Research Proven Strategies in Language Arts/Literacy

Katie DrummondCCSSO, October 20, 2003

• Definitive research base still building

• Controversies continue (e.g., Fletcher & Lyon, 1998)

• Concern over identification: reading deficit vs. reading disability (e.g., Snow, Burns, & Griffin, 1998)

• Literacy acquisition is problematic for many

Reading: Prominent Issues

The Evidence Base • 5 strands from Reading Panel (NRP, 2000):

– Phonemic Awareness

– Phonics

– Fluency

– Vocabulary

– Comprehension

• Literacy for adolescents

• Writing

Phonemic Awareness & Phonics

• Best when explicit, systematic

• Not a complete program

• System is complicated; teachers’ skills need to be developed (Moats, 2001)

• Need to ensure that materials are carefully constructed (Stein, Johnson & Gutlohn, 1999)

Fluency

• Accurate and quick reading of text

• Repeated, monitored, & modeled oral reading is best mode of achieving

(Chard, Vaughn, & Tyler, 2002)

• Passages need to be at independent-reading level

Vocabulary

• Extended instruction

• Repeated exposure

• Word substitution

• Multiple methods work best

Comprehension

• Use of graphic organizers

• Question answering/generation

• Structure--fiction and expository (Gersten, Fuchs, Williams, &

Baker, 2001)

• Summarization

• Mixed methods work best

Reading and Verbal Competency

As skill in decoding grows, general linguistic competency accounts for more of reading outcomes (Shankweiler et al., 1999)

– Metalinguistic awareness

– Background knowledge (Shankweiler et al., 1999)

– Engagement with complex ideas (Beck, McKeown, Hamilton, & Kucan, 1998)

Older Readers

• Need to transact with text (Peterson, Caverly,

Nicholson, O’Neal, & Cusenbary, 2000)

• Evidence of late-emerging reading disability (Leach, Scarborough, & Rescorla, 2003)

• Still need basics; higher level decoding (Moats, 1998)

• Need ways to engage with complex ideas even if they cannot read it yet

Writing

• Process and self-regulation are key

• Mechanisms for consistency

• Tools for planning (Harris & Graham, 1992)

• Attention or compensation for handwriting and spelling issues

(Mastropieri & Scruggs, 2004)

Overall• More conclusive findings on general

strategies than programs/curricula• Expertise of teachers• Rigor of instruction time (Chard & Kameenui, 2000;

Vaughn, Levy, & Coleman, 2002)

• Metacognitive strategies, integration important for special needs (Vaughn, Gersten, & Chard, 2000)

• More research

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Students K-8, funded by U. S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs and housed at the American

Institutes for Research. Retrieved [today's date], from the World Wide Web: http://www.k8accesscenter.org