Language: A Missing Foundation
in Teacher Education, and What
SLPs Can Do About It
Louisa Moats, Ed.D.
ASHA, 2008
Louisa Moats, 2008
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A Persistent Theme Since 1994…
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†
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The Missing Foundation in Teacher Education
- Moats, 1994, 1995
Wanted: Teachers with Knowledge of Language
- Lyon & Moats, 1996
Informed Instruction for Reading Success
- Brady & Moats, 1997
Teaching Reading is Rocket Science
- AFT (Moats), 1999
Knowledge to Support the Teaching of Reading
- Snow, Griffin, & Burns, 2005
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Reading Trajectories Are Established Early
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Improvement is Possible
Typical distribution of
results (national,
state, local)
Outstanding
classroom,
school, or district
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Average Percentile Rank on SAT-9,
California Reading Initiative, 1997-2002
60
50
40
1997
2002
30
20
10
0
2nd Gr
3rd Gr
4th Gr
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8th Gr
5
Percent of Primary Grade Students Below 30th
%ile in Research Studies
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†
†
†
†
†
†
Foorman et al., 1998
Mathes et al., 2001
Allor at al., 2002
Mathes et al., 2006
Felton, 1993
Vellutino et al., 1996
Torgesen et al., 1999
Torgesen et al., 2002
5%
6%
6%
5%
3.8%
4.5%
4%
.7%
Chart fromLouisa
Denton
and Mathes, in B. Foorman (ed) 2003
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Implementation – Not the Program -Is the Key Factor in Success
†
Four programs with all components were used
„
†
†
5-year, longitudinal study in high-poverty, failing schools
Teacher and school effects overrode program effects
Each program had good and poor implementers
NICHD Early Interventions Project
(Moats & Foorman, 2008)
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Effective Teachers Differentiate
Effective teachers adapted to student needs
and abilities. In 2nd and 3rd grade, the better
teachers identified children who were behind
grade level and modified the emphasis of their
instruction.
(Foorman et al., 2006)
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How do teachers differentiate?
Common, but invalid, perspectives:
†
†
†
†
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“Learning style”
“Level” of reading
Interest and motivation
Gender
IQ
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Recognized Subtypes of Poor Readers
(Fletcher et al., 2007; Joshi et al., 2008)…
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Instruction Should Be Based on Valid
Theoretical Underpinnings
Theories are not personal speculations; they are
representations of truth emanating from a
body of scientific work…
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The Many Strands that are Woven into Skilled Reading
(Scarborough, 2001)
LANGUAGE COMPREHENSION
BACKGROUND KNOWLEDGE
VOCABULARY KNOWLEDGE
LANGUAGE STRUCTURES
VERBAL REASONING
SKILLED READING:
fluent execution and
coordination of word
recognition and text
comprehension.
LITERACY KNOWLEDGE
WORD RECOGNITION
PHON. AWARENESS
DECODING (and SPELLING)
SIGHT RECOGNITION
Louisa
Moats, 2008 over years of instruction and practice.
12
Reading is a multifaceted skill, gradually
acquired
Verbal Comprehension Accounts for
Increasing Amount of Variance…
60
50
40
ORF
VC
30
20
10
0
3rd Grade
7th Grade
10th Grade
Proportion of variance in FCAT explained by oral reading fluency and
Louisa Moats, 2008
verbal comprehension. (Schatschneider
et al., 2004)
13
Percent of students scoring at Lowest
Level on the Florida Achievement Test
40
35
30
25
2001
2006
20
15
10
5
0
(Many students
repeat 3rd grade
once or twice)
3rd Grade
10th Grade
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Language and
experiential deficits
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meaning (semantics)
discourse structure
sentences
(syntax)
morphology
language
phonology
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pragmatics
writing system
(orthography)
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Research on teachers of reading aims to…
Identify priorities for
teacher instruction.
Explain the relationship
between knowledge,
practice, and outcomes.
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NCTQ Report…
†
Much of current reading instruction remains
mired in a view of reading instruction that is
incompatible with the science of reading.
†
The process of becoming a reader is described
as a natural, organic process, despite the fact
there is no evidence to support such a view.
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State Level Requirements…
… “Only a handful of states has revised their teaching
standards to insist that institutions train teachers in
the science of reading instruction.” (NCTQ)
Some states with revised standards for higher education:
California, Massachusetts, Florida,
Maryland, Colorado, Virginia
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Some Studies of Teachers
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Moats & Foorman, 2003
Spear-Swerling & Brucker, 2004, 05
Bos et al., 2001
McCutchen et al., 1999, 2001, 2002, in press
A. Cunningham, 2004, in press
J. Cornier, 2004
Teacher Quality Institute (Walsh), 2006
Kroese, Mather, & Sammons, 2006
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“Philosophy” Matters
†
†
“…[1st grade teachers’] philosophical framework
about reading instruction was germane to the extent
teachers learned the content of direct methods of
reading instruction.
Those with a “whole language” orientation were less
responsive to PD in phonology, phonics, and
spelling.
(Brady et al., in press)
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Disciplinary Knowledge is Not
Obvious, Natural, or Intuitive
†
†
†
Cunningham (in preparation) asked teachers
how they would prefer to teach reading.
“…it appears that a philosophical orientation
towards literature-based instruction tends to
be more exclusive of other instructional
approaches.”
Teachers’ preferred practices do not conform
to current research and policy
recommendations for teaching 1st graders.
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What Teachers Know, Affects What
They Do
†
†
“…Teachers who performed well on phonics
tasks [on the knowledge survey] prefer
spending more time on explicit and systematic
instructional practices and less time on
unstructured literature activities.”
Prior knowledge [of language] plays a role in
teachers’ choice of instructional activities.
-Cunningham et al.
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McCutchen, Abbott et al., 2002
†
†
…with K-1st Grade teachers, gave a 10-day summer
course focused on increasing teachers’ own
linguistic knowledge; observed frequently during the
year; 3 more days of inservice focused on students’
progress and instructional needs
Taught phonology and phonological development;
structure of orthography; importance of code
learning within a comprehensive lesson framework.
Spelling samples used diagnostically.
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McCutchen, Abbott et al., 2002
†
†
…with K-1st Grade teachers, gave a 10-day summer
course focused on increasing teachers’ own
linguistic knowledge; observed frequently during the
year; 3 more days of inservice focused on students’
progress and instructional needs
Taught phonology and phonological development;
structure of orthography; importance of code
learning within a comprehensive lesson framework.
Spelling samples used diagnostically.
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McCutchen, Abbott et al., 2002)
†
. …kindergarten students in classrooms of
intervention teachers made greater gains
across the year in orthographic fluency (i.e.,
their ability to produce legible letters), and
first-grade students … outperformed their
control-classroom peers in phonemic
awareness, comprehension, vocabulary,
spelling, and composition.
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McCutchen et al. (in press)
Study with 30 teachers of Grades 3-5
“…teachers’ linguistic knowledge (i.e., teachers’
scores on the Moats survey) uniquely
predicted lower-performing students’ end-ofyear scores on Gates-MacGinitie Vocabulary,
narrative composition, WIAT Spelling, and
WRMT-R Word Attack (ps < .05)
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Kroese, Mather, & Sammons (2006)
†
Students enrolled in classrooms (K-3) where
the teachers had the lowest knowledge of
phoneme-grapheme relationships made the
least growth in spelling development.
LD: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 14, 85-89.
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Take a hard look at educators’ typical
“baseline” level of knowledge of
oral and written language
structure….
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“Phonemic Awareness Skill of Speech-Language
Pathologists and Other Educators”
Elizabeth J. Spencer, C. Melanie Schuele, Kathryn M. Guillot
(Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN); Marvin W. Lee
(Tennessee State University, Nashville)
LANGUAGE, SPEECH, AND HEARING
SERVICES IN SCHOOLS, October 2008, 39,
512–520
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Phoneme Segmentation of “Hard
Words” - % Correct
SLPs
knuckle
sing
think
poison
squirrel
quick
box
start
fuse
use
90
71
75
60
51
70
61
31
21
17
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Teachers
73
45
41
34
18
11
10
6
3
3
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One State’s Data from 900 Teachers
How is the word “gl-ue” divided?
†
†
†
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a. syllable
b. onset-rime
c. phoneme
d. none of the above
37% correct
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900 Teachers - 24% Correct
Which of the following groups of words is an
example of the spelling principle, “we spell
by the position of a sound in a word?”
† a. gymnasium, photograph, cello
† b. fun, puff, rough
† c. spectator, respect, inspection
† d. medicine, medicinal, medical
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Test Item: Phoneme Matching
†
Find a word that ends with the same sound:
„
„
dogs: miss, has, decks, niece
coached: trapped, screamed, twisted, filled
(47% and 55% correct respectively in two districts)
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Findings from the TRE Utilization and
LETRS CD-ROM Studies (Sopris West, 2008)
†
Even well-prepared, effective teachers have
lingering confusion about:
„
„
„
„
„
Phonemes and phonology
Graphemes and spelling patterns
Morphemes and word structure
The purposes of various assessments
How to connect the essential components
†
Especially decoding with comprehension
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Sample Test Item: True or False?
“Screening at the end of kindergarten can be
efficient, reliable, and valid for predicting a
child’s silent passage reading comprehension
at the end of 3rd grade.”
*36% -52% correct in a district that requires
DIBELS assessments*
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The absence of understanding
leads to misguided practices.
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Words are taught as wholes to memorize
But, words are Louisa
not Moats,
recognized
by shape.
2008
37
Consequence: Phonics is not directly taught.
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Words Are Treated as “Outlaws”
about
again
beautiful
because black
caught
car
don’t
every
found
gym
have
how
it’s
junk
knew
little
more
nice
one
our
phone quit
right
use
when
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Context is Over-Emphasized
†
“….Don’t know that word? Well just keep
reading and see what might make sense
here…”
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What Critical Understandings are Missing?
„
„
„
„
„
Knowledge of the speech sound
system
Phoneme-grapheme mapping –
anchored in phoneme awareness
Vocabulary – how it is acquired
Sentences – and how to unravel them
Surface vs. deep comprehension
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What SLP’s Can Do
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Point out your desire to collaborate, the consequences of working at odds (or
without consistency of approach), and the importance of a common frame of
reference.
Be ready to teach the speech sound system to your collaborators without
resorting to the phonetic alphabet.
Teach the skill of phoneme-grapheme mapping.
Model some techniques for introducing new vocabulary words and deepening
word knowledge in semantic memory.
Model some techniques for teaching grammatical awareness, using multisensory
methods.
Coordinate a study group on language comprehension.
With teachers, examine the instructional materials in use, and identify concepts
that need better instruction.
Be kindly assertive within a school system; define your role.
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What SLP’s Can Do
1.
Point out your desire to collaborate, the
consequences of working at odds (or without
consistency of approach), and the importance of a
common frame of reference.
Promote necessity of strong theoretical frameworks,
decision-making flow-charts, and conceptualizations
of purpose.
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What SLPs Can Do
2. Be ready to teach the speech sound system to your
collaborators without resorting to the phonetic
alphabet.
Speech to Print (Moats, Brookes Pub)
LETRS (Moats, Sopris West)
TIME On-Line (Stern Center, VT)
Nancy Mather’s CD Based Program (Brookes Pub.)
Lindamood-Bell LIPS
Phono-Graphix Program
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Vowels and Their Spellings
yū
cute
few
universe
feud
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What SLPs Can Do
3. Teach the skill of phoneme-grapheme mapping.
t
kn
ou
ow
gh
sh
s
e
t
ll
r
th
r
ough
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ea m
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Resources, Phoneme-grapheme Mapping
Ehri, L. (2004), In The Voice of Evidence.
Grace, K. (2006), Phonics and spelling through
phoneme-grapheme mapping. Sopris West.
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Morphemes: Inflections
/t/
/d/
/id/
matched
preferred
invented
blessed
hummed
slotted
picked
raved
offended
stepped
vowed
boarded
coughed
spoiled
chided
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What SLPs Can Do
4. Model some techniques for introducing new vocabulary
words and deepening word knowledge in semantic memory.
Resources:
The CORE Vocabulary Handbook (Consortium on Reading
Excellence)
Isabel Beck, et al. Text Talk
Susan Ebbers, Daily Oral Vocabulary Exercises (Sopris West)
LETRS, Module 4
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How We Know a Word’s Meaning
Antonym
connotation
denotation
Synonym
skate
Multiple
meanings
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Examples in context:
Sounds, spelling,
meaningful parts,
words it is to be
distinguished from.
50
Vocabulary: Multiple Meaning Webs
right
In finance…the privilege
given to stockholders to buy
additional stock or shares in
a new issue, usually at or
below current market value.
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What SLPs Can Do
5. Model some techniques for teaching
grammatical awareness, using
multisensory methods.
Resources:
Carreker, S. Multisensory grammar. Neuhaus
Center, Houston, TX
J. Carlisle & M. Rice, (2004) Understanding
Reading Comprehension.
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A Critical Aspect of Comprehension
words
connections to self
and the world
RC
phrases
strategic reading
sentences and their
interconnections
paragraph and
discourse structure
* p. 37
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What SLPs Can Do
6. Coordinate a study group on language
comprehension.
7. With teachers, examine the instructional
materials in use, and identify concepts that
need better instruction.
8. Be kindly assertive within a school system;
press relentlessly for improvement.
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Louisa Moats, Ed.D.
[email protected]
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