5 minute read
Research in Action
by General
Geodes help teachers put research-based best practices into action.
Research Says
“Indeed, unconstrained skills such as vocabulary and comprehension develop before, during, and after constrained skills are mastered so there is no evidence to warrant instructional priority of constrained skills over unconstrained skills” (Paris 200).
“Unconstrained skills are particularly important for children’s long-term literacy success (that is, success in outcomes measured after third grade)” (Snow and Matthews 59).
“Even while students are learning to read words, they can and should have opportunities to build knowledge from texts with worthwhile ideas and words. Delaying attention to knowledge building can be especially disadvantageous for students whose academic experiences occur primarily in schools” (Cervetti and Hiebert 501).
“Further, the results suggest that when there is a match between method of instruction (i.e., synthetic phonics) and the decodability of words in initial reading texts a more consistent and successful use of a letter-sound correspondence strategy will result than when there is a mismatch” (Juel and Roper/ Schneider 150–151).
When students read books in which they can apply their phonics knowledge, they can see that “phonics is worth learning and worth using” (Adams 39).
“It is critical that students have the opportunity to practice the phonics patterns they have learned in the context of reading” (Student Achievement Partners 14). Students Need
In the early grades, students need instruction in constrained skills, such as letter naming, phonics, and concepts of print, as well as unconstrained skills, such as vocabulary and comprehension. Additional unconstrained skills include recognizing story structure, gaining topic-specific knowledge, and knowing how to seek new information. Postponing instruction in unconstrained skills could hinder rather than help students.
Students must read texts that consistently support them in applying their phonics knowledge. They must practice decoding with real books. Geodes Respond
Geodes allow students to practice constrained and unconstrained skills in conjunction, rather than decoding in isolation of comprehension. Through reading Geodes, paired appropriately with teacher support, students learn that the purpose of reading is not just to decode but to seek meaning and gain understanding.
Geodes provide students with decoding practice aligned to the Fundations® scope and sequence. This alignment reinforces students’ phonetic knowledge and gives them an opportunity to transfer their learning while engaged in authentic texts.
Research Says
“Comprehension requires both a broad vocabulary and factual knowledge” (Willingham).
“When students have more content knowledge before they read, their understanding is better during reading” (Arya et al. qtd. in Lupo et al. 435).
“Readings and activities should be designed to build on one another and create a coherent body of knowledge” (Liben and Liben 5).
“If 70% of word types are nondecodable singletons, with only 20% repeated two to five times, how are first graders expected to bootstrap letter-sound knowledge?” (Hiebert qtd. in Foorman et al. 191)
By learning words that appear frequently in a variety of texts, students are more likely to learn words from context as they read independently (Nagy et al; Cunningham and Stanovich; Baker et al; Beck et al; Moats; Biemiller).
Evidence shows that three word features influence the speed with which words are recognized and learned: meaningfulness, frequency, and grapho-phonemic-morphemic structures (Laxon et al; Leslie and Calhoon; Martinet et al). Students Need
Students must read books with rich content to build the knowledge necessary to make the connections that lead to comprehension. This new knowledge nurtures future comprehension.
Students must read new words multiple times in multiple contexts to build recognition and understanding. This helps students build their decoding skills and word knowledge.
Students need to develop a meaningful, rich vocabulary to support comprehension. Geodes Respond
Each Geodes module focuses on one topic, such as A World of Books, with four text sets expanding on that topic. This module design supports students in building content knowledge. Students leverage their new knowledge to boost their comprehension of the next book in the set.
The majority of Geodes are 80 percent* decodable or higher. Most nondecodable words in each book were selected to support key content knowledge.
Geodes incorporate a set of 10 to 13 carefully selected Recurring Content Words throughout the books in each module. These Recurring Content Words bolster students’ background knowledge and ensure that students have multiple opportunities to read these words in context.
* While the majority of Geodes are 80 percent decodable or above, Read Along books include a higher number of words that students may not yet know how to read. In Modules 1–3, 1 out of each 16 books is a Read Along. Students with very low decodability skills may listen without attempting to track so they can focus on the meaning of the story.
Research Says
“One important implication for practice is that educators should be alert to the possibility that first-grade students of today might be facing more demands than ever in core reading program exposure. If our findings are borne out in further studies, educators might make a concerted effort to supplement core reading programs with additional texts that provide considerable repetition of word meanings, sight words, and core orthographic patterns (in meaningful contexts)” (Fitzgerald et al. 25).
Students might better anticipate what an unknown word might be if they can read previous words. Furthermore, students might better anticipate a word if they have an understanding of a passage. Their comprehension helps them to anticipate an upcoming word (Wood et al). To access a book successfully, students need a range of textbased supports. Reading books that include repeated words and practice with sight words and learned phonetic concepts could improve students’ decoding and comprehension. Geodes are designed to support students’ ongoing development of decoding skills. As possible, nondecodable words are surrounded by clusters of decodable words to ease students’ cognitive load and support decoding. Additionally, when possible, nondecodable words are placed near the end of sentences.
Sentence length and line breaks support students in building their reading stamina. The average sentence length is increased gradually over the course of the four modules. Similarly, line breaks are strategically constructed to be fluency-friendly. Line breaks in early modules were determined based on grouping words for meaning as well as where readers would naturally pause. Over the course of the year, students begin to read paragraphs without the line-break scaffold.
Students Need Geodes Respond
