Moving From Teaching Reading to Language-Literacy Development
Teaching reading continues to grow more interesting but also more complicated all the time. Dr. Nell Duke discovered that to provide quality evidence-based instruction would require adding three hours to each school day. Since teachers are already under considerable stress, we would like to simplify literacy instruction by doing what Dr. Duke and many other respected researchers are calling for – move from teaching the critical components of reading in a step-by-step manner over many months or years to instruction that integrates the four major components of spoken language with written words in every lesson.
Integrated language-literacy development starts with the most fundamental fact about learning to read, spell and write -- that language and literacy development are inseparable. Specifically, the four major components of spoken language and vocabulary knowledge largely predict and determine literacy progress. They are also at the heart of every sentence you read and speak. When these components of spoken language are merged with written words they reinforce each other in a reciprocal manner, quickly leading to effortless, enjoyable and enriching reading experiences.
Integrated language-literacy lessons tie together all the major pieces of literacy instruction, from decoding words to building meaning and sentence construction, saving hours of time each week. The seemingly separate parts of literacy actively strengthen each other in a way that makes sense to students and their teachers. The activities are crafted so all students can read and write multisyllabic words and complex sentences from the first lesson. Students and teachers alike sense the much-needed success in reading, spelling and writing abilities.
How can we have such high expectations for students without creating more stress for teachers? We created the Sparking the Reading Shift lesson books by focusing on research that explains how the students who learn to read at an early age interact with spoken and written language. These students, who we call Literacy Runners, often go on to develop fluency, spelling and vocabulary knowledge, and comprehension with equal ease. Literacy Runners’ advantage lies in in their ability to seamlessly integrate the four components of spoken words -- phonemes (sounds), morphemes (meaningful parts of words), whole words (semantics) and sentences (syntax) -- with written words, or orthography.
We’d like to show you how to give Reading Walkers (slow-progressing, effortful and frustrated readers) and Reading Joggers (disfluent, disinterested & underperforming readers) the advantages of Literacy Runners possess. Each lesson goes from sounds to sentences in an A-B-E-C manner:
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A- Analyze words and recognize patterns to develop word solving strategies so that unfamiliar words are seen as composed of familiar sound, spelling and meaningful patterns, greatly expanding sight word reading, vocabulary and spelling knowledge.
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B- Build words from a large variety of Phonemic (sound), Orthographic (spelling) and Morphological (meaningful) parts, creating meaningful words (Semantics). P+O+M→S
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E- Expand these words into multisyllabic words by adding syllables and morphemes.
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C- Combine words into phrases (going to the store, in a while), and sentences.
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Literacy Growth is Largely Determined by Language Growth
Sparking the Reading Shift lessons are designed to help students take the huge jump in language-literacy that second graders (~7 y/o) begin to experience and which reaches it full force in third grade. Readers must go from decoding Cat in the Hat to understanding Charlotte’s Web. At this age grade-level text contains:
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3 to 7 words / 100 in grade level text are unfamiliar.
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65% of these words are multisyllabic.
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the pronunciation of words becomes less consistent – sign, signature, resign, re-sign.
It’s impossible to teach students at this age the thousands of sight, spelling and vocabulary words that Literacy Runners learn each year. They accomplish this by learning to play with words in the A-B-E-C way as if reading, spelling and writing are just an enjoyable and enriching game of Linguistic Legos. If this game isn’t learned well, then most Reading Walkers and Joggers will continue to needlessly struggle through secondary school. This is regrettable because they are highly capable of developing the more robust spoken language abilities needed to master written language. Speech is a system that they already know, and that they continually strengthen – compare a six-year-old’s language to that of a eight-year-old.
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Clarify the Many Connections Between Spoken & Written Words
Walkers are also capable of developing the Runners’ other language strength; they know how words work, understanding the connections, patterns, and principles behind written and spoken language. This starts with recognizing how the three parts of words – Phonemic sounds, Orthographic spellings and Morphological word parts, combine to make tens of thousands of meaningful written words (Semantics).
POM plus Semantics - POM + S - is one of the most important and widespread findings in all of reading research.
Full List of reliable researchers.
POM + S is called:
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‘triple word form’ by Virginia Berninger and colleagues
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‘connection between orthographic, phonological and semantic sequences’ by Mark Seidenberg
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‘the bonding of pronunciation, spelling and meaning’ by Linnea Ehri
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‘letter, sound and meaning flexibility’ by Nell Duke and Kelly Cartwright
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“POSSuM: Phonology, Orthography, Semantics, Syntax, Morphology’ by Maryanne Wolf and friends
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Show Readers and Writers How to Play with Linguistic Legos
Literacy Runners' greatest advantage is that they know how to play with words, their parts, and combinations, as if they are just an engaging set of Linguistic Lego Blocks. A noted neuroscientist recently stated that the #1 thing to know about teaching reading is that "words are like Legos, they are made from parts or pieces, that you can plug and play with to make different things...Playing with words is fun - the language that they are constructing is an amazing thing!" This game is easily learned at any age - with the right instructions.
The researchers who support POM + S instruction also insist that the four parts of speech and orthography be taught together, not as separate components. Integrated Language-Literacy Development combines these components and their many interconnections with print within each lesson. This allows the components to reinforce each other while providing foundational spelling, sight word, vocabulary, and sentence level comprehension instruction at the same time. This is how Literacy Runners learn. Integrated development frees up tons of prep and instructional time that is better used for more enjoyable and enriching experiences.
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Teach Readers How to Solve Multisyllabic Word Puzzles
The largest barrier to long-term reading success is deciphering unfamiliar multisyllabic words fluently. These words become common in third grade text. Literacy Runners instantly recognize:
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familiar spellings, syllables, and single syllable words within words -- un-eco-logic-al or un-reli-able.
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onset-rime spelling patterns such as ant, which unlocks pant, plant, slant, chant and even instant.
morphemes like act, helping them figure out the pronunciation and meaning of actor, react, inactive, action and activate.
Pulling this together is an important language ability called set for variability, which is the ability to play with the pronunciation of an unknown word until it sounds meaningful. Literacy Runners expand their sight and vocabulary knowledge by thousands of words a year by figuring out these word puzzles. Walkers and Joggers are fully capable of learning how to solve these word puzzles, too.
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Show Walkers and Joggers how Literacy Runners Learn
It is impossible to teach 8 y/o and older readers the thousands, yes thousands, of spelling, sight, and vocabulary words that they learn each year in school. Literacy Runners learn these words with ease using a process called generative learning. Their language-literacy abilities allow them to generate the pronunciation and meaning of unfamiliar words based on known sequences, patterns, connections, and principles. Generative learning is a well-established method for language learning, as it reduces the need for memorization and repetition.
Reading Walkers and Joggers require explicit instruction in building, expanding and combining Linguistic Legos pieces and solving multisyllabic word puzzle to reach this level of self-teaching. Often practice with a few hundred words is all it takes for readers to apply and generalize this vital language-literacy ability.
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Give Teachers Ready-to-Use Lessons so They Can Go Home Early
I’m Bruce Howlett, a former biological researcher with over twenty years’ experience as a special education teacher. I’ve really enjoyed creating lessons based on these six points. More importantly, my Reading Walkers and Joggers are excited that they can finally play with written and spoken language like Literacy Runners do. From the first lesson, decoding issues fade as readers practice reading, spelling and writing multisyllabic words, phrases and sentences. They learn to analyze complex words for syllable and morphological patterns to solve word puzzles. Walkers and Joggers who have long struggled with print soon experience the motivating success of Linguistic Legos play.
I’ve used my science background to create instructional methods based on current research, creating the first software that combined phonemic and orthographic awareness with fluency development, as well as the content for the largest volunteer reading effort in North America.
I poured this experience into Sparking the Reading Shift, or STaRS. 'Shift' refers to the transition from Reading Walkers and Joggers into Literacy Runners. STaRS incorporates all of the methods described above and comes in two versions - the 16-lesson, 200 page Sparking the Reading Shift –Language Literacy Intervention (for long-struggling Reader Walkers) and an abbreviated 12-lesson version, 120 page – Sparking the Reading Shift – Language-Literacy Enrichment (for disinterested and disfluent Reading Joggers).
Each page is a ready-to-use activity, which includes brief instructions and a three-to-five-minute word challenge that students must first answer verbally, then in writing. Each lesson progress from basic POM activities to sentence construction and fluency practice, dramatically accelerating progress. Isolated memorization of spelling patterns and rules, as well as learn-and-forget repetition are largely avoided. A 30-minute lesson given once or twice a week with all your underperforming students often saves hours of class time, which is better used for more enjoyable activities.
Sparking the Reading Shift is designed for ease of use by parents, tutors, and new and experienced teachers, supplementing – not replacing – your existing literacy methods. Most educators only need the instructions provided on each page, or by the sample lesson, below. Both versions are available for sale in print or for immediate download (PDF). See how playing with language leads to success for students and teachers alike.
For a sample chapter email Bruce Howlett.
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A Linguistic Lego Lesson
This is a typical lesson from Sparking the Reading Shift. The lessons deeply engages students in words and how they work. It follows the POMSS sequence, starting with phonemes and spellings, then building meaning with morphological awareness, whole word patterns, phrases and sentences. Each lesson ends with a variety of fluency activities. Note that only a few examples for each activity are shown.
Sparking the Reading Shift uses a generative learning approach, a well-regarded vocabulary, morphology and spelling method. Each year proficient readers learn thousands of sight, spelling and vocabulary words. It's impossible to teach all these words. Students need to generate the meanings of new words, based on their knowledge of how words work.
STARS explicitly shows readers general patterns, principles and relationships and how to analyze and assemble words, phrases and sentences. Then students practice playing with words so that they know how to decipher unfamiliar words.
