Page 19 - iRead EL in Research Paper

with frequent opportunities to read level-appropriate text (e.g., Success eBooks), carefully sca olded to increase in length and complexity as reading levels progress, as well as guidance for teachers in promoting uency through o ine small-group instruction. While promoting the development of foundational literacy skills, iRead activities also require students to make meaning of text.
In addition, students are able to record their oral reading attempts and save them in their digital portfolio for subsequent teacher review. An oral reading rubric helps teachers evaluate the recordings to identify student growth and any areas needing further development. O ine uency strategies aim at multiple reading opportunities, including:
• Cloze Reading
• Choral Reading
• Repeated Reading • Partner Reading
• Reader’s Theater
Students are also taught ways to strengthen their emerging uency via Fix-Up Strategies that focus on self-correcting and re-reading techniques.
Spelling
The Common Core State Standards call for students to “demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing” as de ned in grade-appropriate stages of mastery. Furthermore, while spelling is in itself a core literacy skill, developing an awareness of its patterns (orthography) is important to early reading success.
Research Evidence and Expert Opinion
Phonics instructional approaches in which word families are carefully grouped to highlight letter-sound contrasts have been shown to be e ective in helping students grasp orthographic patterns (Adams, 1990; Henry, 2010). Instruction that systematically organizes and exploits minimal contrasts helps focus children’s attention and hastens development of their orthographical/phonological abilities (Adams, 1990).
The evidence for focused and explicit spelling instruction as a major component of the reading program is strong. Adams (1990) concludes that “learning about spelling . . . enhances reading pro ciency” because it reinforces knowledge of common letter sequences, spelling-sound relationships, and (possibly) word parts (p. 404).
Finally, it is worth noting that while an understanding of spelling patterns aids reading success, children’s awareness of phonics also promotes their spelling skills. The National Reading Panel concludes “that systematic phonics instruction produces gains in . . . spelling not only in the early grades (kindergarten and 1st grade) but also in the later grades (2nd through 6th grades) and among children having di culty learning to read” (NRP, 2000, p. 2-122).
RECOMMENDATION
As children learn to decode words through phonemic/phonological awareness and phonics instruction, they develop awareness of letter-sound relationships and orthographic patterns that improve their ability to encode words, or produce spellings of them. In turn, explicit instruction in how to spell words correctly when writing improves students’ ability to decode them when reading.
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