2020.11.07 Short Paper Assignment 1 (Alberto Hadad)

SHORT PAPER ASSIGNMENT # 1 1
Short Paper Assignment # 1
Alberto Hadad
University of Alabama
CRD 511: Beginning Reading
Instructor: Dr. Carol Donovan

Reading is an essential skill that has to be fostered along the school grades, especially
primary elementary school grades in order to provide the necessary grounding for academic
success. This is especially important, considering that in the United States, only 35% of fourth
graders in 2013 scored at or above a proficient level of the national assessment of educational
progress. If this is true in the United States, which has a much better educational system
compared to a country like Colombia, it is definitely urgent to devote all possible effort and
resources to provide effective reading instruction in the early school grades. I found the reading
suggestions and the videos for this unit about Academic Language, Vocabulary and
Comprehension very interesting and appropriate to implement in the ELA classroom in order to
improve the quality of teaching and learning outcomes.
Before I comment on the articles I read, I would like to point out that the connection
between the readings and the videos that presented the reading instruction in action was very
appropriate. Watching teachers with a clear objective in their instruction, engaged students
during the classroom interaction, the development of high order thinking skills, the development
of vocabulary, and the peer interaction are elements that caught my attention and gave me a clear
idea of how can the instruction strategies be correctly implemented in the elementary classroom.
I especially enjoyed watching the videos about inferential discussions, about morphology, and
about vocabulary instruction. It was very interesting to perceive have a teacher can guide
students by using the correct questions and prompting to develop their own ideas and draw
conclusions in an interactive environment.
Commenting on the readings, I start with the one about foundational skills to support
reading for understanding in kindergarten through third grade (Foorman, 2016). This document
presents relevant skills that can be used in the classroom and its underlying research-based
evidence. According to the paper, the most effective instructional strategies in reading are the
development of awareness of the segments of sounds in speech and how they link to letters
(phonemic awareness), and the instruction on how to decode words, analyze word parts, and
write and recognize words (morphology). The strategy that has presented moderate evidence of
effectiveness is to ensure that each student reads connected text every day to support reading
accuracy, fluency, and comprehension. Finally, the strategy which has minimal practical
evidence of effectiveness is to teach students academic language skills, including the use of
inferential and narrative language and vocabulary language. Definitely, something to take a look
into is the phonemic awareness instruction during the first grades or kindergarten through first
grade while the focus on morphology is especially important from grades 1 to 3.
The second paper I read about the six pillars of reading instruction (Cervetti, 2015) was
particularly interesting because it poses a very important learning goal that complements the five
pillars identified in 2000 by the national reading panel. The way the authors describe the
importance of knowledge development during the process of learning how to read is essential
because it gives students the opportunity to connect their knowledge with their reading skills and
the different components and content across the curriculum. The paper about Word Detectives
(Goodwin, 2015) presents activities to effectively teach morphology to students by playing
around with the words, for example their prefixes and suffixes which will help them understand
words in different contacts and therefore broaden their academic vocabulary.
The last article I read was comprehension at the core (Harvey, 2013) which presents the
comprehension continuum where the student is asked to answer little literal questions, retell,
merge thinking with content, acquire knowledge, and actively use knowledge. This text presents
a consistent way to guide students to become critical, curious, and strategic readers. These
abilities are essential not only along the literacy development process but throughout all the
learning process and life in general where future adults need to continually understand concepts,
acquire knowledge and actively use it.

References
Cervetti, G., Hiebert, E. (2015). The Sixth Pillar of Reading Instruction: Knowledge
Development. The Reading Teacher. Vol. 68. Issue 7. pp. 548–551.
DOI:10.1002/trtr.1343
Foorman, B., Beyler, N., Borradaile, K., Coyne, M., Denton, C. A., Dimino, J., Furgeson, J.,
Hayes, L., Henke, J., Justice, L., Keating, B., Lewis, W., Sattar, S., Streke, A., Wagner,
R., & Wissel, S. (2016). Foundational skills to support reading for understanding in
kindergarten through 3rd grade (NCEE 2016-4008). Washington, DC: National Center
for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance (NCEE), Institute of Education
Sciences, U.S. Department of Education. Retrieved from the NCEE website:
http://whatworks.ed.gov.
Goodwin, A., Perkins, J. (2015). Word Detectives: Morphological Instruction that Supports
Academic Language. The Reading Teacher. Vol. 68. Issue 7. pp. 510–523.
DOI:10.1002/trtr.1342.
Harvey, S., Goudvis, A. (2013). Comprehension at the Core. The Reading Teacher. Vol. 66.
Issue 6. pp. 432–439. DOI:10.1002/TRTR.1145.

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SHORT PAPER ASSIGNMENT # 1 1

Short Paper Assignment # 1

CRD 511: Beginning Reading

Instructor: Dr. Carol Donovan

improve the quality of teaching and learning outcomes.

conclusions in an interactive environment.

grade while the focus on morphology is especially important from grades 1 to 3.

(Goodwin, 2015) presents activities to effectively teach morphology to students by playing

words in different contacts and therefore broaden their academic vocabulary.

acquire knowledge and actively use it.

Development. The Reading Teacher. Vol. 68. Issue 7. pp. 548–551.

for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance (NCEE), Institute of Education

Sciences, U.S. Department of Education. Retrieved from the NCEE website:

Issue 6. pp. 432–439. DOI:10.1002/TRTR.1145.

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