As more and more schools begin to embrace the big ideas behind the Science of Reading and shift their literacy model away from a “Balanced Literacy” approach. The following quote comes to mind: This quote from an esoteric German filmmaker speaks to the importance of clear visions. Concise, clear visions bridge the present to the future. They ensure we follow an effective path to better ourselves and others. Within the literacy world right now most districts and schools know what we have done in the past is not working. But bringing change is not as easy as flipping a switch. There are so many different levels of change that need to happen: state and federal funding, teacher and school leader preparation, local school boards, district priorities, individual school leader and teacher decision making. These different levels of change ultimately determine if students will get high-quality instruction aligned to the science of reading. Ideally, this change starts with vertically adopting curriculum aligned to evidence-based research. Unfortunately, vertically adopting evidence-based literacy High-Quality Instructional Materials (HQIMs) can seem like an overwhelming task, especially with all of the controversy around early literacy curriculum. Luckily, adopting HQIMs can be broken into three easy steps! It all begins with setting the clear vision our esoteric German filmmaker so passionately espouses:
Here are a list of high-quality resources aligned to each of the steps in the HQIM adoption process. In future posts this semester we will explore each of these steps in depth: 1. 👓Creating Vision:
2. 📖Adopting Materials:
⛑️ If you are already in need of support implementing each step, there are great nonprofits out there that can help:
High-Quality Instructional Materials can be an absolute game changer for students' ability to achieve at grade-level and beyond! But remember, all change requires a clear vision in order for success to be a reality!
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The Research:
In the 2007 research, Components of Reading Ability: Multivariate Evidence for a Convergent Skills Model of Reading Development, researchers Vellutino, Tunmer, Jaccard, and Chen aimed to solidify the relationship between different components of literacy and their influence on the literacy skills of older and younger learners. The Convergent Skills Model is a theoretical framework that shows the causal or influential relationship between different early literacy skills and how they affect overall reading ability. A picture of the model can be found here:
As you can see, there is a lot going on here. The main focus of the Convergent Skills Model is to see the relationship between early and late literacy skills: decoding and phonological awareness influence later skills spelling, grammatical structure, and overall reading comprehension.
Data and Method:
The researchers designed this study dividing 497 students into groups of older (6th and 7th grade) and younger (2nd and 3rd grade). All the students came from middle to upper class neighborhoods in Albany, New York. The participants for the study were selected using screener tools to group and exclude students based on ability. The findings of this research found very strong correlation in the following areas between young and older readers:
While this is not all the data generated by the student, it is the most relevant data that showed the strong relationship between early literacy decoding skills, oral language comprehension, syntax, and overall reading comprehension.
One of the limitations of the method used in this research is the lack of a true norm in terms of the demographic diversity of the subjects. In ensure a more robust data set, researchers should aim to redo the experiment across a more diverse subset of students from different income, racial, and location designations.
Results:
The results of this study showed that 1.) there is statistically a relationship between the different literacy skills in younger and older readers, and 2.) that have some causal relationship with each other. These results give strong evidence to the Convergent Skill Model as a solid framework for thinking about the inter-relation between different literacy skills. It also shows the validity of the Simple View of Reading, created by Tunmer and Gough back in 1986:
What this all means is that early literacy skills and oral language comprehension have a huge overall impact and predictive quality in determining overall reading ability in students. The Convergent Skills Model, now given increased validation based on the research, helps us go deeper in being able to really see which skills influence other skills across the developmental spectrum of readers.
Application and Measurement in the classroom:
While all this is theoretically great, what does it mean for classroom teachers? Well the results of the research are almost like a crib sheet on what we should focus on to influence later reading skills in students, for example look at this relationship:
What this data is telling us is that there is a strong relationship between overall reading comprehension in older students and word identification in younger students. An elementary school literacy teacher should therefore invest time in word identification development to help promote overall reading skills in students as they get older.
Here is a list of the early reading skills, what they will influence the most as your students get older, resources you can use to promote those skills, and assessments you can use to measure growth in your classroom now:
Closing Thoughts:
This research on the Convergent Skills Model of Reading Development acts a spot light for us as educators. It can help us understand where to focus our efforts with students to help their overall reading development as they get older. This research also gives us a deep understanding of how the brain uses different reading skills to promote reading development as students get older. This ultimately helps reinforce the goal of using the science of reading to inform classroom instruction.
References:
Denton, C. A., & Al Otaiba, S. (2011). Teaching Word Identification to Students with Reading Difficulties and Disabilities. Focus on exceptional children, 2011, 254245149. Eddy, R. M., Ruitman, T. H., Hankel, N., Matelski, M. H., Schmalstig, M., & Newton, X., (2011). Words Their Way: Word Study in Action Intervention Efficacy Study Final Report. Cobblestone Applied Research & Evaluation, INC. Retrieved from: http://donaldrbear.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/wtw-final-report-revised.pdf Gold, J., & Gibson, A. (2020). Read Aloud to Build Comprehension. Reading Rockets, 2020 retrieved from: https://www.readingrockets.org/article/reading-aloud-build-comprehension Shanahan, T. (2005). The National Reading Panel Report: Practical Advice for Teachers. Learning Point Associates. Retrieved From: https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED489535.pdf Vellutino, F. R., Tunmer E. W., Jaccard, J. J., & Chen, R., (2007). Components of Reading Ability: Multivariate Evidence for a Convergent Skills Model of Reading Development. Scientific Studies of Reading, 2007, 11(1), 3-32. Retrieved From: [Link] |