READING
Beginning reading
Further reading
Adams MJ et al, (1997) Phonemic Awareness
in Young Children: A Classroom Curriculum.
Beck IL, McKeown MG & Kucan L, (2002)
Bringing Words to Life: Robust Vocabulary
Instruction, New York: Guildford.
Blachman BA, (2000) Road to the Code:
A Phonological Awareness Program for
Young Children.
Center Y, (2005) Beginning Reading,
Australia: Allen and Unwin.
Cornoldi C & Oakhill J (eds), (1996) Reading
Comprehension Diffi culties, Mahwah, NJ:
Lawrence Erlbaum & Associates.
Dymock S & Nicholson T, (2001) Reading
Comprehension: What Is It? How Do
You Teach It? New Zealand Council for
Educational Research.
Tunmer W & Hoover WA, (1992) Cognitive
and Linguistic Factors in Learning to
Read, In Gough PB, Ehri LC & Treiman R
(eds), Reading Acquisition, Hillsdale, NJ:
Lawrence Erlbaum & Associates.
Wolf M, (2002) The Health Report, Swan.
Williams J, (2006) Stories, Studies and
Suggestions About Reading, SSSR, 10 (2),
121-142.
National Reading Panel (2000).
failure is caused by diffi culties at the word children can then use these taught strategies of phonological processes is the key to
(decoding) level, children also need to be during shared and independent reading. A deciphering print. It has also shown that
taught how to comprehend text as otherwise number of references for teaching listening/ children who are culturally, cognitively
only the linguistically gifted will do well. reading comprehension are included in and phonologically at risk need explicit
In addition to testing comprehension, “Further reading”. instruction in these processes in the fi rst
teachers must teach children strategies to three years of school to avoid literacy failure.
use at each stage of the reading process. Conclusion Furthermore, instruction in comprehension
Before they read a text, strategies such as This simple view of reading reinforces the should be embedded throughout the entire
providing motivation, activating relevant importance of the fi ve components that the school experience for those pupils who may
background knowledge, explaining and US National Reading Panel deemed critical not be naturally linguistically gifted enough
extending vocabulary skills, discussing text to early literacy tuition. Children must be to appreciate without assistance the wonder
structure (narrative, factual, procedural, able to fi rst decipher the symbols of print of reading.
etc) and story prediction should be taught. to translate them into speech, and then As poor reading skills contribute in large
Strategies to use during text reading include construct meaning from the words they have measure to social and economic inequity,
visualising, questioning the author’s intent deciphered. If either of these processes it is imperative that socially progressive
by looking beyond the literal meaning of the falls short, then reading comprehension educators at both school and policy level
text (teaching inferential skills), confi rming will be jeopardised. Whilst it is imperative support literacy programmes based on the
predictions and monitoring for meaning. that decoding skills are taught explicitly in most current research data.
After text reading, teachers should focus on the early years, comprehension strategies
children’s summarisation skills, and looking should be taught throughout the whole About the author
for the moral or coda. schooling period. Yola Center was an Associate Professor at
The best time to teach these strategies is To counter any criticism that this is an Macquarie University in Australia until her
during listening comprehension, or during ostensibly reductionist view of reading, retirement in 1999. Her principal interests
story reading time. Teachers commonly read let me quote Keith Stanovich, a leading were research and practice in the area of
books to pupils that are about one to two reading researcher. “We must stop creating early literacy. She continues her association
years above their reading level, and so can a progressive politics where to be of the with the university as an honorary associate
model these strategies to children while they left, you must oppose science.” Science and has recently published a book on
read these more sophisticated texts. The has shown, unequivocally, that knowledge beginning reading.
spring 2009 Better: Evidence-based Education 7
Better Spr09 pp06-07 Beginning.indd 7 20/4/09 09:15:10
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