How to teach children reading and spelling
Dr. Anna M. T. BosmanSpecial Education, Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen
The Netherlands
The problem
Reading delays– 10-15% in regular education – 73% in special education
Spelling delays– No data
Main cause– Neither intelligence nor background, but
Quality of instruction
My goal
Prevention of reading and spelling problems in special (and regular) education
through
Effective Instruction
With what?
The method
“How to teach children reading and spelling”(HTCRS; Schraven, 1994/2004)
developed by José Schraven M.Ed.
Research questions
What is the effect of HTCRS?
What level can be reached with HTCRS?
pertaining to students in special education
Participating schools
School Method G / B DSL medicin /diagnosis
X HTCRS 1/10 2 6/6
Y - 7/14 0 0/2
Z - 3/9 4 4/2School 1 year R&S Gr 1 KG reg KG SpEd
X 9% 1 3 7
Y 19% 4 11 6
Z 33% 2 3 7
Mean age & scores on cognitive tasks
Age SPM VOC LTM STM
X 82 21 26 4 20/6
Y 83 20 25 4 19/6
Z 89 21 25 5 20/5
SPM = Nonverbal intelligence; Raven VOC = Vocabulary; ≈ Peabody LTM = Long-term memory; 12-words testSTM = Short-term memory; digit recall and backward digit recall
Test calender
September November March June
Reading
Phoneme blending x x x xReading letters x x x xReading words x x x x
Reading text x x
Spelling
Phoneme segmentation x x x xWriting letters x x x x
8-words dictation x x x xSpelling tests x x
Differences between schools
Phoneme blending (max. = 40)
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
september november maart juni
XYZ
Reading letters (max. = 34)
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
september november maart juni
XYZ
Reading CVC words (n/min.)
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
september november maart juni
XYZ
Reading CCVC words (n/min.)
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
september november maart juni
XYZ
Reading multi-syllable words (n/min.)
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
september november maart juni
XYZ
Phoneme segmentation (max. = 40)
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
september november maart juni
XYZ
Writing letters (max. = 34)
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
september november maart juni
XYZ
8-words dictation (max. = 8)
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
september november maart juni
XYZ
Spelling tests March (% correct)
92
76
57
83
55
37
80
38
24
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
M1 M2 M3
XYZ
Spelling tests June (% correct)
86
40
59
79
20
33
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
E4 E5
XYZ
School levels
Dutch national norms (Cito)
0
5
10
15
20
25
Level
ABCDE
75%-
100% 50%-
75% 25%-
50%10%
-25%
0%-
10%
Reading CVC-words in June
45
9
18 18
9
0 0
14
29
57
8 8
0
17
67
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
X Y Z
ABCDE
Reading CCVCCC-words in June
36
18
27
0
18
0 05
19
76
0
8 8
17
67
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
X Y Z
ABCDE
Reading multi-syllable words in June
27
18
36
0
18
05 5 5
86
8 8 8 8
67
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
X Y Z
ABCDE
Text-level 1 in June
73
18
9
19
10
71
8
17
75
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
X Y Z
AchievedInstructionFrustration
Text-level 2 in June
64
9
27
10 10
80
17
0
83
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
X Y Z
AchievedInstructionFrustration
Text-level 3 in June
2836 36
0 0
100
8 8
83
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
X Y Z
AchievedInstructionFrustration
Spelling level in March
27
45
9
18
0 0
10
0
52
38
0 0
17
38
68
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
X Y Z
ABCDE
Spelling level in June
36
18
27
9 9
0 0
9
29
62
0 0
17 17
67
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
X Y Z
ABCDE
Conclusions
Reading and spelling is substantially and signficantly better in School X than Y and Z.
Reading performance of School X is at the level of regular education.
Spelling performance of School X is above the level of regular education.
Consistency levels of English and Dutch
Letters
Sounds
[di:r] deer/dear
[par] pair/pear
Tear
WindEnglish 28%Dutch 37%
English 69%
Dutch 86%
S p e l lR e a d i n g n g
What
How
What makes HTCRS effective?
The ‘What’
Structure – of the orthography using a well-defined
framework (meta-cognition)o ruleso ways of thinking
– of exercises based on task analysiso Reading exercises prior to reading (phoneme blending)o Spelling exercises prior to spelling (phoneme segmentation)
The ‘How’ Direct instruction
– Teacher is model– Rows facing the teacher– Differentiation during group lesson
Orientation basis (Russian psychology)– Concrete goal– Practice each of the components – Integration in existing knowledge
Multi-sensory basis– Visual, auditory, and motor
Daily repetition & assessment– Each day same order of exercises– Each day a spelling test
Guaranteed success
Thank you for your attention
www.zoleerjekinderenlezenenspellen.nl
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