01 Overview of Reading Instruction

Summary

The video script introduces a comprehensive model for reading instruction, focusing on foundational concepts for effective literacy development. It outlines a structured approach starting from kindergarten to third grade, termed the 'learning to read' process. The model emphasizes the importance of concepts about print, such as book handling and directionality, and phonemic awareness, including sound identification and segmentation. It suggests using multi-sensory activities to overcome letter confusions and stresses the necessity of these foundational skills for successful decoding and comprehension, aiming to achieve a high level of reading comprehension by 8th grade.

Takeaways

• 📚 The script introduces a model of reading instruction that is critical for understanding the process of teaching children to read.
• 🔍 The model covers four main areas: foundations of reading, decoding and fluency, vocabulary development, and comprehension development.
• 🎯 The foundations of reading are divided into concepts about print and phonemic awareness, with specific benchmarks assigned to grade levels.
• 🕒 Concepts about print are introduced at 9:00 a.m. on the model's clock, emphasizing the progression from book concepts to sentence and word concepts, culminating in letter names.
• 📖 Phonemic awareness is set at 10:00 a.m., highlighting the development from sound identification to blending and segmenting, with segmenting being a key skill.
• 👶 The learning to read process, abbreviated as 'LTR', is focused on kindergarten through third grade and is considered the initial phase of reading instruction.
• 🔠 The importance of letter names is emphasized, especially for letters that are visually similar and can cause confusion, such as 'p', 'b', 'd', and 'q'.
• 👀 Multi-sensory activities are recommended to help children understand letter names, involving as many senses as possible to enhance learning.
• 🧠 Metacognitive approaches are hinted at as part of the teaching strategy, though not fully explained in the provided script.
• 🔄 The model operates in a clockwise direction, mirroring the movement of a clock's minute hand, to illustrate the progression of reading skills.
• 📈 The script suggests that understanding the foundations of reading and phonemic awareness is crucial for successful decoding and later comprehension skills.

Q & A

What is the primary focus of the model of reading instruction being discussed?

The primary focus of the model is to provide a comprehensive and logical approach to reading instruction, covering the foundations of reading, decoding and fluency, vocabulary development, and comprehension development.

Why is it important to understand the model of reading instruction presented in the script?

Understanding the model is important because it offers a structured way to teach reading, starting from the basics and moving towards more advanced skills, ensuring that students build a strong foundation for reading comprehension by 8th grade.

What are the different stages of reading instruction according to the model?

The stages include the foundations of reading, decoding and fluency (spanning grades 1-3), vocabulary development (grades 4-8), and comprehension development (grades 4-8).

What does the term 'learning to read process' refer to in the context of the model?

The 'learning to read process' refers to the initial stage of reading instruction, which is focused on kindergarten through third grade, and includes the development of foundational reading skills.

What are 'Concepts about print' and why are they important for early reading instruction?

Concepts about print are the basic understanding of how books work and the directionality of text. They are important because they set the stage for children to understand the structure of written language before they start decoding words.

What is 'pheic awareness' and how does it differ from 'Concepts about print'?

Pheic awareness refers to the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate individual sounds in spoken words. It is separate from concepts about print and involves a different set of skills related to the sounds of language rather than the visual aspects of text.

Why is it necessary to teach children to distinguish between upper and lowercase letter names?

Teaching children to distinguish between upper and lowercase letters is important because it helps them recognize the shape and name of each letter, which is crucial for decoding words and understanding written language.

What is the significance of segmenting sounds in the development of reading skills?

Segmenting sounds is significant because it allows children to break down spoken words into individual sounds, which is a foundational skill for decoding and understanding that words are made up of smaller units of sound.

Why are some letters like 'p', 'b', 'd', and 'q' more challenging for children to learn?

These letters are challenging because they are visually similar, which can lead to letter confusion. Children may overgeneralize the concept that objects remain the same no matter how they are oriented, which does not apply to letters.

What are 'multi-sensory activities' and how do they benefit reading instruction?

Multi-sensory activities involve using multiple senses, such as sight and touch, to engage with learning materials. They benefit reading instruction by helping children with letter confusions to better understand letter names through a variety of sensory experiences.

How does the model suggest organizing and teaching the different components of reading instruction?

The model suggests a clockwise approach, starting with the most basic concepts and gradually moving towards more complex skills. This organization helps to ensure that each component is built upon the previous one, creating a solid foundation for reading comprehension.

Outlines

00:00

📚 Foundations of Reading Instruction

The script introduces a model of reading instruction, emphasizing the importance of understanding its components. The speaker outlines the foundations of reading, decoding, fluency, vocabulary development, and comprehension, assigning grade level benchmarks to each. The model is presented as a logical, one-page view that progresses in a clockwise direction, aiming to establish comprehension by 8th grade. The lecture focuses on the 'learning to read' process for kindergarten through 3rd grade, detailing the foundational concepts necessary for early reading success.

05:01

🔍 Concepts About Print and Letter Awareness

This paragraph delves into the specifics of 'concepts about print' and 'phonemic awareness' as foundational to reading. 'Concepts about print' include understanding book mechanics, directionality of text, and word boundaries. 'Phonemic awareness' involves recognizing, blending, and segmenting the sounds in words. The speaker highlights the importance of these concepts for decoding and stresses the need for multi-sensory activities to help children distinguish between visually similar letters. The paragraph also addresses common letter confusions and the role of metacognition in learning.

10:02

🎓 Importance of Segmenting in Reading

The speaker underscores the critical role of segmenting in phonemic awareness, which is essential for decoding. Segmenting involves breaking down words into individual sounds, a skill necessary before children can effectively learn letter-sound correspondence. The paragraph discusses the progression from simple sound identification to complex sound manipulation, with a focus on the importance of these skills for the development of reading fluency and comprehension.

Keywords

💡Reading Instruction Model

The Reading Instruction Model is a conceptual framework presented in the video that outlines the stages and components of teaching reading. It is critical for understanding the structured approach to literacy education. The model is designed to be logical and comprehensive, fitting all information on one page, and is used to guide the discussion on various aspects of reading, including decoding, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension.

💡Foundations of Reading

Foundations of Reading refers to the basic understanding and skills necessary before a child can begin to decode text. In the video, it sets the stage for the learning process, emphasizing the importance of early literacy concepts that form the building blocks for later reading abilities, such as concepts about print and phonemic awareness.

💡Decoding

Decoding is the process of translating written language into spoken language by sounding out the letters and word parts. The video discusses decoding as a key component of early reading instruction, typically beginning in kindergarten and continuing through the early grades, to help children learn to associate letters with their respective sounds.

💡Fluency

Fluency in reading refers to the ability to read text smoothly, quickly, and with appropriate expression. The script mentions fluency as part of the 'learning to read process' during kindergarten through third grade, suggesting that it is an essential skill to be developed alongside decoding for effective reading.

💡Vocabulary Development

Vocabulary Development is the process of increasing a child's knowledge of words, their meanings, and uses. The video places vocabulary development between fourth and eighth grades, indicating it as a continuous process that expands as students encounter new words and contexts in their reading.

💡Comprehension Development

Comprehension Development is the improvement of a reader's ability to understand and interpret text. The video assigns this development from fourth to eighth grade, highlighting it as a long-term goal in reading instruction, aiming for a 'Value of Comprehension' by the end of eighth grade.

💡Concepts About Print

Concepts About Print are the fundamental ideas related to how books and text work, including book orientation, page turning, and understanding the function of a book as a tool. The video script uses concepts about print as an early step in the reading instruction model, emphasizing the importance of these concepts for children who may not have been exposed to books in their home environment.

💡Phonemic Awareness

Phonemic Awareness is the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate individual sounds (phonemes) in spoken words. The video distinguishes it from concepts about print and discusses it as a separate skill set, including sound identification, blending, and segmenting, which are crucial for later decoding of text.

💡Segmenting

Segmenting is a phonemic awareness skill where a child breaks down a spoken word into its individual sounds. The script highlights segmenting as an 'exit criteria' for phonemic awareness, indicating that it is a critical skill for children to master before they can successfully decode words.

💡Letter Names

Letter Names refer to the ability to identify and name both uppercase and lowercase letters of the alphabet. The video emphasizes the importance of letter names as part of the foundational skills in reading, noting that children should be able to recognize different letter shapes and associate them with their respective names.

💡Multi-Sensory Activities

Multi-Sensory Activities are educational practices that engage multiple senses to enhance learning. The script mentions these activities as a method to help children, especially those with letter confusions, understand letter names by using sight, touch, and kinesthetic learning, such as writing in sand or in the air.

Highlights

Introduction to a critical model of reading instruction, emphasizing its logical and comprehensive nature.

Foundations of reading as a key component for understanding the reading process.

Decoding and fluency as initial stages of reading, spanning from kindergarten to third grade.

Vocabulary development and comprehension development as advanced stages, placed from fourth to eighth grade.

The importance of understanding the model's circular, clockwise movement as a metaphor for the reading development process.

The concept of 'learning to read' as a distinct process during kindergarten through third grade.

Teaching the concept of print, including book handling and directionality, as foundational reading skills.

Phonological awareness as a separate and crucial skill from concepts about print, introduced at a later stage.

The significance of segmenting sounds as a high-level phonological awareness skill that is vital for decoding.

The challenges of letter confusion due to visual similarities and strategies to overcome them.

Multi-sensory activities as a method to enhance letter name recognition, especially for letters that are commonly confused.

The role of metacognition in the reading process, though not detailed in the provided transcript.

The necessity of phonological awareness for understanding letter-sound correspondence, a benchmark for first-grade reading.

Activities and concepts critical for establishing a strong foundation in reading, with a focus on early grades.

The model's utility in organizing and understanding the progression of reading skills from basic to advanced levels.

The emphasis on the development of comprehension by eighth grade as the ultimate goal of the reading instruction model.

The presentation of benchmarks for grade levels to structure the teaching and learning of reading skills.

The transcript's aim to provide a clear understanding of the reading process, starting with foundational concepts for early learners.

Transcripts

well let's begin um the first thing that

I want to do is teach you about the

model of reading instruction that is

really critical for you to know and that

model is the one that you see on the

screen and let me just uh point out a

couple of things to you uh before we

begin what I'm going to discuss with you

first will be the foundations of reading

so that you have a really clear

understanding of what it is how um it's

assembled and how you're supposed to to

view it so that we can then talk about

decoding and fluency after we talk about

decoding and fluency I'm going to

discuss vocabulary development and after

vocabulary development I will present

comprehension development now what makes

this model so nice is that really all of

the information fits on one page and it

is a view of reading instruction that is

extremely logical is it correct well

that's really neither here nor there

what I want to do is just a really brief

overview of some benchmarks for grade

levels that I'd like to assign to each

of these levels before we really begin

and start learning about it and starting

with the foundations of reading let's

put this at

kindergarten decoding INF fluency let's

have the span be 1 through third grade

vocabulary development will'll put the

span at Fourth through 8th

grade and comprehension development

let's put that at Fourth to e8th grade

but I'm going to write it out as 8-4

because one of the features of this

model that I'm going to take a few hours

to teach you is that everything in it

moves clockwise just like this so if you

just imagine a minute hand starting uh

like at 9 uh p.m. or 9:00 a.m. or

whatever and sweeping up toward 12:00

coming down through uh 3:00 down here to

6:00 and then back up again that's

really the best way for you to view and

use this model because ultimately what

we're trying to establish is how do we

get a child to have a Valu of

comprehension by 8th grade and there is

a definite view of how that occurs and

there are activities that are associated

with it and it is the model that you and

I are going to be out to be working with

well the first thing that I want to uh

cover with you then is just going to be

kindergarten through third grade reading

instruction and I think it's a it'll be

a good lecture and a good presentation

by the time I'm finished I think you'll

have a really good understanding of what

fluency really is and what I'd like you

to do is just note at the top that the

top of this model is kindergarten

through third grade and we call this the

learning to read process I'm going to

abbreviate but you might want to uh

actually take the time to write it out

but this is called the learning to read

process and the first thing then that

we're going to go over then will be the

things related to learning to read

including these foundations of reading

and decoding

influency so let's begin by looking at

the foundations of reading and once

again we're setting that at kindergarten

and let me try to blow this up in your

window just a little bit and uh move it

uh down so that you can actually see

what I'm doing and I'm going to continue

with just sort of an overview of the

foundations of reading before we

actually dive into it and look at some

activities and some other Concepts that

are uh critical for you to understand

now Concepts about print and pheic

awareness I guess it would help if I

spelled awareness uh correctly but I

we'll get around to that one day just

make that correction for me if you would

Concepts about print we're going to put

that at 900 a.m. that's where we're

going to put Concepts about print at

9:00 a.m. pheic awareness we're going to

set that at 10 a.m. and we're doing that

because I want you to see this both

visually and conceptually that we keep

these areas separate that Concepts about

print is set apart from phic awareness

you can't mix and match in this model

instead what you have to do is

compartmentalize and understand that the

way a lot of reading programs work in

the way that the state standards are

designed they are designed really for

part to whole instruction for the early

grades contrary to what anybody anybody

says so let's look at the first part of

the foundations of reading Concepts

about print concepts about print will

follow from the easiest broadest concept

of something like book Concepts to the

more narrow concept of sentence Concepts

to even a more narrow concept like word

Concepts ultimately ending and I think

you should put a star right here by

upper and lowercase letter names with

this as one the exit

criteria now book Concepts as you know

are simply things like making a book

work like a tool and it's for example

identifying the cover of a

book identifying how to open the book

how to turn pages in the book how to

basically make the book work like a tool

if you have for example two children in

a classroom and one child is making a

house uh out of his uh pile of books and

another child who has the book upside

down down but is pretend reading one

child is thought to be in a better

position to begin to learn to read and

that is the child who is making the book

work like a tool so you will take the

time then to try to teach and model all

of the concepts about just making a book

work like a tool so that children who do

not come from a a family uh where

they're being read to will be in a

better position to learn uh to read to

begin to get these foundations okay well

after the book Concepts Now we move to

sentence concept and this is a simple

matter of directionality and I'll just

write in here

Direction and so directionality simply

means left to right that in English we

go from uh left to right when we read

when we come to the end of the sentence

we don't simply read off the page off

the table and out the window we will

return sweep and things like that so you

can see how things are becoming more and

more narrow we go from book Concepts to

sentence Concepts to this level word

Concepts and these are word boundaries

so let me write in here boundaries if I

may that says boundaries believe it or

not and this is another concept that

spaces if they exist before after a

collection of letters indicate that that

collection of letters is probably a word

now we're dealing with Concepts here so

the child might not be reading anything

at this point they might be looking at a

word like expeditious and you know a few

kindergarteners would probably be able

to decode that one and understand it but

the point is that they'll just look at a

collection of letters and be able to

tell you that it is probably most likely

a

word now above word concepts are these

upper and lowercase letter names and

that's really what we're aiming for that

a child can look at a capital A in a

lowercase a a capital b and a lowercase

b a Capital C in a lowercase C and be

able to identify them when they see them

because the shape is going to indicate

uh the particular letter name that

they're supposed to

say well some of the letters that tend

to lag include p and B and D and Q and

the question of course is why might

those letters lag and the reason is that

they are visually similar if you just

look at your pen right now or whatever

you happen to be writing with and turn

it in a variety of different directions

for example looking at the point or the

Eraser looking at it sideways or up and

down it's still a pen conceptually it

doesn't change the problem with these

letters is that they're too visually

similar so children might have a tough

time early on with with letter

confusions because they overgeneralize

they overgeneralize the idea that no

matter how you turn something the thing

is still the thing when in fact with

letters that's not the case so the types

of activities that we'll review in a

moment include multi-sensory activities

let me write that in here

multisensory multi multi sensory

activities multi-sensory activities are

ones that are very in that that tend to

involve as many senses as possible the

sense of sight the sense of touch uh

they're very kinesthetic they're trying

to use a variety of different ways to

get a child to understand the letter

name especially with these letter

confusions which is why if you've ever

seen in a kindergarten classroom

children writing in sand or writing an

air and so forth is because one

particular sense the sense of sight is

INS sufficient to be able for some

children to discern these letters what

you have to do instead is use a variety

of senses and a variety of skills and a

lot of kinesthetic perhaps even

metacognitive approaches to get them to

understand uh the letter names well I'll

go over metacognition in a little bit

but before I do that let's go to pheic

awareness now if we could and see if I

can't bump that up just a little bit now

the next component is this thing called

uh pheic awareness and something you

should know about pheic awareness is

that that it is in fact separate from

Concepts about print as I said you can't

mix and match as is why we have one

thing at 9:00 a.m. and we have another

skill uh that we're going to develop at

10:00 a.m. well this is going to go from

the easiest to something more difficult

called segmenting sounds identifying

sounds might be simply identifying the

first sound that you hear in cat which

would be a C Sound blending sounds would

be putting all of the sounds uh that you

hear in cat together to make a single

spoken word like this cat and then

segmenting sounds is where you will hear

a spoken word like cat and tear it apart

into C and uh and T now notice how I've

written all of these letters these are

no longer letters by the way anytime you

see a letter between backs slashes you

are indicating phones phones meaning

sounds now the highest level in phic

Awareness is this thing called

segmenting so let's go ahead and put a

little star by segmenting if we could

and understand that that is one of the

exit criteria now segmenting takes many

forms it could be deleting sounds or

counting sounds substituting sounds or

or things like that but really the type

of segmenting that I would be most

interested in having you know is one

where you tear apart the whole word into

its constituent phones like this C A and

T and maybe count them now I know you've

probably already learned this but I I

may not be convinced of this point that

you know exactly why these things are

important now the reason that these

things are so critical is because in

order for a child to do the next thing

which is true decoding instruction

letter sound correspondence which I'm

going to just arbitrarily set at first

grade as sort of a benchmark not as an

absolute but just a benchmark in order

for them to understand letter sound

correspondence they have to have these

foundations so just continue to to

listen at this point and wait for me to

give you the big reveal for why letter

sound correspondence truly depends upon

these foundations now what I want to do

next is go a little bit more in depth in

the concepts about print and pheic

awareness and discuss some activities so

we'll do that next when I come

back