Reading-Accuracy Development with Tests for Teaching Dr Susan Galletly Sept 2009

A Comprehensive Model ofReading-Accuracy Development withTests for TeachingDr Susan GalletlySept 2009

Defining Reading‘The word reading may be used to stand for quite differentconstructs…depending upon the particular aspect of reading that isbeing discussed… .For example, reading can be defined as the construction of meaningfrom text or as learning from print, if one is focusing oncomprehension processes in reading.Reading can also be defined as deciphering print, if one is focusingon the aspect of reading that involves identifying the particular wordsthe author has selected to convey meaning.At the word level, [reading may involve] the person being testedknowing the meaning of the word that is identified or simplypronouncing it. ...Torgesen, Wagner & Rashotte (1999, p1-2)

Reading accuracy: A key subskill of literacydevelopment and progress‣ Reading accuracy is a subskill of• spelling,• reading comprehension,• independent reading• & therefore written expression, vocabulary & sophisticatedlanguage comprehension.‣ E.g., Reading accuracy & spelling are parallel skills• Both build from orthographic awareness: your orthographicrepresentation of the word.• It’s easier to read a word than spell it.• If you can’t read the word in isolation, e.g. antique, additive, yourorthographic representation is weak.• You’re therefore unlikely to be able to spell it

Needed: Useful models of reading developmentfor use by teachers and schools1. A macro-model of readingdevelopment2. A micro-model of reading accuracydevelopmentFeatures of useful models‣ Easily applicable to teaching/learning‣ Powerful duality of tests & teaching

FOUND!:Seeking useful models for teacher use‣ A useful macro-model of reading & literacydevelopment: A powerful model ofreading accuracy within reading comprehensionwell established for both research & practice:Gough & Tunmer’s (1986)Component (‘Simple View’) Model:Reading Comprehension =Reading Accuracy X Language Comprehension• Its equally useful and powerful corollary:Written Expression =Writing Accuracy X Language Expression

RdCmp = RA x LCmpWrEx = WrA x LEx

Not found: A useful model of RA devptfor teachers & schoolsMicro-models of reading accuracy development‣ Uncertain, conceptual gaps, some controversy• E.g. Dual route: weak on earliest stages of RA devpt• E.g. DIBELS: weak beyond phonemic recoding‣ Needed: A useful model of reading-accuracydevelopment for teachers and schools to use for• Monitoring student development• Identifying instructional needs• Planning instruction for students & staff (PD)

Strengths of DIBELS model‣ Very useful for schools and teachers‣ Testing and teaching linked in strongpractical balance.‣ Most DIBELS tests are ‘Tests forTeaching’:• Quick to use & score.• Generate highly useful data.• Early tests (not ORF) link relatively directly toinstructional methods & resources.

The aim of the DIBELS model‣ All students will read at or above gradelevel by the end of Grade 3 (our Yr4).Learningto ReadTransitioningEducational TimelineReadingto LearnPreK K 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Infinity

Teaching Reading is Urgent

The greatest danger for most of us is notthat our aim is too high and we miss it,but that it is too low and we reach it.Michelangelo

DIBELS Steppingstones to LiteracyReadingDifficultyand FailureAlphabeticPrincipleOral ReadingFluencyLetterAwarenessPhonologicalAwarenessReadingandLiteracyInitialSoundsIn words

The DIBELS stepping-stones modelSKILL TO BEMASTERED1 st step Early phonemicawareness2 nd & 3stepsLetter KnowledgePhonemic awareness4 th step Alphabetic Principle(Phonemic Recoding)DIBELS MEASUREInitial Sound Fluency (ISF)Letter Naming Fluency (LNF)Phonemic SegmentationFluency (PSF)Nonsense Word Fluency (NWF)5 th step Fluent reading Oral Reading Fluency(ORF-Gr1 to ORF-Gr6)

‘Tests for Teaching’: Data for Multiple Purposes‣ Diagnostic data: Test data must be useful for guidinginstruction, showing next steps of instruction needed.‣ Achievement data: Useful for• Guiding instruction• Monitoring student progress.• Monitoring effectiveness of• Current instruction• New instruction schools want to trial.‣ For teaching both students and teachers/systems‣ CBM (Curriculum-based measurement): a very effectiveway to develop tests, e.g. DIBELS, Galletly Vowel WordReading Tests, maths facts tests, etc, etc, etc,:• In any curriculum area you want students to master,• Make parallel tests of the curriculum content,• This allows you to measure student progress over time.• The test provides achievement data (scores) and diagnostic data(items).• To develop norms, encourage the tests to be used with manychildren.

GPS OnWhere are we?Where is the port?What course should I follow?How am I doing?PortDesiredCourseYou areHereActualCourse

Most DIBELS tests are ‘Tests for Teaching’ butnot DIBELS ORF (Oral Reading Fluency)Tests for Teaching:I’ll teach this skillGeneralIndicators:What skillsshould Iteach?InitialSoundFluency(ISF)PhonemeSegmentationFluency (PSF)Letter NamingFluency (LNF)NonsenseWordFluency(NWF)OralReadingFluency(ORF)

Things I reflected on from DIBELS‣ Strengths:• The large amount of info gained from 1-minute tests.• Later: how 1-minute might actually be inefficiently long.• The power of free-to-use tests.• The power of tests having multiple parallel forms.• The ease with which Tests for Teaching can bedeveloped (using CBM principles)• Tests being useful for teaching teachers about readingaccuracywhile they are working to improve children’sreading.‣ Possible improvements:• That the DIBELS RA development model is complete fortransparent orthographies but incomplete for English.• That teachers would benefit by additional Tests forTeaching on the skills not currently tested by DIBELS.

Transparent-orthography vs. English reading-accuracy devpt‣ Transparent orthographies: these early skills are the sum total of RAdevelopment• Reading accuracy = Phonemic recoding.• No more stages and tests of RA development needed.‣ English: these early skills are only the beginning of RA development• Reading accuracy = Phonological recoding, i.e., including• Phonemic recoding of commonest sounds of letters• Recoding of orthographic units, e.g., ough, igh, -tion• Recoding of irregular words as whole words• Combinations of the above‣ Needed: More stages (& tests) of English RA development.InitialSoundFluency(ISF)PhonemeSegmentationFluency (PSF)Letter NamingFluency (LNF)NonsenseWordFluency(NWF)?OralReadingFluency(ORF)

English vs. transparent-orthographiesDr G’s 2 rulz of Inglish spelingRule 1: English spelling is komplekatud (stewpud)compared to sensibul spelling nations.No oflettersNo ofsoundsNo ofspelling rulesEnglish (Complicated)2644(20 vowels)>500Italian (Sensible)22 33 33Rule 2: English spelling is fascinating:Love it, discover it, collect it, be an orthographer

TESL: Transition fromEarly to Sophisticated Literacy(Galletly, Knight & Dekkers, Submitted)‣ Reading-accuracy & spelling devpt makes• Transparent orthography nations: Rapid TESL• Anglophone nations: Complex TESLLearningto ReadTransitioningEducational TimelineReadingto LearnPreK K 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Infinity

English orthographic complexity for schoolteaching/learningUnit oforthographicknowledgeCommonest lettersoundsVC & CVC /ă ĕ ĭ ŏŭ/ wordsConsonant blends& digraphsRimesExamplesb t n a ecat Sam vipSyllablefrequency43.3%Consistency ofOUPCsConsonants>90%Vowels 52%shop ring clipthinfad fade fallVowels 71%fightFinal-e vowels mate hope 6.7% 76%[e-e]-100%[a-e]/ā ā ī ō ū/ vowels in he go paper 28.9% 40% [a]–99% [u]open (CV) sylls virus

Unit of orthographic Examples Syll Consistencyknowledgefreq of OUPCsEnglish orthography is v. complexR-vowels far her sir for fur 10.2% 70% [ir]-99% [ur]W-vowelssaw now dewVowel graphemessaying long-vowelhe wait boat meatmeet my happy 9.5% Varyingsounds: ai, oa, ea, ee, piey(e), y(i), ie.oi oy ai ayboil boy bait bayEa (2 sounds) dead meatOo (2 sounds) good foodOu (many sounds,usually [out])ouch youth doublecouldLess common voweldigraphssueRegular multisyllabic kidnap butter babywordsLonger multisyllabic virus differentwords & schwaLess frequentorthographic unitsgnome toughnationVarying

Unit oforthographicknowledgeHigh frequentirregular wordsLess frequentirregular wordsExamplesone was the Approx. 50%amongstadditiveSyllable frequencyIndividual words: V. lowClass of words: High‣ Whereas just over 100 'heavy duty' words (e.g., the, in, was, etc.)account for around half of all the letter strings appearing in printedschool English, a very large number of words exist which appearvery rarely in print(Carroll, Davies & Richman, 1971; Nagy & Anderson, 1984).‣ In fact fully eighty percent of English words occur less than oncein a million words of running text(Carroll et al, 1971; Share & Stanovich, 1995, p.15)

How does reading of regular andirregular words develop?‣ Lots of powerful research on readingaccuracydevelopment‣ Good models of phonemic recodingdevelopment (Reading Accuracy devpt intransparent orthography nations).‣ Few useful models for teachers ofphonological recoding (English ReadingAccuracy development)

Thinking on stages by examining sets of words, e.g.TOWRE words, DIBELS words, 200 most frequent words

Galletly’s (2008)model of readingaccuracydevelopment

Mymodel

What additional tests wouldempower teaching of Englishreading-accuracy?

Whole-wordsThe 15 most frequentwords of Englishrepeated in randomorder, e.g.,[of a and the in to is you]1. VC /ăĕĭŏŭ/Phonemic recoding:Simplest wordform (VC),e.g., ed ut ab op usam us it in on up if5. Phonological recodingfinal-e vowels mixedwith āēīōū ăĕĭŏŭ/e.g., rab sibe neb fubehop time hope same Tim9.Consolidation sets●Words containingOUPCs from allpreviously learned sets●Lists of vowels from allpreviously learned setsWhole-word & irregular word readingEarly irregular wordsWords in the 25 mostfrequent words whichcan’t be read usingphonemic recoding , e.g.,he for was are they2. CVC /ăĕĭŏŭ/Phonemic recoding:CVC words, e.g.,sig cav ces neb tuv mepcat hop bus get not sit6. Phonological recoding/āēīōū/ Vowel digraphsWords with vowels[ai ay ee y ea oa ie ]making commonestOUPCs, i.e., /āēīōū/.10.Phonological recodingMultisyllabic wordphonemic recodingWords with closedsyllables, e.g., button,batted napkin kitten.Phonological recodingIrregular rimesWords containing asmall group of commonrimes whose OUPCs arenot yet known, e.g., fartall toy cook car ball boylook.3. Phonologicalrecoding: Consonantblends& digraphs using/ăĕĭŏŭ/ vowels, e.g bripsmip chip bing bind bishbilk7.Phonological recodingr-vowelsWords containing r-vowels makingcommonest OUPCs:[ar er ir or ur]11Phonolog’l recodingMultisyllabic words:/āēīōū/ & schwa /ə/vwls,e.g. spider, broken.Irregular words in 1st 100words of EnglishWords not likely to beread using phonologicalrecoding, e.g., said whatput one.4. Phonological recodingOpen CV syllables with/āēīōū/ vowels,e.g., he go hi me so8.Phonological recodingVowel sets:As per earlier sets using:●w-vowels [aw e wow]●2-sound vwls [ea ow oo]●Others, e.g.,. oi oy ay ou12. Other OUPC sets, e.g.,Silent letters: kn gn pnLess common OUPCs e.g.[ch]: /ch sh k],Others: e.g.. ough, ight/sh/: [sh ch –ti- -ci –si]

Testsinvestigated inPhD studiesTest-sets& testsK G/Y1 G/Y2DIBELS testsLetter NamingFluency (LNF)PhonemeSegmentationFluency(PSF)Nonsense WordFluency(NWF)Oral ReadingFluency(G1ORF,G2ORF,G3ORF)AdaptedtestsLetterSoundingFluency(LSF)TOWRE testsSight WordEfficiency(SWE)PhonemicDecodingEfficiency(PDE)Primary school Secondary school AdulthoodMidG/Y2–EndG/Y6G/Y7-AdulthoodPSF - - - - - - - -* Reading subskillsLNF - - - - - - - - --* Authentic readingDIBELSNWF - - - - - - - - - - - * Decontextualised readingORF - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -SWE #TOWREPDE #[G: Grade. Y: Year; PSF: Phoneme Segmentation Fluency; LNF: Letter-Naming-Fluency; NWF: Nonsense WoFluency, ORF: Oral Reading Fluency; SWE: Sight Word Efficiency; PDE: Phonemic Decoding Efficiency]* Likely ceiling level for most readers # TOWRE floor effects (in place until reading age 6.25)

PhonologicalawarenessEarlyOrthographicknowledgeLaterPSFBlending testLSFLNFNewtests*Phonemic recodingcommonest lettersoundsNWFWhole-word &irregular-wordreadingNew testsPhonologicalrecoding ofdiversewordforms &orthographicunitsNew testsReading Newaccuracy testsused inauthenticORFreading(reading ofmeaningfulconnectedtext, whilefocussed onmeaningPhases of reading-accuracy development1 st order tests 2 nd order tests

Findings from the study re needed tests (e.g.,Galletly & Knight, 2007a, 2007b, Galletly, Knight & Dekkers, In press)Reading accuracy tests are powerful tools for teachers,schools, education systems & research:‣ Reveal children’s instructional needs very quickly.‣ Offer alternatives or useful additions to other tests,e.g.• Letter Sounding Fluency (Galletly, 2008) is as strong a testas DIBELS Letter Naming Fluency, plus is focussed on thecrucial letter skill for reading & spelling.• TOWRE predicts Year 2 Net results with v. high accuracy.• Adding TOWRE SWE to NAPLAN & PISA would provideschools, states and nations with far more specificinformation re student instructional needs.‣ Reveal trends & patterns, e.g., late emergingreading-accuracy difficulties in students above Yr3

Findings from the study re needed tests‣ DIBELS & TOWRE are v. powerful rigorous tests.‣ Schools• loved TOWRE SWE (Sight Word Efficiency) on its own, withoutPhonemic Decoding (PDE, pseudoword) subtest• Found tests for youngest students a bit intimidating for them.‣ Gaps where tests were needed:• Earliest reading-accuracy development• Stages of phonological recoding, e.g.• Irregular words, vowel digraph, less frequent othographic units.‣ In schools, every minute counts:• Particularly when teachers aren’t convinced RA is important.• Time spent testing is time not spent teaching.• I started wondering whether 30 sec samples might work.‣ In postdoctoral work, I started exploring 30sec tests.

Tests developed & trialled since PhD‣ ≥Yr2• TOWRE SWE (45sec) as base standardised testof R-A test battery• Little diagnostic data, but powerful achievement datain approx 1 minute• 1x30sec DIBELS ORF• When used with TOWRE SWE• Usual DIBELS practice is 3 x 1 min samples.• Galletly Vowel Word Reading Tests (Yr1-7)• Galletly Less Frequent Word Tests (Yr2-7)• Galletly Vowel Word Spelling Test (Yr2-7)• Galletly Language & Early Reading Tests (P-1)

Percent of year cohortPercent of year cohort% of Low, Average and High RWLow Av High8070Older studentswith readingaccuracyweakness605040302010080706050403020Yr1 Yr2 Yr3 Yr5 Yr6 Yr7 Yr8% of Low, Average and High NWLow Av High100Yr1 Yr2 Yr3 Yr5 Yr6 Yr7 Yr8

% of gender year% of gender year% of gender yearTotal Low RW & NW4040Low RW Male & Female40Low NW Male & Female3030302020201010100Y2-3 Y5-6 Y7-8NW 10.2 18.6 29.2RW 11.9 17.5 28.20Y2-3 Y5-6 Y7-8F 9.8 10.2 23.0M 14.1 24.9 33.50Y2-3 Y5-6 Y7-8F 10.4 13.9 24.2M 9.9 23.4 34.3

SWE RScSWE RScSWE RScRelationship of TOWRE SWE toresults on national Year 3 TestsCorrelations* Pearson-r Kendall-tauAll cases SWE PDE SWE PDEY3T Reading 0.59 0.52 0.48 0.42Y3T Writing 0.55 0.53 0.42 0.39Y3T Spelling 0.75 0.72 0.55 0.54* All sig at p

Relationship between RA Testresult & Year 2 Net resultsMid-Year-2 correlations*Year 2 NetReadingYear 2 NetWritingNonsense Word Fluency (NWF) 0.55 0.38#Grade 1 Oral Reading Fluency (G1ORF) 0.68 0.52Grade 2 Oral Reading Fluency (G2ORF) 0.65 0.50Sight Word Efficiency (SWE) 0.60 0.46Phonemic Decoding Efficiency (PDE) 0.61 0.42G2ORF categories formed Year 2 Net phase levelsusing 10° and 30° scoresPhase A Phase B Phase CCases achieving

CaseTOWRETOWREDIBELSY2NReadingRelationshipReading Ages RawbetweenScores Raw ScoresRA TestNo. SWE PDE SWE PDE NWF G2ORF1result6.25&6Year13 12 Net results8 Phase A2 6.75 7 26 10 32 10 Phase C3 6.25 6.5 11 4 28 10.5 Phase A4 6.5 6.5 18 6 31 11 Phase A5 12 Phase B6 6.25 6.5 13 6 38 13.5 Phase B7 7.25 7 33 11 50 14 Phase A8 6.5 6.75 21 9 58 14 Phase B9 6.5 6.75 16 9 28 15 Phase A10 6.75 6.5 22 4 25 15 Phase B11 6.5 6.25 19 2 35 15.5 Phase A12 6.5 6.5 17 6 42 16 Phase B10° on G2ORF13 7.5 8.25 40 22 56 20 Phase B14 7.25 7.25 34 13 49 21.5 Phase B15 6.75 7 26 11 67 22 Phase B16 7.25 7 32 12 49 24 Phase B17 7.25 7 32 11 52 28 Phase A18 7 7.75 30 19 57 28 Phase B19 7.25 7.5 31 17 66 29.5 Phase B20 7.5 6.75 37 7 31 32 Phase B21 6.75 7.25 25 13 45 33 Phase B22 7.75 7.25 42 15 44 33 Phase B23 7.5 7 36 10 56 33 Phase C30° on G2ORF28- 48 25 cases 0A 7B 18C