The Teaching Improvement Project

Course Content
Module 1 Reading an Introduction – The Big Picture.
‘Reading has the power to change lives. It plays an essential role in learning, securing a job and being an active and engaged member of society. Reading provides us with information, knowledge, and makes us aware of people and places beyond our immediate circles. Learning foundational reading skills supports wellbeing and can translate to a love of reading and literature. As so much of our world rapidly changes around us, learning to read remains one of the most essential outcomes of schooling’. (Education Queensland, 2023. Reading Position Statement.) What Will You Learn? In this module you will explore how reading has been taught in the past and what research and evidence has informed current recommended teaching models. You will explore the complexities of learning to read. Why learning to read is difficult and the impact that low levels of literacy have on society. What the Big 6 or 5 Pillars (National Reading Panel) How the brain learns to read (Stanilas DeHaene) Ehri’s Stages of Reading Development and understand the process of Orthographic Mapping and the Alphabetic Principle. Self Teaching (David Share) Key Reading Frameworks – The Simple View of Reading (Gough and Tumner), Scarborough’s Reading Rope (Hollis Scarborough), and The Four Part Processing Model (Seidenberg and McClelland) The key components of Structured Literacy and how this differs from previous approaches to teaching reading. At the conclusion of this unit of work we will dive deep into the teaching of reading through the lens of the Simple View of Reading’.
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Reading
The State Of Reading Today
The Science of Reading (SoR)
The Big 6 or 5 Pillars of Reading
How the brain learns to read
Ehri’s Stages of Reading Development and understand the process of Orthographic Mapping and the Alphabetic Principle.
Key Reading Frameworks (Simple View of Reading & Scarborough’s Reading Rope)
The Key Components of Structured Literacy
Module 2 – The Foundational Skills: Phonological Awareness, Phonemic Awareness & Phonics
In this module you will learn about the foundational word recognition skills of Scarborough’s Reading Rope and why their acquisition to a level of automaticity is essential to becoming a skilled reader. You will learn about the phonological and orthographical processing systems, how they develop and how they should be taught and assessed.
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Phonological Awareness and Phonemic Awareness
Research – Why phonemic awareness is a critical component of instruction.
Phonological and Phonemic Awareness Skills
The importance of clear and precise phoneme articulation
Lesson Planning and Structure
How Does Phonics Fit In?
The English Orthography, Australian English, Standard Australian English (SAE0.
The Alphabetic Principle, The Alphabetic Code, & Alphabetic Code Charts
4 types of phonics instruction – synthetic, analogy, embedded, analytic
Structured Synthetic Phonics – Teaching the word level reading through a systematic, explicit code-based instruction
Sight Word Lexicons, High Frequency Words and How to teach them!
The relationship of reading, spelling and writing
The characteristics of high-quality instructional materials
Decodable Texts and when to move on from decodables
How to assess, screen and use student data to inform teaching
Glossary of Terms
Module 3 – Reading Fluency
In this module you will explore the often overlooked but vital role that fluency plays in the development of a skilled reader.
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The Essential Components of Reading Fluency
Evidence based fluency instruction and strategies to support fluency acquisition
Assessing, Screening and Monitoring Fluency
Reading disfluency and struggling readers
Other Resources, Research and Further Professional Learning
Module 4 – Oral Language & Vocabulary
In this module you will learn how vocabulary develops, and how evidenced based vocabulary instruction can support language comprehension.
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How oral language development is the foundation of vocabulary development
Vocabulary Instruction: Why is it so important
Evidence Based Vocabulary Instruction – direct, explicit, effective
How to screen, monitor and assess oral language and vocabulary
How do we bet support our struggling readers – Vocabulary Instruction
Module 5 – Comprehension: The Skilled Reader
In this module you will explore the complex nature of the comprehension strand of Scarborough’s Reading Rope and build your understanding of the essential components required for skilled reading development.
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Meaning Creation, Mental models and Schemas
Layered Model of Effective Comprehension Instruction
Language Comprehension versus Reading Comprehension
The subskills of Language Comprehension
Process versus Product
What causes poor comprehension
Strategy Instruction Within Content Learning
Cognitive Overload and Instructional Considerations
Assessment and monitoring of Language and Reading Comprehension
Module 6 – Putting It Altogether: When Reading Science Meets Practice
In this module you will learn how a structured literacy approach to the teaching of reading can fit into a literacy block and how it can be supported across all Key Learning Areas (KLA’s). You will learn how and when different forms of assessment and screeners can be used to inform, monitor and measure student success.
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The reading and writing connection
Classroom routines
Lower and Upper Literacy Block examples
Multitiered Tiered Intervention/ Instruction
Identifying student needs and reading deficits
Monitoring Student Development and Measuring Success
How to Teach Reading
About Lesson

Decodable Texts and when to move on from decodables

What’s wrong with predictable or repetitive texts – An explanation from Alison Clarke.

Decodable Texts

Decodable texts are specifically written for beginning readers as they are developing their blending and segmenting skills and their knowledge of the alphabetic code. Decodable texts support students as they practice by using a continuous meaningful text.

Decodable texts contain a very large percentage of words that incorporate the letter-sound relationships that students have been taught. These texts increase in complexity as the student learns more of the phonetic code.

Features of decodable text:

Sequenced – Decodable texts are organized in a sequence that introduces new phonics patterns in each text 

Phonetic code – Decodable texts use words that follow the phonetic code that students have learned 

Simple patterns – Decodable texts often start with simple consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) words 

Repeated patterns – Decodable texts may include repeated patterns of grammar or storylines 

Benefits of decodable text 

  • Helps students build knowledge of the alphabetic code
  • Helps students blend and segment phonemes
  • Helps students build confidence and reading success
  • How to select decodable text

To determine if a text is decodable, you can evaluate the phonetic structure of the vocabulary in the text and compare it to the phonics knowledge the student has learned. 

Decodable texts are recommended to be used whilst children are developing the Initial Code and Extended Code. Some practitioners recommend moving to age-appropriate texts once children have established proficient acquisition of all of Initial Code and

Read the following Five from Five information webpage on the importance of using decodable readers, Decodable books – Five from Five 

The Academy for the Science of Instruction, Australia,

Now Watch: Decodables, Predictables, and Authentic Texts.    https://youtu.be/8nXTM5P8HyE

In this presentation by Dr. Tanya Serry of La Trobe University (Melbourne, Australia), you’ll learn about the why, when, how, and why not of using these different types of texts with students who are learning to read

Read the following Reading Rockets Article about Decodable Text Using Decodable Books | Reading Rockets  and  Watch Louisa Moats explain how to use decodable texts

You may like to engage in the following video from the 2022 PaTTAN Literacy Symposium. Here Linda Farrall presents How and When To Use Decodable Readers for Maximum Effectiveness.       https://youtu.be/e5UTzPZPcdk

 

Further Information & Resources

Free decodable texts The Literacy Hub – Australia

Decodable Text Sources – The Reading League

Reading Universe | Free Decodable Texts for Each Phonics Skill

Decodable texts NSW Department of Education

DSF – Free Resources

 

 

 

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