Using Context as an Assist in Word Solving: The Contributions of 25 Years of Research on the Interactive Strategies Approach

Abstract

Recently, there has been growing concern about how to most effectively support the literacy development of beginning and struggling readers with regard to helping them learn to effortlessly identify the huge number of words that proficient readers ultimately learn to read with automaticity. Some, noting the critical importance of phonics instruction in learning to read in an alphabetic writing system, take the position that students should attend only to alphabetic information in word‐solving attempts. However, long‐standing theories of the development of word‐reading skills support the value of teaching students to use both alphabetic and contextual information in word solving in interactive and confirmatory ways. The authors summarize 25 years of research in which beginning and struggling readers were taught to use both code‐ and meaning/context‐based strategies for word solving and were provided with explicit, responsive instruction focused on the alphabetic code. The authors present brief summaries of theoretical explanations of the word‐learning process. Then, the authors summarize six experimental studies that, together, included students in kindergarten through fourth grade and involved the implementation of the Interactive Strategies Approach in the primary grades and an extension of the approach with middle elementary students with reading difficulties. The studies resulted in substantially improved reading outcomes among treatment versus business‐as‐usual groups. The authors contend that using both phonics‐ and context‐based information facilitates the ability to build sight vocabulary, which in turn enables readers to turn their attention to the most important goal of literacy learning: meaning construction.

What Matters Most? Toward a Robust and Socially Just Science of Reading

“…Moreover, approaches that integrate explicit phonics‐based instruction with sight word learning also effectively support students’ decoding skills (L.R. Shapiro & Solity, 2016; Snyder & Golightly, 2017), as do integrated approaches that buttress emerging phonics skills with word solving using context, such as using prompts like “Think of words that might make sense” (Scanlon & Anderson, 2020, p. S23) to help students self‐monitor for accuracy and revise decoding attempts while they develop phonics‐based word identification skills. Finally, opportunities for student‐directed literacy‐rich play can be important (Bredekamp, 2005; Cavanaugh, Clemence, Teale, Rule, & Montgomery, 2017).…”

“…(Foorman et al, 2016; Goldenberg, 2020; National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, 2000; Pearson, Palincsar, Biancarosa, & Berman, 2020). Although scholars have disagreed on the extent to which the science of reading provides evidence for particular instructional approaches (Castles, Rastle, & Nation, 2018; Pearson, 2004; Scanlon & Anderson, 2020), the question itself has harnessed considerable momentum. Although we agree that reading is of utmost importance, we propose that the narrowness of this presently central question obscures other considerations for fostering students as readers that are profoundly important, too.…”

Expanding the Knowledge Base in Literacy Instruction and Assessment: Biliteracy and Translanguaging Perspectives From Families, Communities, and Classrooms

“…The components of the framework stem from Clay’s (2005) work and K.S. Goodman’s (1967) psycholinguistic theory of reading and is further described elsewhere in this special issue (Compton‐Lilly et al, 2020; Scanlon & Anderson, 2020, this issue). “Structured literacy” proponents have argued that the use of semantic context (e.g., asking a student if a miscue makes sense) can be detrimental for students to decode independently; instead, when following a “structured literacy” approach, students should be encouraged to use their decoding skills first, not to guess words based on context (Kilpatrick, 2015).…”

The Development of Sight Vocabulary

“…Figure 4 lists the strategies explicitly taught in the ISA (Scanlon et al, 2017). Research employing the ISA has demonstrated its effectiveness in reducing the number of students who experienced literacy learning difficulties across multiple large-scale studies (Scanlon & Anderson, 2020). Figure 5 illustrates how the word-learning process, and instruction that facilitates that process, might be conceptualized.…”