"Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better!"  -Maya Angelou

 

Research Drives Instruction

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Reading first-hand the research guiding best practices in component-based assessment (Tools for Assessment) and instruction (Reading Components) is an important first step to understanding adult readers' barriers to achievement. Applying the evidence in the drive to deliver evidence-based interventions is another. 

 

The resources in this work originated from a wide range of disciplines; many citing Strucker, McShane, and/or Kruidenier's early important work as foundational in adult education.

The resources* below are the most accessible and impactful for instructional skill development.

 

All-Components

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What Silent Reading Tests Alone Can't Tell You: Two Case Studies in Adult Reading Differences. Strucker, 1997 (Updated 2007)

Strucker makes clear, through his establishment of student profiles, that students scoring the same on tests of silent reading comprehension can have very different instructional needs. Underscores the need for a detailed Learner Questionnaire pdf and for McShane's design for an Initial Assessment Record pdf.   He also explains how individualizing assessment does not have to be expensive or terribly time consuming. 

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Teaching Adults to Read: A Summary of Scientifically Based Research Principles. Curtis & Kruidenier. 2005.

A must read as one of the foundational resources that much of the reading research on adult populations since have cited. Concise and with an easy-to-follow format. (pdf HERE)

 

Applying Research in Reading Instruction for Adults: First Steps for Teachers. McShane, 2005.

Foundational. Includes clear explanations of each reading component,  for how to recognize where a reader's difficulties likely originate, and an easy-to-incorporate plan for component-specific assessment.

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What Is Evidence-Based Reading Instruction and How Do You Know It When You See It? Bell et al., 2012.

This policy brief defines and describes evidence-based reading instruction and demonstrates what (it) looks like in the classroom. Makes clear the importance of systematic instruction of print-based skills.   

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Hard Words: Why aren't kids being taught to read? Hanford. 2018.

"Scientific research has shown how children learn to read and how they should be taught. But many educators don't know the science and, in some cases, actively resist it. As a result, millions of kids are being set up to fail." (from introduction of resource) Kruideneir (2002) and McShane (2005) endorse applying reading research from K12 populations to adult environments when it is applicable and where research for adult populations does not exist. This makes a case for why uncertainties around reading instruction persist in adult education.

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Individual Components

Phonemic Awareness 

(See McShane and Curtis & Kruidenier for more.)

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Need: "Adult beginning readers have difficulty manipulating phonemes. They also have difficulty applying letter-sound knowledge in order to figure out new or unfamiliar words while reading. When adult beginning reading instruction includes alphabetics, increases in reading achievement occur."  (Curtis & Krudenier, 2005)

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Research supports explicit, systematic phonics instruction as most effective for beginning readers (Kruidenier, 2002, p. 49) (NICHD, 2000, 2-94), the implication being that incidental phonics instruction, teaching on an "as needed" basis only when an issue clearly arises, is insufficient for growth in this area. Poor decoders typically need some targeted phonics assessment and instruction. ​"Phonics is an instructional strategy for teaching decoding. "(McShane, pg. 40)

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Instruction: "Effective word analysis strategies systematically teach letter-sound correspondences directly and explicitly. They focus on teaching learners how to convert individual graphemes (letters and letter combinations) into phonemes (sounds) and then blend them together to form a word. Or, they focus on converting larger letter combinations such as common spelling patterns into sounds (e.g., ing, able, un) (NRP, 2-92, 2-93; RBP, 51)." (Curtis & Krudenier, 2005) Learning about the 6 syllable types of English is an extremely helpful place to start for instructors who want to develop instructional skills in this component. (Moats, n.d.)

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College and Career Readiness Standards for Adult Education.

Pay special attention to the Reading Standards: Foundational K-5 starting on p. 41. "Foundational Skills are directed toward fostering students’ understanding and working knowledge of concepts of print, the alphabetic principle, and other basic conventions of the English writing system." 

 

Just Words. Wilson Language Training Corporation. (2009)

From the introduction - "Wilson Just Words is a concentrated word study program with an emphasis on phonemic awareness, alphabetic principle, phonemic awareness, and English orthography." The one resource in this guide that is not free, but Wilson was an early developer of reading research, curriculum, and teacher training in the K12 world or dyslexia support but whose resources are relevant to any emergent reader. This company holds an esteemed place in the language training world.  www.wilsonlanguage.com

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Alphabetics Instruction for STAR/EBRI Volunteers. Frank & Podlasek. 

Provides a routine for teaching the English letter-sound-syllable patterns that will help students read and spell words alone and in text.

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Decoding 

(See McShane and Curtis & Kruidenier for more.)

 

Need: When decoding skills are weak, a reader has to commit more and more words to sight reading memory, which becomes a very inefficient strategy for learning words. When a reader no longer has to attend to individual words due to a growing automaticity in recognizing sound-letter correspondences, fluency develops and comprehension increases.

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Instruction: Teaching the skill of decoding, identifying words using letter-sound correspondences, is called phonics.  It is not recommended that phonics be taught in isolation, but that it be systematically incorporated into an adult reading curriculum for those that with demonstrated need, and to accompany a consistent reading comprehension curriculum focused at an appropriate level for the student. While assessment using nonsense words is evidence based, don't teach nonsense words. The research is conclusive on this point.

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A well researched phonics instruction program would be a sound investment in any adult education program. Wilson Language Training Corporation, Orton Gillingham, Linda Mood Bell are among some of the most well-known. (This mention is not a personal endorsement by the author.

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What Doesn't Belong Here. On teaching nonsense words. Shanahan, 2016. 

Tim Shanahan is a long time literacy researcher and prolific writer. He works to direct reading professionals toward good evidence on the science of reading.

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The Simple View of Reading. (2010)

Oft-cited work on the absolute necessity of explicitly and systematically teaching decoding skills because of its overall effect on reading comprehension.

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Reading Rockets (Moats, n.d.)

Under The Six Syllable Types, explains the syllable types important to teaching phonics, presented in a sequence supported by research and recommended for instruction. Anything on this site by Louise Moats is well researched and recommended. 

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Fluency

(See McShane and Curtis & Kruidenier for more.)

 

Need: "Most adult beginning and struggling readers need work on fluency, because fluency depends on rapid, accurate word reading, and beginners are, by definition, struggling to read words. However, even those with higher-level silent reading comprehension scores may need work on fluency and the underlying decoding skills and knowledge, if they are to progress beyond their current levels of reading achievement." (McShane, 2005, pg. 49-50)

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Instruction: "Research suggests guided repeated oral reading may improve one or more aspects of fluency as well as comprehension." (McShane, citing Report of the National Reading Panel, 2000, pg. 3-28) There are several suggestions for techniques to teach fluency explained in McShane's resource; a common thread being repetition, with guidance, until an acceptable level of fluency is reached.

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Reading Fluency Assessment and Instruction: What, why, and how? (2005)

Published by the International Reading Association, this paper defines the importance of assessing and instructing reading rate and reading proficiency, discussing at length the role of prosody to overall proficiency.  

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Wake Up, Reading Wars Combatants: Fluency Instruction is Part of the Science of Reading. (2019)

Timothy Shanahan is always a good read about reading! This blog post refers to the "Reading Wars" of the late 1980, a time when reading stakeholders (K12) were at odds about whether to base reading instruction on phonics-based or whole language theories. When whole language was adopted around the nation, phonics and fluency training were minimized, and even ignored, as important components of a reading curriculum. Because of the debates at that time, the National Reading Panel issued a report to clarify the importance of using evidence from solid research to develop reading programs. Whole language did not fare well due to its lack of support.

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Reading Skills For Adults. (2015)

Southwest Adult Basic Education's online fluency training resource is supported by research of the National Reading Panel, aligned with the College and Career Readiness Standards and Educational Functioning Levels of the National Reporting System, easy to master, (users manage their own 1 minute timed readings, listen to texts recorded at 3 speeds for increased fluency development), and great for students to use individually or with emergent readers in their families. There is no downside to this resource, and the creators have accomplished an important service to benefit struggling readers and their instructors.

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Vocabulary

(See McShane and Curtis & Kruidenier for more.)

 

Need: Oral vocabulary is the basis for meaningful reading. (McShane, 2005, pg. 59). An interesting point made by John Strucker and noted in McShane is that beginning adult basic education readers who are native speakers of English are not likely to encounter many words during reading lessons that are not in their oral vocabularies, so vocabulary instruction may be less important for them when they are reading at an appropriate level for their assessed skills. (Aside: Possibly the author of this resource spends too much time on vocabulary development for the most struggling readers when phonics and fluency training of easier texts would be much more beneficial to their overall development.) 

Non-native speakers of English would be the exception to this rule, though, as vocabulary instruction will strengthen their English oral vocabularies.

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Instruction:  Curtis & Kruidenier conveyed inconclusive results about the effect of explicit vocabulary instruction on reading achievement back in the early 2000s (pg. 8). Nevertheless, some general recommendations are made there for teaching strategies that probably improve vocabulary. 

More recently, Marzano (not an online resource, but the theories and research conclusions can be researched online further. His book Building Background Knowledge for Academic Achievement: Research on what Works in Schools (2004), does provide specific, evidence-based input to the teaching of vocabulary. A very brief summary of takeaways from this book include:

• the chance of readers learning new words in context is quite low

• direct vocabulary instruction does improve reading achievement,

• direct instruction should present new vocabulary with descriptions rather than with definitions for greater effect,

• teaching roots and (the most often used) prefixes and suffixes is effective for overall reading achievement.

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Once letter/sound correlations are known, decoding involves the recognition of larger word parts - syllables, suffixes, and prefixes. This supports the study of morphology as an effective vocabulary instruction technique. From Marzano

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These prefixes make up 62% of all prefixed words - un-, re-, dis-, non-, in-/im-/il-/ir- (not)

These suffixes make up 76% of all suffixed words - -s, -es, -ed, -ing, -ly, -er (-or) - and serve to define a word's 

(Marzano, pgs. 76 - 78, citing work from Narzano, White, Sowell, & Yanagihara, 1989)

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The crux of Marzano's work in this book is to point out the research that promotes active development of background in educational settings, and its correlation to higher reading achievement. It is a more complicated discussion that can be provided here, with a strong recommendation to continue research on best practices for vocabulary development in adult education settings. The reference list is long and worth a look. 

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