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Early Reading Instruction is a comprehensive analysis of the research evidence from early writing systems to computer models of reading. In this book, Diane McGuinness provides an innovative solution to the "reading war"--the century-old debate over the efficacy of phonics (sound-based) versus whole-word (meaning- based) methods. She has developed a prototype--a set of elements that are critical to the success of a reading method.McGuinness shows that all writing systems, without exception, are based on a sound unit in the language. This fact, and other findings by paleographers, provides a platform for the prototype. Other elements of the prototype are based on modern research. For example, observational studies in the classroom show that time spent on three activities strongly predicts reading success: learning phoneme/symbol correspondences, practice at blending and segmenting phonemes in words, and copying/writing words, phrases, and sentences. Most so-called literacy activities have no effect, and some, like sight word memorization, have a strongly negative effect.The National Reading Panel (2000) summarized the research on reading methods after screening out thousands of studies that failed to meet minimum scientific standards. In an in-depth analysis of this evidence, McGuinness shows that the most successful methods (children reading a year or more above age norms) include all the elements in the prototype. Finally, she argues, because phonics-type methods are consistently shown to be superior to whole-word methods in studies dating back to the 1960s, it makes no sense to continue this line of research. The most urgent question for future research is how to get the most effective phonics programs into the classroom.
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Early Readin g Instruction What Science Really Tells Us about How to Teach Reading Diane McGuinness E arl y R e ading Ins t r uc t ion E arl y R e ading Ins t r uc t ion What Science Really Tells Us about How to Teach Reading Diane McGuinness A Bradford Book The MIT Press Cambridge, Massachusetts London, England ( 2004 Diane McGuinness All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or information storage and retrieval) without permission in writing from the publisher. This book was set in Janson and Rotis Semi-sans on 3B2 by Asco Typesetters, Hong Kong. Printed and bound in the United States of America. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data McGuinness, Diane. Early reading instruction : what science really tells us about how to teach reading / Diane McGuinness. p. cm. ‘‘A Bradford book.’’ Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-262-13438-1 (alk. paper) 1. Reading (Early childhood) I. Title. LB1139.5.R43M34 2004 372.4—dc22 2003066585 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 C on t ent s Preface vii Introduction xiii 1 Why English-Speaking Children Can’t Read 2 On the Nature of Writing Systems 11 3 The Structure of the English Alphabet Code 37 4 How to Teach Reading: Lessons from the Past 73 5 How to Teach Reading: Modern Research 107 6 Phoneme-Awareness Training 153 7 Reading Fluency 189 8 Vocabulary and Comprehension Instruction 211 9 How Does Anyone Learn to Spell? 247 10 The Many-Word Problem: More to Spelling Than 11 1 Meets the I 279 New Directions for the Twenty-First Century 317 Appendix 1: How Nations Cheat on International Literacy Studies 349 Appendix 2: Misus