A Letter to My Younger Self, as a First-Year-Teacher

Have you ever wished you could talk to your younger self, to share important words of wisdom that you gained through experiences, years later? Oh, how I wish I could send a letter back to myself, when I was a first year, Grade 1 teacher. If I could only sneak a copy of Beverly Tyner’s (2009) Small Group Reading Instruction, into the hands of my 23 year-old-self.   How much better that year would have gone! Never mind that Tyner’s book was not published until almost ten years after my first year of teaching; if we can travel back in time, the publication date is not important!

 

I have summarized Tyner’s model below, to give you a snapshot of what it might look like, if you were to adopt this method for your own class. Essentially, she believes that “boxed reading programs that do not provide teachers with the appropriate materials or the necessary knowledge about the development of readers will never be the answer for struggling readers” (2009, p. xi). Understanding the truth in this statement has led me to move away from my research on the effectiveness of these kinds of “boxed” programs, and to move on to researching general approaches or strategies for teaching reading.

 

This same advice, to bring together the best parts of various programs, to fit the needs of unique students, was given to me as a student in a class at the University of Manitoba called Diagnostic and Remedial Techniques in ELA. This is the idea of empowering teachers to make decisions and judgements as to how to build a literacy program that works for their own class, and for individual students.  (Lourenzo, C., lectures, Sept. 2018). Providing teachers “with the knowledge to be good consumers of reading products will drive the reading process forward in unprecedented way” (Tyner, 2009, p. xi). Teachers with knowledge of the research on reading are then able to adjust the instruction that they do in their classes, based on this information and on their own good judgement and experiences.

 

Beverly Tyner provides a framework which teachers can use to structure this kind of selecting, applying and adjusting of various strategies, when working with small groups of students.

 

 

Differentiated Instruction

• Tyner is a former early elementary school teacher herself, and explains that she understands how daunting it is to try to differentiate lessons for a wide range of learners.
• She shows teachers how they can meet the needs of everyone in the classroom. This includes those who are struggling to read, as well as those who come to school already able to read some words.

 

The Developmental Reading Process

• She provides teachers with a basic understanding of the “developmental reading process” that allows them to put theory into practice (p. 159).
• Essentially, there are “stages through which beginning readers naturally progress” (Tyner, 2009, p. 5). After assessing the students, using the ERSI assessment tool, teachers group their students into small groups of three to four students. Students are grouped with “others who are most similar in their literacy needs” (p. 7).
• The five stages that readers pass through as they become independent at reading, are described, with the important characteristics of readers at that stage.
• A grade-level designation is included for each stage. This allows teachers to coordinate their small group lessons with reading materials appropriate for the learners at each stage.
• Tyner’s model meets the recommendations for effective assessment by Reutzel and Cooter (2016): “In general, assessment should proceed developmentally according to the sequence in which skills are learned: phonemic awareness, to alphabet knowledge, to phonics and other decoding skills” (p. 188).

 

The 5 Stages

• Stage 1 – Emergent Reader
• Stage 2 – Beginning Reader
• Stage 3 – Fledgling Reader
• Stage 4 – Transitional Reader
• Stage 5 – Independent Reader

 

• The groups are flexible; students are moved from group to group based on ongoing assessment by the teacher (p. 7).

• “The progression begins in Stage 1 with the emergent reader (basically non-reader) and continues to an independent reading level in Stage 5” (p. 7).

 

• The stages bridge from Kindergarten to Grade 2 level. “Students advance through these levels as they build on their knowledge and move forward at their own pace” (p. 8).

 

• Tyner describes the characteristics of a reader in the “emergent stage”, as a person who has very little phonemic awareness, knows very few or no sight words, knows less than half of the alphabet, and does not understand the concept of a word (p. 9).

 

• At the next stage, “beginning reader”, the student has developed the ability to hear sounds in words, can track print, knows more than half the alphabet, and knows 15 sight words (p. 9). It goes on from there, with characteristics of each stage explained, as well as information on how to check whether the student has moved into the next stage.

 

 

 

Inclusive

• Tyner provides an early-intervention model that allows teachers to meet the needs of students who are working at the lowest level, who she has termed “emergent readers”, the “beginning readers”, “transitional readers”, and so on, without the need for students to leave their classroom.

 

• Our goal, in inclusive schools today, is to provide instruction to students with intellectual disabilities alongside their same age peers, whenever possible. Tyner’s model makes this feasible through the structure of this approach, the time spent in small groups working on specific, intentional goals.

 

• It is not only the weakest students who receive this strategic teaching, but all students. Every student receives small-group instruction time with the teacher, including those at the later stages in reading development.

 

• As she explains, “the approach presented in this book might help lay the foundation on which teachers can begin to build effective reading programs for all students. We can no longer be content in only addressing the needs of struggling readers…teachers recognize the need for providing differentiated instruction to students performing above, on, and below grade level” (Tyner, 2009, p. 160).

 

 

Small-Group Lessons

• Tyner shows teachers how to take the word study that they use with the full class, and adjust it to meet the needs of specific students in small-group. This allows for students who are significantly behind, to receive direct instruction in the specific areas of weakness.

 

• This tailoring of instruction is what helps students advance as readers.

 

• Key to the small group work is the direct teaching of phonics, with the goal of helping students see the patterns in words.

 

• “…Phonics falls under the wider category called word study. Word study refers to the systematic, developmental study of words…and encompasses alphabet knowledge, beginning consonant sounds, word families, common and uncommon vowel patterns” and so on (p. 11, italics in original).

 

 

Word Study

• Most appealing to me, is the sequencing that Tyner provides, in showing teachers how to move students from one level to the next, in their growth toward becoming independent readers.

 

• Specific letters and word parts, or patterns, are taught at each stage, to move students along in developing the ability to decode words.

 

• An important goal for students at the emergent stage is to develop phonological awareness. Very clear, direct teaching of phonemic awareness is of utmost importance for students who fall below grade level in reading.

 

• “Students who exhibit phonemic awareness will have an easier time learning to read and spell (Goswami, as cited in Tyner, 2009, p. 10). This is the kind of instruction that students who are reading below level need, in order to close the gap.

 

• “The need for systematic phonics and word study instruction delivered in small-group is well documented” (Morris, NICHD, Santa & Hoien, as cited in Tyner, 2009, p. 11).

 

 

 

Comprehensive Literacy Program

The five components are:

(1) phonemic awareness

(2) phonics – this is included in a wider category called “word study”.

(3) fluency

(4) vocabulary

(5) comprehension

• These instructional components have been identified by the National Reading Panel (2000) as “components consistently [relating] to reading success” (NICHD as cited in Tyner, 2009, p. 10).

 

Whole-Class Application

• Additionally, Beverly Tyner (2009) recommends a way for teachers to structure their ELA class time, which includes all of the components of a comprehensive literacy program, and is based on research. (This overall structure, is what I especially wish I could share with younger-me!)

 

“The Literacy Block”(Tyner, 2009, p.22) is broken down into four chunks:

 

1. Whole-Group Instruction – Read Alouds / Modelled Reading

 

2. Whole Group Shared Reading – Including Choral Reading

 

3. Small-Group Differentiated Reading Model – In which all 5 components of literacy are addressed for all students. “Small group instruction is for all students, although the struggling readers may be seen more frequently” (p. 22).

 

4. Independent Reading – Where students practice reading or doing activities at their independent level, on their own or with partners, while the teacher provides lessons to small groups of students.

 

• Tyner provides advice for how to structure this time so that the teacher is not interrupted while working in small groups, by students who are given the task of working independently (See Chapter 9: Engaging and Managing the Rest of the Class During Small-Group Reading Instruction, pp. 144-158).

 

Varied Texts

• Tyner (2009) provides a clear description of how to run each part of the block as well as the purpose for each. She even explains which type of reading material to use for each part of the literacy block, and tells why.

 

• For example, during Shared Reading, “the primary focus… is to share grade-level text; therefore, the teacher is primarily responsible for reading the text” (p. 19). Through choral reading, all students are taught grade level content and vocabulary.  Students with weaker reading skills are provided support, without attention being drawn to them, since the class reads in unison.

 

• In the Small-Group Reading Instruction slot, the kind of text used, differs. Students need to practice reading, with books they can read with success. To provide just the right level of difficulty, leveled books are recommended for use in small group, by Tyner.  Since this model is flexible, the teacher may adjust the types of books used.  Personally, I have used decodable texts for students in the emergent and beginning stages, because that way students can apply what they have learned in word study, immediately afterwards.  The decodable books I have chosen, are ones that include only the word parts or letters that the child has been introduced to.  This allows them to successfully decode the text, using their new skills.  I find decodable texts very useful at these early stages, since  I know that the right amount of challenge is necessary to nudge them forward, as readers (p. 13).

 

Research – Based

 

• Beverly Tyner (2009) provides an entire model that shows teachers how to make the day to day work that they do in their classroom reflect the research on literacy.

 

• Her advice for the word study portion of the lessons meets Stahl’s (1992) recommendations for successful phonics instruction (Reutzel and Cooter, 2016, p. 187):
• “First of all it builds on children’s knowledge of how print functions. In the early stages phonics and decoding instruction also build on students’ phonological awareness when the alphabet is introduced…Phonics is integrated into a comprehensive reading program, and focuses, ultimately, on reading words, not memorizing rules” (Stahl, as cited in Reutzel & Cooter, p. 187). Tyner provides a comprehensive program that meets these criteria.
  • Research confirms that effective programs include onset and rime instruction, which can also be woven into writing instruction (for instance, using “temporary” or phonemic spellings)” (p. 187).
  • “A prime objective of exemplary phonics instruction is to develop independent word-recognition strategies, focusing attention on the internal structure of words (structural analysis)” (p. 187).
  • “All effective instruction is preceded by an assessment of student knowledge” (p. 187)

This valuable framework, the idea of the developmental stages, the precise description of how to go about teaching students at various stages in their development, is invaluable. Additionally, as noted above, the methods used are based in research.

 

If I had had this plan, when I first began teaching, along with the rationale for why to include each component, I can only imagine how much better the year would have gone. This is my new favorite book, and I want to share it with all of you!

 

I encourage you to give it a try, if you are an early-years teacher. Let me know how it turns out!

 

If you are already familiar with this method, what are your impressions? Please share your experiences with it, in the comment section below.

 

Happy teaching everyone!

 

 

 

References:

Reutzel, D. R & Cooter, R. B. Jr. (2016). Strategies for Reading Assessment and Instruction in an Era of Common Core Standards: Helping Every Child Succeed. Pearson.

 

Tyner, B. (2009). Small Group Reading Instruction: A differentiated teaching model for beginning and struggling readers. International Reading Association.