The Alphabetic Principle
Key Concepts
In order to become proficient readers students must understand the alphabetic principle, and must be able to apply this knowledge to decoding words.
Extensive research has shown the importance of applying letter-sound knowledge to accurately and efficiently reading words. Research tells us that skilled readers look at every letter, but process words automatically and rapidly. In order to become accurate readers, students must develop fluency with the alphabetic principle in order to focus on the meaning of text.
Most students need systematic and explicit instruction in order to master the skills included in the alphabetic principle.
Decoding is an essential means of recognizing words in our alphabetic language. Explicit instruction in the letter-sounds, regular word reading, irregular word reading and reading connected text must begin in kindergarten and continue through the primary grades for most students. More advanced word analysis skills must be taught as texts become more complex.
Specific skills in the alphabetic principle must be assessed and student progress must be monitored regularly.
It is crucially important that students acquire the skills needed to develop into accurate and fluent readers who are able to comprehend grade level material. To ensure that all our students meet expectations, learning should be measured against grade level benchmarks, as well as within the specific curriculum.
Instruction must be differentiated based on assessment data.
Data includes standardized measures, informal assessments and curriculum progress checks, as well as daily student performance. Patterns of instructional need must be identified and targeted. Instruction must then include explicit teaching in targeted skills not yet learned, application of those skills, and practice that is distributed over time. Skill deficits must be addressed and re-taught, followed by re-testing to monitor continuous progress.
Teaching must be designed to include the essential features of effective instruction.
Effective instruction includes modeling of new tasks with multiple examples, providing students with multiple opportunities to respond and practice, providing immediate feedback and error corrections, engaging students during instruction, and encouraging student effort. The convergence of these essential features of effective instruction with a strong curriculum will reliably increase student learning.
Professional Development Presentation
Apply the Concepts
Practice Activities
1. Sample Phonics Screener
DIBELS Next, NWF is a brief, direct measure of the alphabetic principle and basic phonics. It assesses knowledge of basic letter-sound correspondences and the ability to blend letter sounds into CVC and VC words. Practice Activity #1 is a page reproduced from a DIBELS Next transition workshop materials and contains three different sample student assessments. For each student, determine if the student is performing at the “Sound-by-Sound”, “Sound-by-Sound with Recoding” or “Whole Word Reading” level. Then determine if skills are accurate (>90%) or not accurate (<90% accurate).
2. Application Activity: Nonsense Word Fluency and General Performance Patterns and Instructional Recommendations
Using Practice Activity #2, place each student in the corresponding column based on the description of his or her NWF performance. Examine the instructional implications for each type of student and discuss (with grade level team, colleagues) how you might plan lessons to address the students’ needs.
3. Analyzing and Planning Decoding Instruction
You will use chart #3A, “Simple Regular Words According to Difficulty”, devised by Harn, Simmons and Kame’enui, as a reference. The word types are listed from the simplest VC and CVC to the more complex containing various consonant blends, with explanations and examples for each type. Page #3B contains a table of 10 simple regular words. For each word in the table, determine its word type and whether the word begins with a continuous or stop (quick) sound. After categorizing each word, discuss the activity questions provided with your partner or team. An extended activity would be to apply this to your first grade core-reading curriculum to identify potential targeted instruction that may be needed for some students.
Resources
1. Enhancing the Core: The Alphabetic Principle
This presentation details the components of and importance of the alphabetic principle. Assessing and monitoring progress with DIBELS (6th ed.) is illustrated with sample test items and scoring procedures. Methods to enhance instruction in core reading instruction, along with grade level instructional recommendations are provided. This is a 100-slide PowerPoint presentation developed by Harn, Simmons and Kame’enui in 2003.
2. Simple Regular Words According to Difficulty
This chart, devised by Harn, Simmons and Kame’enui, contains six categories of simple word types – from the simplest VC and CVC to the most complex, containing various consonant blends. The word types are listed according to difficulty, with explanation and examples for each type. The chart may be used in planning systematic decoding instruction lessons to supplement a reading program.
3. Sample Phonics Screener
This sample Phonics Screener, developed by the National Reading First Technical Assistance Center can be used to assess students’ knowledge of letter names, letter sounds, and the ability to read nonsense and real words of increasing complexity. Grade level targets, K-3, and suggested criterion for mastery are provided. A student copy, examiner copy, and an excel file to record assessment results for each student are included.
4. No Peeps, Rapid Read Practice Chart, 5x5 Word Dash, 1 Minute Letter/Sound Dash
This folder contains 4 different instructional activities that can be used to enhance instruction in letter-sounds, blending and word reading. No Peeps is a strategy for bridging sounding out of words to whole word reading. The other 3 activities are templates that teachers can customize to include sounds and words aligned to the curriculum. These activities can be used to provide additional practice and build fluency, following teacher-directed instruction.
5. Prefix/Suffix Instruction Example
This example illustrates how a teacher might design instruction on prefixes or suffixes, teaching the meaning of the isolated affix and showing the whole word in the context of a sentence. Teachers may customize the template to align the examples with current instruction, as well as to provide review on learned affixes.
6. (Book) Teaching Struggling and At-Risk Readers – A Direct Instruction Approach, Carnine, Silbert, Kame’enui, Tarver & Jungjohann, 2005 – ISBN-13: 978-0131707320 - Carnine, Douglas W., Silbert, Jerry, Kame’enui, Edward J., Tarver, Sarah G., & Jungjohann, K
This three-part book provides information on incorporating instructional design and delivery principles into daily instruction for students at the beginning and primary stages of reading. It discusses how to structure explicit lessons and sequence reading instruction to ensure essential skills are taught in an aligned and coherent manner.
7. (Book) Research-Based Methods of Reading Instruction, Grades K-3 (Vaughn & Linan-Thompson, 2004) ISBN-13: 978-0871209467 - Vaughn, Sharon, & Linan-Thompson, Sylvia (2004). Research-based methods of reading instruction, grades K-3. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
Research on reading is explored, providing a comprehensive overview of the five core instructional areas (phonemic awareness, phonics and word study – or alphabetic principle, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension.) Research-based reading activities and lesson plans are provided that are applicable for the wide range of learners.
Links
1. Curriculum Maps – Big Ideas in Beginning Reading, Center on Teaching and Learning, University of Oregon
A curriculum map is provided for each grade level, K-3. Within each grade level, the instructional priorities for Alphabetic Principle are outlined, month-by-month. These curriculum maps may be used to guide the sequence of instructional expectations throughout the school year. Additional instructional priorities for each grade K-3 are also included (such as Phonemic Awareness, Vocabulary and Comprehension in K).
2. Video Clips – Big Ideas in Beginning Reading, Center on Teaching and Learning, University of Oregon
Many short video clips are provided, showing teachers instructing small groups of kindergarten and first and second grade students. In the alphabetic principle lessons, letter-sound correspondence, developing fluency with letter-sounds, letter formation decoding, sight word recognition and reading connected text are demonstrated.
3. Word Work Strategies to Develop Decoding Skills for Beginning Readers
This is a presentation by Roxanne Hudson of the Florida Center for Reading Research for the Reading First Summer Institute in 2005. Important aspects of alphabetic principle are explained, as well as word study curriculum. The author presents findings on the reciprocal relationship between reading and writing and includes many classroom activities to support this instruction. Strategies for more advanced decoding of multisyllabic words and references for further reading are also provided.
6. Vaughn-Gross Center for Reading and Language Arts
This is the link to the Vaughn Gross Center for Reading and Language Arts Scientifically Based Research website. It contains explanations of the critical components of reading and generic classroom activities for teachers to enhance instruction in each area, including the alphabetic principle.
5. DIBELS Data System
4. Nonsense Word Fluency and General Performance Pattern and Instructional Recommendations
Using assessment data gathered on students (such as DIBELS, Generic Phonics Screener), teachers can use this template to sort and group students according to their skills in developing whole word reading accuracy and fluency. Instructional recommendations are provided to assist teachers in designing systematic instruction in the alphabetic principle.
