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EDUC91079
Language and Literacy
F-12
Assessment Task 1

Teaching reading in the early years of primary school (Years F-2): a synthesis of supporting theo-
ries and practices

There exist a multitude of skills and techniques that can be employed to develop a child’s reading

acquisition and progress in both constrained and unconstrained abilities (Stahl 2011). Literacy

learning The literacy skills of students can vary significantly based on family demographic, student

attitudes and dispositions towards literacy learning, their cognitive development, and their social en-

vironment (Hattie & Anderman, 2020). Thus, a rich and comprehensive literacy programme with

variation in techniques and skills used as well as variation for ability should be employed.

One method of reading instruction which varies in favour is that of phonics lead reading instruction.

Stahl argues that phonics is a skill which is less constrained than letter knowledge but more con-

strained than oral reading fluency (Stahl, 2011). Phonics lead reading instruction aims to place

phonics as a more contrasted skill, teaching phoneme (sound) to grapheme (letter) correspondence

as opposed to whole language instruction which stems from meaning-based reading approaches. Al-

though phonetics are relatively easy for young readers to decode, Castles et. Al notes that English

orthography is complicated…with many different spelling patterns, depending on history, grammar

and meaning (Parkin, 2020). This can often lead to the exploration of the argument; does phonics

based or phonics lead reading instruction place a child in an advantageous position in their read-

ing and literacy skill development?

In a prominent reading acquisition review, Castles et al. stated that there is strong scientific consen-

sus on the effectiveness of systematic phonics instruction during the initial periods of reading in-

struction (Castles et al., 2018). Thus, systematic and explicit phonics instruction is a fundamental

skill and process for early readers and can lead to the consolidation of literacy or reading skills such

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as spelling, vocabulary and oral skills (Vadasy, P. F., & Sanders, E. A., 2010). Konza, also agrees

with this sentiment stating that the “number and variety of words that children can hear is strongly

correlated with later literacy achievement” (Konza, 2014).

There is an array of different instructional methods of phonics that will develop student’s abilities

to decode and strengthen their reading and literacy skills. Analytic phonics and synthetic phonics

are often the two areas of phonics that are focused on early during a student’s reading acquisition.

Synthetic phonics creates the student’s ability to covert letter combination into sound and then

blend sound. Analytic phonics creates the ability to break down a whole word due to previously

learned letter-sound relationships within other words, including teaching the concept of onset rime,

teaching students to link phonemes such as ‘ing’ as parts of a word. These two areas of phonics

based reading instruction alone, will hopefully allow students to break down or decode multiple

words within a text. This will work best when the literature read consists of words that have a com-

bination of repeating, similar sounds and letters such as SATPIN words or perhaps words that con-

tain a more difficult sound to decode within the English language such as the “augh” in laugh or

“aw” in claw.

Within the first phonological awareness video (Video A), which focuses on explicit teaching of

phonological awareness in rhyme, the teacher sets the focus of the lesson, or rather scaffolding for

the learning intention, by reading a book containing a rhyming scheme. She engages the students by

asking which words rhyme and why. They are able to note which words rhyme and also discern that

they rhyme due to sharing the same ending; “the ‘unch’ sound” ("Phonological awareness", 2022).

The teacher then gets the students to complete an activity with the main focus of exploring rhyming

words. Each student is giving a piece of paper with a word and must find their ‘partner’ with a word

that rhymes their own. This activity could serve as a type of consolidation activity as well as allow-

ing the teacher to gauge the students the initial comprehension of the concept. In Video B, the

teacher then connects the initial reading activity by then using magnets to spell out the word ‘red’,

adding letter by letter, thus causing the students to sound out and blend the word, thus showing

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strong phonological awareness in the process. Interestingly, Hulme et al. states that “onset-rime

skills make no additional contribution once phonemic skills are accounted for” (Hulme et. al.,

2002). However, considering how this lesson is set up the concept of rhyming and onset rhyme

compliment and interact with each other as student initially identified the words ‘munch’, ‘crunch’

and ‘lunch’ as sharing the ‘unch’ sound which broke the word up in a very similar way to the onset

and rhyme activity, thus, the knowledge of one strengthens the other. Not only is this a good exam-

ple of multiple engaging phonics based literacy task but the task also engages students in a rich, dis-

cussion based lesson in which the teacher actively ensures the students participate by asking them

questions consistently throughout all activities.

However, this is not the only strategy needed in order to achieve successful reading acquisition in

early readers. The Victorian department has listed a range of reading types which vary in “pedagog-

ical contexts for learning” that the student or students “engages to make sense of or master the con-

tent or skills” ("Designing Foundation to Year 2 literacy lessons", 2022).

Employing the technique of guided reading within a classroom is based on the belief that the opti-

mal learning for reader occurs when they are assisted by an educator ("Guided reading", 2022).

Stemming from Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development published in 1978, guided reading

gives teachers an opportunity to model different techniques being taught in class such as how print

works, tracking words with the index finger, blending sounds within a word to figure out the word,

through direct and guided instruction. Essentially, “the teacher guides or ‘scaffolds’ their students

as they read, talk and think their way through a text" ("Guided reading", 2022), helping students

confront aspects of a text that they could not tackle on their own. Guided reading can also be used

to model sentence writing or draw attention to repeated, high frequency words or words being

learnt, fluency and different story types to name a few. As the students get older guided reading can

be utilised for expanding vocabulary, learning literal versus inferential meaning or explaining more

complex use of language such as metaphor or simile. Guided reading also somewhat serves as an

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equaliser as it dissolved the predating technique of grouping in terms of ability, and low-ability

grouped children lead to low performers in reading. Guided reading can work flexibly in that it can

be done in a whole class setting, within groups or individually between student and teacher. An-

other aspect of guided reading that makes it so essential in a classroom is that it allows students to

experience a more challenging text and actively participate in the activity by listening or reading

along with the freedom to make their own conclusion regarding the text. Patricia Antonacci states

that since meaning is central to reading, which is then internalised by the student, the student learns

more than just how to read a story, the student learns how to apply strategies learnt during guided

reading (Antonacci 2000). Shared reading is another similar reading acquisition technique, how-

ever, interactions shared reading is a much more interactive process in that students participate in

reading the text with the teacher. Shared reading can allow the teacher to pull focus on things al-

ready learnt, such as asking students to help sound out certain words containing sounds looked at

currently within literacy.

Within Video C, which explores inferring meaning through guided reading, the teacher uses the in-

troduction to expand the students knowledge on story types, introducing them to fables. The teacher

also uses the introduction to go over what the students do know vocabulary wise, showing them cer-

tain words that are in their home reader. There is also the overlapping of drawing attention to gram-

mar within this guided reading lesson as the teacher pointed out both the words “laughed” and

“roared” have an “ed” on the end, reminding students that it means the story is in past tense. The

teacher spends a long time introducing the text, making sure to assess the cover illustration as well

as giving explicit instructions on looking for implicit meaning. Once the group begins to read the

text the teacher ensures to engage the students in rich dialogue by consistently asking “what do you

think this character is feeling?” (inferential), “how do you know that?”. The advantage of guided

reading is that it allows for a freedom of having time to explore inferential and literal elements of

the text whilst still focusing and building on reading fluency skills. For example, the teacher stops

one of the students to remind him that the “there little marks on the page that will help us read more

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fluently” which result in all students reading with a bit more expression when they see a question or

exclamation mark.

Close reading is another technique that is integral to building a child’s reading and literacy skills

and allows students to be introduced to more challenging texts. Close reading is a strategy that, sim-

ilarly to guided reading, requires teachers to provide scaffolding and generate opportunities for stu-

dents to find text-based support for their answers through think-aloud and re-reading of text (Sacco-

mano, 2014). Fisher et al. voices the need for the teacher to have and understand the purpose of the

readings that they have chose for the students (Fisher et al., 2021). This could also be central to the

practice of guided reading. Both should also revolve around goals, meaning, a teacher should al-

ways ask themselves; what skills can this book develop? For example, perhaps students are learning

how to blend letters to form a word containing a more complex combinations of sounds. Close read-

ing also revolves around the event of a discussion taking place, thus developing the techniques in

which students interact with and analyse literature, forming critical thinking skills. Another similar-

ity between guided reading and close reading is that both aim to develop a deeper understand of a

challenging text that a student is trying to read (Saccomano, 2014). Both methods also revolve

around the teacher having a thought provoking and rich conversation with the student about certain

aspects of the texts. Students must be asked questions regarding comprehension

However, close reading contrarily to guided reading, do not front load introductions of the text, thus

maximising the richness of the discussion element throughout and at the conclusion of the text. The

discussion element to both tasks is essential as Konza states that students that are “surrounded by

and included in rich and increasingly complex conversations have a overwhelming advantage in vo-

cabulary development, understanding the structures of language, and in tuning into the sounds of

English” (Konza, 2014). Fisher et al. also agree there exists a hindrance of what they call pre-teach-

ing in accordance with close reading as it avoids the rich discussion element that has been proved

essential in developing an amalgamation of literacy skills.

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The aforementioned techniques and methods for reading acquisitions, individually are extremely

strong in facilitating literacy achievement. However, from the research conducted within this essay

in conjunction with the discussion and analysis of the videos, it could be concluded that these meth-

ods and their outcomes re strengthened when they are connected by an overarching resources such a

whole class text. Or, perhaps, in a literacy block, phonological awareness, close reading and guided

reading could all be explored through rotations. Each of these reading acquisition techniques can be

interlinked and one area can be used to introduce or strengthen another. Another technique that

should be ever-present within reading or literacy lessons is that of a rich discussion element, which

ensures each student remains engaged through active participation, whether they are thinking, lis-

tening or speaking. Through the exploration of different reading acquisition techniques, both guided

reading and close reading can be thorough ways to encourage dialogue and active participation.

References

Antonacci, P. A. (2000). Reading in the Zone of Proximal Development: Mediating Literacy Devel-
opment in Beginner Readers through Guided Reading. Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy
and Language Arts, 41 (1). Retrieved from https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/reading_horizons/
vol41/iss1/2

Castles, A., Rastle, K., & Nation, K. (2018). Ending the reading wars: Reading acquisition from
novice to expert. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 19. doi:10.1177/1529100618772271

Designing Foundation to Year 2 literacy lessons. Education.vic.gov.au. (2022). Retrieved 1 April

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Dougherty Stahl, K.A. (2011). Applying new visions of reading development in today's class-
rooms. The Reading Teacher: A Journal of Research-Based Classroom Practice, 65(1), 52–56. doi:
10.1598/RT.65.1.7 

Fisher, D., Frey, N., & Lapp, D. (2021). Veteran Teachers’ Understanding of “Balanced Liter-
acy”. Journal Of Education. https://doi.org/10.1177/00220574211025980

Guided reading. Education.vic.gov.au. (2022). Retrieved 1 April 2022, from https://education.vic.-

Hattie, J. & Anderman, E.M. (2020). Visible Learning for Teacher: Maximising Impact on Learn-
ing. Milton Park, UK: Routledge.

Hulme, C., Hatcher, P., Nation, K., Brown, A., Adams, J., & Stuart, G. (2002). Phoneme Awareness
Is a Better Predictor of Early Reading Skill Than Onset-Rime Awareness. Journal Of Experimental
Child Psychology, 82(1), 2-28. https://doi.org/10.1006/jecp.2002.2670

Konza, D. (2014). Teaching Reading: Why the “Fab Five” should be the “Big Six”. Australian
Journal of Teacher Education, 39(12), 153-160.

Parkin, B. (2020). Reading Models: Putting the Jigsaw Together., 1-4.

Phonological awareness. Education.vic.gov.au. (2022). Retrieved 6 April 2022, from

Saccomano, D. (2014). How Close is Close Reading?. Texas Journal Of Literacy Education, 2(2).

Vadasy, P. F., & Sanders, E. A. (2010). Efficacy of supplemental phonics-based instruction for low-
skilled kindergarteners in the context of language minority status and classroom phonics instruc-
tion. Journal of Educational Psychology, 102(4), 786–803. doi: 10.1037/a0019639

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