Ready4Reading Evidence Portfolio
17
working memory to focus on comprehension, rather than the mechanics of reading itself. Not surprisingly, a lack of reading fluency has been found to greatly impede a reader’s comprehension of text as well as their enjoyment of reading as a whole (Slavin, 2009). Fortunately, a variety of research points to the ways that these foundational skills can be elevated simultaneously, as well as in service of improved comprehension and vocabulary development. Perhaps most notably, research demonstrates a high degree of support for integrating phonics instruction with knowledge-building , vocabulary, comprehension , and writing lessons (Slavin, 2009; Guthrie, 2008; Fairbanks et al., 2014; Metsala et al., 2021; Owens, 2020; Blevins, 2019). Key strategies for addressing each of these areas are discussed below: • Knowledge-Building. Research points to the importance of knowledge-building while teaching students to read (Cabell & Huang, 2020). Content knowledge (i.e., students’ prior knowledge of the social and natural world) predicts reading comprehension because it helps students connect ideas across sentences and make inferences (Adams, 2009; Cabell & Hwang, 2020; Recht & Lesley, 1988; Torgesen et al., 2007). Content knowledge, however, is most useful when organized into schema, contextualized, and transferred to other contexts (National Research Council, 2000). Moreover, research shows that knowledge builds knowledge — that is, the more one knows about a topic, the more one can read and understand about the topic (Adams, 2009). Both narrative and informational texts can contribute to knowledge-building in students (Biber & Conrad, 2019; Heath et al., 2017) and a variety of key strategies can be employed by teachers to address this development. Teachers can integrate knowledge-building activities into their literacy instruction by thematically organizing units of study around content-area concepts, using a set of texts that gradually build content knowledge on a given subject, teaching relationships among words and concepts, and engaging students in content- based discussion and writing activities constructed to develop content knowledge and language acquisition (Cervetti et al., 2016; Hoffman et al., 2021). • Vocabulary. A student’s vocabulary consists of the words for which they know the meanings and thus predicts whether they can comprehend, draw meaning from, and make connections with text (Metsala et al., 2021; Slavin, 2009; August et al., 2020; Wagner & Meros, 2010; Stanovich, 1986). Unsurprisingly, vocabulary is positively and strongly correlated with reading comprehension, literacy development, and other academic, social, and vocational outcomes (Dollinger et al., 2008; Gertner et al., 1994; Rohde & Thompson, 2007). Effective vocabulary instruction:
o Prioritizes academic words with high utility across subject domains (Beck et al., 2013)
o Teaches word meanings in context, ideally with pictures and/or actions to demonstrate meanings (Beck et al., 2002; Blachowicz & Fisher, 2006; Graves et al., 2011; Hiebert & Reutzel, 2010; Wright & Cervetti, 2017; Graves, 2016; Slavin, 2009; NICHD, 2000; Graves, 2016) o Engages students in activities where they focus on the critical attributes of new words as well as activities where students explore examples, non-examples, and synonyms (Archer & Hughes, 2011)
© Johns Hopkins University, 2023
Made with FlippingBook - Online catalogs