Hello reading teaching colleagues,
In this article, "New Study: Many Older Students Struggle to Push Beyond Reading ‘Threshold’ " I read about students in fifth-seventh grades who can read at a basic level but who cannot decode more difficult words, a phenomenon described in the article as a "decoding threshold," and what some schools are doing to help these students cross the threshold. I wonder if adult foundational education reading teachers have seen a "decoding threshold" problem with their students and, if so, what has helped their students to address it.
In the article, a newly released study from the Educational Testing Service and the Advanced Education Research and Development Fund is described. The study used a screening assessment called ReadBasix, developed by ETS. I wonder if you have used this reading diagnostic assessment, designed for grades 3-12, with your adult learners and, if so, if you think it is suitable and useful for adults
A free diagnostic reading assessment, developed by the Reading & Dyslexia Research Program at Stanford University and called "The Rapid Online Assessment of Reading (ROAR)" that has been validated for use with grades 1-12, is also mentioned in the article. Have you used that? Is that suitable and useful for adults?
David J. Rosen
Comments
David, many thanks for beginning this important discussion!
One of the key sentences in the article was, “If decoding a sentence is consuming all of your cognitive capacity, then you’re not going to have anything left for comprehension.” Adult educators try to help our learners unlock meaning in readings, but issues with alphabetics, fluency (reading slows down for decoding), or vocabulary will derail students' ability to understand.
If students have mastered the basics of decoding one or two syllable words, the issue turns to morphology. Morphology is the study of word structure, which includes the rules for how words are formed and the meaning of their parts. It’s an essential part of helping our emerging readers build their alphabetics, vocabulary, and comprehension skills.
In morphology, we look at morphemes (prefixes, bases or roots, suffixes) that are the small, pronounceable units that combine into longer, meaningful words. For example, the word respelled is made up of the parts: re + spell + ed. Morphology can help our learners understand how words are put together so they understand written language better. It helps emerging readers and English language learners recognize patterns, a vital part in unlocking language.
The College and Career Readiness Standards say that GLE 4–5 students should be able to “use combined knowledge of all letter-sound correspondences, syllabication patterns, and morphology to accurately read unfamiliar multisyllabic words in context and out of context.” Morpheme matrices and words sums can both help students build their morphology skills.
Looking for some resources to teach morphology? Consider:
How are you helping students with their morphology skills?
Steve Schmidt, Moderator
LINCS Reading and Writing Group
Morpheme matrices and word sums can both be used to teach students morphology. A morpheme matrix is a visual tool to help learners build multisyllabic words by combining morphemes. Here is an example matrix for the word form:
We can show students how to create new words with form as the base. We'll use word sums to do this. Word sums are visual ways to show the word parts that make up multisyllabic words. Word sums show words broken apart into individual morphemes, separated by plus marks:
in + form + ed = informed
de + form + ed = deformed
(Note: A free morpheme can stand alone as a word like the word "form" above. A bound morpheme cannot stand alone as a word. Bound morphemes are often prefixes and suffixes like "re-" and "un-" or "-s" and "-ly.")
To explicitly teach morpheme matrices to students, we can:
1. Explain the purpose: “There are many big or long words in newspapers, magazines, books, job ads, and on the internet. They often include word parts (or morphemes) called prefixes, roots, and suffixes. We will learn how to combine (or assemble) them and figure out their meanings and use.”
2. Model the pronunciation of the Latin root and read its simple meaning. Optional: Discuss whether it is free or bound (most are bound). For steps #3-6, refer to the Word Key for correctly assembled words.
3. Model how to assemble only free Latin roots + suffixes = new words; discuss meanings and changes.
4. Model the pronunciation of the prefixes and read their simple meanings from the chart on page 3 - or pronounce, define, and assemble one at a time.
5. Model how to assemble prefixes + Latin roots = new words; discuss meanings and changes (see underlined words in the Word Key).
6. Model or guide how to assemble prefixes + Latin roots + suffixes = new words; discuss meanings and changes.
7. Guide students in rereading, spelling, and using the new words in oral sentences. 8. Have students write A Few Sentences and share them with the group or a partner.
(These steps are from pg. 5 of Marn Frank’s Morpheme Matrices guide )
Steve Schmidt, Moderator
LINCS Reading and Writing Group