Adult Basic Reading Instruction
Best Practices Defined
Project Introduction
The research that supports the best practices in reading instruction is clear, it is stable, and It reveals the evidence-based practices that have been shown to improve reading achievement. These practices require assessment of individual reading components and explicit component-specific instruction.
Hopefully, this resource will instigate professional conversations, collaboration, and review of instructional practices. (Project Rational and Funding)
A Mandate for Component-based Reading Instruction
In 2015, the federal Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) published The Essential Components of Reading, in which is stated "WIOA focuses on the important role that strong basic skills play in adults’ ability to attain a secondary school diploma, transition to postsecondary education and training, and secure employment. To this end, the law specifies that “the essential components of reading instruction” be incorporated into instruction." (OCTAE, 2014).
More Than Data from Comprehension Tests
Adult education programs, when funded under WIOA, must assess students using a standardized test of silent reading comprehension (e.g. TABE or CASAS). This pre- and post-assessment provides useful comparative data about the reading comprehension needs of students. But John Strucker makes a strong case for the need for more "explicit, component-based assessment" of all adult reading students, regardless of assessment score. From his 1997 What Silent Reading Tests Alone Can't Tell You: Two Case Studies in Adult Reading: "Typically, programs offer as evidence of a learner’s reading ability a TABE or CASAS score - which represents only silent reading comprehension (a high level, meaning-based skill) and which is not nuanced enough to understand ... learners’ challenges with print-skills. This can result in similar score achievement ... by students with very different instructional needs." (See Tools for Assessment: Reader Profiles)
"Hard Words: Why aren't kids being taught to read?"
Relevant for Adult Education
Combine minimal focus on research and the science of reading in teacher training programs with an historically strong dependence on standardized test scores to assess students' needs, and the result is minimal attention to systematic, component-based assessment and instruction in adult education. (Source: journalistic report Hard Words by Hanneford, 2018)
"I didn't know what to do except give them more books. And it wasn't working."
- Reading instructor,
Hard Words
Small Changes Yield Results in Adult Reading Classrooms
But that does not have to be the case in your classroom or in your program. Instructors can learn the science of reading by reading first-hand the research that is stable and well-established, thus better understanding how each reading component effects comprehension.
The foundational research is made accessible here. It is also applied to assessment and instruction relative to the unique context of adult education classrooms.
Hopefully a common discourse develops around tools and practices for individualizing reading assessment and instruction to the benefit of low-literacy adults.
Essential Components of Reading
Reading is a complex system of deriving meaning from print which requires: (author's emphasis)
An understanding of how phonemes, or speech sounds, are connected to print
The ability to decode unfamiliar words
The ability to read fluently
Sufficient background information and vocabulary to foster reading comprehension
The development of appropriate active strategies to construct meaning from print
(Bell and Dolainski, 2012)
(McShane, 2005)
Essential Components of Reading Instruction
Assessment of learners’ strengths and weaknesses should be conducted in each of the four components.
Instruction should be based on assessment results
Instruction should be systematic, sequenced, direct, and explicit.
Instruction and materials need to be engaging and relevant to learners’ needs. (tied to the component of "motivation")
Instruction must be continuously monitored, by teacher and learners, to gauge its effectiveness