We Check All the Boxes! Nine Best Practices (Part 1 of 3)

Introduction

As more and more reading programs proclaim that they teach the Science of Reading, it is essential that the programs are truly complete, sequential, and aligned to the best practices in instructional design.

Determining the quality of instructional materials is complex!

As Eric Hirsch commented in Q&A: Evidence and Efficacy in Curriculum Adoption from Ed Reports:

There are many studies showing that high-quality instructional materials, when implemented well and paired with curriculum-based professional learning, help to drive improvements in student outcomes. But there are very few independent, rigorous studies of the effectiveness of any single program. “Gold standard” studies are expensive and take years to complete, and it’s a significant challenge to control for all the variables of implementing materials. Publishers often conduct or sponsor their own studies, but those aren’t independent by definition. And, even if you’re lucky enough to find more than one independent study of a program’s effectiveness, they may report contrasting findings.

CR Success, launched in 1998, has been a pioneer in the Science of Reading before this method became en vogue.  Let us show you how we check all the boxes for an effective and engaging reading program that is research-based with proven results.

This is part one of our three-part blog series where we will discuss nine best practices for science-based reading programs.

This episode introduces these three best practices:

• Best Practice #1: Student-Led

• Best Practice #2: Systematic and Sequential

• Best Practice #3: Research-based

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Let the Student Do the Work!

Effective instruction focuses on the student’s response. Activities should be highly active with numerous opportunities to respond (OTRs). There should be multiple occasions for purposeful review and practice.

What We Do: We limit “teacher-talk” and focus on the student’s processing.

Watch as a third-grade student demonstrates his processing by dividing a word into syllables.

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Skill by skill, learning is sequential

Explicit instruction requires a comprehensive scope and sequence, based both on research and on the developmental hierarchies of learning.

What We Do: Our instruction in every aspect keeps the big picture in mind, while breaking down skills into manageable steps. The competencies we develop in the five different levels are cumulative and build upon each other, from lesson to lesson and from level to level.

CR Success develops a systematic and sequential for all the essential components of literacy. Shown here is the Phonics Literacy Map across our programs.

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Use the Science!

The Science of Reading is not one program or set of programs; instead, it is the body of evidence from research that informs assessment and instruction. It shows that both language comprehension and word recognition are necessary for students to become strong readers. It emphasizes explicit, systematic instruction in the structure of the English language.

What We Do: We are constantly refining instruction, using current and confirmed research.

Refer to our Position Paper to see how each aspect of literacy is backed by research.

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Wrapping Up:

✅ Does your current reading program empower students to take the lead in their learning journey? How effectively does it support student-led activities?

✅ Does your reading program methodically build on previous lessons in a systematic and sequential manner to enhance learning outcomes? How does it ensure each step builds logically on the last?

✅ Is your reading program grounded in research-based practices? How do you integrate current scientific findings to ensure effective learning outcomes?

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Next episode:
Check all the Boxes! 3 more best practices

Jump Start Your Kids This January! 4 Essential Skills for Preschoolers

1. Alphabetic Knowledge! 

Recognizing and naming upper and lowercase letters is the root of reading! January is a perfect time for a formal or informal assessment of your students so you know how well they know the alphabet! A good jumping off start for the new year!

*CR Success Learning provides Proficiency Assessments in the Jump Start program for preschoolers.

2. Letter-Sound Correspondence

When your student understands that there is a sound associated with the letter, you are providing them with the key to unlocking the Alphabet and they will begin to read!

*CR Success Jump Start has wonderful letter/sound action cards and magnetic folders that keep preschoolers engaged as they match the letters with the sounds. 

3. Segment and Blending

Start with using words and syllables. Preschoolers enjoy learning with their whole body so using movement (like jumping!) to highlight breaks between words or singing and clapping with the syllables and sounds can be a great learning tool and fun!

4. Rhyme

Read books, poems and sing songs that rhyme. “Experts in literacy and child development have discovered that if children know eight nursery rhymes by heart by the time they’re four years old, they’re usually among the best readers by the time they’re eight.” – Mem Fox (2008)

*CRSL has a wonderful Big Book of Nursery Rhymes, exposing your students to high quality literature while reinforcing targeted sounds.

Finally – Don’t forget to introduce new books to your class library!

A fresh turnover and care for literature in your class and home will peak your preschoolers interest and increase their love of the written word! 

We Can Fix Our Literacy Crisis!

Recently, the New York Times published an opinion piece by Nicholas Kristof, entitled “Two-thirds of Our Kids Struggle to Read, and We Know How To Fix It.”

In this article, Kristof wrote, 

“There is growing evidence from neuroscience and careful experiments that the United States has adopted reading strategies that just don’t work very well and that we haven’t relied enough on a simple starting point — helping kids learn to sound out words with phonics.”

Kristof emphasized that we know how to fix our children’s lack of reading proficiency. It is not just adopting phonics, looking at empirical evidence or the Science of Reading. Kristof stated,

“Everyone agrees that phonics are necessary, and everyone also agrees that phonics are not enough.” 

It is both what and how we teach.

As I read this article, I couldn’t help but evaluate the programs of CR Success Learning as Kristoff makes his case. Once again, CRSL consistently addresses all of the crucial factors in the journey of literacy, using the Science of Reading and best practices in instructional design

We do know how to fix the literacy problem! 

We can work with you to make the difference.

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Let us look at some key factors in this journey:

• We know our destination.

Research tells us we can have a 95% success rate if teach students correctly. Our goal is to Make Every Child a Reader and a Writer.

• We can navigate by research.

The Reading League (2020) wrote,

“The science of reading has culminated in a preponderance of evidence to inform how proficient reading and writing develop; why some have difficulty; and how we can most effectively assess and teach and, therefore, improve student outcomes through prevention of and intervention for reading difficulties.”

• We have developmental guideposts.

Literacy is developmental. Students learn through distinct phases. As students grow in reading skills, their fluency and use of strategies also increase.

• We know how to make the journey engaging.

In scientifically-based reading programs, the pedagogy or method of teaching is highly important. In CRSL, games, visual posters, gesture and actions, songs, and stories spark interest in the lessons. Hands-on materials and a highly interactive style keep the students engaged, motivated, and focused.

• We will start at the beginning.

We know the trajectory of literacy success starts early.  

Our next blog will focus on the Jump Start Literacy Program designed for Early Childhood. We know the early years are crucial in a child’s literacy development. We will be describing Jump Start in depth, including exciting new digital tools!

The Best and the Rest - See How CR Success Compares

There are many literacy programs that promise to follow the Science of Reading (SoR). One of the most significant decisions for a school is which literacy program they will choose. Which one stands out as the best program?

Due to the myriad of programs available, the evaluation of programs can be a formidable one. It can be challenging to effectively analyze a program to make the correct decision for its students. There are so many questions to consider. 

• Does this program teach all the critical components of literacy? 

• Does it instruct in a way that is meaningful and memorable? 

• How does it connect aspects of learning? 

• Will it engage my students and meet their diverse needs?

• Does it provide alignment across grades and levels?

CR Success Learning began in 1999, with the premise that phonological instruction should be integrated with systematic phonics instruction, and then applied to spelling, writing, and reading. Vocabulary, comprehension strategies, and fluency were important parts of this application. Research, beginning with the 2000 National Reading Panel’s study, have continued to confirm this premise.

But CRSL goes beyond this basic framework of instruction, just as research has continued to develop and expand our understanding of literacy. We have provided a comprehensive checklist for you to download to compare our program with others. We show our unique features as well as the robust nature of our programs, using a number of details to consider.

Often, programs pay lip service to recognize the five pillars of reading (phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension) without truly integrating these components. CRSL has always sought to provide programs that connect learning and teach concepts that “stick” with the students. We believe in using the best practices in instruction and staying completely up-to-date on the research of reading. Visit our website to view our program catalogs for more information.

We’d enjoy talking with you and answering your questions as you explore our programs. Please call Cheryl @ 303-699-7566 or email me at cheryl@crsuccesslearning.com.

Thank you for all that you do for your students,
Cheryl Rose Campbell
President, CR Success Learning, LLC

How Much Time Should Be Spent on Teaching Rhyming?

As I delivered Pari to her Kindergarten classroom, her teacher pulled me aside to express her concerns. I was pleased with Pari’s progress – she knows all her sounds, is beginning to blend them together and is motivated to read. I also knew the problems – Pari has difficulty rhyming.

I understand the teacher’s perspective; rhyming is assessed early and often. Therefore, our Kindergarten classrooms put a heavy emphasis on rhyming. As a former first grade teacher, I spent very little time with rhyming activities. I just wanted students to understand the alphabetic principle and use that skill to decode words! Why this emphasis on rhyming in Kindergarten? Cheryl and I have dug into this issue.

Here’s what we found…

The Research

Timothy Shanahan, in his literacy blog Shanahan on Literacy, noted that rhyming can be predictive of later reading achievement, but it is not as accurate as other skills, such as letter-sound knowledge. He then states definitively,

“Given that there are no studies showing that teaching rhyming improves reading achievement (or even makes kids more amenable to and successful with phonemic awareness instruction), I wouldn’t want to spend much time teaching it.”  

In 2002, Bonnie Macmillan conducted a critical review on rhyming and reading. She concluded,

“Both correlational and training-study evidence, involving beginning readers, suggests that the more letter-sound teaching children receive at this stage (undiluted by rhyme awareness instruction), the better their reading progress.”

Stuart Yeh and David Connell reinforced this conclusion in their 2008 research involving young Head Start children. They wrote,

“It appears that explicit instruction emphasizing phonemic awareness may be more likely to prevent reading difficulties, especially among disadvantaged children such as those served by Head Start, than instruction emphasizing rhyming, vocabulary development or incidental exposure to phonological activities in the context of story reading.”

Efficient, Effective Instruction

In our CR Success Learning early literacy programs, Jump Start and First Steps, we do not explicitly assess or teach rhyming skills. We teach at the phoneme level. Kindergarten teachers we train will ask about rhyming instruction. We simply explain the research and show our results. It has long been assumed that children’s phonological understanding progresses from large (rhyme) units to small (phoneme) units. Research, however, indicates that young children can perform phoneme tasks, which are directly correlated to reading achievement.

Onset-rime instruction is low-utility skill; teach at the phoneme level first.

Teaching larger phonetic units, such as onset-rime, is not based on how the English language is constructed. Bonnie Macmillan noted that rhyming and onset-rime instruction permeated early literacy instruction, partly due to Marilyn Jager Adams’ endorsement of such instruction. However, this teaching was based on a faulty assumption,

“In a simple CVC word there are, not two symbols (one for the onset and one for the rime), but three letter symbols each separated in space, each symbol representing, and illuminating, a phoneme unit. Onsets and rime units, however, are not differentiated or made explicit by our writing system in this way.”

It has been our experience that, as children advance in their awareness of phonemic awareness and letter-sound knowledge, they improve in their ability to rhyme, which Shanahan terms as a “somewhat separate skill.” This belief has been reinforced by studies, such as the one conducted by McNorgan, et al, 2014 and Nation and Hulme, 2010.

Pari’s Kindergarten experience so far has had her jump from task to task: alliteration, rhyming, memorizing sight words, learning letter names and sounds, concepts of print drills through memorization of unfamiliar words and syntax. 

Research tells us that phonemic awareness and letter-sound instruction will move her faster and give her the foundation necessary for proficient reading.

1. Teach the key phonemic awareness skills of segmenting, blending, and manipulating phonemes with letter-sound knowledge.

2. Enjoy rhymes and playful use of language as you share classic nursery rhymes, fingerplays,
   songs, and stories with children.

3. After students have developed the alphabetic principle, teach word families with such activities as “If I can spell cat, I can spell bat, mat, pat, rat, that, sat, vat, fat, hat.”

Co-written by Cheryl Rose Campbell and Tricia Gray, part of the team of people supporting your educational learning needs.

Should I Teach Letter Names or Letter Sounds?

Observers in a CR Success classroom often remark on the high engagement level of the students and the unique materials being used. Specific language is also a key consideration when teaching the lesson. Listen to this CR Success teacher,

“Spell the word hot. How many sounds do you hear? Yes, three. Pinch each sound as you write it, /h/ /o/ /t/.”

The emphasis on sounds is evident in the teacher’s directions. This question frequently comes up, “Should only letter sounds, and not letter names, be used?”

As is the case with most literacy questions, the answer is complicated and it must be based on research. CR Success believes that a hallmark of a successful literacy program is its ability to continually adjust to current scientific research.

Advocates of teaching only letter-sounds cite the research of McGuinness (2004) and others. Their stance is based on the fact that our written language is derived from sounds. The most direct connection to letter-sound correspondences is through the sounds. Letter names are not related to sounds in a consistent manner (Seidenberg, 2016; Block, et al, 2015). Letter names are syllables, with a vowel attached at the beginning or end of the name: bee, eff. A few letter names have no relation to their sounds: h, w, y.

However, other research indicates that letter name knowledge not only is an excellent predictor of future reading skills, but it actually “boosts the development of major literacy-related skills, notably letter-sound knowledge and phonemic sensitivity skills, which in turn underlie the acquisition of the alphabetic principle and reading and spelling skills.” (Foulin, 2005) This research indicates that combined letter name and letter sound instruction was beneficial. Seidenberg, in his book, Language at the Speed of Sight, writes that letter names assist children in categorizing the letter. The following principles drive our programs:

We need to be explicit in our instruction (Block, et al, 2015).

• We tell students, “Just as an animal has a name (lion) and a sound (roar!), letters have names and sounds. We use letter sounds when we read and spell.”

• When we introduce a letter, we use specific language.

We need to be intentional in our use of letter names and sounds.

• We use letter names to spell words aloud, particularly non-phonetic (T.R.I.C.K.y) Words.

  1. We use letter sounds when building decodable words to spell. When we are reading words, we blend sounds together.

  2. We practice the Alphabet Song by name and then by sound.

In conclusion, we recognize that we must provide students letter name knowledge, but our focus is on developing letter sound knowledge. We need to be both explicit and intentional in our approach. Explicit instruction through CR Success teaches discrimination between letter names and sounds. Intentional instruction consistently models when to use letter names and sounds. Our beginning readers will build a strong foundation by understanding the alphabetic principle, which is that words are composed of letters that represent sounds.

References:

Block, M.K. & Duke, N.K. (2015). Letter names cause confusion and other things to know about letter-sound relationships. Young Children, 70, 84-91.

Caravolas, M., Hulme, C., & Snowling, M. (2001). The foundations of spelling ability: Evidence from a 3 year longitudinal study. Journal of Memory and Language, 45, 751–774.

Foulin, N. (2005), Why is letter-name knowledge such a predictor of learning to read? Reading and Writing, 18, 129-155

McGuinness, D. (2004). Early reading instruction. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.

Seidenberg, M. (2017). Language at the speed of sight. New York, NY: Basic Books.

Silva, C., Almeida, T., & Martins, M.A. (2010). Letter names and sounds: their implications for the phonetisation process. Reading and Writing, 23, 147-172.