Chapter 4--Theories of Literacy Development

• A cognitive psychologist theory of reading is one that emphasizes awareness and control over word learning.
• Cognitive Psychologists view the alphabetic nature of the written language to be central in learning to read

• A bottom-up theory to literacy also has roots in behaviorism. Behaviorists believe that learning is best accomplished through practice and rewards.

• Bottom-up theories do not consider the reader's background and prior experiences, nor do readers have a sense of the larger picture of why people learn to read.

• Teachers working with beginning readers will focus on subskills first (letters and sounds)--(phonics-first-approach)
• After students learn to identify letters and sounds, the progress to learning whole words, then reading those words in sentences and paragraphs.

Guiding Assumptions of a skills model include:

• Reading proceeds from the bottom up, whereby skills are arranged in a hierachy from smaller to larger
• Reading skills are taught and assessed sequentially and in isolation
• Fluency, which is being able to read without hesitation and in a fluid manner, is an important aspect of the reading process
• Meaning is a residual outcome of the process
• Teachers provide direct instruction of skills.

Chapter 4--Theories of Literacy Development

Four-Resource Model

Jessica Loney & Jillian Burgess

Halliday + Model

An extension from the Halliday Model

-learning language

-learning about language

-learning through language

• A comprehensive view of reading that includes code breaking of text participant, text user, and critical practices

Practices:

1.Code Breaking (recognizes patterns in words, able to spell, understands grammar)

2.Text Participant (comprehending texts based on prior knowledge)

3.Text User (knowing the purpose of the text)

4.Critical Practices (encourage readers to analyze text from a social-critical perspective)

Skills Model

Learning to Use Language to Critique –enables readers

to question the way things are, how they got that way, and how they might be changed through democratic practices

• This is the model that goes along with the bottom-up theory.
• In a skills model, the basics, which typically are sequential reading skills and heavy focus on decoding, are the most valued components of the reading process.

Cognitive Psychologist or Bottom-Up Theory of Literacy Development

• A bottoms-up theory views learning to read as a series of small, discrete steps, from simple to more complex. (from the bottom up!)
• Readers build upon their knowledge starting from the smallest piece of language and then working up to meaning.

Reader Response Model

There are four theories of Literacy Development

Top-down or Psycholinguistics Theory of Literacy Development

• Readers transact with the text, creating new understandings based on prior experiences
• Intertextuality – process of constructing links between text and one’s experiences to other texts, or to outside knowledge
• Strategies for connections: text to text, text to self, and text to world

• Behaviorism/Bottom-Up theory
• Psycholinguistics/Top-Down theory
• Transactional theory
• Critical theory

• One of the leaders of this theory, K.Goodman, determined that meaning is what is most salient in the reading process.
• Readers do not no engage with a text if they do not make sense of the text. Because the emphasis moves from the larger piece of the process (meaning) to the smaller pieces (letter/sounds), this is known as the top-down theory of reading.

• This theory gained popularity in the latter half of the 20th century with LaBerg and Samuels' work on automaticity.
• LaBerg and Samuels discuss the capacity of the human mind to process information, and they saw decoding and comprehending as two separate mental tasks--If one of these tasks required more attention, the student would not be able to fully attend to comprehending the text.
• With this theory it is critical to master word analysis so that the mind can attend to the comprehension.

Whole Language Model of Literacy Development

• In this theory language is processed from the whole to the parts. (Meaning to letters/sounds)
• Advocates for a student-centered approach to literacy learning.
• Emphasis on integrating students' needs and interests into the curriculum.

Transactional Theory

• reflecting the elements of a top-down theory of lit. development is the whole language model.
• In the whole language model reading is seen as an all-encompassing act involving the 4 cueing systems: graphophonemic, syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic.
• Whole language teachers often support readers and writers by determining which cueing systems are being used and whcih ones could be further examined.

Critical Theory

• Reading is seen as a transaction, or a negotiation between the reader and the text
• Contributes to understanding of how readers come to make meaning of texts
• Takes the reader’s intentions, purposes, and the situational context of the reading event into consideration

• Invites teachers and students to problematize and question current beliefs on practices
• Four Dimensions:

1. Disrupting the commonplace (seeing the “everyday” through new lenses)

2. Interrogating multiple perspective (imagining what it might be like to stand in the shoes of others)

3. Focusing on sociopolitical issues (moving beyond the personal to consider the sociopolitical system we belong to)

4.Taking social action (informed action against injustices and oppression in the world)