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Understanding Reading · The Reading Instruction Show

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  This is The Reading Instruction Show. I'm your
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  host as always. The genial one, Dr. Andy Johnson.
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  Topic of today's podcast is called Understanding
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  Reading. The purpose. The reader will get a general
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  sense of what reading is. The behavioral objective.
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  The reader will be able to, or the listener,
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  differentiate between a simplistic view of reading,
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  SVR, and an interactive view of reading IVR.
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  So let's define our terms up front. In academic
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  writing related to reading instruction, it's
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  easy to throw out terms higgledly -piggledly
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  and assume that everyone has the same understanding.
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  But too often this is not the case. And this
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  has led to many of the misunderstandings, the
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  un -understandings, and inaccuracies currently
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  being propagated by my science of reading friends.
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  So to avoid this, I am going to regularly define
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  my terms in my podcast and in this book I'm writing.
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  And this is from chapter one of a book I am writing
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  called How to Teach Reading. Imagine that. So,
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  important terms. Phonics. Putting sounds to letters
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  and letters to sounds. Phonics instruction. Teaching
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  children how to sound out words using phonics.
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  The code. The arrangement of letters on a page.
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  Decoding. Using phonics to sound out a word in
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  print that is not recognized by the reader. Reading.
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  creating meaning with print, and non -system
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  reading instruction, isolated reading instruction
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  that occurs outside the literacy system. Part
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  one, understanding literacy. You can't very well
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  teach something if you don't know what that something
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  is. So let us first try to understand something
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  about literacy. Literacy is a system. A system
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  is a thing with a bunch of parts that interact
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  with each other. A car engine is an example of
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  a system. Each part within the system depends
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  on all the other parts. Thus, a change in one
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  part within the system impacts all the other
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  parts. Also, the whole of any system is always
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  more than the sum of its parts. Literacy is a
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  system with five interacting and interdependent
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  parts. Reading, writing, speaking, listening,
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  and thinking. A change in one part impacts all
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  the others. Thus, to most effectively enable
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  all children to develop their full literacy potential,
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  we must attend to each of the elements within
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  the literacy system. This means that good reading
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  instruction includes writing, thinking, speaking,
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  and listening, as well as reading. Part two,
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  the simplistic view of reading. To understand
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  reading let's first understand what it's not.
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  Reading is not merely sounding out words. However,
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  quite a few people insist that it is. This misunderstanding
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  is called the simplistic view of reading. The
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  simplistic view of reading is strongly influenced
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  by behavioral learning theories. According to
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  the simplistic view of reading, readers first
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  put sounds to each of the symbols they encounter
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  on the page. These sounds are put together to
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  create words. These words are put together to
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  create ideas, and these ideas then magically
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  flow from the page to the reader's head. Simple,
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  yes? No, it's not simple. It's simplistic. According
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  to the simplistic view of reading, once children
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  can sound out words efficiently, the ideas will
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  flow effortlessly from the page to their brains.
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  Thus, the focus of reading instruction according
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  to simplistic view of reading practitioners should
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  be on sounding out words. Now, admittedly, the
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  simplistic view makes good sense. The only problem
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  is that it's simplistic and not very effective.
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  This focus may lead to higher scores on sounding
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  out word measures in the short term, but not
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  on creating meaning. And that's the whole reason
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  we read, is it not? So creating meaning. Don't
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  misinterpret what I'm going to say here. Sounding
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  out word instruction or phonics is important.
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  Everybody in the world knows this. Everybody.
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  And everybody agrees that direct and explicit
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  phonics instruction is an essential part of early
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  reading. Everybody knows this. But reading is
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  much more than sounding out words. Reading is
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  creating meaning with print. And meaning is created
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  not simply by sounding out words, but by using
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  the information in your head to make sense of
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  the letter stuff that's on the page. This understanding
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  is called the interactive view of reading. The
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  information in your head interacts with the information
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  on the page to create Meaning. Creating meaning
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  is different from sounding out words. I can simply
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  put sound symbols together for something written
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  in Latin, but these letter clusters are meaningless,
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  so I would be merely responding to letter sound
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  symbols. And reading is much different from responding
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  to stimuli. Ask any mouse in a skitter box if
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  you don't believe me. Reading is creating meaning
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  with print. This does not mean that sounding
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  out words is unimportant. But since creating
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  meaning is the whole purpose for reading, Sounding
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  out word instruction is more apt to transfer
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  to authentic literacy context if it occurs within
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  the context of authentic meaning -making experiences.
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  Non -system instruction. The last thing I want
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  to point out about the simplistic view of reading
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  is that it does not address reading within the
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  larger literacy system. isolated reading instruction
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  that occurs outside the literacy system is called
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  non -system instruction. Here reading is taught
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  as a separate series of sounding outward skills.
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  And despite everything that's known about the
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  interactions between reading and oral language
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  and writing and listening and thinking, simplistic
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  view of reading practitioners still use non -system
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  reading instruction. And the question is, why?
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  In the interactive view of reading, the interactive
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  view of reading is influenced by constructivism,
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  schema theory, and information processing theories.
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  And according to the interactive view of reading,
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  information in the head interacts with the information
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  on the page to enable readers to create meaning
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  with text. What's in the head is very important
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  to the meaning -making process. To illustrate,
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  I can read books about literacy instruction quickly.
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  and retain much of the information. This is not
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  because I'm so smart. Because I'm not. I'm rather
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  ordinary. It's because my brain is filled with
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  literacy things. I'm familiar with the words
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  used and the concepts described, and those things
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  are of interest to me. But when this same brain
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  tries to read about dendrology, It takes me much
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  longer and I retain very little information.
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  There's nothing in my head, you see, related
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  to dendrology. And since I have very little interest
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  in dendrology, I soon give up. The same brain
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  is used with both books. The variable was what
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  is in the brain. Wait a minute. Don't you have
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  to sound out a word before you can make sense
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  of it? He said. Well, let me ask you this. How
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  many words in this sentence is, if you're reading
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  it, are you sounding out? What do you mean? Right
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  now, as you're reading this sentence in the book,
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  are you sounding out all the words? Oh, well,
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  no, you are not. Well, but that's only because
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  I know how to read. Exactly. And isn't that what
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  we're trying to teach children how to do? Yeah,
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  but how can you teach children to read if they
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  don't sound out all the words? Exactly, and that's
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  the topic of the next chapter. So, four lessons
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  here. Number one, beginning readers need to read
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  texts that contain words and concepts with which
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  they are familiar. One of the most powerful strategies
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  is called language experience or the language
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  experience approach. Quite simply, students tell
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  you things and the teacher writes them down and
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  then students are able to use their words and
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  experiences to learn phonics and practice reading.
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  Direct and explicit Phonics instruction is provided
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  within this meaningful context. Lesson two, students
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  must be able to read things that are of interest
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  to them. This means classroom libraries should
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  be filled with high quality books and other reading
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  materials at a variety of reading levels. Also,
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  students must have daily opportunities to select
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  books that are of interest to them. And part
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  of this selection process is the freedom to stop
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  reading things that are of little interest to
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  them. Lesson three, reading instruction should
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  include plenty of opportunities to read good
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  books as well as to think, write, speak, and
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  listen to others. This does not happen with non
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  -system reading instruction, or when sounding
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  out word skills are emphasized over meaning.
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  And the fourth lesson. Everybody in the world
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  believes that phonics instruction is essential
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  for beginning readers. It's not the what of phonics
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  instruction, rather it's the how and the how
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  much of phonics instruction that's of issue here.
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  This has been The Reading Instruction Show. I
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  am your host, Dr. Andy Johnson.