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Join us on Wednesday, September 13, at 6:30 p.m. CT, when Laura Stewart, Chief Academic Officer and Anella Wetter, Chief Sales Officer, will showcase a different approach to assessment and intervention instruction that eliminates the 'now what'.

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Literacy Webinars for Teachers and Educators | 95 Percent Group

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Our literacy webinars for teachers and educators can help drive change in your school or district. Dive into our recorded literacy webinars here.

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Hunter - Help! My Student Is Stuck at Sound-by-Sound Reading

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The Science of Reading Implementation Guide 

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The Science of Reading Implementation Guide 

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The Ladder of Reading

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SKU: CS3050

By Institute for Multi-Sensory Education

IMSE Desk Alphabet Strip

IMSE's Desk Alphabet Strip fits perfectly on a table or desk for an easy reference of ABC order, picture cues, and proper letter formation. It also has a right and left finger tapping hand to help with word and sentence dictation.

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IMSE | institute for multi-sensory education

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SKU: CS3050 By Institute for Multi-Sensory Education IMSE Desk Alphabet Strip IMSE's Desk Alphabet Strip fits perfectly on a table or desk for an easy reference of ABC order, picture cues, and proper letter formation. It also has a right and left finger tapping hand to help with word and sentence dictation.

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For thirty years, up until about a decade ago, the idea of "late bloomers" was widely believed among researchers and educators alike. "Late bloomer" was the endearing term for a child who was slower than his peers in learning to read. The idea, so well captured in the term, was that these children would bloom in their reading-they would just do it a bit later than their peers. This common view, known among researchers as the "developmental lag" theory, was the reasonable basis for teachers' patience with students who didn't catch on to reading quickly-and it justified the common practice of delaying the diagnosis of reading problems until they were quite severe (Lyon et al., 2001).

But more recently, long after many teachers ended their formal education training, researchers have been able to put the developmental lag theory to rest. It has been replaced by an alternate theory of early reading weakness that defines the problem as a skill deficit. The main difference between the two theories is that the developmental lag theory posited that difficulties in learning to read would fade as the brain matured-early, urgent intervention was not necessary. In contrast, the skill deficit theory claimed that waiting wouldn't work; children wouldn't pick up these skills unless they were taught directly and intensively. In fact, waiting would be harmful, as it condemned children to falling further behind.

Three longitudinal studies (Juel, 1988; Francis et al., 1996; Shaywitz et al., 1999) have put the weight of research squarely behind the skill deficit theory and against the developmental lag theory. Each study tracked the reading development of children beginning in first grade.

In the simplest terms, these studies ask: Do struggling readers catch up? The data from the studies are clear: Late bloomers are rare; skill deficits are almost always what prevent children from blooming as readers. This research may be counter-intuitive to elementary teachers who have seen late-bloomers in their own classes or heard about them from colleagues. But statistically speaking, such students are rare. (Actually, as we'll see, there is nearly a 90 percent chance that a poor reader in first grade will remain a poor reader.)

The first study (Juel 1988) tracked 54 children at a school in Austin, Texas, from the beginning of first grade through the end of fourth grade using a variety of standardized tests of phonemic awareness, decoding, word recognition, listening comprehension, and reading comprehension. To see if those who are behind in learning to read do or do not catch up, Juel split the students into two groups based on their scores at the end of first grade on the ITBS Reading Comprehension subtest. Those who scored in the bottom quartile (based on national norms) were labeled "poor readers." Those in the top three quartiles were labeled "average or good readers."

Over the next three years, the poor readers, on average, never caught up to the average and good readers on any measure of reading ability. Consider, for example, the two groups' grade-level equivalents on the ITBS Reading Comprehension subtest at the end of first grade and at the end of fourth grade. The poor readers' mean score increased from K6 (a mid-kindergarten level) to 3.5 (a mid-third grade level). But the average and good readers' mean score increased from a 2.4 to a 5.9.

Of course, group averages don't reveal individual results. Were there some late bloomers hidden behind these means? Not many. On the ITBS Reading Comprehension subtest, students who score in the bottom quartile at the end of first grade are, in terms of grade-level equivalents, at least six months behind. So Juel examined the individual results at the end of fourth grade to see how many students were still at least six months behind. Of the 24 students who were poor readers in first grade, 21 of them were still at least six months behind in reading. Similarly, of the 30 students who were average or good readers at the end of first grade, only four had fallen six or more months behind. Juel summarized her findings as follows:

The probability that a child would remain a poor reader at the end of fourth grade, if the child was a poor reader at the end of first grade, was .88; the probability that a child would become a poor reader in fourth grade if he or she had at least average reading skills in first grade was .12. The probability that a child would remain an average reader in fourth grade if the child had average reading ability in first grade was .87; the probability that a child would become an average reader in the fourth grade if he or she was a poor reader in first grade was only .13. The evidence in this sample of children indicates that the poor first-grade reader almost invariably remains a poor reader by the end of fourth grade. (Juel, 1988)

Furthermore, Juel found that the poor readers lacked a critical skill: phonemic awareness. The poor readers entered first grade with little phonemic awareness and they did not approach the ceiling on the phonemic awareness test until the end of third grade. In contrast, average and good readers approached the ceiling on that test two years earlier, at the end of first grade. She concluded that it was trouble with decoding, rooted in poor phonemic awareness, that appeared to keep the poor readers from improving. With this finding, Juel did much to boost the case of researchers who believed that students who are behind in reading actually have a skill deficit-not a developmental lag. (And, as we see in the article by Joseph Torgesen, she gave researchers a great clue as to how to intervene with struggling readers.)

* * *

The study that finally put to rest the developmental lag theory among researchers tracked 403 students from 12 communities in Connecticut from grades one to nine (Francis et al., 1996). The primary measure of reading development was the reading cluster score from the Woodcock-Johnson Psychoeducational Test Battery. This score is comprised of scores from the Battery's Word Identification, Word Attack, and Passage Comprehension subtests. In addition, students' IQs were measured in grades 1, 3, 5, 7, and 9 using the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised (and students with IQ scores below 80 in third grade were excluded from the study). Once they reached third grade, students were designated "low achieving," "reading disabled-discrepant," or "not reading impaired," depending on their scores. The low-achieving group consisted of students whose reading scores were below the 25th percentile. The reading disabled-discrepant group consisted of students whose reading scores were well below (at least 1.5 standard errors below) what their IQ scores predicted. (For example, if a student's predicted score was at the 50th percentile, his actual score would have to be at about the 7th percentile to be placed in the reading disabled-discrepant group.) Students who met the criteria for both of these groups were designated reading disabled-discrepant. The "not reading-impaired" group consisted of the remaining students.

With students broken into these groups, the researchers analyzed the reading scores from grades one to nine looking for evidence of either a developmental lag or a skill deficit. If the developmental lag theory was correct, students who were behind would eventually catch up; if the deficit theory was correct, students would not catch up. But the data clearly demonstrated that, on average, neither the low-achieving nor the reading disabled-discrepant students ever caught up to their peers who were not reading impaired. All students' reading improved quickly in grades one to six, but then the rate of improvement slowed. (This quick, early improvement displayed even by weak readers has probably fueled classroom teachers' optimism that these children would eventually bloom as readers.) Apparently, the normal and behind readers reached two different plateaus.

Researchers also analyzed the scores of individual students to determine whether the average scores could, as they sometimes do, be masking different achievement patterns among individual students. That is, could the average scores be hiding the fact that many low scorers in first grade actually went on to be fine readers, while many high scorers in first grade went on to be poor readers? The researchers determined that no masking was happening; rather, they determined that the group averages depicted in the figure closely reflected what was happening with the vast majority of the individual students.

* * *

But what about those last few years in high school? Did the struggling readers catch up? In the late 1990s, the study of Connecticut youth was extended to grade 12 (Shaywitz et al., 1999). On average, students who were behind in reading in elementary school never caught up to their peers. As in the previous study (Francis et al., 1996), all of the students improved quickly in elementary school, but then improved very little after sixth grade. Throughout elementary and secondary school, the gap between struggling readers and their peers remained quite steady.

It's important to note that in each of these studies, the poor readers' failure to catch up only indicates (1) that there is no evidence for the developmental lag theory, and (2) that the special services these students received were not effective. None of these studies indicates that it is impossible to intervene with these students.

The upshot of the research: The problem is not a developmental lag; it is a skill deficit. And, as Joseph Torgesen explains in the main article, the skill deficit between average and below-average readers can be largely erased with appropriate early intervention.

-EDITORS

The editors thank reading researcher Louisa Moats for her help in preparing this section's sidebars. Moats, the author of AFT publication Teaching Reading Is Rocket Science, is currently the Advisor on Literacy Research and Professional Development for Sopris West Educational Services.

References

Francis, D. J., Shaywitz, S. E., Stuebing, K. K., Shaywitz, B. A., and Fletcher, J. M. (1996). Developmental lag versus deficit models of reading disability: A longitudinal, individual growth curves analysis. Journal of Educational Psychology, 88(1), 3-17.

Juel, C. (1988). Learning to read and write: A longitudinal study of 54 children from first to fourth grades. Journal of Educational Psychology, 80(4), 437-447.

Lyon, G. R., Fletcher, J. M., Shaywitz, S. E., Shaywitz, B. A., Torgesen, J. K., Wood, F. B., Schulte, A., and Olson, R. (2001). Rethinking learning disabilities. In Finn, C. E., Rotherham, A. J., and Hokanson, C. R. (Eds.), Rethinking Special Education For a New Century, Washington, D.C.: Progressive Policy Institute and Thomas B. Fordham Foundation.

Shaywitz, S. E., Fletcher, J. M., Holahan, J. M., Schneider, A. E., Marchione, K. E., Stuebing, K. K., Francis, D. J., Pugh, K. R., and Shaywitz, B. A. (1999). Persistence of dyslexia: The Connecticut longitudinal study at adolescence. Pediatrics, 104(6), 1351-1359.

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Waiting Rarely Works: "Late Boomers" Usually Just Wilt

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For thirty years, up until about a decade ago, the idea of "late bloomers" was widely believed among researchers and educators alike. "Late bloomer" was the endearing term for a child who was slower than his peers in learning to read.

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University of Florida College of Education

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Most children in kindergarten are learning the sound system and how print works, including phoneme-grapheme (sound-letter) relationships. They use that knowledge to begin to read and spell words. The activities for kindergarten are focused on these foundational skills.

Below, you will find the tools you'll need to plan high-quality virtual lessons for kindergarten. The Kindergarten Lesson Template includes title slides for all the activities we recommend for use with kindergarteners. The Kindergarten Sample Activity Sequence provides a sample 5-day sequence of activities for virtual lessons. Finally, the Kindergarten Sample Lesson provides an example of what a lesson planned with the Lesson Template might look like, with all the elements of each activity included. The Sample Lesson corresponds with the plans for Day 1 in the Sample Activity Sequence.

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Most children in kindergarten are learning the sound system and how print works, including phoneme-grapheme (sound-letter) relationships. They use that knowledge to begin to read and spell words. The activities for kindergarten are focused on these foundational skills. Below, you will find the tools you'll need to plan high-quality virtual lessons for kindergarten.

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University of Florida College of Education

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In first grade, students are linking speech sounds to letters to make words and learning to decode words accurately and automatically. The activities for first grade are focused on these foundational skills.

Below, you will find the tools you'll need to plan high-quality virtual lessons for first grade. The First Grade Lesson Template includes title slides for all the activities we recommend for use with first graders. The First Grade Sample Activity Sequence provides a sample of a 5-day sequence of activities for virtual lessons. Finally, the First Grade Sample Lesson provides an example of what a lesson planned with the Lesson Template might look like, with all the elements of each activity included. The Sample Lesson corresponds with the plans for Day 1 in the Sample Activity Sequence.

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In first grade, students are linking speech sounds to letters to make words and learning to decode words accurately and automatically. The activities for first grade are focused on these foundational skills. Below, you will find the tools you'll need to plan high-quality virtual lessons for first grade.

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Leaders & Learning in Literacy: The Tolman Hour Glass

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https://www.readingrockets.org/teaching/reading101-course/toolbox/alphabetic-principle

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https://youtu.be/F_9GuS7-0Wo

https://www.facebook.com/TheSecretStories/

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuX1cT_-xkHmQinB0mf9Mtw

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Secret Stories® | Cracking the Reading Code with the Brain In Mind

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Using brain-based learning strategies, Secret Stories transforms phonics rules into secrets that learners want to know, providing a multisensory phonics approach for struggling & beginning readers.

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Children's knowledge of letter names and shapes is a strong predictor of their success in learning to read. Knowing letter names is strongly related to children's ability to remember the forms of written words and their ability to treat words as sequences of letters.

Children whose alphabetic knowledge is not well developed when they start school need sensibly organized instruction that will help them identify, name, and write letters. Once children are able to identify and name letters with ease, they can begin to learn letter sounds and spellings.

Children appear to acquire alphabetic knowledge in a sequence that begins with letter names, then letter shapes, and finally letter sounds. Children learn letter names by singing songs such as the "Alphabet Song," and by reciting rhymes. They learn letter shapes as they play with blocks, plastic letters, and alphabetic books. Informal but planned instruction in which children have many opportunities to see, play with, and compare letters leads to efficient letter learning. This instruction should include activities in which children learn to identify, name, and write both upper case and lower case versions of each letter.

What is the "alphabetic principle"?

Children's reading development is dependent on their understanding of the alphabetic principle - the idea that letters and letter patterns represent the sounds of spoken language. Learning that there are predictable relationships between sounds and letters allows children to apply these relationships to both familiar and unfamiliar words, and to begin to read with fluency.

The goal of phonics instruction is to help children to learn and be able to use the Alphabetic Principle. The alphabetic principle is the understanding that there are systematic and predictable relationships between written letters and spoken sounds. Phonics instruction helps children learn the relationships between the letters of written language and the sounds of spoken language.

The alphabetic principle plan of instruction

The literacy program:

Teaches letter-sound relationships explicitly and in isolation.

Provides opportunities for children to practice letter-sound relationships in daily lessons.

Provides practice opportunities that include new sound-letter relationships, as well as cumulatively reviewing previously taught relationships.

Gives children opportunities early and often to apply their expanding knowledge of sound-letter relationships to the reading of phonetically spelled words that are familiar in meaning.

Rate and sequence of introduction

No set rule governs how fast or how slow to introduce letter-sound relationships. One obvious and important factor to consider in determining the rate of introduction is the performance of the group of students with whom the instruction is to be used. Furthermore, there is no agreed upon order in which to introduce the letter-sound relationships. It is generally agreed, however, that the earliest relationships introduced should be those that enable children to begin reading words as soon as possible. That is, the relationships chosen should have high utility. For example, the spellings m, a, t, s, p, and h are high utility, but the spellings x as in box, gh, as in through, ey as in they, and a as in want are of lower utility.

It is also a good idea to begin instruction in sound-letter relationships by choosing consonants such as f, m, n, r, and s, whose sounds can be pronounced in isolation with the least distortion. Stop sounds at the beginning or middle of words are harder for children to blend than are continuous sounds.

Instruction should also separate the introduction of sounds for letters that are auditorally confusing, such as /b/ and /v/ or /i/ and /e/, or visually confusing, such as b and d or p and g. Instruction might start by introducing two or more single consonants and one or two short vowel sounds. It can then add more single consonants and more short vowel sounds, with perhaps one long vowel sound. It might next add consonant blends, followed by digraphs (for example, th, sh, ch), which permits children to read common words such as this, she, and chair. Introducing single consonants and consonant blends or clusters should be introduced in separate lessons to avoid confusion.

The point is that the order of introduction should be logical and consistent with the rate at which children can learn. Furthermore, the sound-letter relationships chosen for early introduction should permit children to work with words as soon as possible. Many teachers use a combination of instructional methods rather than just one. Research suggests that explicit, teacher-directed instruction is more effective in teaching the alphabetic principle than is less-explicit and less-direct instruction.

Guidelines for rate and sequence of introduction

The literacy program:

Recognizes that children learn sound-letter relationships at different rates.

Introduces sound-letter relationships at a reasonable pace, in a range from two to four letter-sound relationships a week.

Teaches high-utility letter-sound relationships early.

Introduces consonants and vowels in a sequence that permits the children to read words quickly.

Avoids the simultaneous introduction of auditorially or visually similar sounds and letters.

Introduces single consonant sounds and consonant blends/clusters in separate lessons.

Provides blending instruction with words that contain the letter-sound relation.

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Children's knowledge of letter names and shapes is a strong predictor of their success in learning to read. Knowing letter names is strongly related to children's ability to remember the forms of written words and their ability to treat words as sequences of letters.