Understanding What Reading Is All About

Understanding What Reading Is All About

Teaching Materials and Lessons for Adult Basic Education Learners

July 2005

Harvard Graduate School of Education 101 Nichols House, Appian Way Cambridge, MA 02138

Developed with Ashley Hager, Barbara Garner, Cristine Smith, Mary Beth Bingman, Lenore Balliro, Lisa Mullins, Lou Anna Guidry, and Susan McShane

NCSALL Teaching Materials are funded by the Educational Research and Development Centers program, Award Number R309B960002, as administered by the Institute of Education Sciences (formerly Office of Educational Research and Improvement), U.S. Department of Education, through contract to Harvard University. The content of NCSALL Teaching Materials does not necessarily represent the positions or policies of the Institute of Education Sciences, or the U.S. Department of Education, and you should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government.

CONTENTS

Introduction .................................................................................................... 1 Overview ? Lesson by Lesson ...................................................................... 5 Lesson One: The Demands of Reading...................................................... 9 Lesson Two: Goals for Reading, Part 1 .................................................... 13 Lesson Three: Goals for Reading, Part 2.................................................. 17 Lesson Four: The Components of Reading ............................................. 23 Lesson Five: Analyzing Words ................................................................. 33 Lesson Six: Reading Words by Sight........................................................ 43 Lesson Seven: Reading with Fluency....................................................... 45 Lesson Eight: Developing Reading Vocabulary ..................................... 53 Lesson Nine: Developing Reading Comprehension.............................. 57 Lesson Ten: Developing an Individual Reading Profile ....................... 67 Lesson Eleven: Reviewing the Individual Reading Profile .................. 71 Lesson Twelve: Understanding Learning Disabilities........................... 73 Lesson Thirteen: Improving Your Spelling (Optional).......................... 83 Appendix A: Goals List...............................................................................87

INTRODUCTION

What is in this guide?

Reading teachers are often guided by what they know about the stages and components of the reading process, but they may not share this information with learners.* By understanding how others become fluent readers, learners can reflect on their own process of improving reading skills. This guide offers a set of 13 lessons designed to help learners understand the components of reading that are part of becoming a more fluent reader, and to guide them as they work with the teacher to set their own goals for reading. The lessons can be used as an independent mini-course, or they can be integrated into an existing curriculum. The guide is not intended as a comprehensive reading course or curriculum; rather, it can inform teachers and students as they plan learning activities that address the goals and skill needs of learners. For example, some learners, particularly those at a beginning reading level, may benefit from a highly structured curriculum of direct reading instruction, and this guide can help point them in that direction.

Who is this guide for?

The guide is for teachers of adult basic education learners who read at a 0-6 reading level. Students can take the information they learn from the lessons in this guide and apply it directly to their own reading. It can also be adapted for use with ESOL learners. However, some activities are not appropriate or may need to be modified for beginning-level ESOL learners. The Center for Adult English Language Acquisition (CAELA) Brief, How Should Adult ESL Reading Instruction Differ from ABE Reading Instruction?, provides helpful information and research-based suggestions for helping ESOL learners learn the components of reading. It is available at: caela/briefs/readingdif.html.

* Throughout this guide, we usually use the term "learner(s)." In some instances, for stylistic reasons, we use the term "student(s)." Readers should note that we use the two terms interchangeably.

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