Читать книгу Comprehension [Grades K-12] - Douglas Fisher - Страница 15

Reading researcher Scott Paris (2005) describes these concepts as constrained and unconstrained skills. Constrained reading skills are those that have boundaries or limits. There are 44 phonemes in English and 26 letters. As well, there are a finite number of letter combinations that represent the sounds. And there is a limit as to the rate of reading one can sustain without sacrificing accuracy and meaning. These first four reading skills—phonemic awareness, alphabetics, phonics, and fluency—are constrained reading skills. They are constrained because we can count them, they are easily measured, and more importantly, they are the foundational reading skills readers must acquire.

Constrained and unconstrained skills

However, the ability to decode and read text fluently is not the final destination. If that were so, we wouldn’t need to do much instruction beyond elementary school. But true reading is much more than accurate word calling. All of us spend a lifetime acquiring what Paris calls the unconstrained reading skills of vocabulary and comprehension. Unlike constrained skills, there is no endpoint. Your vocabulary is better today than it was five years ago, and your reading comprehension will be better five years from now (see Figure 1.3).

Description

Figure 1.3 Constrained and unconstrained skills in reading comprehension.

Effective reading instruction involves both constrained and unconstrained skills development. No responsible primary teacher would limit attention to constrained skills only while ignoring vocabulary and reading comprehension. But constrained skills do have a shelf life, in that once they are learned, there is no further benefit to continuing to teach them. Therefore, attention to constrained skills instruction does fade after the first years of school, as students acquire them. In turn, vocabulary and reading comprehension take on an even more prominent role than in the primary years. We include this information because we believe that the skill of comprehending, the focus of the next chapter, requires all of the constrained and unconstrained skills.