|
SLS Programs: | |||
 |
||||
| Stevenson Reading | |
|||
|
||||
| Cursive Writing | ||||
|
||||
| Essential Grammar | ||||
|
||||
| Other Programs | ||||
|
||||
|
Latest News | |
 |
||
| Workshops & Conferences | |
|
|
||
| Stevenson Forums | |
|
|
||
| FAQs | |
|
|
||
| Our Newsletter: "Food for Thought" |
||
|
||
| Consulting | ||
|
||
| Teaching Resources | ||
|
||
| Links | ||
|
||
Recent Article from Spring 2006:
The Contradictions of Reading Content
ContradictionsUnfortunately, there is no perfect way to write material for students who struggle with their reading skills. Why? Because every choice an author faces has both advantages and disadvantages. We thought it would be worth discussing a few of these choices and the problems that accompany them, particularly in light of the new Beginning Green Reading Books coming in September.
Words and Pictures
Consider the use of illustrations with stories. Almost every young student is accustomed to books that are filled with pictures. If you can’t yet read, you look at pictures. Certain approaches to teaching reading encourage students to use the pictures as a way to figure out what the words in the story might be. If a student saw a word that started with the letters b and o and saw a picture of a boat on the page, he or she might reasonably expect the word to be boat.
The Whole Language philosophy of reading , for example, encourages students to use whatever tools are available and to figure out words in a discovery fashion. In the early stages of learning to read through Whole Language, pictures are a principal tool. This approach can work well for some students: students who have no auditory processing issues that make letter sounds hard to isolate and discriminate; students who have efficient memories that absorb information quickly and retain it well; students who have a natural facility with language and meaning. However, students who find it difficult to make sense out of printed English and its crazy spellings, use the pictures differently. For these students the pictures offer a way to avoid figuring out words. They prefer to look at the picture and then guess, rather than to struggle with sounding out all those troublesome, unreliable letters. Also, some students with attention issues can be distracted rather than directed by illustrations. To exacerbate the problem, the pictures themselves can be unreliable. If the word book happens to appear on the same page as the word boat, an illustration of a boat can misdirect the student when he or she needs to read book. So the same strategy of guessing words, which can help certain students, can be very harmful for others.
Throughout her career, Nancy Stevenson worked with many students who struggled very hard with reading. When she would first see these pupils, most of them would be guessing words constantly. Typically, they would see the first letter of a word and then guess the rest, because the more letters they tried to sound out the more confused they would become. (Usually the vowels are the most confusing part of a word.) Nancy often had to spend as much time curing students of a destructive guessing habit as she did developing their ability to decode (sound out) words accurately. Of course, pictures were the principal stimulus for the guessing. Therefore, when Nancy started to create her own reading materials, she chose to omit any illustrations for the stories. The only illustrations she used were letter clues. She focused on using a very controlled vocabulary, so that students would have a high percentage of words they could rely on decoding correctly.
This approach allowed students to hone their word attack skills and feel success. It helped cure them of the guessing habit. However, there are also disadvantages to the lack of illustrations. Many young students are simply intimidated by pages of print. Even if the student can read every word on the page with ease, he or she can be overwhelmed just seeing all the words with no pictures. This feeling can be particularly strong for students who struggle. Pictures make the book more friendly, and pictures are fun. For this reason, the Supplementary Reader Set has always made a great complement to the practice reading in the Beginning I Level Reading Books.
In the new Beginning Green Reading Books, we have tried to reach a compromise. We have used a few illustrations to make the books friendlier, but have also limited the pictures in number and in kind. Habitual, ineffective guessing remains a large problem for struggling readers. Therefore, we do not use pictures that represent the story or the sentence, although they do relate to something on the page or in the lesson. Students cannot use the pictures to guess at the reading content, but occasional pictures do break up the visual field so that not all pages are comprised of only print. Most of the pictures also have brief captions the student can decode without guessing.
Controlled Vocabulary and Flexibility
All structured phonics methods face the same dilemma when creating reading material. Do you use the normal, common vocabulary that the student is used to hearing every day, or do you use phonetically regular words that correlate with the letter patterns the student is learning to decode. As you probably know, English is extremely inconsistent. Even though roughly 85% of the words in our language are regular, many common words like what, does, very and dozens of others do not fit well into phonics patterns. Proper names are even more varied. On the other hand, research has clearly shown that most struggling readers benefit from explicit phonics instruction. So authors of phonics reading books have to perform a juggling act. They have to use at least some irregular words that are common, but they have to emphasize the regular linguistic patterns students need to decode with mastery.
The Stevenson Program, like many multisensory phonics methods, uses a controlled vocabulary. The Beginning Level of Stevenson is particularly controlled, with the emphasis on words containing the specific vowel patterns being taught. This control provides students with the opportunity to figure out the vast majority of words without guessing. Also, students develop confidence. Most important, the program steadily and cumulatively builds reading skills. In the very early stages, students can decode almost every word they encounter except for a few words we call Feed Words. This name refers to the fact that the teacher is supposed to feed these words to students if they do not recognize them. In the early lessons these Feed Words are limited to a few simple ones, like the, is and on. Most students pick up these small words by repeating them in context (in contrast to other programs that take a sight word approach and simply drill the non-decodable words over and over.)
The advantage of the controlled vocabulary is that it allows us to focus on developing students word attack skills very effectively very early. The disadvantage is that the reading content becomes limited. It is difficult to create very interesting or realistic reading material. It is also difficult to make the reading material sound natural. Once again we have to compromise. In the original Beginning I Reading Books, Nancy Stevenson erred on the side of control. Again the reason for her leaning in this direction was her experience with severely reading disabled pupils. She felt that it was absolutely paramount that these students be able to crack the code called English. In the new Beginning Green Reading Books, we have retained her priorities, but we have also tried to become more flexible.
The new books use more Feed Words in certain stories, including some Feed Words that we do not expect students to learn for months or years to come. However, an occasional challenging Feed Word here or there can allow you to write more interesting material or material that sounds more natural. In general, you will notice a pattern in each lesson’s reading section. After each teaching session where the student is introduced to a new letter or letter pattern, there are sentences that students need to read aloud in turns. These sentences, usually called “Instructional Reading” (IR) are highly controlled. (When using a controlled vocabulary it is easier to write individual sentences than paragraphs or stories.) As the lesson continues, students complete more instructional oral reading along with workbook pages and spelling activities. At that point, The Reading Books provide sections called “Practice Reading” which are usually made up of paragraphs or mini-stories. While these latter passages focus on controlled vocabulary, they are often more flexible. There are usually more Feed Words and some of these Feed Words will be obviously above grade level. However, this flexibility allows for a little more variety and that makes the reading material a little more fun.
Another, related area where the new reading material differs from the old is in the use of first names. If you have noticed how inconsistent English spelling is, you undoubtedly noticed that proper names are even crazier. They are borrowed from many languages. They are frequently invented. Often the spellings have been changed to add a little flair. In the original books, Nancy Stevenson limited her use of names to a few that fit specific vowel patterns. For example, Joan and Dean could be used with peanut butter and jelly words, Mike, Kate and Eve with layer cake words, Ned with Lonely e words, etc. The advantage of this approach is that you ensure the student’s ability to figure out the name. The disadvantage is that the real world is full of many different names and many cannot be easily decoded (at least not at an early stage of learning to read). Lindsay (or Lindsey or Linsay or Lyndsay) is more common than Joan. Ryan (or Ryen) is more common than Dean. Students enjoy seeing their own names or their friends’ names in print. They enjoy seeing names from their own culture. Most important, almost everything they read in school from literature to social studies to science is going to be filled with names. Therefore in the new Beginning Green Reading Books we have started to sprinkle in a greater variety of names. If students can remember an irregular name by sight, that is good. If they cannot, the teachers can simply treat the names as Feed Words. We did not try to use a large number of names, nor did we even consider using the many difficult surnames that are common. We did, however, wish to accustom students to meeting a variety of names, many of which they cannot expect to sound out.
Humor and Patience
Even in the new Beginning Green Reading Books, the Stevenson Program retains a more controlled level of vocabulary than some other phonics programs. At the same time, we have tried to open things up a little bit without leaving behind the students that need us the most. Given the unavoidable issues that will arise, there are two qualities above all others that help make both the teaching and the learning process work.
The first of these is humor. Humor allows us possibilities we would not have otherwise. We create a significant amount of practice reading material by engaging students’ imaginations. If we were limited to hard facts and realistic statements, the amount of practice reading we could write would be severely limited. At the same time, we are unable to create great imaginary adventures because we do not have enough words to work with. So we often write content that is odd and unusual, but not fantasy. It helps a great deal if the teacher has the sense of humor to present such content as light fun, and the student is allowed to see the material as amusing. Discussing reading content is a basic daily job of any teacher, and there is no rule against having fun with the process.
The other quality that helps us all in these situations is patience. Most authors of phonics reading books have to exercise a great deal of patience simply to accept the limits of the controlled vocabulary. The teacher also needs to be patient with the process. She or he has to remember that as students’ reading mastery increases, the vocabulary they can handle also increases, and the reading content will become increasingly more varied. We hope that teachers will not pressure students to learn all the Feed Words they encounter. If you simply follow the course of the program, students will eventually be a able to decode almost any Feed Word or “sight word” they need.
The student, of course, needs patience as much as the teacher, but it is usually harder for the child than for the adult. Those of you who have used Stevenson for a while will be able to look the child in the eye and tell them from your own experience that this method, no matter how strange it might seem sometimes, will teach them to read successfully. Those of you who are relatively new to Stevenson, may need to find other ways to convey the same message, but you still should instill confidence in your students that they will succeed.
Success
A little confidence increases patience, which increases success, which increases confidence, which - you see what we mean. The whole point is success. If using a controlled vocabulary has disadvantages, they are thoroughly outweighed by the benefits of helping the struggling reader succeed. Many struggling students are so happy to succeed, they do not care what they read. Some students gradually come to realize there is light at the end of the tunnel. Once they succeed, they are more than willing to continue to work at reading. The more they continue to work at it, the greater their options become in terms of reading content. Eventually the whole issue of controlled vocabulary goes away, and the student reads what every one else reads. After all, we are only trying to teach them the same thing everyone else in school is learning - the crazy English Language.
|
|
 |
|
©
2002 Stevenson Learning Skills, Inc. All rights reserved.
Stevenson Reading • Cursive Writing • Essential Grammar • Other Programs News • Workshops/Conferences • Forums • FAQs • Our Newsletter • Consulting Services • Ordering/Catalogue About Us • Contact Us • Site Map |
