Part Two: Building the Reading Brain During Early School Years, K - 3: Part Two: Building the Reading Brain During Early School Years, K - 3 I Early Childhood EIS Conference Copan, Honduras March 12-13, 2005


Key Concepts: Key Concepts Children’s brains may need assistance in learning to pay attention, remember, organize, and concentrate on sensory stimuli. These skills are pre-cursers to reading for 4 and 5 year olds. For phonics instruction and decoding strategies to be effective children must first understand the concept of phonemes. Children who struggle with reading have differences in the brain systems they access for reading. Writing is a cognitively different task from speaking or reading.


More Key Concepts: More Key Concepts Children’s ability to comprehend what they read depends upon the size of their vocabulary, the extent of their experiences, and their ability to organize information into related chunks. Reading fluency, the ultimate goal of reading by the end of third grade depends upon knowing words and phrases automatically and being able to produce them rapidly. Children who learn to read in a language other than their primary language have additional learning needs.


Slide4: The brain is without doubt our most fascinating organ. Parents, educators, and society as a whole have a tremendous power to shape the wrinkly universe inside each child’s head, and , with it, the kind of person he or she will turn out to be. We owe it to our children to help them grow the best brains possible. Lise Eliot, Ph. D., What is Going on In There?, 1999, p.10


Slide5: As young children progress through the kindergarten and first grade years, they become acculturated to the school routine. Behavioral changes are apparent. By the end of first grade, most children ‘know the rules of school’. They know about written words, as well as spoken words. They know whether they are ‘good’ at school or not, and most importantly, the know if they can read. From: Neville and Wolfe, Building a Reading Brain, 2004.


Slide6: Children’s brains may need assistance in learning to pay attention, concentrate, organize information from sensory input. Furthermore they are expected to remember what they have learned. These skills are precursors to reading for 4 and 5 year olds.


PRIMING the Brain for Reading: PRIMING the Brain for Reading Attention Executive brain function Uses working memory Teacher Prompts – 'pay attention to how you are holding your pencil', 'listen carefully for words that have the ch sound', 'look at the picture on page 10', 'pay careful attention to words that tell you how a gecko looks', 'notice how many nouns there are in this paragraph'.


Attention and Learning: Attention and Learning Children pay attention to new information when it is something they need to know, instruction is novel, instruction has intense stimuli, information is meaningful to them, or their emotions are involved Children give new information a test: Does it mean anything to me? Can I recognize anything? Does it make sense? Does it link to anything I already know?


Attention and Learning: When there are no links to previous learning teachers create experiences and provide mental links to the new learning. Students learn best when they can construct their own learning pathways. Attention and Learning


PRIMING the Brain for Reading: PRIMING the Brain for Reading Concentration Executive brain function Requires conscious effort to hold in mind Teacher Prompts – Direction and pause: 'Write your name and your partner’s name when I say go.' Hold in mind: 'Hold two words that being like giggle in your mind. Tell your partner the words when I raise my hand.' Multiple instructions: 'Open your spelling book to page 23 and get your reading word list.' Varying conditions of instruction: whole class, groups, study partners, learning centers.


Slide11: Prepare to work Shifting activities Verbal prompts (Look at me. Close your books.) Signal an count 'get ready' signal for response Think of and hold Prompt for two directions and wait for signal Know what finished work looks like From the experts….. Strategies to Hold Children’s Attention and Require Concentration


PRIMING the Brain for Reading: PRIMING the Brain for Reading Organization To readily access information label and group common concepts use mind-mapping strategies chart and define relationships identify what is know and what is desired to learn provide study frames To seek order in their physical environment review entire assignment or task find answers to questions about the task gather required materials select a good work place know what 'being finished' looks like understand how to store and maintain work supplies.


PRIMING the Brain for Reading: PRIMING the Brain for Reading Memory Systems All that children know they show through access to memory systems. Children take in information through the senses. They pay attention to information that has meaning or is important to them. To move information from working memory where it can only be held for approximately 24 hours they need to concentrate on the information. Concentration activities can transform interesting information into neurological networks in working memory usually require rehearsal and practice. All humans can place events into long term memory quickly, but not efficiently, when high emotions are involved.


Slide14: MEMORY… Focuses on attending, learning, linking, remembering, and using the thousand pieces of knowledge and skills we encounter constantly. For educators, memory is the only evidence that something or anything has been learned. Allison Banikowski and Teresa Mehring, 'Strategies to Enhance Memory Based on Brain Research, Focus on Exceptional Children', Oct. 1999


Memory Systems: Memory Systems Sensory Memory 1-2 Seconds Working Memory About 18 Seconds sight sound taste smell touch rehearsal Long-term Memory Declarative Non-Declarative Semantic Episodic Procedural


Classroom Memory Strategies: Classroom Memory Strategies Declarative - Semantic PRACTICE REHEARSAL PROMPTING ORGANIZING RECITING WRITING SEQUENCING Declarative – Episodic EXPERIENCE ELABORATION STORY PLAY ROLE PLAY DEMONSTRATION Non-Declarative REPETITION PRACTICE PRIMING EXPERIENCE DEMONSTRATION


What type of memory is a child accessing when the teacher asks the child to:: What type of memory is a child accessing when the teacher asks the child to: Put your spelling words on cards to self check Put your words in groups that begin with the same sound Describe how the subject of the story may have looked and acted when he arrived at school Read along with me Practice reading various passages with expression Pretend to be a character identified on a card Read and record time and accuracy to improve fluency


Slide18: What Memory Systems would you access to teach these vocabulary words? What would you do to teach the words as spelling? Vocabulary / Spelling Words freedom king fight again try more


What do you want to remember about memory and learning?: What do you want to remember about memory and learning? What techniques will you use to recall this information? Why did you choose this information to remember? ???? ???? ????


Slide20: For phonics instruction and decoding strategies to be effective children must first understand the concept of phonemes.


Slide21: As young children progress through the kindergarten and first grade years, they become acculturated to the school routine. Behavioral changes are apparent. By the end of first grade, most children ‘know the rules of school’. They know about written words, as well as spoken words. They know whether they are ‘good’ at school or not, and most importantly, the know if they can read. From: Nevils and Wolfe, Building a Reading Brain, 2004.


Phonemic Awareness: Phonemic Awareness PRESCHOOL Syllable counting prepares for phoneme awareness. Games provide phoneme awareness during preschool. Phoneme awareness (sounds for oral language) rhymes and alliterations oddity tasks – same or different SCHOOL (Kindergarten and First Grade) Phoneme segmentation Phoneme blending Phoneme manipulation Syllable splitting PHONEME AWARENESS is about the concept not the activities.


Building Foundations for Literacy: Building Foundations for Literacy At five and six, most youngsters are able to: Hear the individual sounds that make up words (phonemic awareness) Realize that letters can be used to make up these sounds (phonics) Begin to learn the systematic correspondence between words and their spelling (decoding) Begin to develop a base of words that are recognized by sight Acquire a storehouse of knowledge that allows them to link meaning to words and groups of words, including facts and concepts.


Building Foundations for Literacy: Building Foundations for Literacy At five and six, most youngsters are able to: Begin development of a broad and expansive vocabulary. Recognize syntactic (sentence structure) and semantic structures (word and phrase meaning). Engage in problem solving and verbal reasoning. Engage in descriptive, clear conversations. Understand language conventions, how nouns, pronouns and verbs change within language.


More Phonics and Alphabetic Principle: More Phonics and Alphabetic Principle The National Reading Panel’s report recommends sounds of language concepts are pre-cursors for children to benefit from phonics instruction. Phonics programs with a variety of sequences, number of sounds taught, and order of orthographic rules have been successful with students. Phonics instruction cannot substitute for a complete reading program.


Phonics and the Brain:: Phonics and the Brain: Teach sounds and letters Use word walls with phonemes Identify inconsistencies with orthographic rules Identify word patterns for common consonant blends (bl, br, shr,…) vowel graphemes (ai, eigh, augh,…) word families (care, careful, …)


Slide27: Teachers who understand the child’s brain as a pattern-seeking organ are more likely to provide, clear, logical, word recognition strategies for children to use. (BtRB, 2004) First grade – sound out the phonemes Second grade – look at syllables and orthographic units. Third grade – identify longer and more complex orthographic units. Use these words to show the different approaches at each grade level: understand answer colorful television playing anteater


Slide28: In a sense when the reading code is mastered the brain has redesigned oral language structures to process written symbols quickly and with meaning. Reading competence is mastered in working memory and functions from long term memory when automaticity is obtained. Competent readers demonstrate mastery as they accurately identify words by speaking, reading, and writing. Wolfe and Nevills (2004), Building a Reading Brain.


Slide29: Children who struggle with reading have differences in the brain systems they access for reading.


A Child at the FRUSTRATION Reading Level: A Child at the FRUSTRATION Reading Level Has an abnormally loud or soft voice Reads a-rhythmically word-by-word Lacks expression in oral reading Has week vocabulary Inaccurate responses to punctuation Finger points Moves lips and head and sub-vocalizes during silent reading Is a poor speller Frequent requests for help Does not want to do leisure reading Exhibits lack of interest Yawns or acts tired Refuses to read


Brain Processes Involved in Reading: Brain Processes Involved in Reading This information about the letter forms passes to the angular gyrus in the parietal lobes which is responsible for translating letters into their sounds (phonemes). Still in the parietal lobes, the information is passed to Wernicke’s Area which contains a sort of internal dictionary. It uses this lexicon to determine if the word is meaningful or comprehensible. From Wernicke’s Area, the information passes through the arcuate fasiculus to Broca’s Area which processes the syntax (assembles words into grammatically correct phrases). The information is then sent to the frontal lobes which are involved in association and cognition. The light rays off the page enter the eyes and are transformed into electrical impulses. The impulses travel to the visual cortex where the information about space orientation and form is analyzed.


Shaywitz’s Research on Dyslexia: Shaywitz’s Research on Dyslexia In non-impaired readers there is activity in both the frontal (Broca’s Area) and the posterior regions (Wernicke’s Area and the Angular Gyrus). In the dyslexic readers, there is relative under activation in the posterior areas and relative activation in the frontal regions. Schaywitz states, 'It is as if these struggling readers are using the systems in front of the brain to try to compensate for the disruption in the back of the brain.'


Two Different Origins of Dyslexia: Two Different Origins of Dyslexia Shaywitz’s newest research shows that dyslexia may stem from two different sources. There is a 'glitch' in the system, most likely the result of a genetically programmed error. The neural system necessary for phonological analysis is somehow miswired. There is an environmentally influences type. The brain’s system for processing sounds and language are intact but the readers aren’t using them.


Slide34: 'These persistently poor readers have a rudimentary system in place, but it’s not connected well. They weren’t able to develop and connect it right because they haven't had the early stimulation. If you can provide these children early on with effective reading instruction, these children can really learn to read.' Sally Shaywitz, 2002


How is Reading Written on the Brain?A study by USC’s Franklin Manis, reported in the LA Times 7/29/02: How is Reading Written on the Brain? A study by USC’s Franklin Manis, reported in the LA Times 7/29/02 Brain imaging, functional magnetic resonance imaging, fMRI Struggling readers – word identification Competent, fluent readers see the word, process the sounds, reason what the word is, and develop meaning Reading does not happen naturally Troubled readers cannot resolve visual patterns, sound out phonemes, work rapidly enough to maintain meaning, or hold visual tracking, or form connections for information. Competent readers process sounds in less than 40 milliseconds, struggling readers may need 500 milliseconds.


Troubled Readers may be unable to….: Troubled Readers may be unable to…. Resolve visual patterns cape es cape in es cape able Sound out phonemes c – a – p cap t – r – a – c – t – o – r tractor Work rapidly enough We see a specific pattern of activity in the brain for struggling readers. Follow visual tracking left right top bottom Make connections among areas of information storage occipital lobe visual association hippocampus frontal cortex language association (Wernicke’s / Broca’s Areas)


Plasticity -: Plasticity - A term coined by Geoffrey Raisman in the 1960’s and expanded to explain the dynamic qualities of the human brain. Skills children learn are based on memory, concept information, flexibility, and adaptability. 'Plasticity implies, above all, not having to react the same way a second time' Raisman, 2004. Plasticity encompasses imagination to: Learn, record and analyze Seek another way to outwit an insuperable obstacle Be unpredictable when confronted with a problem Offer new ideas Benefit from positive outcomes Think new thoughts See in new ways Creatively convey new ideas to others.


Effective Reading Instruction: Effective Reading Instruction What we thought: students with reading difficulties require different reading instruction (e.g., reading styles, perceptual training, multimodal, colored lens). What we now know: struggling readers are successful when carefully taught the same reading skills all readers must learn. BUT with: More instructional time More coaching practice More careful progress monitoring More explicit feedback More precisely sequenced instruction More explicit / direct instruction More time for practice More engagement in reading


Slide39: Writing is a cognitively different task from speaking and reading.


Slide40: Writing places a new set of demands on the developing brain by calling on the motor cortex to respond in new ways. Wolfe and Nevills (2004) p.97 TASK ANALYSIS Gripping the pencil with the 'right' amount of tension. Holding the lead of the pencil on the paper. Move the pencil to make the intended shapes. Concentrate on staying within line and paper limitations. Releasing the pencil from the paper for spaces.


Brain Structure Involved in Writing: Brain Structure Involved in Writing Planning, timing, execution of hand and finger movements are initiated by the motor cortex. Orchestration is controlled by the frontal cortex. The cerebellum coordinates unconscious, precise hand movements for marks on the paper (Berninger and Richards, 2002). With practice neural circuits wire and writing actions becomes automatic. Motor Cortex Frontal Lobe Temporal Lobe Sensory Cortex Parietal Lobe Occipital Lobe Cerebellum


Activities Support Writing with Automaticity and Precision: Activities Support Writing with Automaticity and Precision Stenciling Tracing Filling in with color Cutting Pasting Drawing Connecting numbers Keyboarding Painting Assembling puzzles Sorting and grouping Writing Supports Reading Meaning Answer these questions. Fill in the missing words. Write the words from this story that…. Write a list of nouns from your reading. Make a mind map of the information about…. Write a paragraph that summarizes pages 23-27.


Slide43: Children’s ability to comprehend what they read depends upon the size of their vocabulary, the extent of their experiences, and their ability to organize information into related chunks.


Huge Word Gap in Three Year Olds: Huge Word Gap in Three Year Olds Study conducted by Betty Hart, University of Kansas, and Todd R. Risley University of Alaska, reported in the American Educator, Spring 2003, 4-9. Study conducted over 3 years with 42 families with toddlers with follow-up in third grade. Key Findings: 86 to 98% of words in children’s vocabulary reflected parents vocabulary. By age 3 trends in amount of talk, vocabulary development, style of interactions well established and greatly impacted for families with low SES compared to average and high SES. Indicators for vocabulary use and reading comprehension at grade 3 were predicted at age 3, During the first three years children are very impressionable and ultimately dependent upon families for their experiences.


Vocabulary Building – When Oral Language is not Enough: Vocabulary Building – When Oral Language is not Enough Children gain the majority of their vocabulary growth through reading. Common language interactions use 400 to 600 of the most common words out of 86,741. Scientific articles – 4,389 Children’s books – 627 Prime-time children’s TV shows – 543 Conversations among college graduates – 496 As children become better readers, reading is a more powerful way to learn new words than by listening to other people talk. Information from: Anne Cunningham, and Keith Stanovich. 1998. 'What Reading Dos for the Mind'. American Educator, Spring/Summer, 8-15.


An Adult Learning Experience: An Adult Learning Experience Pat Wolfe and Pamela Nevills (2004) Building the Reading Brain, p.85. The brain is hard wired for speech, not reading… the initial pathway for oral language begins when a sound is perceived. The pathway for reading, however, begins with visual input. To read, the brain must interpret signals that are received from the visual cortex and co-opt parts of an existing system for listening and speaking to create a new pathway that processes print for meaning. Building a reading brain does not happen with naturally designated neural mechanisms for reading, the reading system must be developed.


Reading Comprehension Demands Experience and Information: Reading Comprehension Demands Experience and Information What experiences or information would a child need to understand a story about: -how bread gets to a shelf at the grocery store -alligators -animals that hibernate -a letter from the president -a child from England


Slide48: CHUNKING ACCOUNTS FOR SOME OF THE DIFFERENCES TEACHERS FIND BETWEEN CHILDREN WHO GIVE SIMPLE RESPONSES TO COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS AND THOSE WHO RESPOND IN DETAIL USING A WEALTH OF AVAILABLE, PREVIOUSLY STORED BACKGROUND INFORMATION. Wolfe and Nevills, 2004, p.133


Chunking: Chunking A chunk is any coherent group of items of information that we can remember as if it were a single item. A word is a chunk of letters, remembered as easily as a single letter…but carrying much more information. The difference between novices and experts in a field appears to be that experts tend – because of a great deal of experience in a field – to organize information into much larger chunks, while novices work with isolated bits of information. Benjamin Bloom


Slide50: The capacity of short-term memory appears to develop with age. The number of spaces increases by one unit every other year beginning at age three. 15 13 11 09 07 05 Plus or Minus 2


Comprehension Strategies Teachers Can Use: Comprehension Strategies Teachers Can Use Use a wide variety of reading materials including informational text. Provide reading materials for individual students based upon the child’s interest and reading abilities. Focus on vocabulary building (listening, speaking, reading, and writing). Teach vocabulary through morphology, meaningful units of words, prefixes, suffixes, roots, meaning, part of speech. Use students prior knowledge of phonics and syntax to make sense of new words, rather than reliance on context clues. Play with words in whimsical ways: puns, exaggerations, drawings, contests. Realize that most children need at least 12 exposures to a word for it to be stored in long term memory (Stahl, 2003). Provide text without pictures, first.


More strategies for assisting comprehension…: More strategies for assisting comprehension… Use learning frames. Employ the technique of re-telling stories. Use questioning that has no right or wrong answers. Challenge authors. Provide a system for self-checking during individual reading. What are two or more comprehension strategies that you would like to use? What other teaching strategies have you used to teach comprehension? What happens in the brain when children expand their understanding of a subject, idea, or concept?


Slide53: Reading fluency, the ultimate goal of reading by the end of third grade depends upon knowing words and phrases automatically and being able to produce them rapidly.


Reading Fluency: Reading Fluency In the context of reading, fluency means the ability to read fast (Hirsch, 2003), or to read a passage where the words are spoken without hesitation, with accuracy, with prosody, and with a lack of effort (Kame’enui andamp; Simmons, 2001) As cited in Wolfe and Nevills, 2004.


RAN NUMBERS: RAN NUMBERS 2 4 6 7 9 4 6 7 9 2 6 7 9 2 4 7 9 2 4 6 9 2 4 6 7 2 4 6 7 9 4 6 7 9 2 6 7 9 2 4 7 9 2 4 6 9 2 4 6 7 2 4 6 7 9


Rate for Rapid Naming Numbers: Rate for Rapid Naming Numbers Seconds andlt;15 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 andgt;25


What Children Need to Become Fluent Readers: What Children Need to Become Fluent Readers Orthographic structures and rules for decoding words. To be able to process visual input rapidly. Time to read, reread, and read again. Books and stories that have high interest and are easy to read. Practice experiences with reading. Expansive information in long term memory that makes comprehending easy for listening and reading.


What Teachers Can Do: What Teachers Can Do Provide a reading instruction program with: repetitive practice for object naming guided, repeated modeled oral reading, and independent silent reading at an appropriate level Work to expand vocabulary and domain knowledge. Structure partner activities with peers, cross-age tutors, volunteers, or non-partner activities with a tape recorder. Use goal-based practices, echo reading, and choral reading. Provide a huge selection of books and select books to read together and alone that capture attention.


Slide59: Children who learn to read in a language other than their primary language have additional learning needs.


Considerations for English Language Learners: Considerations for English Language Learners An estimated 4.4 million American children are English Language Learners and 77% are native Spanish speakers (Antunez, 2002). Assessments determine the level of language competence for English and for the primary language. Additional questions: Can the student speak, read, and/or write in the primary language? How well does the student speak English? How old is the student? What staff, programs and resources are available to teach this child? Determine an appropriate program for each child: primary language, English-only, or bilingual (integrated primary language and English).


Choosing an Appropriate Program: Choosing an Appropriate Program Maintaining the primary language may be best when: Children are very young and are delayed in language development. Children who are in the primary grades and who have a learning disability. Providing a primary language program builds vocabulary and background experiences. Learning phonemes and identifying letters, particularly for consonants, in the primary language, prepares the child to transition to a bilingual approach.


Choosing an Appropriate Program: Choosing an Appropriate Program A bilingual program may be best for: Children who lack exposure to adequate oral language preparation. Children who have had little formal schooling. Oral language is developed in both languages. Sounds for consonants are the same, while sounds for vowels are named differently.


Choosing an Appropriate Program: Choosing an Appropriate Program An English-only program is recommended for: Children who already speak and/or read well in their native language. English Language Learners may need additional practice and extended instruction.


English Language Learners and Vocabulary Development: English Language Learners and Vocabulary Development Phoneme awareness and phonics instruction are precise and can be learned through explicit teaching and sufficient teaching. English Language Learners may read with precision, but not understand what they can correctly read. Vocabulary acquisition depends upon vocabulary instruction AND on learning how to identify and categorize new words – with extensive supporting neural networks. English Language Learners learn vocabulary through conversations with adults, listening to adults read to them, and reading on their own. Children learning Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills (BICS) and more importantly Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (CALP) need every minute of vocabulary development That school can offer.


Slide65: Teaching reading needs knowledgeable teachers in brain research….. 'Student shouldn’t be barking at print AND we shouldn’t be teaching ‘educational bulimia’.'