The Reading Group: An Experimental Investigation of a Labyrinth

Abstract

Reported are two experiments with third graders in which a number of dimensions of reading instruction were investigated. The major findings:an emphasis on meaning produces better results than an emphasis on word identification; in groups receiving a word identification emphasis, but not a meaning emphasis, results depend upon instructional time; the child who is taking an active turn gets more from a lesson than the children who are following along; and the interestingness of the material is a major factor in performance, one that is much more important than readability. The Reading Group: An Experimental Investigation of a LabyrinthThere is properly no history; only biography. Every mind must know the whole lesson for itself, must go over the whole ground.What it does not see, what it does not live, it will not know. (Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essays, 1842/1945 The Great Debate (Chall, 1967) in beginning reading instruction is over the relative emphasis that ought to be given to decoding and meaning. The available evidence favors a decoding emphasis. It appears that reading programs that begin with explicit, direct instruction in spelling-sound correspondences are more successful than programs that rely on incidental learning of these correspondences (Pflaum, Walberg, Kanegianes, & Rasher, 1980). However, it is possible that programs that include a substantial amount of direct instruction in spelling-to-sound correspondences are successful for other reasons. Such programs typically are more structured, provide more systematic feedback, allocate more time to reading, and maintain higher levels of student engagement than meaning emphasis programs, whose advocates often believe that learning to read is a "natural process" in which it is unwise to intervene heavily (Goodman & Goodman, 1979). Thus, it can be argued that program evaluations and related teacher effectiveness research have underrepresented classrooms in which the instruction is both meaning-oriented and structured and systematic. There is at least one beginning reading program that features both a meaning orientation and systematic direct instruction, the Kamahamaha Early Education Project. It is thoroughly documented that this program achieves good results with at-risk minority children (Tharp, 1982). The Reading GroupThe Reading Group If one were to grant that direct instruction designed to produce competence in fast, accurate word identification typically is best at the beginning, an important policy question would still remain. No one doubts that the eventual goal is for children to read with comprehension. The question is, therefore, at what point in a child's development of reading proficiency should the schools stop stressing word identification and begin placing predominant emphasis on meaning?On the one hand, Venezky and Massaro (1979) have doubted that more instruction in word identification could ever be too much of a good thing.They concluded an article on the importance of rapid word recognition by saying they were no longer willing t...

Silent Reading Reconsidered: Reinterpreting Reading Instruction and Its Effects

“…At worst, it is Silent Reading -8 probably wrong. More generally, the results of the reanalysis also call into question the interpretations of the data with respect to the relationship between time spent in reading and student achievement (e.g., Anderson, Mason, & Shirey, 1984;Englert, 1984;Vallecorsa, Zigmond, & Henderson, 1985). The finding in the present study concerning the effect of oral reading is only tentative and no firm conclusion can be drawn from it.…”

“…Second, their results indicate that silent reading may have a large effect on student performance and that relatively small increments in reading time may result in substantial gains in reading achievement. It is perhaps because of these reasons that reviewers frequently cite the Leinhardt et al study when considering the available evidence in the oral versus silent reading debate (e.g., Allington, 1983Allington, , 1984Hiebert, 1983;Reutzel, 1985), as well as the more general question of the relationship between time spent in reading and student achievement (e.g., Anderson, Mason, & Shirey, 1984;Englert, 1984;Vallecorsa, Zigmond, & Henderson, 1985).…”

Effects of a Story Reading Program on the Literacy Development of At-Risk Kindergarten Children

“…Modeled after a Directed Reading and Thinking Activity, the Directed Listening-Thinking Activity (DLTA) provides a framework for organizing and retrieving information from a story. Over time, the listener internalizes the strategy and uses it when encountering new material (Anderson, Mason, & Shirey, 1984;Morrow, 1984;Stauffer, 1980). The DLTA format consists of pre-reading questions and discussion, story reading, and then postreading discussion.…”

Situated Actions during Reading Lessons: A Microanalysis of Oral Reading Error Episodes

“…Our purpose is to identify the factors that converge moment by moment to influence what happens at each step of the oral reading error episode. The study is one in a series of microanalyses investigating a number of aspects of smallgroup reading lessons (Anderson, Mason, & Shirey, 1984;Anderson, Wilkinson, & Mason, 1991;Imai, Anderson, Wilkinson, & Yi, 1992).…”