I – Importance of reading

II – Plethora of approaches about learning to read

Phonics
Whole language
Mixed/Balanced
Mandated programs
Books
Seminars
Special events – NEA Read Across America Day
Web sites – will be the focus of this reaction paper

III – Web Sites related to Reading
 

I – The Importance of Reading

 It is something so obvious that I never really reflected on it before: the importance of learning to read in our society. As one of the lucky students who could read in kindergarten, it always seemed as natural to me as being able to walk or jump. I can’t remember learning to read, but it must have been my parents doing. Books were my world. I can remember my mother reading Tom Sawyer to my brother and me, and reading Treasure Island several times during one summer by myself. I had a layperson’s awareness of the difference between phonics and whole language before starting this class, and of course I realized that a large part of what primary teachers do is teaching children to read, but I had always envisioned myself as teaching upper elementary, where I assumed that the students would already know how to read, so I had honestly not thought that much about the process of teaching children to read. Now, after reading Routman and other authors presented in class and discovered by myself, I can easily imagine myself teaching kindergartners and first graders to read. I have been almost overwhelmed by the amount of information and varying viewpoints regarding teaching reading. It is clearly one of the most important things that happens in schools.
 
II – Plethora of approaches about learning to read

 I am obviously not the first person to have realized this, as there are a plethora of approaches about the best way to teach children to read. It is also evident that people take this issue very seriously, sometimes being very extreme in their opinions of the values of their programs versus the “other” one, as seen in the Phonics/Whole language “war”. Other people have a more middle of the road attitude with programs labeled mixed or balanced. Personally this is the approach I prefer at this time, as I have usually been a middle of the road type of person. Of course, the legislative bodies of our land couldn’t leave such an important issue up to the teachers (what would they know about it anyway?) and sometimes have mandated programs of one camp or another to ensure that all children learn to read the “right” way. The vast array of books, journal articles, and seminars related to reading, as well as special events like the  NEA’s Read Across America Day add a few more tons of import to the mountain of evidence proving the necessity of teaching all students to read, and to read well. Within the last five years, a new arena has been added to the field: the Internet and the World Wide Web.
As in other fields, the web is poised to dramatically change the way information related to the reading debate is disseminated. No longer must one be a well funded publisher, or a professor with tenure to get your two cents worth widely known. As web sites are relatively inexpensive to create and maintain, often even free, literally everybody who would like to can present their ideas to the whole world. There are well funded commercial sites from publishers, sites from non-profit organizations committed to reading education, sites from teachers who are generous to share their knowledge and eager to exchange ideas with people involved in the same task. Web sites related to reading will be the focus of this reaction paper. The nature of the web prevents this from being an exhaustive list, it is just an annotated list of some of the sites I have found. I am continually discovering more and adding them. This list can also be found with active hyperlinks at my website: http://personal4.stthomas.edu/SSTEPHENSON then click on UST then click on Educational Links then click on Reading.
 

III – Web Sites related to Reading
 
123 Reading Road
http://library.thinkquest.org/50027/main.html

This site seems to me to be firmly in the phonics camp.
“This site is dedicated to understanding and providing materials to support the early stages of reading development. Our reading activities are organized in three groups: Alphabet Soup (letter recognition skills),  Sight Words(games to develop recognition of 100 sight words), Phonics Phun (phonemic awareness)”

Carol Hurst's Children's Literature Site
http://www.carolhurst.com/

This site seems to me to be whole language oriented.
 “This is a collection of reviews of great books for kids, ideas of ways to use them in the classroom and collections of books and activities about particular subjects, curriculum areas, themes and professional topics.” The site also has a free newsletter, featured books with reviews, activities, and links to related books , an index all children’s books reviewed on the site arranged by title, author, type of book, and grade level, integrated curriculum areas, themes, professional resources, and a list of Carol Hurst’s latest releases.This is a really useful site.

Cathy's Reading Page
http://cathyep.home.mindspring.com/reading/

Cathy is a first grade teacher in Georgia. She has recently completed her masters in education. One of her focuses was reading. She has devoted a large portion of her site to reading issues. I would say that she is in the balanced strategy camp.

A Compact for Reading and School Home Links
http://www.ed.gov/pubs/CompactforReading/

According to the Title I education act, all Title I schools must have a student/teacher/parent compact. This is an example of the legislature mandating some type of practice. Schools do not have to have this particular compact, but it is offered for those who want to use it and not develop their own. I feel that it is a good compact that promotes connections between the home life and the school life of a student. It does not advocate any particular method over another. It has many good ideas and practical worksheets and rubrics as well.

Failure Free Reading
http://www.failurefree.com/

This is a for profit company who’s mission is “to wipe out illiteracy.” It seems to be a heavily phonics based approach. In their own words,  “Failure Free Reading is a scientifically tested, research based, reading program with proven success in accelerating the learning curve of low literacy students. It combines a unique blend of print materials (Text), talking software (Technology), and scripted lessons (Teaching). Failure Free Reading provides a fully integrated set of instructional reading materials designed to help your nonreaders, at-risk, ESL, special ed, and students with learning disabilities achieve a successful reading and language experience.” Of course there are myriads of glowing testimonials to the efficacy of their program on the web site, and I’m sure that students in the program do learn to read, or at least I hope they do.

Harvard Literacy Lab (a university-based literacy clinic/center)
http://gseweb.harvard.edu/~litlab/index.html

“The Harvard Literacy Laboratory, established in 1966, is an integral part of the graduate program in Reading and Language at Harvard University. From its inception, the laboratory has served three purposes: training teachers and reading specialists; collecting data for ongoing research efforts; and providing services to the community. Teachers enrolled in graduate courses work individually with children referred to the Laboratory for help with reading and writing.” I was a bit disappointed with this site. It seems to be targeted more towards people who are students in the lab than to provide useful information about reading to the general public. Of course there is some good points, but I was expecting a bit more from Harvard.

International Reading Association
http://www.readingonline.org/home.html

“Reading Online  is an electronic journal of the International Reading Association.
Leadership. Dialogue. Participation. These three words help capture the spirit of the International Reading Association's newest professional journal for literacy educators, Reading Online.
Reading Online will play a leadership role in the literacy community as a quality professional publication that takes full advantage of the electronic medium of the Internet. We hope the journal will become an example of how information can be delivered in exciting new formats that expand upon our understanding as readers, teachers, and learners.” This is an absolutely excellent site! There is so much information here, from articles, critical issues, the electronic classroom, international perspectives, research and reviews. All approaches are analyzed here.

Kidsreads
http://www.kidsreads.com/

This site calls itself “Great books for kids 6 –12” and is a kid friendly place to find out about good books to read. There is a reading club, a newsletter, and kids can suggest new books to be reviewed. It would be good for teachers to use to get their students interested in reading.

Learning to Read
http://www.Toread.com/

“The purpose of this web page is to improve the quality of reading instruction through the study of the reading process and teaching techniques. It will serve as a clearinghouse for the dissemination of reading research through conferences, journals and other publications.” It seems to take a balanced approach. All of the information in the site would probably be equivalent to a 250 to 300 page book. I haven’t yet thoroughly explored it, but I am definitely going to do so.

Leveled Books
http://teachers.pps.k12.or.us:591/leveled_books/search.htm

From the Portland Public Schools, “the Leveled Books database is a list of over 1100 picture books that can be commonly found in school and public libraries. The books in the database have been leveled based on the Reading Recovery levels and on traditional grade levels.” This resource could definitely come in handy if I had to level a bunch of books quickly. I would still probably want to check each book quickly, to make sure that it fit into the level, in my opinion, but having a pretty good idea about where it has been placed by other teachers would definitely help.

Leveled Books
http://www.leveledbooks.com/

This site is a service of The Learning Connection. “The Learning Collection is a children's book wholesaler in Denver, Colorado USA specializing in the best trade books for Emergent, Beginning, and Early Independent readers. Established by former teachers, longtime booksellers, and specialists in the field of early literacy development, our www.LeveledBooks.com site features "the most frequently taught" trade paperbacks (and affordably priced hardcovers) for Reading Recovery, Title I, and all K-3 reading teachers, with more than 1,000 titles leveled according to Reading Recovery criteria.” This site is a good example of a commercial site that has services that can be of high value to teachers. Even if one does not purchase the books from them, one can use the level guide. Again, I would use it just as a starting point, and still check out each of the books to see if I agree with their placement.

Look, Learn, & Do - Combine reading with hands-on activities
http://www.looklearnanddo.com

This site is “a place where kids can read great books, learn interesting history and facts, and build fun projects with easy to follow, illustrated plans.” One thing that I really like is the read books section. Kids can read from a selection of books and “turn the pages” by clicking a mouse. On one hand, I personally prefer actually having books in my hands, but this could be a good source for getting books that are not available locally, or a good way of engaging a student who might not be interested in reading books, but is fascinated by computers.

Magic Keys
http://www.magickeys.com/books/index.html

This site has a collection of original stories for young children, older children and young adults. The stories are of average quality, but like Look, Learn  & Do, it might be a way to engage students in an other medium with the printed word.

Mrs. Alphabet
http://www.mrsalphabet.com

Mrs. Alphabet, or Anne Lynch, is a kindergarten teacher and author. Her site has, “All you ever wanted to know about teaching the alphabet, math, phonics, and reading.” It also has a newsletter, lessons, tips, a store, and a for kids area. She seems to be in the phonics camp. It is a very well designed and interesting site.

Parent Brochure, How Can I improve my child’s reading?
http://www.accesseric.org:81/resources/parent/reading.html

This publication was prepared by ACCESS ERIC with funding from the Office of Educational Research and Improvement, U.S. Department of Education. It covers the issues of reading development and what parents can do to promote it well, in layperson’s terms, in an undaunting length.

Patricia Cunningham's Reading Site
http://www.wfu.edu/~cunningh/fourblocks/

This is what Patricia Cunningham has been up to since 1990. It is a complete reading program that is being used enthusiastically by many teachers and schools across the country. The four blocks are Writing, Working With Words, Self Selected Reading, and Guided Reading. It seems to be a balanced approach, weighted a little towards phonics. There is an active community mail list that discusses its applications. I will devote a future reflection paper to the four blocks program.

Reading Comprehension
http://www.rhlschool.com/reading.htm

This site has enormous amounts of useful “cheat sheets” for teachers, and seems to subsist off the advertising space on the pages. It “features all new free weekly reading comprehension worksheets for teachers and parents to copy for their kids. They include original stories, poems, essays, and articles. They're most appropriate for upper elementary through middle school years.” I would be wary of using the worksheets too much, and would prefer to create my own with authentic connections to the students’ lives, but in a limited time world these worksheets could be a nice resource.

The Read In
http://www.readin.org/

“The Read In Foundation, Inc. created The Read In! to promote and encourage global literacy and the use of telecommunications technology in education. We achieve our goals through partnerships with public and private educational institutions, corporations, governments, and private citizens worldwide.” The Read In is a one day event that caps off several weeks of online participation. Students write about their school and community and read about other students’ schools and communities across the world. It started in 1993 with two third grades connected with a modem. The planners hope that participants are: “encouraged to read; helped to foster the love of and need for literature through online participation, activities in the classroom, and scheduled "live chats"; guided and encouraged to use telecommunications to share suggested reading lists; encouraged to collaborate with their peers on a project; given the opportunity to communicate "live" online, if site resources are available; and encouraged and instructed in use of the Internet specifically, and telecommunications in general, in a meaningful curriculum-based project.” It looks like an interesting and worthwhile project to generate excitement and interest in reading.

Reading Lady.com
http://www.geocities.com/~mrskteach/

This site is “an online resource for educators seeking to interact with other educators as they expand their understanding of literacy teaching. To that end, the Four Blocks method of teaching, as developed by Cunningham, Sigmon and Hall is outlined and explored. A recommended reading list has been provided, as well as numerous teaching resources and ready to implement lesson plans.” It is very extensive and has many links. I have found a lot of interesting information here.

Reading/Language Arts Center
http://www.eduplace.com/rdg/

This site is sponsored by the textbook publisher Houghton Mifflin. It has “resources that include textbook support, Author Spotlight, Wacky Web Tales, Staff Development, and Bilingual Resources.” It is another good example of a site that wants to attract and keep potential buyers for it’s products, and therefore offers some valuable information and services such as lesson plans and teacher chat rooms. If one was using their books in school it would be an especially useful resource.

Reading Rainbow
http://gpn.unl.edu/rainbow/index.html

The Reading Rainbow is a program on Public Television that showcases various children’s books. This site has many interesting features in addition to the obvious program schedules and synopsis. There are areas for kids, parents, teachers, and librarians as well as ideas on incorporating the show into a lesson.

Reading Recovery
http://www.indiana.edu/~eric_rec/ieo/digests/d106.html

From the Eric Digests “this digest discusses elements of the Reading Recovery program, describes a typical reading recovery lesson, addresses issues of the importance of teacher education and teacher role in those lessons, reviews the existing literature in the ERIC database regarding the effectiveness of Reading Recovery, and discusses the cost effectiveness of the program.” It gives a good basic understanding of Reading Recovery.
 

Reading: The Core of Learning
http://www.rlac.com/

This is a phonics based for profit program that has a real nice looking web site and promises stupendous results. Again, I hope that the students who go through the program benefit from it.

Road to Reading
http://www.roadtoreading.org/

This site claims to be a non profit agency with a National Reading Enhancement Program. It is a speed reading course. I haven’t fully checked it out yet, but I get the feeling that they are selling snake oil.

Sifting and Sorting Through the 4-Blocks Literacy Model by Cheryl M. Sigmon
http://teachers.net/FAQ/column.html

This is a site that has been developed expressly for the purpose of discussing the 4-Blocks Literacy Model. Cheryl Sigmon has authored a few books about the 4-Blocks model. Occasionally Patricia Cunningham or Dottie Hall will participate in a live chat about a certain aspect of the program. It is a great example of what can be done with the internet that couldn’t even be imagined before.

US National Institute for Literacy
http://www.nifl.gov

“The National Institute for Literacy (NIFL) is an independent federal organization leading the national effort toward a fully literate America in the 21st century.” Its programs are targeted more towards illiterate adults than children. It has great links to regional and local literacy agencies.

Whole Language Umbrella
http://www.ncte.org/wlu/

Whole Language Umbrella is a Confederation of Whole Language Support Groups and Individuals. It “is a group of action. From our conferences and publications, to our Interest Action Groups, WLU represents the voice of whole language education.  WLU Serves Whole Language Learning By: promoting research and the study of Whole Language theory and practice in teacher support groups, teacher education programs, staff development programs and conferences; publicizing, publishing and disseminating information on Whole Language to teachers, administrators, parents and other decision makers and participants in education; facilitating collaboration among teachers, researchers, parents , administrators and teacher educators; promoting Whole Language theory, curricula and policies at the federal, state, provincial, territorial, and local levels; and fighting against policies that disempower teachers as decision makers in their own classrooms.” This site is probable one of the best reviewed in this paper. The extensiveness of it is impressive. I highly recommend it as a resource for exploring Whole Language.