Does a child know what letters make the "te," "shh" and "ch" sounds? And can that child recognize whether "cat" rhymes with "bat" or "pig"?
A young student can have access to all the great books in the world and still not know how to read without a fundamental understanding of how letters, words and sounds work, Kathleen Brown told the Granite Board of Education Tuesday.With this philosophy in mind, a task force made 10 recommendations about how Granite can improve reading among its el-e-men-tary school students.
The report is the first phase in a comprehensive plan to overhaul reading instruction and to improve dismal reading scores districtwide.
With the report, Superintendent Steve Ronnenkamp, who came into office last July, meets his first commitment to bring curriculum and instruction issues to the board.
Student scores in reading and the way the subject is taught have been controversial in the state's largest district.
Board members were stunned by low SAT scores released in December, and Granite was scrutinized during the Utah Legislature in discussions about a state senator's effort to divide the district. Parents have complained and demanded improvement.
In at least one Granite elementary school, parents criticized a teacher for using the "whole language" approach to reading. The whole-language philosophy encourages students to learn to read by recognizing whole words and by doing something useful, like reading a newspaper.
Tuesday, Brown dispelled a few myths about reading instruction on her way through the report, which recommended staff development and testing for a comprehensive reading program that targets phonics-based fundamentals in a "literature-rich" environment.
People think reading success comes from a child's IQ, for example, or their socioeconomic class. Neither is true, explained Brown, a clinical instructor in educational studies at the University of Utah and a task force member.
Instead, reading success is framed by three factors: what education experts call "phonetic awareness," letter/sound/word knowledge, and knowledge of how books work, termed "print awareness."
Expert readers can easily decode and comprehend words. They recognize words automatically, Brown said. "It's effortless for them." Consequently, expert readers can spend most of their energy comprehending what they read.
But young students don't start there. They spend a lot of time decoding, which means students need to learn these skills.
By the way, Brown said, there is no evidence to suggest students are harmed by learning to read in kindergarten.
"This doesn't mean we should turn kindergarten into academic boot camps," she said. Teachers armed with flash cards and stopwatches? That's not appropriate, Brown joked. "But (kindergarten) should not just be a so-cial-iza-tion experiment."
The reading conundrum is one of the hottest debates in the education arena, with a distinct split between those who advocate phonics-based reading and those who advocate the "whole language" technique.
Key in this proposed reading program is direction for teachers who are caught in this area, which is "fraught with controversy," Brown said.
"Teachers are confused about what they're supposed to be doing. They're getting mixed messages," Brown said.
The report asks the district to form a staff development department that will have the goal to place a trained reading and writing specialist in every elementary school.
Other recommendations ask the district to:
- Develop a testing program that catches students when they are having problems, not a year later after scholastic testing.
- Identify students with reading problems before they reach third grade. "Students who have not become independent readers by this time are in great danger of becoming non-readers or underachieving readers," the report states.
- Create a teaching program that targets systematic, explicit instructions and decoding skills, comprehension strategies and writing. In grades one through six, a minimum 2.5 to 3 hours per day should be set aside specifically for reading and writing.
- Develop curriculum based on four factors: working with words, comprehension, writing and text appreciation.
"We do want children to enjoy reading," said Ralph Reynolds, a task force member and professor in the University of Utah's Graduate School of Education.
- Encourage parent and community involvement. Students and parents must attend meetings about a student education plan (SEP) three times per year.
The recommendations will cost millions to implement when new materials, testing and staff training are figured in. Board members said the costs are worth it.
"This is our responsibility," board member Robert Larsen said. "It really is our purpose."
After the report, board members said they were overpowered by the information and positive implications for the state's largest school district. "I'm overwhelmed," board President Lynn Davidson said.