Martin Kozloff

David Gill
December, 2004
This module describes the main features of
Reading First.

 Five major reading skills, or Big

Ideas.
 Three kinds of curricula.
 Four kinds of assessments.
 Systematic and explicit instruction.
 Scientific validation of all aspects of
instruction (the first four items in
this list).
 Reading as a school-wide endeavor.
Five Major Reading Skills, or Big Ideas
Reading First gives educators a clear picture of
reading.

Proficient reading consists of five major skills, or big

ideas.

When these five skills are taught in a logically

progressive sequence, early skills help students to
learn and use the later-taught skills.

This leads to accurate, rapid reading with

comprehension and enjoyment.

More information is on the IDEA website, at

[Link]
hp

Now let’s look at the five main reading skills, or big

ideas.
Five Major Reading Skills, or Big Ideas

The five major reading skills are:

1. Phonemic awareness
2. The Alphabetic principle
 Letter-sound correspondence
r says rrr
 Sounding out, or decoding, words
“rim” -> rrriiiimmm -> rim
3. Fluency
4. Vocabulary
5. Comprehension
 Big Idea 1. Phonemic Awareness:

Phonemic Awareness Is…

The Ability to Hear and to Manipulate Sounds in Words.

There are a dozen ways to hear and manipulate sounds in

words.

These ways are best taught from easier to harder. For

example,

1. Identify words that sound the same and different.

run fun sit mouse hat house

2. Rhyme. can, man, fan, rrr__

3. Count the number of words in a sentence.

The dog sat by the cat = 6 words

Big Idea 1. Phonemic Awareness: Continued
4. Count the number of sounds (phonemes) in a
word.
sat = /s/a/t/ = 3 sounds

5. Blend (make) words from separate syllables and

sounds.

“Listen. ice…..cream. What word?” icecream

“Listen. mmm…aaa…nnn. What word?” man

6. Segment words by identifying the first, last,

and middle (medial) sounds.

“What’s the first sound in rrrruuuunnn?”

Big Idea 1. Phonemic Awareness: Continued

7. Say what a word would be if one

sound were removed (phoneme
deletion).

“Listen… sssaaaat. Take out ssss.

What word now?...” at

8. Say what a word would be if a sound

were replaced with another sound.

“Listen…. ssssiiiit. Take out ssss and

put in fff. What word now?...” fit
Big Idea 1. Phonemic Awareness: Continued

Caution!
1. It’s best to work on only three or
so kinds of phonemic awareness—
not all of them.

2. The best choices are rhyming,

segmenting, and blending.
Big Idea 1. Phonemic Awareness: Continued

3. Connect skill at phonemic awareness

with instruction on the alphabetic
principle—
a. letter-sound correspondence
m says mmm
b. sounding out words
raaannn -> ran

Specifically…
Big Idea 1. Phonemic Awareness: Continued

 Don’t work on phonemic awareness by

itself for weeks and then work on
letter-sound correspondence and
sounding out.

 Instead, in close succession, when you

teach students to hear and manipulate
sounds in words, teach them the letters
that go with those sounds and then to
sound out words made of those letters.
 Continued

Phonemic awareness helps students to read

and to do other literacy skills.

How?

Students who hear and manipulate sounds

(phonemes) and syllables in words, and words
in sentences, can more easily do the following:

1. Remember which sound goes with which

letter.

2. Sound out words. cat k/aaaa/t

3. Say and read sentences smoothly.

Big Idea 1. Phonemic Awareness: Continued

4. Spell.
“How do you spell cat?”

kaaaat. /k/ is c. /a/ is a. /t/ is t.

c a t…cat.

5. Detect and correct errors in reading

and spelling.
“The hou…no hhoorrr…horse ran fast.”
Big Idea 1. Phonemic Awareness: Continued

See
[Link]
[Link] for more information on
phonemic awareness.
Big Idea 2. Alphabetic Principle
The Alphabetic Principle is…
The Ability to Associate Sounds With Letters and to
Use
This Knowledge to Read Words.

The alphabetic principle (sometimes called phonics)

has two
skill-parts.

1. The student knows letter-sound (sound-symbol)

relationships:

m says /mmm/, i says /iii/, and r says /rrr/.

2. The student uses letter-sound knowledge to

sound out or decode words—perhaps letter by
letter at first and then quickly.

“The bike has a bent rrrriiiimmm….rim.”

Big Idea 2. The Alphabetic Principle:
Continued
When students use letter-sound
knowledge to sound out words (the
alphabetic principle, or phonics), they
know exactly what the written word
says.

However,
 Many students are not taught to use
phonics knowledge as the first and most
reliable strategy for identifying words.

 Many students are not taught phonics in

a systematic way.
Big Idea 2. The Alphabetic Principle: Continued

Many students are (wrongly!) taught

to guess using context cues. “What
word fits there?”

So, instead of reading words as

written (“The bike has a bent rim”)
these mistaught students guess…

“The bike has a be…be..bell…

belt….ri…ri…rip. The bike has a belt
rip.”
Big Idea 2. The Alphabetic Principle: Continued

When students can’t read words as written

(can’t read the letters), they try to guess or
“predict” what a word is, using

 Pictures on the page. “A cat picture. Billy

put on his cat.” [The word is “hat.”]

 The shape of a word. “That word looks like it

says ‘baby’.” [The word is “maybe.”]

 A few letters in the word. The child says

“kite” instead of “kit.”

 What seems to fit the meaning of a sentence.

“The lamp fell…down.” [The word is “over.”]
Big Idea 2. The Alphabetic Principle:
Continued

Using these “context cues” is NOT

reading—any more than guessing
answers to math problems is the
same as solving problems.

“Show your work.”

“I can’t.”
“Why not?”
“I guessed.”
Big Idea 2. The Alphabetic Principle: Continued

Students who guess what words say

(because they were taught to do this, or
because they were not taught phonics
systematically, and therefore have to
guess), may never become skillful
readers.

That’s why Reading First stresses

thorough, systematic, and explicit
instruction in the alphabetic principle.

Read more at
[Link]
Big Idea 3. Fluency With Text
Fluency is…
The Effortless, Automatic Ability to Read Words in
Connected Text.

 Fluency means reading with accuracy, speed, and

prosody (pitch, emphasis).

 Fluency is important for enjoyment and comprehension.

If a person struggles with words such as “guilty”

(gu…qu…guil…quil…), the person will also struggle to
figure out the meaning of sentences.

In fact, dysfluent readers spend so much time and

effort trying to figure out what the separate words say,
they can barely pay attention to the meaning of the
sentence.

“The ju..jur….jury found her gu..qu…guil…quil…”) In

other words, they learn very little (e.g., vocabulary,
ideas) from reading.
Big Idea 3. Fluency With Text: Continued
To help students read connected text
(e.g., story passages) accurately,
quickly, and with prosody, it is
important to:

1. Teach students to decode separate

words (regular and irregular)
accurately and quickly—which means
(1) using knowledge of letter-sound
correspondence (not guessing); and
(2) blending the sounds into words.

2. Teach students to self-correct.

“ssiiib… No sssiiip…sip.”
Big Idea 3. Fluency With Text: Continued

3. Provide practice reading words

enough times that it’s almost
automatic; that is, the words become
“sight words.”

4. Provide practice reading text with

which students are already accurate.

5. Encourage students (and model how)

to read faster and faster without
making errors (i.e., more words correct
per minute, or wcpm).
Big Idea 3. Fluency With Text: Continued

Note!
Sight words are not words a student
memorizes. The student still knows
how to decode words letter by
letter.

The student has simply read the

words so often that decoding takes
only an instant.
Learn more about fluency here.

[Link]
 Big Idea 4. Vocabulary
Vocabulary is…
Understanding (receptive) and Using (expressive)
Words to Gain and Express Meaning.

The first three reading skills…

1. Phonemic awareness
2. The alphabetic principle--letter-sound
correspondence and the strategy for sounding
out or decoding words
3. Fluency…
…have to do with the mechanics of reading.

The last two skills—vocabulary and

comprehension—have to do with making sense of
the written word.
Big Idea 4. Vocabulary: Continued

Vocabulary and comprehension can’t be taken for

granted.
 Many students won’t “pick up” these skills.
 Students should be taught systematically and
explicitly how to get and express the meaning of
words and passages.
 This is especially important for students from low
socioeconomic backgrounds. These students
 Are read to less often.

 Hear fewer vocabulary words, and therefore

 Understand and use far fewer words than children

born to working class or professional class families.

Big Idea 4. Vocabulary: Continued

Here are important methods of

vocabulary instruction.
1. Read storybooks to children.
2. Provide direct instruction of new
vocabulary words by:
Selecting important words in a
story.
Explaining or defining the words.
Giving students many chances to
discuss and use the new words.
Big Idea 4. Vocabulary: Continued
3. Teach older students morphemic analysis
(analysis of word parts) to determine
meaning. For example,

“Bisect. Bi means two. Sect means part.

So, bisect means divide into two parts.”

4. Teach contextual analysis--inferring the

meaning
a word from the context in which it occurs.

“The fan’s oscillations cooled everyone in

the room…Sometimes fans move back and
forth. If everyone was cooled, it probably
means the fan blew on everyone. So, oscillate
probably means to move back and forth.”

Find more on vocabulary here.

[Link]
Big Idea 5. Comprehension
Comprehension is…
Reading and Reflecting on a Text to Gain
Meaning

Sentences don’t tell you what they mean.

Students must interact with the text—for
example,

1. Ask questions. “When did Huck see that Jim

was more than a slave?”

2. Check to see if the text gives answers.

3. Reread, and modify interpretations.

4. Connect one sentence with later sentences to

get the flow of the argument or the flow of
events in time.
Big Idea 5. Comprehension: Continued
These comprehension strategies are
learned best when taught explicitly.
This means

1. Setting comprehension
objectives.
For example, students will answer
specific literal (who, what, when),
inferential (why), and evaluative (what
might have happened if…?) questions.

2. Focusing on main ideas in a story

or informational text.
Big Idea 5. Comprehension: Continued

[Link] vocabulary words

important for comprehending the
material.

4. Reading (with students) the material

in manageable chunks, and asking
literal, inferential, and evaluative
questions on each chunk.

[Link] a KWL strategy: students think

about and discuss what I know; what I
want to know; and what I learned.

Learn more about comprehension

here. [Link]
A Comprehensive Set of Curriculum
Materials

No set of curriculum materials

(program) is adequate for teaching all
five main reading skills to all
beginning readers.

Materials may have the following

weaknesses.
 Weaknesses in Curriculum Materials

There are two main weaknesses in

curriculum materials.

1. The scope and sequence (what is

taught and in what order) may not
adequately cover all five skills.

For example, there is too little

instruction on phonemic awareness;
some skills are taught in the wrong
order; there is too little review and
practice.
Weaknesses in Curricula
2. Materials are designed for the average student, and
may not provide the sort of instruction needed by:
 Students with little background knowledge; for
example,
 small vocabulary
 little phonemic awareness
 little knowledge of letter-sound
correspondence

 Students with specific difficulties learning to

read.

For example, some students know how to sound

out words, but they take too long to do it. As a
result, they can’t keep pace as the teacher points
to words on the board and asks the class to read
each word quickly.
Weaknesses in Curricula
Therefore, a comprehensive reading
curriculum will have three sets of materials.

Reading First recommends three kinds of

curriculum materials, or what is sometimes
called the “three-tier model”--which you can
read about at the following websites.
 [Link]
Presentations/[Link]
 [Link]
[Link]
 [Link]
readingfirst/[Link]
 [Link]
[Link]
 [Link]
Three-Tiered Model
The three sets of materials are
 Core. For almost all students.

 Supplemental. To fill gaps in core

materials or to provide additional
instruction to certain students.

 Intervention. Highly focused,

intensive instruction for certain
students.
Core Materials in the Three-Tiered Model

A core reading program should:

1. Cover all five main reading skills,
or big ideas.
2. Be designed to be useful for
almost all beginning readers.
3. Be well-designed, in terms of
sequencing of skills, practice, and
building simpler skills into more
complex wholes, to name a few
features.
Core Materials: Continued
The University of Oregon’s website
states:
“A core reading program is the primary
instructional tool that teachers use to
teach children to learn to read and
ensure they reach reading levels that
meet or exceed grade-level standards. A
core program should address the
instructional needs of the majority of
students in a respective school or
district…Adoption of a core does not
imply that other materials and strategies
are not used to provide a rich,
comprehensive program of instruction.”
Core Materials: Continued
“The core program, however, should serve
as the primary reading program for the
school and the expectation is that all
teachers within and between the primary
grades will use the core program as the base
of reading instruction. Such programs may
or may not be commercial textbook series…
Teaching reading is far more complex than
most professionals and laypersons realize.
The demands of the phonologic, alphabetic,
semantic, and syntactic systems of written
language require a careful schedule and
sequence of prioritized objectives, explicit
strategies, and scaffolds that support
students' initial learning and transfer of
knowledge and skills to other contexts.”
Core Materials: Continued

“The requirements of curriculum

construction and instructional
design that effectively move
children through the ‘learning to
read’ stage to the ‘reading to learn’
stage are simply too important to
leave to the judgment of
individuals. The better the core
addresses instructional priorities,
the less teachers will need to
supplement and modify instruction
for the majority of learners.”
[[Link]
a/core_program.php ]
Core Materials: Continued

Criteria for evaluating core reading

programs, and reviews of many core
programs, can be found here.
 [Link]
[Link]

 [Link]
appendices/con_guide.php

 [Link]
or_rfc_review_2.php
Supplemental Materials in the Three-Tiered Model

Supplementary curricula or programs are

used in two ways.

1. They fill gaps in a core reading program.

For example, a core program may have

too little instruction on rhyming (one
aspect of phonemic awareness), or it may
have too few storybooks connected to its
instruction on decoding and vocabulary.
Therefore, a school or district would
purchase or create materials to give the
additional instruction.
Supplemental Materials in the Three-Tiered Model

2. A core program may not provide

the amount of highly focused
instruction some students need on
certain skills.

For example, some students enter

school with a vocabulary so small
that they don’t know what the
stories are about. Therefore, a
school or district might use a
supplementary program for
accelerating these students’
vocabulary development.
Supplemental Materials in the Three-Tiered Model
Caution. It’s important to select core
and supplementary materials that are
compatible, or at least to train teachers
to make them compatible. For example,
a core program might tell teachers
exactly how to correct errors when
students misread words. For example,
the word is “made” but a student reads
“mad.” “He m….mmm…mad the....”
Teacher. “That word is made. What
word?”
Student. “made.”
Teacher. “Spell made.”
Student. “m a d e”
Teacher. “What word?”
Student. “made.”
Teacher. “Yes, made. Please start the
sentence again, Joey.”
Supplemental Materials in the Three-Tiered Model

However, supplementary materials

might not tell teachers how to
correct reading errors, or they may
suggest a different method
(format). This will confuse
students. So, the school either has
to use core and supplemental
materials that correct errors the
same way, or the school has to
decide that teachers will apply to all
supplementary materials the error
correction format used in the core
program.
Intervention Materials in the Three-Tiered Model
Intervention programs are designed to meet
the needs of students with so little
background knowledge or so much difficulty
learning to read that they need specially
designed instruction and special, additional
time for instruction.

For example, diagnostic assessment may

show that some kindergartners are falling
behind, perhaps because their phonemic
awareness skills are still so weak. Or, some
third graders struggle to comprehend text
because they are still weak on basic
comprehension skills.

In both cases, students would get extra time

for interventions, using materials that focus
on their skill weaknesses.
Intervention Materials in the Three-Tiered Model
Caution. Again, core and intervention
materials should be compatible; e.g.,
both teach the same word identification
and comprehension strategies.

In addition, teachers must ensure that

what students learn during intervention
instruction is transferred to general
(core) reading instruction. For example,
teachers ensure that students are taught
to use their new phonemic awareness
and comprehension skills when they are
with the rest of the class reading
storybooks in the core materials.
Otherwise, intervention instruction will
be of little benefit.
Intervention Materials in the Three-Tiered Model
You can read more about supplementary
and intervention programs at the
following websites.
 [Link]
or_rfc_review_si.php
 [Link]
downloads/primary/booklets/
Essential_Strategies.pdf
 [Link]
downloads/S-I_Review_Full_06-[Link]
 [Link]
downloads/primary/booklets/
[Link]
Four Kinds of Assessments
A rule in Reading First is that instruction should
be rational and accountable. Teachers need
solid information on skills students bring and
do not bring to reading instruction, on progress
they are making during instruction, and how
much progress they made during the year.
Without this information, teachers can’t
successfully:
 Assign students to proper reading groups and
to properly trained teachers.
 Decide if the core program is adequate or if
students need supplemental or intervention
instruction (and on exactly which skills).
 Decide at the end of the year if students are
ready to move to the next year/level of a core
program.

Therefore, Reading First advocates four kinds

of assessments. Each has a different function.
Four Kinds of Assessments: Screening
Screening assessment is used when
students enter a beginning reading
program or at the start of the year.

The function is to determine whether

a student has the entry skills (e.g.,
knowledge of the alphabet, phonemic
awareness, and vocabulary) that are
likely to make instruction in the core
program alone adequate, or whether
the student has specific skill deficits
and learning difficulties that require
supplemental and/or intervention
instruction.
Progress Monitoring: Continued

Progress is monitored on skills

worked on. These assessments
might be done bi-weekly (or more
often) to see how much students’
skill at decoding (sounding out)
words is improving, or how much
fluency (measured as words
correct per minute, wcpm) is
increasing. This information is
used to make decisions.
Progress Monitoring: Continued
Decisions based on progress monitoring:

1. A student should be moved to a reading

group that is progressing more quickly (or
more slowly).

2. A student might get extra practice at

decoding so the student reads connected
text more accurately and quickly.

3. A student’s progress is so slow that

intervention instruction is called for.
However, before that is done, more
information is needed—supplied by
diagnostic assessment, discussed later.
Progress Monitoring: Continued
Progress monitoring also says something
about the quality of a curriculum and/or
the quality of instruction delivered by
teachers. For example,
[Link] teachers use the core program exactly as
instructed but many students make little
progress, this suggests weaknesses in the
core program. The core then might be
reevaluated with the following documents.
 [Link]
con_guide.php
 [Link]
%20a%20Core%20Reading%[Link]
Progress Monitoring: Continued
[Link] in Ms. Black’s class make
excellent progress in the core program,
but students in Ms. Winter’s class do not.
This suggests that Ms. Winter is not
using the core properly. For example,
Ms. Winter may not correct errors, or she
may go to the next lesson before
students master skills in the present one.
In this case, Ms. Winter’s teaching must
be assessed. The inventory, here, shows
how to assess teachers’ reading
instruction.

 [Link]
[Link]
Diagnostic Assessment
Screening assessment may show, for
example, that a student has little
knowledge of phonemic awareness.

But what does this mean?

 Does this mean the student is not read

to and talked with enough at home?

 Does it mean the student can’t easily

hear the differences between one
word and another?

 Does it mean the student simply has

trouble producing the sounds?
Diagnostic Assessment: Continued
Likewise, progress monitoring may show that
a student is not picking up skill at sounding
out words.

Does this mean the student’s knowledge of

letter-sound relationships (s says /s/) is weak,
and therefore the student can’t say and blend
the separate sounds in many words?

Or could it be that the student knows letter-

sound relationships but has a hard time
retrieving and then using this knowledge
quickly enough to keep up with the pace of
instruction?

Clearly, making the right instructional

decision requires answers to these questions,
which are supplied by diagnostic assessment.
Outcome Assessment
Outcome assessment determines how much
students have learned at the end of a semester
or year. This information is used to evaluate:

 The quality of the core, supplemental, and

intervention materials.

 The quality of instruction.

 Student motivation, attention, and

participation.

 Students’ specific reading skills and difficulties

—leading to decisions about curricula (keep,
change, modify), instruction (ways to improve
and how to assist teachers), and classroom
management.
Features of Good Assessments
Assessment instruments should:

1. Provide valid information (information on the skills

that need to be measured).

2. Be appropriate for students’ age and grade level.

3. Be reliable (different users would get about the same

data with the same students).

4. Be relatively easy to use.

5. Provide objective information (e.g., 100 correct words

per minute) rather than impressions (“Sally reads
pretty accurately and quickly”).

Therefore, it’s wise to select instruments with a solid

track record.
Features of Good Assessments

Here are sources that describe and

evaluate many assessment instruments.
 [Link]
[Link]

 [Link]
analysis_results/assess_results_by_test.html

 [Link]

 [Link]
Systematic and Explicit Instruction
The most respected scientific research in
education and psychology shows clearly that
instruction yields higher and faster
achievement in more students (with and
without learning difficulties) when instruction
is systematic and explicit.

Here are some resources you might examine.

 [Link]
 [Link]
 [Link]
techrep/[Link]
 [Link]
techrep/[Link]
But what does systematic and explicit mean?
Systematic Instruction: Continued
Systematic means that:
1. Instruction is given in a planned, logically
progressive sequence of things to be taught. For
example, certain letter-sounds (a, s, i, m, r) are
taught before other letter-sounds (b, n, y, sh)
because they are easier to learn and are used
more often.

2. Instruction is guided and assessed with clearly

defined objectives for everything taught.
Objectives are stated in terms of what students
will do.
Poor objective. Students read story books
quickly and get most words right.

Good objective. Students are given two

minutes to read the assigned passage from
“The bear and the hare.” They read the
passage at a rate of at least 100 words correct
per minute.”
Systematic Instruction: Continued
3. Instruction is focused precisely on the thing
(knowledge unit) to be learned, as specified
by the objective.

For example, if students are to read a

passage at 100 wcpm, then that is exactly
what the teacher focuses on during the ten
minute fluency exercise during lessons. She
does not work on fluency, new vocabulary,
and comprehension at the same time.

4. Instruction provides planned practice to

strengthen all of the skills worked on.
Systematic Instruction: Continued

[Link] provides planned work on

new examples (e.g., words, text) to
foster application or generalization of
previously taught knowledge.

[Link] includes assessments

designed and used in a timely fashion
to monitor the different phases of
instruction, or mastery: acquisition,
fluency, generalization, retention,
and independence.
Systematic and Explicit Instruction: Continued

Explicit means that:

1. The teacher reveals in an obvious and clear

way to students the knowledge she is trying to
communicate. She does this through
demonstrations (modeling) and running
commentary to students. For example,

“I’ll show you how to sound out this word.

[man is written on the board.] Listen. I do
NOT stop between the sounds. [Teacher
touches under each letter as she says the
sound.] mmmmaaaannn. Now, I’ll say it
fast. [Teacher slides her finger under the
word.] man.”
Explicit Instruction: Continued
2. The teacher ensures student
attention to important features of an
example or demonstration.

“Look. [points to the word “ate”]

Here is a vowel, then a consonant,
and then an e at the end [name]. So,
we do NOT say the e at the end.”
Explicit Instruction: Continued
Here’s an example of instruction
that is not explicit. It is implicit—or
buried in the teacher’s talk.
The teacher holds up a big book
that has a paragraph from a
story. She reads the words slowly.
Occasionally she points to the
letter r in different words and says
rrr. She expects that this will be
enough for students to get the
connection between the letter
and the sound. Of course, many
students do not get it.
Systematic and Explicit Instruction

In contrast, using explicit instruction the

teacher would hold up the big book and
say,
“New sound. This sound (points to
the letter r in ran) is rrr. Say it with
me… And this sound (points to r in
car) is rrr. Say it with me… And this
sound (points to r in barn) is rrr. Let’s
see if you remember our new sound.
What sound is this? (points to r in ran)…
What sound is this? (points to r in
barn)… What sound is this? (points to r
in car)…. Now I’ll read the story.”
(Teacher points to each r as she reads
and has students say rrr and then read
the whole word.)
Systematic and Explicit Instruction

Explicit instruction of letter-sound

correspondence, in which…
 The teacher focuses on sounds in
isolation to aid attention.
 Points to the letter and says the sound
(model).
 Has students say the sound with her
and then by themselves.
 Practices this many times over the next
few days
…is more likely to teach most students
quickly.
 Scientific Validation
This is one of the most important contributions
of Reading First. Every curriculum or program,
every teaching method (e.g., how to correct
errors), and every assessment instrument must
be:
1. Valid (does what it is supposed to do) and
reliable (works the same way in the hands of
different people).

2. Based on scientific research. For example, the

sequence for introducing new letters-sounds in
a core program must be based on solid scientific
research that says this is an effective sequence.

3. Field tested to ensure that it is valid and

reliable and effective before it is used.
Scientific Validation

Teachers will be more confident, and

certainly will be more effective, if all of
their teaching methods and materials are
known to work.

Here are websites with more information

on scientific validation.
 [Link]
[Link]
 [Link]
[Link]
 [Link]
Research%20and%[Link]
 [Link]
educationIssues/Research/primer/
[Link]
Reading is a school-wide Endeavor

If teachers in different grade levels

and classes use different curricula,
different assessments, different
teaching methods, and different
rules for interpreting assessment
data and for making instructional
decisions, students are not likely to
benefit as much from reading
instruction as they would if reading
were a coordinated school-wide
activity.
Reading is a School-wide Endeavor
Therefore, schools need to:
1. Develop a school mission stressing the
importance of reading, setting high but
realistic achievement goals for each year, and
assuming primary responsibility for students’
achievement.

2. Examine different curricula and assessment

instruments (using materials at the websites
listed earlier), and select the ones shown to
be most effective.

3. Select the right teachers for the right jobs.

It’s essential that the best teachers teach
students in the early stages of reading and
teach students who are behind or who need
interventions.
 Reading is a School-wide Endeavor

4. Select specialists to coordinate testing, collect

assessment information, order curricula, obtain
outside consultation and training, and provide
technical assistance to teachers.

5. Ensure principals and other administrators know:

the five reading skills; what explicit and
systematic instruction looks like; what effective
reading instruction looks like; what to ask job
applicants to ensure that they get skilled
teachers; know the criteria that define adequate
curricula; and have the strength to require
teachers to use curricula faithfully and to improve
their teaching as needed.

6. Provide professional development on all aspects

of Reading First, as well as timely ongoing
assistance.
Reading is a School-wide Endeavor
Here is the website for an instrument that lays
out the skills teachers need. It can also be used
to guide assessment, professional development,
and ongoing assistance.
 [Link]

Additional materials on school-wide

implementation include the following.
 [Link]
downloads/Program_Fidelity_Checklist.doc
 [Link]
 [Link]
 [Link]
downloads/primary/guides/
2000_word_analysis_SE.PDF
 [Link]
trial_log_index.php
Let’s Summarize

The six features of Reading First

discussed above amount to an
integrated approach to reading.
 There are five main reading skills:
phonemic awareness, the alphabetic
principle (letter-sound correspondence
and using this knowledge to decode
words), fluency (accuracy and speed),
vocabulary, and comprehension.
 Three kinds of curricula ensure that
virtually all children learn to read: core
programs, supplementary programs,
and intervention programs—with
placement determined by assessment
information.
Let’s Summarize
 There are four kinds of assessments:
screening, diagnostic, progress monitoring,
and outcome. These provide information used
to make decisions about students’ curriculum
and instructional needs, the quality of curricula
used, and the quality of instruction.
 The wisest course is to teach all skills
systematically (in a planned, logical sequence)
and explicitly (the teacher clearly
demonstrates knowledge).
 All of the above are based on the rules and
procedures of scientific research to ensure
validity, reliability, and effectiveness.
 All of the above are part of a coordinated,
school-wide effort that includes clear mission,
strong leadership, assignments based on
expertise, and professional development.