What you should know about reading by now.

Reading growth is always happening

As long as readers read

And can understand most of what they read

Good readers get better;

Struggling readers have a harder and harder time

The Matthew Effect

Lack of exposure and practice on the part of less-skilled readersDelays the development of the speed and automaticity that are needed to

Efficiently read the complex texts at secondary levels.

The bulk of vocabulary growth occurs indirectlyThrough language exposure, rather than direct teaching.

And reading volume, more than oral language,Is the main contributor to vocabulary growth.

Most oral speech,

Has about the same level of vocabulary as a children’s book.

Even that of college graduates,

TV is at a lower vocab level than speech;

Even popular magazines are at a much higher level than either TV or speech.

How much you read matters

For fluency, automaticity, vocabulary growth…

And, general knowledge.

Provide students with as many reading experiences as possible.

Reading is an active phenomenon.

Young children develop complex ideas

About reading and writing

Before they are able to do either.

The National Reading Panel recommends

To reading instruction

Balanced Approach

Means teaching the essentials:

Balanced Approach

Phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocab and comprehension.Phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocab and comprehension.

What is this the definition of?

The dispositions and habits of mind that enable students to enter the ongoing conversations appropriate to college thinking, reading, writing, and speaking are inter-related and multi-tiered.

Students should be aware of the various logical, emotional, and personal appeals used in argument;

additionally, they need skills enabling them to define, summarize, detail, explain, evaluate, compare/contrast, and analyze.

Students should also have a fundamental understanding of audience, tone, language usage, and rhetorical strategies to navigate appropriately in various disciplines.

Generally, grades K-3 are considered the Learning to Read years,

grades K4-8 are the Reading to Learn years,

And adolescence and adulthood are the Using Reading and Writing to Think years.

We can find the reading level of a textBy using an algorithm that evaluates

The complexity of a textBy counting

Syllables,Words,

AndSentences.

We can increase interestAnd comprehension

Of difficult textsBy building “Text Sets”

That include simpler versions of the target text,Comic books related to the topic,

Maps,Photos,Videos,

Etc.

Different Assessments

Are appropriate

For various purposes.

The information provided by various large scale tests,

Is of limited use to the classroom teacher.

SAT, CST, CAHSEE, AP, &c.

Teacher-selectedAnd

Teacher-designedAssessments

Provide the mostAnd the most useful information

ForPurposes of

Instructional design