orpuppetcanbeinvolvedintheactivity–givingthechildren“brokenup”orsegmentedwordstobeblendedor“putbacktogether”.Forexample:/f//ee//t/.Whatistheword?

• Whendemonstratingblendingsounds,itisusefulatfirsttousewordsthatcontaincontinuantsounds,asinthewordsman(man)orfish(fish).Thisallowsyoutokeepthestreamofsoundgoingasyoumovetothenextsound.

• Children,whoarehavingdifficultytrackingandblendingthesoundstomakeaword,canbesupportedwithextrameaningclues.Forexample:“Itisapartofmybody/f/ee//t/.”Alternativelyorinaddition,rhymecluescanbegiven.“It’sapartofmybodyanditrhymeswithseat/f//ee//t/.”

• Segmentingthesoundsinaspokenwordisadifficultandabstracttask.Youcanhelpchildrentounderstandthetaskbyusingaphysicalactivity,suchasmovingablock,torepresenteachsound.Forexample:”Whatsoundscanyoufindintheword‘fish’?

/f//i//sh/

• Besuretobuildupslowlyfrom2soundedwordssuchas‘knee’,to3soundedwordssuch

as‘boat’or‘sock’.Four‐soundedwordsofteninvolveablendof2consonants,eitheratthestartoftheword(e.g.clap)orattheend(e.g.fist).Itwilltakepracticeforchildrento“teaseapart”thesecloselyoccurringsounds.Wizard(LoveandReilly2002)providescardpacksandagameboardforpracticeintheseskills.

Sound­letterlinks

• Successfuldecodingdependsalsoonreliableandautomaticsound‐letterlinks.Ifchildrendonotrecognizeaparticularwordbysighttheywillneedtoexamineeachletter/lettergroupandbeabletoquicklyassociateitwithitssound,beforeblendingthesesoundsto

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approximatetheword.Amultisensoryapproachtoteachingprovidesmaximumlearningopportunitiesandreinforcementforsoundletterlinks.Forexample,whenlearningtheconnectionbetweenthesound/m/anditsletterm‐saying,listening,touching,moving,copying,singingandameaningfulcontext‐allcontributetothelearningexperience.YoucanrefertoSingingAlphabetPack(2010)orNewsletter22(November2007)LinkingSoundsandLettersformoreinformation.Decoding/spelling

• Whensoundingoutwrittenwordschildrenneedtofirstsegmentwordsintounits(letters),translateeachlettertosoundknowledgeandthenblendthesesoundstoformarecognizableword.

• Weknowthatthereisnotalwaysaonetoonecorrespondencebetweensoundsandletters.Howeverchildrenwillneedtolearnthecommonandconsistentmatchupsandspellingpatternsfirst.Overtimetheywillbecomemoreconfidentandabletotacklethelessconsistentorlessfrequentmatchups.

• Blocksorcounterscanbemovedintosquaresorspacesonagrid,torepresentthesoundswithinaword.Letterscanbewrittenonthegridorbelowtheblockstoshowchildrenhowsoundsandlettersmatchup.(plasticormagneticlettersareanalternative)Althoughthewords‘hot’and‘shock’bothhave3sounds,childrencanlearnthatthatmorelettersareneededinexample2.

E.g.1

hot

E.g.2

shock

• Itisalsoessentialthatchildrenbegivensimplesuitabletexts,sothattheycanreadfora

realpurpose.Askyourschoolorlocallibrarianforgoodchildren’sbookswithfewwordsthatstilltellameaningfulandengagingstory,forexample‘Dogin,Catout’byAustralianauthorGillianRubenstein.DecodabletextsthatuseprimarilyphonicallyregularwordsincludeFitzroyReadersandDandelionbooks.

• Aswell,childrenwillenjoyplayingcardgamesfeaturingtheirnewlylearnedwords.Howeverrememberthatalthoughpracticeindecodingisimportant,itisonlyameanstoanend–theautomatic‘sight’recognitionofthewords.

Empowerment

ResearchfromNewZealandtellsusthatinestablishinganidentityasareaderitisimportantforyounglearnerstohaveearlysuccess.Chapman,Tunmer&Prochnow(2000)examinedthe

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relationshipbetweenacademicselfconceptandmeasuresofreadinginbeginningschoolchildrenandfoundthatdifferencesintheirselfconcepts–ascompetentorlesscompetent–appearedwithinthefirsttwomonthsofstartingschool.Thisisparticularlyearlyonthe‘readingjourney’.

Learningtoreadinvolvestheteaching,learningandpracticeofanumberofskills.Literacyprogresswillvarywidelybetweenchildrenbutalsoatdifferenttimesforanyparticularchild.Childrenwillneedreassuranceanddemonstrationthattheyaremakingprogress.Weneedtoensurethatliteracyinstructionisequippingstudentswithboththewordrecognitionandthelanguagecomprehensionstrandsofknowledge,sothattheycanbecomeconfidentandskilledreaders.

Finally

Overthepastfewdecadestherehavebeendifferentwaystodescribereadingandhowbesttoteachit.Inthelightoftheresearchthatisnowavailablehowever,wehopethatdebatehasgivenwaytodecisiveactionandthatallteachersareapplyingwhatweknowisbestpractice.Youngchildrenembarkingontheirreadingjourneymustbetaughtexplicitly!

Weknowthatreadingisaverycomplexcognitiveprocessinvolvingmanyareasofthebrain.Wealsoknowthatthereisasetofreadingsub‐skillsthatare‘nonnegotiable’inourplanningforinstruction.Theseareessentialingredientsforthe‘readingmap’.

Paralleltothechildren’sjourneytowardsbecominganindependentreaderisthemodelthatweprovideaswereadtoandwithchildren.Bycontinuingtoexposechildrentotherichandinformativelanguageofbookswearerevealingtothemwhatreadingoffersandnurturingcommunicationatthesametime.

ReferencesandResources:

Chapman,J.W.,Tunmer,W.E.,&Prochnow,J.E.(2000).Earlyreadingrelatedskillsandperformance,readingself‐concept,andthedevelopmentofacademicself‐concept:Alongitudinalstudy.JournalofEducationalPsychology,92,703‐708.DandelionReaderswww.dsf.net.auorwww.learninglogic.com.auFitzroyReaderswww.fitzprog.com.auHempenstall,K.(2005)Preventingandovercomingreadingfailure,workshoppresentedfortheDyslexiaassessmentandEducationCentre.TheParksideInn,Bundoora.http://mams.rmit.edu.au/y88f8sk983yk.doc

Love,E.andReilly,S.(2009)ASoundWay–PhonologicalAwarenessforEarlyLiteracyandinteractivewhiteboardCD.PearsonEdcuationFreephone:1800656685

Love,E.andReilly,S.(2010)SingingAlphabetPackwww.loveandreilly.com.auLove,E.andReilly,S.(2002)Wizardwww.loveandreilly.com.auNICHD–nationalInstituteofChildHealthadHumanDevelopment(2000)http://www.nichd.nih.gov/reading.cfm