Learning to Read and Write in One Elementary School PDF
Preview Learning to Read and Write in One Elementary School
Learning to Read and Write in One Elementary School Connie Juel Learning to Read and Write in One Elementary School With 10 Figures Springer-Verlag New York Berlin Heidelberg London Paris Tokyo Hong Kong Barcelona Budapest Connie Juel, Ph.D. Thomas Jewell Professor of Education Director of Studies in Learning to Read University of Virginia McGuffey Reading Center Curry School of Education Charlottesville, VA 22903 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Juel, Connie. Learning to read and write in one elementary school/Connie Juel. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references (p. ). ISBN-13: 978-1-4612-8721-6 e-ISBN-13: 978-1-4612-4282-6 DOl: 10.1007/978-1-4612-4282-6 1. Language arts (Elementary) - Texas - Longitudinal studies. 2. Reading (Elementary) - Texas - Longitudinal studies. 3. Composition (Language arts)-Longitudinal studies. I. Title. LB1576.J84 1993 372.6'09764-dc20 93-3258 Printed on acid-free paper. © 1994 Springer-Verlag New York, Inc. Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1994 All rights reserved. This work may not be translated or copied in whole or in part without the written permission of the publisher (Springer-Verlag New York, Inc., 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010, USA), except for brief excerpts in connection with reviews or scholarly analysis. Use in connection with any form of information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereaf ter developed is forbidden. The use of general descriptive names, trade names, trademarks, etc., in this publication, even if the former are not especially identified, is not to be taken as a sign that such names, as understood by the Trade Marks and Merchandise Marks Act, may accordingly be used freely by anyone. Production managed by Natalie Johnson; manufacturing supervised by Genieve Shaw. Camera ready copy prepared by the author. 987654321 To my parents Betty and Robert A. Juel Acknowledgments The author wishes to specially acknowledge the substantial contributions of the following persons: The principal, teachers, and students of Houston Elementary School for 4 years of generosity in letting us into their classrooms; Philip B. Gough for his insights on the Simple View of reading; Priscilla L. Griffith who assisted me with the research and data analysis; Cindy Farest, Ann Hall, Judy Leavell, Diane Roper/Schneider, and Gerry Shiel who worked with me as graduate assistants; And last-but far from least-I would like to thank my husband, Don Reynolds, Ph.D., both for editorial assistance and knowing how to protect this organizationally challenged woman at work. Contents Acknowledgments................................................ vii Introduction......................................................... Xl Chapter 1. Reading Development........................... 1 Introduction: The Simple View............................ 1 Testing the Model. . . .. . . ...... . . ..... ... ............ ..... . ... 6 Chapter 2. Writing Development............................ 25 Introduction................................................... 25 Did the Model Account for Writing Acquisition? ........ 28 Chapter 3. Children Who Fall Behind..................... 51 Javier... .................... ..... ........ .... ........ ...... .... 51 Grace .......................................................... 64 Anna........................................................... 75 Chapter 4. Children Who Get Ahead....... ........ ........ 87 Jenny .......................................................... 87 Leon ........................................................... 97 Marcela ....................................................... 108 Chapter 5. School Factors That Make a Difference ... 119 Introduction................................................... 119 School Factors Related to Reading Success .............. 121 Instructional Factors Related to Reading Success .. ..... 126 Epilogue .............................................................. 135 References ........................................................... 137 Introduction When a fourth-grade student, Jenny, was asked about reading, she stated: "I love to read, you get real neat ideas. I really like books about animals and biographies. I'm writing my autobiography now. Oh, I also really like Judy Blume books." Her enthusiasm for reading is evident as she tells you about the Judy Blume book she just read, Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret (1970). Jenny reads almost every night at home. Jenny's classmate through 4 years of elementary school, Anna. responds, when asked about reading: "I hate to read; it's boring." Anna says she never reads at home. She says she'd rather watch television or play with friends. Anna would even rather clean her room than read. She explains, "I'd rather clean my room because it makes the room look neat. Reading makes my head hurt because it's so boring and no fun." Jenny and Anna attended a large neighborhood elementary school in Austin, Texas. The school is located in a lower socioeconomic status (SES) area of small houses, duplexes, mld apartments. About 45% of the children at the school are Hispanic, 35% are African-American, and 20% are Anglo. The school consistently ranks mnong the lowest schools in the district on standardized reading achievement tests. Upon entering first grade, neither Jenny nor Anna could read the words that were to appear in their first preprimer reader. Yet Jenny learned to read witll relative ease in first grade and grew to love reading, whereas Anna was still struggling to read even second-grade text in fourth grade and had grown to hate reading. Jenny and Anna are two of the children whose literacy development was exmnined in my 4-year longitudinal study of children attending the elementary school described above. The reading and writing development of these children were followed as they progressed from first through fourth grade. The study of literacy development in this microcosm of at-risk children was directed towards answering tile following question: What skills and abilities of tile child, and what classroom factors, appear to foster literacy development? In otller words, why did Jenny succeed and Anna stumble? I have written this book for tile advanced undergraduate student or tile beginning graduate student who is interested in tile process of literacy acquisition as it occurs in a school setting. It is my hope, however, tIlat my colleagues in literacy research may also find the contents of tile book of interest. Altllough some of the overall findings have been published in research journals, the book xii Introduction includes additional data from the study as well as extended case studies of some of the children. Chapter 1 begins with a desciption of the theoretical model of reading acquisition that guided the study. In this model, reading comprehension is viewed as the product of two basic factors: decoding and comprehension. Decoding is the process tllat leads to word recognition. Comprehension is the process by which meaning is obtained. Factors thought to contribute to growth in decoding and comprehension such as oral vocabulary, intelligence, awareness of the sounds in spoken words, and exposure to print are discussed. The chapter evaluates how well the model of reading was supported by the reading development of the children in the study. Specific questions addressed in Chapter 1 are: Do the same children remain poor readers year after year? What skills and abilities do the poor readers lack? What seems to keep poor readers from improving? Chapter 2 begins with a description of the model of writing acquisition that guided the study. Growth in two basic areas is viewed as most responsible for increased ability to write a text: spelling and ideation. Ideation is the ability to generate and orgmlize ideas. Factors that are thought to foster spelling ability and ideation, such as exposure to print, are discussed. The chapter evaluates how well spelling mId ideation account for overall growth in the ability to write narrative and expository text. Specific questions addressed in this chapter are: Do the same children remain poor writers year after year? What skills do the poor writers lack? What seems to keep poor writers from improving? In Chapter 3 you will meet three children: Javier, Grace, and Anna. Each had great difticulty learning to read and write. The chapter includes assessments of these three children's cognitive development and skills, interviews with the children about their reading habits, and samples of their reading and writing through the 4 years of the study. Their literacy problems are related to the models of reading mId writing presented in Chapters 1 and 2. In Chapter 4 you will meet three children who became good readers and writers. Interviews with Jenny, Leon, and Marcela are presented along with assessments of their skill development and samples of their reading and writing through the 4 years. Their successful literacy development will be related to the models of reading mId writing discussed in Chapters 1 and 2. Chapter 5 examines some of the school-related factors that may have influenced the children's reading development. As in most schools in the United States, reading instruction in the school was often delivered to small groups of children. For each child in the study, placement in a reading group determined both the instruction received mId tlle pace at which the child progressed through the reading materials. In this chapter, I will discuss the effects of the group instruction and pacing on the individual child's reading development. I will make suggestions on specific features of instruction that might better meet the needs of young readers. I will also discuss the signs that a teacher can look for that indicate a child is in trouble in Iitemcy development and evaluate remedial alternatives. Introduction xiii It is my hope that tllis book offers tlle reader some insights into the process of literacy acquisition in a school setting, as well as piques tlle reader's interest in how tlle literacy process might occur in another school, with a different curriculum, or witll a different group of children. Connie JueJ Charlottesville, Virginia 1 Reading Development Introduction: The Simple View Suppose you are 6 years old. You are now in first grade and more than a little proud to be in school. You can already name most of the letters of the alphabet thanks to watching "Sesame Street" or perhaps because a family member taught you. You cm} recognize a few words such as your name and "STOP" on a sign and are really eager to leam how to read well. You want to read books for yourself like those your kindergarten teacher read to you. Imagine that your teacher has just printed on the chalkboard: "Hyvaa huomenta." She asks you to tell the class what she has written. What do you say? Now suppose you are 24 years old. You've been sitting in a train compartment facing an intriguing individual who has been busily writing letters. The train is making a lot of noise as it speeds on to its final destination in Helsinki. The stranger speaks to you, asking you some sort of question, but you can't hear what he is trying to ask you. Your compartment mate picks up the pen and paper pad, and writes, "Haluaisitteko llihtea kanssani ulos tana iltana?" Do you nod yes or no? Unless you happen to read Finnish, the problem you face in either situation is that you cmmot decode the printed words. You lack one of the two basic factors necessary for reading comprehension, i.e., word recognition. In what has been tenned the Simple View of reading (the view adopted in this study), gaining decoding skill is the central task in learning to read (Gough & Tunmer, 1986; Juel, Griftith, & Gough, 1986). This chapter will discuss some of the abilities and experience one must possess in order to decode written words. Clearly, decoding is not all that is involved in reading comprehension. Suppose you are reading a letter from a friend who is in Finland. Your friend writes, "The heat and the birch switches felt very good on my mosquito bites." You can decode or recognize all the words, but unless you happen to have been in northern Finland in the summer and know about saunas there, you may have trouble figuring out what she means. Notice, however, that you would have the same difficulty if your friend told you that in conversation. The problem is not with the input (whether the words are printed or spoken); the problem is with your lack of background knowledge.
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