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
The Subskills of Language Comprehension
Comprehension Strategies
Reference List, Resources and Glossary
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 Writing Connection & High Yield Instructional Strategies
What causes poor comprehension?
Classroom Routines & Lower and Upper Literacy Block examples
Response to Intervention (RTI) & Multitiered Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS)
Monitoring Student Development and Measuring Success
How to Teach Reading
About Lesson

So how can be best support our struggling readers?

It is essential that schools have high quality Tier 1 instruction for all students from school entry. This will greatly reduce instructional casualties.

Schools should review their current practice and measure the quality of its basis. Does it align with the current science of reading and instruction and is it research, and evidence informed.

Then question whether there is a focus on:

  • oral language – vocabulary, spoken syntax and morphology, listening comprehension, social skills, storytelling, play, phonological awareness
  • knowledge building – instruction with deliberate decisions about knowledge to teach
  • structured synthetic phonics – is there a detailed scope and sequence and are decodable texts being used to support instruction
  • oral reading fluency – rate, accuracy and prosody
  • spelling instruction – how is spelling being taught?
  • reading fiction and non-fiction texts
  • High-impact instructional approach – explicit teaching, review, spaced-retrieval practice, engagement strategies, Checking for Understanding (CFUs), Gradual Release of Instruction (I Do, We Do, You Do)

Language Difficulties

Around 7.5% of children, approximately 2 in every classroom on average, meet the criteria for Developmental Language Disorder (Norbury et al., 2016). These children may find it more difficult to learn and remember word meanings and will require multiple exposures and tiered intervention.

Oral Language Intervention

Those students that do not progress with quality Tier 1 instruction and in class support, may require a Tier 2 small group intervention specifically focusing on oral language and vocabulary.

Tier 2 vocabulary intervention will generally include:

  • Frequent teacher modelling of target words,
  • Many repetitions and opportunities for children to say the word (out loud) in context,
  • Repetition and reinforcement from the teacher & support staff.

When working with struggling readers try including a multisensory learning routine

  1. Identify the word

” We see the monkey reaching for a banana, he’s stretching to try to get something.”

  1. Repeat the word:

” Reach, say reach.”

  1. Provide a definition:

“To reach is to move or stretch to get something. What is something you can try to reach?” (child selects one of 4 pictures)

  1. Examples/ Non-Examples (video/visuals)

PowerPoint, pictures or video illustrating reach

“To reach means to move or stretch to get something. If I were to reach for something, it would look like this. Show me, how would you reach for something?” 

  1. Repeat the definition and attach an illustration or action

“To reach means to move or stretch to get something.”

Choose a picture of someone reaching to get something or act out reaching for something

     6. Provide multiple opportunities to use the word

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