Acknowledgements
The
Southwest Educational Development Laboratory (SEDL) is a private,
not-for-profit education research and development corporation based
in Austin, Texas. SEDL conducts field-based research and provides
research-based resources and information throughout the Southwest
region (including Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and
Texas) in areas like the following:
- linguistic diversity in schools
- the use of technology to support instruction
- comprehensive school reform
- content areas such as mathematics, reading, and science
SEDL’s reading project is funded by the U. S. Department of
Education and is administered by the Office of Educational Research
and Improvement (OERI) under contract RJ96006801. SEDL's reading
project examines early literacy in grades K-2 and the prevention
of early reading failure. The goals of this effort include the following:
- developing a framework of the cognitive foundations of learning
to read that organizes research information
- using that framework to organize information about K-2 reading
assessment, instructional resources and strategies, and state
standards
- providing tools and resources that facilitate tracking student
achievement data
- assessing the utility of the developed resources with practicing
teachers
History of SEDL's reading project
In
March 1997 SEDL had the opportunity to propose additional work under
its regional educational laboratory contract. Given the critical
nature of literacy needs in its five state region, especially in
the early elementary grades, SEDL chose to propose work to build
materials that would help teachers in the early grades better teach
reading.
The idea proposed was straightforward. While the debate about how
best to teach reading, whole-language versus phonics approaches,
raged over the last 35 years, cognitive science was building a consensus
view of the cognitive foundations upon which successful reading
competence rested. The educational challenge was to find a way to
provide this research base to teachers in an understandable, non-technical
way. For if teachers could build their understanding of this research
and then tie it to their knowledge of student assessment and teaching
techniques, then they would be better able to teach to individual
needs. And students would find more success in becoming competent
readers in the early grades.
The challenge was to construct a tool that would give teachers
access to the research base. To do so, SEDL proposed to build a
framework of the cognitive foundations of learning to read, one
that would both organize and synthesize the cognitive research on
reading acquisition. The framework, including graphic and textual
information, would need to show the building blocks upon which reading
comprehension rests, defining both the individual components as
well as their relationships to each other. Wes Hoover, SEDL’s
President & CEO, worked with his mentor at the University of
Texas at Austin, Philip Gough, to lay out the substance of the framework
(its components and their relationships), much of which was based
on Gough’s collective work in reading acquisition.
Sebastian Wren wrote most of the text for the framework and designed
the framework graphic. Dr. Wren also designed the Reading Assessment
Database for Grades K-2, and wrote the accompanying text, and
he collaborated with Jennifer Watts and Iliana Alanis to create
the Instructional Resources Database for Grades K-2. Deborah
Jinkins used the framework to create the literacy portfolio and
to organize the state standards for language arts in each of the
five states that SEDL serves (Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma,
and Texas). Dr. Wren and Dr. Jinkins collaborated with Brian Litke
to create an interactive Internet-based version of these resources.
Susan Paynter provided valuable assistance and feedback as well. The final online
version of the framework was visually designed by Chris Sears with database programming
by Brian Litke.
Acknowledgements
The
framework, titled, The Cognitive Foundations of Learning to Read:
A Framework, was developed with external consultation over a
22-month period from June of 1998 through June of 2000. The framework’s
content and the organization are derived from scientific research
conducted in a variety of disciplines, such as education, linguistics,
cognitive science and psychology. The accompanying text was created
to support teachers’ understanding of the elements and the
structure represented in the graphical framework.
In the course of developing the framework and the complementary
resources, SEDL staff collaborated with 71 elementary teachers representing
seven elementary school campuses in two states. SEDL would like
to sincerely thank the teachers at Algodones, Cochiti, Placitas,
and Roosevelt elementary schools in the Bernalillo Independent School
District in Bernalillo, New Mexico, the teachers at both the Learning
Center and the Elementary School in the Fredericksburg Independent
School District in Fredericksburg, Texas, and the teachers at Bruce
Aiken Elementary School in the Brownsville Independent School District,
Brownsville, Texas. These teachers sacrificed hours of their valuable
time consulting with SEDL staff to develop these resources. They
provided valuable feedback about the utility and applicability of
the cognitive framework and other resources, and their time, experience
and hard work are greatly appreciated. We would also like to thank
the Bernalillo, NM, Brownsville, TX, and Fredericksburg, TX Independent
School Districts for their support and assistance in this project;
without their cooperation, these resources could never have been
created.
In the course of completing the final drafts of these resources,
SEDL consulted with reviewers and experts from a variety of fields.
We want to thank Vicki Altland, Philip Gough, Sylvia Linan-Thompson,
Keith Stanovich, William Tunmer, Krista Underwood, Theresa Watson,
Jennifer Watts, and Jody Westbrook for their insightful comments
and feedback on the framework document. We would also like to thank
Carmen Alvarez-Rodriguez, Gloria Barrett, Maria Lydia Borrego, Stella
Mata, Norma Muñoz, and Isabel Reyes for contributing activities
for the instructional activities database that are appropriate for
use with Spanish-speaking children. Finally, SEDL's reading project
staff would like to thank our colleagues working on other projects
within SEDL who took the time to examine these resources and provide
valuable feedback. The time they took away from their own work to
help in developing these resources reflects their tireless commitment
to quality education. Creating these resources was truly a collaborative
effort, and we appreciate the time and energy that people generously
donated.
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