April 13, 2000 National Reading
Panel Reports Combination of Teaching Phonics, Word Sounds, Giving Feedback on
Oral Reading Most Effective Way to Teach Reading In the largest, most comprehensive evidenced-based review ever
conducted of research on how children learn reading, a Congressionally mandated
independent panel has concluded that the most effective way to teach children to
read is through instruction that includes a combination of methods.
The panel determined that effective reading instruction includes teaching
children to break apart and manipulate the sounds in words (phonemic awareness),
teaching them that these sounds are represented by letters of the alphabet which
can then be blended together to form words (phonics), having them practice what
they've learned by reading aloud with guidance and feedback (guided oral
reading), and applying reading comprehension strategies to guide and improve
reading comprehension.
The work of this panel was guided by two unique actions. First, the panel
developed a set of rigorous scientific standards to evaluate the research on the
effectiveness of different instructional approaches used in teaching reading
skills. Second, the work of the panel was conducted in a public forum, which
allowed for public input at all of its meetings.
"For the first time, we now have guidance-based on evidence from sound
scientific research-on how best to teach children to read," said Duane
Alexander, M.D., Director of the National Institute of Child Health and Human
Development (NICHD), which supports research in reading and learning. "The
panel's rigorous scientific review identifies the most effective strategies for
teaching reading."
The National Reading Panel was established in response to a 1997 congressional
directive. Specifically, Congress asked the Director of the NICHD, in
consultation with the U.S. Secretary of Education, Richard W. Riley, to convene
a national panel to review the scientific literature and determine, based on
that evidence, the most effective ways to teach children to read. The Panel is
composed of 14 individuals and includes leading scientists in reading research,
representatives of colleges of education, reading teachers, educational
administrators, and parents. The report, along with more information about the
National Reading Panel, is available at the panel's website,
http://www.nationalreadingpanel.org.
The NICHD will undertake an aggressive effort to distribute the report and its
findings to policy makers, educators, and parents. The NICHD will collaborate in
these efforts with the National Institute for Literacy and the Public Libraries
Association.
For its review, the panel selected research from the approximately 100,000
reading research studies that have been published since 1966, and another 15,000
that had been published before that time. Because of the large volume of
studies, the panel selected only experimental and quasi-experimental studies,
and among those considered only studies meeting rigorous scientific standards in
reaching its conclusions.
The panel's review focused on the following areas: alphabetics (phonemic
awareness and phonics instruction), reading fluency, reading comprehension,
teacher education, and computer technology.
Phonemic awareness is knowledge that spoken words are made up of tiny segments
of sound, referred to as phonemes. For example, the words "go" and "she" each
consist of two phonemes. Phonemic awareness is often confused with phonics,
which refers to the process of linking these sounds to the symbols that stand
for them, the letters of the alphabet. A comprehensive explanation of these two
concepts is available in the NICHD publication, Understanding Why Children
Succeed or Fail at Reading,
http://www.nichd.nih.gov/publications/pubs/readbro.htm.
The panel found that the research conducted to date strongly supports the
concept that explicitly and systematically teaching children to manipulate
phonemes significantly improves children's reading and spelling abilities. The
evidence for this is so clear cut that this method should be an important
component of classroom reading instruction.
The panel also concluded that the research literature provides solid evidence
that phonics instruction produces significant benefits for children from
kindergarten through 6th grade and for children
having difficulties learning to read. The greatest improvements in reading were
seen from systematic phonics instruction. This type of phonics
instruction consists of teaching a planned sequence of phonics elements, rather
than highlighting elements as they happen to appear in a text. Here again, the
evidence was so strong that the panel concluded that systematic phonics
instruction is appropriate for routine classroom instruction.
For children with learning disabilities and children who are low achievers,
systematic phonics instruction, combined with synthetic phonics instruction
produced the greatest gains. Synthetic phonics instruction consists of
teaching students to explicitly convert letters into phonemes and then blend the
phonemes to form words. Moreover, systematic synthetic phonics instruction was
significantly more effective in improving the reading skills of children from
low socioeconomic levels. Across all grade levels, systematic synthetic phonics
instruction improved the ability of good readers to spell.
The panel noted that, because children vary in reading ability and vary in the
skills they bring to the classroom, no single approach to teaching phonics could
be used in all cases. For this reason, it is important to train teachers in the
different kinds of approaches to teaching phonics and in how to tailor these
approaches to particular groups of students.
The panel also concluded that guided oral reading is important for developing
reading fluency-the ability to read with efficiency and ease. In guided oral
reading, students read out loud, to either a parent, teacher or other student,
who corrects their mistakes and provides them with other feedback. Specifically,
guided oral reading helped students across a wide range of grade levels to learn
to recognize new words, helped them to read accurately and easily, and helped
them to comprehend what they read.
By contrast, the panel was unable to determine from the research whether reading
silently to oneself helped to improve reading fluency. Although it makes sense
that silent reading would lead to improvements in fluency, and the panel members
did not discourage the practice, sufficient research to conclusively prove this
assumption has not been conducted. Literally hundreds of studies have shown that
the best readers read silently to themselves more frequently than do poor
readers, the panel members wrote. However, these studies cannot distinguish
whether independent silent reading improves reading skills or that good readers
simply prefer to read silently to themselves more than do poor readers. The
panel recommended that if silent reading is used as a classroom technique,
intended to develop reading skills and fluency, it should be done in combination
with other types of reading instruction, such as guided oral reading.
To determine how children best learn to comprehend what they read, the panel
reviewed studies of three areas regarded as essential to developing reading
comprehension: vocabulary development, text comprehension instruction, and
teacher preparation and comprehension strategies instruction.
Although the best method or combination of methods for teaching vocabulary has
not yet been identified, the panel review uncovered several important
implications for teaching reading. First, vocabulary should be taught both
directly-apart from a larger narrative or text-and indirectly-as words are
encountered in a larger text. Repetition and multiple exposure to vocabulary
words will also assist vocabulary development, as will the use of computer
technology. The panel emphasized that instructors should not rely on a single
method for teaching vocabulary, but on a combination of methods.
Likewise, the panel also found that reading comprehension of text is best
facilitated by teaching students a variety of techniques and systematic
strategies to assist in recall of information, question generation, and
summarizing of information. The panel also found that teachers must be provided
with appropriate and intensive training to ensure that they know when and how to
teach specific strategies.
With respect to the overall preparation of teachers, the panel noted that
existing studies showed that training both new and established teachers
generally produced higher student achievement, but the research in this area is
woefully inadequate to draw clear conclusions about what makes training most
effective. More quality research on teacher training is one of the major
research needs identified by the panel.
Finally, the panel examined the use of computer technology to teach reading. The
panel noted that there are too few definitive studies to draw firm conclusions,
but that the available information suggests that it is possible to use computer
technology for reading instruction. Although not directly applicable to reading
instruction, the use of hypertext-highlighted text that links to definitions or
related text-may be a useful learning aid in the classroom. Moreover, the use of
computers as word processors may also help students learn to read, as reading
instruction is most effective when combined with writing instruction.
The NICHD is one of the Institutes comprising the National Institutes of Health,
the Federal government's premier biomedical research agency. NICHD supports and
conducts research on the reproductive, neurobiological, developmental, and
behavioral processes that determine and maintain the health of children, adults,
families, and populations.
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