Page 17 - iRead EL in Research Paper

understand words regardless of their rst language or level of reading preparedness. Morphological awareness has been shown to contribute to vocabulary growth, and enables readers to understand as many as three words for every known base word (Nagy, Berninger, & Abbott, 2006). In addition, Adams (1990) recommends that instruction should build awareness of syntax because readers must understand how syntactical units within sentences are organized, in order to comprehend text of increasing complexity.
Reed (2008) summarizes the multiple bene ts of morphological awareness, noting that it has been shown to “have a positive impact on students’ word identi cation, spelling, vocabulary, and reading comprehension” (p. 46). Furthermore, at-risk students and other struggling readers have been shown to bene t from direct instruction in morphemic analysis (Reed, 2008).
Traditionally, morphology has been considered an advanced topic, but increasingly research and expert opinion recommend that it be addressed early in literacy instruction (Adams, 1990; Bowers & Cooke, 2012; Carlisle, 2004; Reed, 2008). The importance of early exposure to morphology is underscored by research showing that morphological awareness accounts for “around 4% or 5% of the variance in decoding” (Reed, 2008, p. 37).
RECOMMENDATION
As English words represent both units of sound and meaning, provide morphological awareness instruction in addition to phonemic awareness instruction. Similarly, since increasingly complex English sentences are comprised of syntactical units that convey essential meaning, provide instructional support for developing children’s awareness of syntax.
iRead’s Approach
iRead instruction focuses on building student understanding of the meaning and function of word parts, including in ectional endings, pre xes, and su xes. Students are a orded opportunities to apply, integrate, and extend their learning of meaningful word parts in the context of reading texts with controlled vocabulary.
Morphological awareness is carefully built into the entire iRead sequence to facilitate early success in reading connected text. At the partial alphabetic phases (iRead Level A), children learn that the ending –s can mean more than one of something. By the time they have progressed to consolidated reading levels (iRead Level C), students are able to identify, manipulate, and understand the meaning of high-utility a xes such as re–, pre, –ful, –less, and –able.
In Level C, to help students unlock meaning, iRead direct instruction videos (A Message From Mrs. Wordy) provide guidance that models and explains word a xes. iRead ’s Word Play strand presents high-utility a xes and demonstrates how morphemes work. To build young readers’ abilities to read, manipulate, and understand the function of a xes, Word Changer activities provide opportunities to view changes in a xes, blend new words, and identify the corresponding image. Word Solver exercises help children “look—split—read” complex words by rst looking for word parts they already know, then splitting the base from its a x, then reading each part to make meaning of the word.
iRead models and reinforces the syntax of written English, through activities that begin with simple sentences and that progressively involve longer and more syntactically complex sentences. Exposing children to this complexity continuum ensures that they are engaged in reading and thinking about text that follows the syntactic conventions of written language, which is so di erent from spoken language. In addition, many of the words introduced in the iRead Sight Words strand are signals of syntactic units (e.g., prepositions) and practice exercises reinforce the form, function, and meaning of these words. In sum, iRead helps students build a vocabulary for reading and writing.
15