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| Teachers.Net Gazette Vol.5 No.8 |
August 2008 |
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Post: The Writing/Reading Connection
Posted by Robert Rose, MD on 8/05/08
May 25, 2008
Maria Montessori wrote, almost a century ago, that three-
and four-year-old preschoolers will learn to read
spontaneously if they get "sufficient" practice forming
alphabet letters. Although boldly claimed in her "The
Montessori Method" this possibility has strangely never
before been subjected to a scientific test.
In 2002-2004 I found five kindergarten teachers on the
Internet who provided experimental data on 106 experimental
kindergarten students as they practiced printing fluency
and we monitored their reading ability (and also five other
first-grade teachers who did NOT make the effort of
inducing printing practice, but who only measured how much
of the serial alphabet students could print in a timed,
twenty-second period of time, and the correlation with
reading skill. These 94 students formed a control group).
The correlation was very obvious in all ten classrooms. We
found that all but a very small percentage of students read
well, and with good comprehension, shortly after the point
in time when they were able to print at least the first
thirteen letters within 20 seconds. Multiplied by three,
this equates with a fluency rate of 39 letters per minute.
The children enjoyed the practice sessions, and observing
their gradual increase in fluency as the weeks passed. No
apparent stress was noted, and it was found that the median
kindergartner, after spending five minutes daily of each
school day practice printing, was "printing fluent" after a
mere three months. But printing fluency didn't correlate
with reading skill among older students, according to our
results with a group of fifty fourth-graders.
The kindergartners wrote and read with about the same skill
as the first graders at the end of the winter of school.
The fact that kindergartners were reading and writing at a
level of children a full grade ahead shows that the early
acquisition of literacy in the kindergarten (experimental)
group was caused by the dedicated attempt to induce
practiced fluency in printing, and not just a coincidental
marker of some third, and unknown, causative factor.
At the present time (May, 2008) I have collected another
group of kindergarten and first-grade teachers on the
Internet. Fourteen K-1 teachers have already submitted
correlations of the printing fluency and reading skills of
their pupils. In each case the correlation has been
obvious and strong. Anyone wishing to join and monitor (or
participate on) this free list need only send any email to
k1writing@yahoogroups.com. Returning the
automated "confirmation message" to the computer will
result in automatic list membership.
Printing practice and fluency training in the early grades
has completely gone out of style during the twentieth
century, though it is still practiced (though not
specifically tested) in India and China. This rediscovery
of this important principle offers an inexpensive and
effective means toward ensuring reading and academic
success from the earliest grades for children of all races
and ethnic backgrounds.
It has also been found that second-graders able to give
correct answers to simply addition facts more fluently than
40 answers per minute rarely have problems with math or
science thereafter.
Bob Rose, MD (retired), rovarose@aol.com
Jasper, Georgia
Posts on this thread, including this one
The Writing/Reading Connection, 8/05/08, by Robert Rose, MD.
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