Blooms Taxonomy

A Quick Strategy for Assessing the Level of Activities Not all lessons or projects involve all levels of Bloom’s. That’s fine, because to engage students in very involved projects all the time would take more classroom time than most teachers have. There is a time and place for more didactic, lower level lessons. A quick way to check on the level of the lesson is to answer these two questions. What will the students (not the teacher) be doing in this lesson, recalling and showing understanding (lower) or analyzing and evaluating to create a product (higher)? Will students be expected to respond with specific, known answers (lower) or will they be asked to generate original thought (higher)? The answers will give us a snapshot of the levels of thought in our lessons. If students are predominately responding with the right answer and are demonstrating that they understand a concept, then the lesson is lower level. If the lesson’s objective is to show that students comprehend the material, then lower level activities are appropriate. On the other hand, if the objective is to extend basic knowledge and apply it to new situations to develop a new product or idea, then the response to the two questions should reflect higher level thought. One way teachers can get an overview of the Bloom level is to review their plan book over the course of a typical week. After asking the two questions above about each lesson, they can mark the lesson either L (low level) or H (high level). Looking over the course of a week or longer will reveal a pattern of lower and higher level activities. It is up to the teacher to decide if the balance is appropriate. The bottom line on all of our teaching is to have students learn, not just for “the test” but for successful performance throughout life. A good balance of lower and higher level experiences will help students develop a solid background of content and skills as well as the analytical and evaluative tools to apply them. Creative projects are a proven way to engage students at higher levels. By using projects in balance with content and skill development activities, we will be preparing our students well for the future. References Anderson, L. W., & Krathwohl, D. R. (Eds.). (2001). A taxonomy for learning, teaching and assessing: A revision of Bloom’s Taxonomy of educational objectives: Complete edition. New York, Longman. Bloom, B. S. & Krathwohl, D. R. (Eds.) (1956). Taxonomy of educational objectives: The classification of educational goals, by a committee of college and university examiners. Handbook 1: Cognitive domain. New York, Longman.

Reading Words Six Syllable Types

The Six Syllable Types

There are six syllable types, and it is very helpful to new and remedial readers to be able to identify the syllable types in words. If you teach reading or teach spelling, you have probably noticed that the vowels can have different sounds. The sound that a vowel makes often depends upon what type of syllable it is in.

Here are the six syllable types, in a suggested order of teaching:

Closed Syllables
Closed syllables have one vowel, followed by a consonant. The vowel has a short sound. Examples include am, cut, him, pot, track, and French. Multisyllable words can be made up of entirely closed syllables, such as the words admonish or plastic.

Open Syllables
An open syllable ends in a vowel and the vowel usually is long. Words containing open syllables include be, so, baby, and veto.
Examples of open syllables combined with closed syllables include i>program and recess.

Vowel-Consonant-E Syllables
Vowel-Consonant-E syllables are also known as "VCE syllables" or "Magic E syllables." In this syllable type, there is a vowel followed by a consonant and silent e. The silent e makes the vowel before it long. One syllable VCE words include make and smile. There are many ultisyllable words containing the VCE syllable type, such as reptile and disclose.

Vowel Team Syllables
Vowel team syllables are sometimes referred to as "vowel pair syllables." In a vowel team syllable, two (or more) vowels come together to make one sound. Vowel teams are used in words like out or beach. Multisyllable words containing vowel team syllables include caution, loyal, and discount.

R-Controlled Syllables
This syllable type can be called a "Bossy R syllable." In r-controlled syllable types, a vowel is followed by the letter r. The r "controls" vowel, and gives it a different sound. Examples of r-controlled syllables include far, hurt, and sir.

Consonant-le Syllables
Sometimes referred to as "final, stable syllables," consonant-le syllables are normally found at the end of a word. They consist of a consonant followed by the letters le. Examples of words ending with this syllable type include turtle, middle, and table.

Combined with knowledge of the basic phonograms and spelling rules, knowing the six syllable types will allow your student to become a strong reader and speller.

Teenagers and Reading

Perhaps the teenagers in your family were once avid readers but now hardly ever open a book, or perhaps they never liked reading in the first place.

As an adult, you know that reading is important and you obviously want to make sure that the teenagers in your life grow into adulthood with all the skills they need to succeed.

In this article, RIF suggests how parents can help teenagers decide for themselves that reading is important to their lives.

Try to avoid...
Before we list ways to encourage teen reading that work, here are a few tactics that don't:

Pressuring, nagging, or bribing. Encourage teens to read, but don't hound them.
Criticizing what teens read. Explain what troubles you about certain types of reading materials after reading them yourself. Forbid as little as possible. And whenever you can, accept differences of opinion as just that.
Lavishing too much praise. If you catch your teenagers reading, show interest, but don't make a big deal out of it. Teens need to know that they're reading for their own pleasure—not for your approval.

Ways to encourage teens to read...
Set an example. Let teens see you reading for pleasure.

Furnish your home with a variety of reading materials. Leave books, magazines, and newspapers around. Check to see what disappears for a clue to what interests your teenager.
Give teens an opportunity to choose their own books. When you and your teen are out together, browse in a bookstore or library. Go your separate ways and make your own selections. A bookstore gift certificate is a nice way of saying, "You choose."
Build on your teen's interests. Look for books and articles that feature their favorite sports teams, rock stars, hobbies, or television shows. Give a gift subscription to a special interest magazine.

View pleasure reading as a value in itself. Almost anything your youngsters read—including the Sunday comics—helps build reading skills.

Read some books written for teens. Young adult novels can give you valuable insights into the concerns and pressures felt by teenagers. You may find that these books provide a neutral ground on which to talk about sensitive subjects.

Make reading aloud a natural part of family life. Share an article you clipped from the paper, a poem, a letter, or a random page from an encyclopedia—without turning it into a lesson.
Acknowledge your teen's mature interests. Look for ways to acknowledge the emerging adult in your teens by suggesting some adult reading you think they can handle.

Keep the big picture in mind. For all sorts of reasons, some teenagers go through periods without showing much interest in reading. Don't panic! Time, and a few tips from this article, may help rekindle their interest.

Talking to teens about reading...
Adults know how important it is for their teenagers to read. Reading is not just important while teens are in school; good reading skills are essential to future success in the workplace. But making a pitch for reading can be a real challenge. If you are the parent of a teenager who has lost interest in reading or never liked it much, here are some suggestions for connecting with your child about books and reading.

What's in it for your teen? Through reading they can:

Become an expert. An expert on any subject they like—from sports stats to spelunking, coins to carburetors, or anything in between.
Live dangerously. Through reading teens can share the challenges, fears, thrills, and achievements of those they are reading about without the risk.
Have a few laughs. Many teens will enjoy sitting down with a book by their favorite stand-up comedian, a collection of jokes or cartoons, or a humor magazine.
See the world. Without leaving their room, teens can visit places that fascinate them.
Travel through time. Historical fiction and science fiction move a reader back and forth in time.
Use their brains. Teens may enjoy solving a mystery by figuring out whodunit, outwitting a crafty villain, or thinking through a perilous situation.
Get some free advice. Lots of novels feature teenage characters who have problems and pressures similar to those your teenage may be dealing with.
Discover new interests. Through reading, teens may develop an interest in something they knew nothing about before.
Find a cause. Teens can get smart on an issue that matters to them.
Escape. Teens can escape noise, tension, or boredom by escaping into a book.
Helping teens find books that interest them...
What they say is true: the more you read, the better you read. In other words, stepping up the reading you do for yourself will make other reading tasks less of a chore. Here are some ideas parents can share with their teens to find the kinds of books that will most interest them:

Decide what you're in the mood for. High adventure? Romance? Perhaps you enjoyed a recent movie or TV miniseries; chances are it was based on a book you'd enjoy also.
Ask around. Ask friends, a favorite teacher, or your coach to suggest books they enjoyed.
Check out the library. It won't cost you anything, and the choices are virtually unlimited. Don't be shy about asking a librarian a question like, "Do you have any books on rock music?"
Browse in a bookstore. Find the section that interests you—fantasy, cars, computers, or whatever. Treat yourself to an inexpensive paperback, or just have a look around.
Consult a list of books other teenagers have enjoyed. Ask for a book list at your school or public library.
Don't judge a book by its cover. What you see on the cover is not necessarily what you get. Read the short reviews printed inside a dust jacket, or skim the first chapter to find out what a book is really about.
Try a few pages. If the books not for you, put it aside and try another, until you find a winner.
Read at your own pace. Reading isn't a contest. So what if you read slowly or skip words here and there? If you're interested, you'll read to the end, and that's what counts. And you'll probably find yourself picking up speed along the way.
Let one good thing lead to another. When you read something that really speaks to you, you may be sorry to have it end. But the end is never really the end for a person who reads. You can always open another book, and another, and another.

Source: RIF Parent Guide Brochure

Getting Your Child to Love Reading

Helping your children enjoy reading is one of the most important things you can do as a parent and it's well worth the investment of your time and energy.

Kids will learn reading skills in school, but often they come to associate reading with work, not pleasure. As a result, they lose their desire to read. And it is that desire—the curiosity and interest—that is the cornerstone to using reading and related skills successfully.

By far the most effective way to encourage your children to love books and reading is to read aloud to them, and the earlier you start, the better. Even a baby of a few months can see pictures, listen to your voice, and turn cardboard pages.

Make this time together a special time when you hold your kids and share the pleasure of a story without the distractions of TV or telephones. You may be surprised to find that a well-written children's book is often as big a delight to you as it is to the kids.

And don't stop taking the time to read aloud once your children have learned to read for themselves. At this stage, encourage them to read to you some of the time. This shared enjoyment will continue to strengthen your children's interest and appreciation.

Simply having books, magazines, and newspapers around your home will help children view them as part of daily life. And your example of reading frequently and enjoying it will reinforce that view.

While your children are still very small, it's a good idea to start a home library for them, even if it's just a shelf or two. Be sure to keep some books for little children to handle freely.

Include specially made, extra-durable books for infants, and pick paperbacks and plastic covers for kids who are older but still not quite ready for expensive hardbacks. Allowing little children to touch, smell, and even taste books will help them develop strong attachments.

How you handle books will eventually influence how your kids treat them. Children imitate, so if they see that you enjoy reading and treat books gently and with respect, it is likely that they will do the same.

When you read aloud together, choose books that you both like. If a book seems dull, put it down and find one that is appealing. There are, however, so many children's books in print that making the best selections may seem a formidable task.

One approach is to look for award-winning books. There are two famous awards for children's literature made each year by the American Library Association that are good indicators of quality work: the Caldecott Medal for illustration and the Newbery Medal for writing. But these are given to only two of the approximately 2,500 new children's books published each year.

Fortunately, there is a lot of other good help available. For instance, there are lists of books recommended by the American Library Association and the Library of Congress, as well as some excellent books to guide parents in making selections.

The best help of all, though, is at your neighborhood library. If you are not familiar with the library, don't hesitate to ask for help. The children's librarian is trained to help you locate specific books, books that are good for reading aloud, and books on a particular subject recommended for a particular age group.

The library also has many book lists, including ones like those mentioned above and probably some published by the library itself.

In addition, your library will have several journals that regularly review children's books, including the Horn Book and Booklist. These will give you an idea of what's new and worth pursuing.

And there's nothing like just browsing through the many books available at your library until you find ones that appeal to you and your kids.

If your children are school-aged, keep in mind that the school library is an excellent source for a wide variety of materials and the school librarian is knowledgeable about children's literature. Encourage your kids to bring home books from their school library for pleasure as well as for their studies.

Author: Kathryn Perkinson
Source: U.S. Department of Education

Helping beginning readers with phonics

By Trevor Cairney

1.Introduction - phonics as part of reading

Proficient readers need to orchestrate many skills as they read print. While most master spoken language in the first few years of life, written language poses new challenges. There are parallels between speech and writing, and together they make up language, but there are many differences. For example, writing doesn't include features such as intonation, rhythm, phrasing and pausing. And in parallel, talking doesn't indicate sentence and paragraphs. Secondly, speech and writing use different contexts for different purposes. So the meanings that we use in written contexts are not always easily translated into talk. Writing and talking also end up being used for different purposes. I could go on to discuss variations that occur that reflect the special and cultural groups to which we belong as speakers and writers (dialects). There are also functional variations that reflect what is going on, who is taking part and the role that language is fulfilling.

Written language places new demands on the child as they try to grapple with the fact that language can be represented symbolically. To read and write children need to learn the letters of the alphabet and to understand that they each have names and sounds. But on top of this they need to understand that in varied combinations with each other these letters can represent approximately 45 separate sounds (phonemes). They also need to apply their knowledge of syntax (the grammar of language) in new ways, which while based on that, which they have learned as speakers, is more complex. They need to bring their knowledge of word meanings and knowledge of their world and orchestrate this with everything else as they attempt to decode and recognise words.

Freebody and Luke (1990) in reflecting on the complexity of the reading process developed the idea of roles to describe what readers require to be successful. They saw the focus on roles as a more useful framework than just talking about reading skills. They suggested that the successful reader needs to be able simultaneously perform four different roles. They need to be:

Code-breakers and recognize and understand the fundamental features’ of written texts, including alphabetic knowledge, sounding out unknown words, spelling, punctuation, page layout, directionality (left to right, top to bottom) when reading and writing, typographical features and why they are used.

Text-participants and understand the meaning and structure of language, including the way the text is constructed to make meaning, the literal and figurative meanings of words and expressions. This role requires the reader to draw on their prior knowledge of the world to make sense of the language.

Text-users and understand that texts have culturally and socially acceptable uses in specific contexts. This involves understanding what counts as reading in specific situations and knowing how to perform this task. They need to learn how to participate in specific readings, use texts to achieve specific purposes, and interact with others concerning written language.

Text-analysts learning that texts are carefully constructed language forms that the authors see as having specific purposes. They are not ideologically neutral. They reflect the author’s particular view of the world. This role requires the child to learn to recognize bias, points of view, writer purpose etc. This might seem much too complex for the young reader, but consider the comment of my five-year-old grandson recently in response to a comment I made about the book Jack and Beanstalk. I commented that Jack had disobeyed his mother but that everything worked out well in the end. My grandson commented, “yes, but only because he stole lots of things from the Giant”.

2. So what about phonics?

I have outlined the above so that phonics is seen rightfully as part of what children need to know. If we lose sight of this we might well provide support that has limitations. There are some who see beginning reading as simply teaching children phonics. They seem to assume that if you teach them the sounds and how to decode words they will eventually read. This is simplistic. While children cannot read without decoding there is much more to being a proficient reader. If phonics is viewed as one of the areas of knowledge that readers require and decoding as one of the roles that the reader performs, it will affect the way we help children with phonics.

Most children require some help with phonics and generally a systematic approach to teaching letter-sound correspondence. There are four major methods for doing this:

a)Synthetic approaches – involve the systematic teaching of letter-sound correspondence and their combination into words. Even within this approach there are variations. One approach it to begin with single letters and move on to their combination into consonant and vowel words (c-v) before moving on to c-v-c words (e.g. c-a-t). A second approach (which in my teaching days we called the ‘Hay-Wingo’ approach based on the names of the authors of a key reference) involves teaching consonant vowel combinations first which are then blended with a consonant (e.g. ca-t).

The synthetic approach has the advantage that you can systematically teach all sounds and then train children to blend them. However, the approach does not accommodate the many inconsistencies in language (e.g. ea can have the long vowel sound for ‘e’ in words like read but the short sound for ‘e’ in words like lead). As well, it encourages readers to rely primarily on letter-sound strategies and draw less on whole word recognition and the use of context to help them work out a word. For example, a beginning reader who has learned most of their single letter names and sounds and is starting to blend them to read simple words like dog, big, hot, top etc., will need to use context if they strike more phonically demanding words such as television, shine, walk, porch. While these words can be decoded, the beginning reader won’t have the decoding knowledge to do so. As well, there will be words that can’t be decoded (e.g. here, the, there). Using context will help them to work out the word, continue reading, understand the sentence and gain confidence.

b)Rule approaches – are based on the premise that some letter-sound generalisations are predictable enough to form rules that help the child to decode words. Examples include:

•when a vowel follows two identical consonants it is short (e.g. slapped);
•the letter ‘c’ is pronounced ‘s’ before ‘e’, ‘i’ and ‘y’, but ‘k’ otherwise;
•when two vowels go a walking the first one does the talking (e.g. oa in boat);
•when a word ends with a silent ‘e’, it makes the preceding vowel say its name.

The major limitation of this method is that few rules are absolutely consistent and the use of rules like the above are at best, only helpful for explaining some of the inconsistencies.

c)Phonic family approach – this approach is a variation of the synthetic approach and involves teaching specific phonemes, which are then blended with consonants to form words. For example, ‘at’ (c-at, s-at, h-at, p-at etc). Typically teachers when using this approach teach a few consonants and vowels then begin to focus on families before moving on to more difficult phonemes (e.g. ow, au, ph etc). The main difference with this approach is that it offers practice in specific groups of words (word families) not just separate sounds. It is usually a more interesting and enjoyable approach and tends to make beginning readers feel more successful as they apply their phonic families to learn lots of word.

d)Analytic approach – this approach focuses on consistencies and inconsistencies within words that are being encountered as part of simple books that they are attempting to read, or being read with an adult as part of a shared reading experience (e.g. big format books). While within this approach children are taught to read some words by sight (i.e. words that are hard to decode such as ‘the’ and which are basically learnt from the shape of the word and their appearance from memory), and some sounds are still taught systematically, sounds are typically taught less systematically as needs are observed.

The major weakness of this approach is that it is less systematic and has limitations for less able learners and those with less language proficiency. As well, the use of whole texts can mean that readers rely heavily on context and memorisation to read simple books. Supporters of analytic approaches argue that the reading of whole texts is the purpose of reading and that methods that help beginning readers to utilise decoding in unison with other skills and knowledge is preferable.

3. An integrated approach to phonics

My preferred approach to phonics is an integrate one. Primarily, I use a combination of synthetic, phonic family and analytic approaches. No this isn’t a mad form of eclectism, it simply recognises the features of each that are helpful. The following sequence is consistent with how I have taught young children how to read as well as older children who have experienced reading problems. Again, it situates phonics within an overall approach to beginning reading.

i) Stimulate language – from birth talk to, sing to, read with, question; in short, engage with your child. This should continue through the pre-school years with increasing attention being given to the symbolic representation of meaning and language from the start (e.g. pointing to a picture in a book, a photo, a model etc and saying “Look, that’s a ….”). It goes without saying that you should read to them every day (preferably more than once).

ii) Direct attention to symbols (pretty much from birth but certainly by 12 months) - In time (very early on in relation to print in books) you begin to point to words in their world. Words are found in many places when you look, including books, posters, signs, TV, computers, clothing etc. The earliest symbolic representations that your child will recognise will probably be advertising slogans or logos (the big ‘M’ in McDonalds, Weet Bix, STOP etc).

iii)Read increasingly varied material (from age 2) – try to introduce a variety of fiction and non-fiction. Perhaps join a local library and go weekly as a special treat. Try some poetry, chants and rhymes as well as songs (that are read as well as sung). As well, begin to read interesting things on screen as you use digital literacy in your life. From about two you could visit children’s websites together (e.g. ABC Kids) and look and enjoy the written language as well as the images and sound.

iv) Begin to focus on letters and individual words (from about 2) – As you read together or as you’re out and about doing things together begin to focus some of your child’s attention on letters and words. “This word says Mum”. “B for ball”. “Your name starts with the sound J”. “That says ABC Kids”. “That says OPEN”. And so on. Note, this is all part of daily life, this is not the time for lessons.

v) Try to encourage them to read along (from about 2+) – As you read predictable storybooks encourage your child to join in by predicting the next word, or the next phrase. “But where’s the Green sheep?” “Not by the hair of my chiny …..” (child encouraged to complete). At first this is largely verbal, but in time you point to the words on the page and your child will be trying to recognise the symbols as well. Moving from the verbal to the visual takes a long time. Some children begin to get this at about age 3, whereas others won’t get it till they are 5+. Be patient.

vi) Begin to write their stories or experiences down (from about 3-4) – and have them show this tom others and perhaps even try to read what it says. The language will be simple. Perhaps your child has drawn a picture of a shark after a trip to a museum. You might simply ask you to tell you what it is and write the words as a label, e.g. “A White Pointer Shark”. Later, you might write down descriptions of events that you’ve shared, with your child dictating the words and you scribing for them.

vii) Begin to teach some words, sounds and numbers (from 4) – some children will be trying to do this earlier than four; encourage it if they show interest (older brothers and sisters often motivate them early). At first this is likely to be linked to their name, environmental signs, language on clothing, TV words (children’s television will begin to teach them numbers and sounds) but later you will see countless opportunities to point to symbols at home and when you’re out driving, shopping etc. If your child is in institutional childcare then they will also experience other opportunities as well. This is not to suggest that preschool is better for language acquisition, it isn’t. Nothing is as good as the close attention and love of a parent. However, childcare can be a stimulating learning environment with well-trained and caring childcare workers and teachers.
viii) Begin some simple phonics and whole word recognition (from 4) – this should happen naturally if you’ve implemented all of the above. Some children will be ready earlier than others but once they reach 5 you should more systematically focus on print. If you need to make an error, then err by being slower to do this. If you have your child sitting down to ‘do school’ then you run the risk that you might make reading more difficult and take all the joy out of it (with obvious negative long-term impact). Of course some children (most likely girls) will want to play school early. I need to stress that this should be informal, fun and intellectually stimulating. I’d suggest that you use the three approaches to phonics that I suggest (synthetic, analytic and phonic family. Here’s a sequence for phonics:

Teach some consonants (e.g. b, t, c, s, g, s, m, f, l) and a few whole words – don’t do ‘b’ and ‘d’ at the same time, virtually every child will reverse them right up to school age (this is normal) so don’t complicate things further. Use the name as well as the sound. “Look, that’s a ‘b’.” “Can you see the ‘r’ in Rebecca?”.

While you’re pointing out letters teach a few whole words. For example, their name, mum, dad, kids (as in ABC Kids), STOP etc.

Point to letters, numbers and words as you read things and also write them down with them and encourage them to write as well.

Introduce the vowels (a, e, I, o, u) – while you can point to the vowels separately these are better introduced as part of words or in combination with consonants. “That says ‘u’ in mum”. “Let’s look for some ‘at’ words on this page”. “Let’s write some ‘at’ words together.” You might even sound out special words in stories. For example, in books that use sound words you should say them and point to them. “Mr McGee is saying OWWWW and OOOOO”. “Look, that says BANG”.

Point out other print conventions – as your child begins to learn more about written language he/she will have lots of questions that you should try to answer. As well, you might point out punctuation, the difference between upper and lower case letters.

Play games that use words, sounds and numbers – Word BINGO and I Spy are simple examples but there are many commercial examples. Many games can make car trips seem shorter and act as a catalyst for families doing things togethers (including brothers and sisters).

Other sounds and words – your child’s responsiveness to reading will determine how much more that you will need to do but in the first two years of school most children will learn the following sounds in roughly this sequence. NOTE – many of these sounds will still be difficult for some seven year olds and few parents of pre-schoolers need to worry about the complexities of this sequence:

•Simple word familles (c-v or v-c) – e.g. in, up, am, us, at, on, it etc.
•Simple c-v-c words – e.g. cat, dog, mum, dad, hat, pup, pot, hop etc.
•Three letter word families (cvc) – e.g. ing, ong, ant.
•Initial consonant digraphs – e.g. sh, th, ck, wh etc.
•Initial consonant blends – e.g. tr, dr, gr, cr, st, bl, fr, fl, gl, pl, pr etc.
•Final consonant blends (usually with a vowel before it) – e.g. st, mp, nd, nt, nk, ft, ld, lt.
•Simple vowel digraphs and diphthongs – e.g. ee, oo, ay, ar.
•Long vowel ‘y’ as in ‘my’ and then later other long vowels.
• Three letter initial consonant blends – e.g. str, spr, shr, thr, squ.
•Other harder digraphs and diphthongs – e.g. oy, er, oa, ai, or, ar, ou, ow, ea, ur, ay, ir, aw, ie, ui, ph.
•Silent letters – e.g. ‘k’ as in knee.
•Other complex phonograms – e.g. augh, ough, aught, ought, eight, our.

One final comment. Most learning about phonics will occur once children reach school age. The best thing that parents can do is gently teach some sounds and sight words (i.e. whole words recognised from memory). If any sounds are taught remember to use a combination of the three approaches I mentioned above. Teach some sounds and practice blending (e.g. c-v-c), play with phonic familles (write down some at words or just read “The Cat in the Hat”) and point to whole words and sounds as you read with your child as part of everyday life. And remember that the ability to decode is just one of the strategies at the disposal of readers.

References

Cairney, T.H. (1990). Balancing the basics, 2nd Edition. Scholastic: Sydney.

Freebody, P., & Luke, A. (1990). Literacies programs: Debates and demands in cultural context. Prospect: Australian Journal of TESOL, 5(7), 7-16.

http://www.trevorcairney.com/Trevor_Cairney/Helping_beginning_readers.html

"Ways with Words"

Reading and writing is much more than a collection of basic skills. Reading and writing are essentially social and communicative practices (Bruffee, 1984). Each act of reading or writing involves socially developed and culturally embedded ways of using text to serve particular social or cultural purposes (Moje, Dillon, & O'Brien, 2000; Gee, 1999; Hourigan, 1994; Lee, 1995; Scribner & Cole, 1981; Street, 1984). All texts are shaped by specific conventions and structures of language, and proficient reading of all texts therefore demands the use of these conventions to navigate layers of meaning (Cope & Kalantzis, 1993; New London Group, 1996; Scott, 1993). Additionally, the resources and processes used by proficient readers are influenced by the specific contexts and situations in which reading occurs and the social
functions that it serves (Courts, 1997; Gee, 1996; Heath, 1983; Scribner & Cole, 1981).

The implications of this view for the literacy learning of diverse populations of students are profound. Increasingly, students come from a variety of economic, linguistic, cultural, and ethnic backgrounds, bringing significantly different experiences and expectations about how to initiate and sustain conversations, how to interact with teachers and peers, how to identify and solve different types of problems, and how to go about particular reading and writing tasks (Greenleaf, Hull, & Reilly, 1994; Lee, 1995; Moje, Dillon, & O'Brien, 2000). In addition, literacy practices become increasingly specialized throughout the school career, reflecting the broader literate, scientific, or historical conversations that characterize the academic disciplines (Applebee, 1996; Eeds & Wells, 1989; Grossman, 1990; Grossman & Shulman, 1994; Harste, 1994; Langer, 1995; Langer, Confer, & Sawyer, 1993; Lemke, 1990; Rabinowitz & Smith, 1998; Wilson & Wineburg, 1988; Wineburg, 1991; Wineburg & Wilson, 1990). Academic literacy at higher grade levels therefore requires particular interpretive and communicative competencies, or specialized "ways with words" (Heath, 1983) for skilled participation as a reader or writer (Bartholomae, 1985; Gee, 1996; Hull, 1989; Rose, 1985).

For these reasons, learning to read at early grade levels will not automatically translate into higher level academic literacy. Instead, literacy researchers have argued that for all students to learn to perform high-level, academically linked literacy tasks, teachers will need to make explicit the tacit reasoning processes, strategies, and discourse rules that shape successful readers' and writers' work (e.g., Delpit, 1988, 1995; Fielding & Pearson, 1994; Freedman, Flower, Hull, & Hayes, 1995; Gee, 1996, 1999; Hillocks, 1995; Pressley, 1998). Our own work with students from richly different backgrounds has underscored the necessity of not only telling students what to do and providing engaging and authentic opportunities for them to do it, but also painstakingly and explicitly showing them how, building bridges from their cultural knowledge and language experiences to the language and literacy practices valued and measured in school and society.

Helping students master academic literacy practices, however, does not mean a return to isolated skills-based instruction. Rather, ample studies over the past few decades have demonstrated that integrating the explicit teaching of comprehension strategies, text structures, and word-level strategies into compelling sense-making activities with texts increases student reading achievement (Baumann & Duffy, 1997; Beck, McKeown, Hamilton, & Kucan, 1997; Borkowski, Carr, Rellinger, & Pressley, 1990; Dowhower, 1999; Duffy et al., 1994; Fitzgerald, 1995; Goatley, Brock, & Raphael, 1995; Guthrie, McGough, Bennett, & Rice, 1996; Hillocks, 1995; Keene & Zimmerman, 1997; Pearson, 1996; Pressley et al., 1992; Pressley, 1998; Roehler & Duffy, 1991; Rosenshine & Meister, 1994). These researchers argue that for the reading and reasoning processes of the academic disciplines to become part of the repertoires of a broader population of students, teachers need to engage all students in complex academic literacy tasks while at the same time providing the explicit teaching and support necessary for students to perform these tasks successfully (Pearson, 1996,).

Drawing from both sociocultural studies of learning and cognitive studies of expert and novice performance on a variety of complex mental tasks, some researchers have adopted the metaphor of "cognitive apprenticeship" to describe a type of teaching designed to assist students in acquiring more expert, or proficient, cognitive processes for particular valued tasks, such as reading comprehension, composing, and mathematical problem-solving ( Bayer, 1990; Brown, Collins, & Newman, 1989; Lave & Wenger, 1991; Lee, 1995; Rogoff, 1990). In an apprenticeship, an expert practitioner or mentor draws on his or her expertise to model, direct, support, and shape the apprentice's growing repertoire of practice. Apprenticeship also generally involves learning while doing. It is hard to imagine learning to paint without actually working with canvas and brush, or learning to jump hurdles without getting out on the track.

When the desired proficiency is a cognitive practice such as composing or comprehending a text, the invisible mental processes involved in the task must be made visible and available to apprentices as they actually engage in meaningful literacy activities (Freedman et al., 1995; Pearson, 1996). To help students develop as readers and writers, then, teachers must begin to create "literacy apprenticeships," engaging students in meaningful and complex literacy practices while demystifying these literacy practices (Brown et al., 1989; Lee, 1995; Schoenbach, Greenleaf, Cziko, & Hurwitz, 1999).

This conception of literacy apprenticeship also suggests that the best teachers of specific discipline-based literacy practices are those who themselves have mastered these practices. These include the subject-area teachers and academicians who have acquired scientific, historical, mathematical, or literary discourses during their own educational careers. We argue, therefore, that for all students to attain high-level literacy, apprenticeships that demystify the literacy practices and discourses of the academic disciplines must be embedded in subject-area instruction across the curriculum, rather than becoming the sole purview of the English department. For subject-area teachers to embrace this work, they must reconceptualize subject-area teaching as an apprenticeship into discipline-based practices of thinking, talking, reading, and writing (Applebee, 1996). To assist teachers in constructing this new conception of teaching and, specifically, of reading in the content areas, we have developed an instructional framework, Reading Apprenticeship, derived from the socially and cognitively complex view of literacy and drawing on the core metaphor of cognitive apprenticeship described above.

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