Page 4 - iRead EL in Research Paper

Introduction
High-quality reading instruction in the primary grades represents one of America’s most critical educational needs for the 21st century. This is especially true of e ective di erentiated instruction that meets the unique needs of students, especially those that are typically underserved. Statistical analyses predict that unless things change in US education, 30% of the students that entered kindergarten in 2012 won’t graduate from high school on time in 2025—in large part, due to problems with reading (Edelman & Engler, 2012; Washington & Cárdenas-Hagan, 2012). In 2009, two-thirds of 4th graders scored below pro cient on the NAEP reading test, and almost half of low-income students scored below basic on this test (Annie E. Casey Foundation, 2010). Based on their research, the Annie E. Casey Foundation (2010) concluded:
The bottom line is that if we don’t get dramatically more children on track as pro cient readers, the United States will lose a growing and essential proportion of its human capital to poverty, and the price will be paid not only by individual children and families, but by the entire country (p. 7).
Clearly, it is time to try something di erent.
Traditionally in American education, e orts to address reading problems have focused on remediation: identifying readers who are performing below expectations and providing extra instruction and resources to bring them up to where they need to be. More recent e orts have focused on early prevention: providing e ective early instruction for every student in order to close the reading achievement gap before it begins. For example, in 2012, nineteen states and the District of Columbia, required annual reading assessment of all students in kindergarten through third grade. In addition, the majority of those states, also required that remediation or intervention be provided for those students identi ed as struggling (Rose, 2012). These new
laws align with state Race to the Top plans to close achievement gaps, improve overall academic achievement, and increase college attendance.
An extensive body of research and expert opinion con rms the importance of explicit and systematic instruction in foundational literacy skills in helping children learn to read—that is, instruction that involves deliberate training in the foundational skills that students need to progress from decoding what they read to understanding what it means.
The value of the foundational literacy skills is evidenced by their inclusion in the Common Core State Standards for English language arts as well as in other rigorous state standards. Yet, as the standards recognizes that the purpose of these foundational skills is to support students in learning how to read and comprehend both literary and informational texts across the curriculum, it also clari es that the foundational skills “are not an end in and of themselves” (National Governors Association Center for Best Practices, Council of Chief State School O cers [NGA, CCSSO] (2010), p. 15). They should be integrated with opportunities to read meaningful connected text as part of a coherent instructional approach (Adams, 1990; Dehaene, 2009; Moats, 2012; Strickland, 2011).
Houghton Mi in Harcourt’s new program, iRead for Grades K–2, re ects this body of research by integrating advancements in technology with sound instructional practice to more e ectively and e ciently help every student learn how to read, so that they can learn from what they read. In this way students will gain a strong foothold on the path to achieving educational and career success and attaining personal ful llment.
The Promise of Instructional Technology
Technology holds the promise of improving foundational reading instruction in a variety of ways. Students’ needs for individualized instruction are addressed through embedded formative assessment and adaptive technology (Cunningham
& Rose, 2013; Strickland, 2011)—including intensive practice for struggling readers on the skills they have yet to master (Hasselbring, 2012). Coordinated visual and audio presentation of sounds, letters, and words and instant, tailored multimedia response to student choices help develop decoding skills and build critical connections between decoding and understanding wordsincontext(Adams,1990;Dehaene,2009;NRC,1998;NRP,2000).Studentmotivationandengagementareboostedby appropriate levels of challenge and innovative design features that draw on important ndings from cognitive science and game design research (Dockterman, 2012; Gee, 2005; Hasselbring & Mayer, 2012; NRC, 2000).
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