Preparing to Write

Objective 1 for Goal 1 and its Rationale:One objective for Andrew that will help him
further this goal of understanding that reading is a process of gaining meaning from text
is for him to learn to see the connection between spoken and written language.

One Instructional Method or Material for Objective 1 of Goal 1:It is therefore
recommended that some of the text used in Andrew’s instruction be text that he
has written as part of a Language Experience Activity, as he will have prior
knowledge of the text, knowledge of the words he used in constructing the text,
and memory for the text in helping him through the reading process.

Evaluation of Objective 1 for Goal 1: As these texts are written and read, they
should be collected in a notebook and read time and again over the course of
instruction. To help Andrew note his own growth in reading and reading fluency,
his initial readings could be audio taped and contrasted to tapes of later readings.

OUTLINE FOR PREPARING TO
WRITE INSTRUCTIONAL RECOMMENDATIONS

This outline has two sections. The first section (Terminology) defines and provides examples of
siximportant terms. The second section (Preparing to Write Recommended Goals, Objectives,
and Instructional Techniques) describes a conceptualization process—Mind Discussions—that
might help you organize your thinking for writing instructional recommendations.

Terminology

There are six terms that are particularly important in planning, organizing, and writing
instructional recommendations at the conclusion of a diagnostic report or instructional report:
long-term goals, goals, objectives, evaluation, structuring the learning period, and extension
activities.

Long-term Goals:The overarching goal of all reading instruction is, of course, fluent
comprehension for learning and enjoyment. To become excellent in reading comprehension,
instructional programs in reading must encompass five major domains: word recognition,
meaning vocabulary, reading comprehension, study skills, and reading rates. Each of these is a
long-term goal of instruction, leading to the overarching goal of fluent comprehension. Long-
Term Goalsreflect general educational values and are statements of long-terms intentions.
Long-term goals point directions and indicate broadly conceived intentions. Within each long-
term goal, there are numerous important goals.

Goals: Instructional goals are generally large in scope, and to be accomplished, usually require
a period of time to learn. Reaching an instructional goal usually requires learning several small,
more-specific skills or strategies—those skills or strategies are called objectives. There is no
sacrosanct set of such goals—and anyone who says there are, is someone to ignore. There is,
however, a generally agreed upon domain of competencies, abilities, strategies, skills, and
attitudes that most people agree are relevant in learning to read; within this set of goals, however,
experts may vary considerably in the importance they attribute to each. For each of the long-term
goals (shown in bold face), we generally see the listed (in regular font) goals as important; but,
again, these goals are not set in stone.

Word Recognition
Sight vocabulary
Context for word recognition
Word analysis—phonics

Meaning Vocabulary
Wide reading
Context for word meaning
Morphology
Word resources

Reading
Comprehension
Comp Monitoring
Recall
Analysis, Synthesis, &
Evaluation

Study

Reading
Rates

For determining instructional goals, you should ask yourself questions such as thefollowing to
help you hone in on the appropriate goals of instruction for the child you have diagnosed:

•

For this child, what are the major components of reading that this child does not know or
cannot perform that keep him or her from making progress in reading?
What are the primary aspects of reading that this child needs to learn?
What are this child’s major stumbling blocks in reading, and what needs to be learned to
overcome these stumbling blocks?

•
•

Instructional goals are stated in reading diagnostic and instructional reports from the Center for
Literacy and Reading Instruction in crisp, pointed, cohesive language.



		e.g., There are four major goals for Andrew’s remedial reading instruction: (1) learning—or strengthening his understanding—that reading is a process of gaining meaning from text; (2) establishing a sight vocabulary (core of words that Andrew recognizes on sight) so that his reading fluency develops; and beginning to develop some word-recognition strategies that he can use to identify words he does not recognize on sight, these word recognition strategies being (3) word analysis (phonics) and (4) use of context for word recognition. Goals 1 and 2 are particularly entwined, as the objectives and activities to be recommended require the teaching of sight vocabulary (goal 2), and some of the main methods of teaching sight vocabulary are also used to enhance reading for meaning (goal 1).
Objectives:Objectives serve a goal; objectives are the specifically defined behaviors the child could not do (or do well) before instruction that you expect the child to be able accomplish after your instruction. Learning the objectives you establish should lead to attaining one—or more—of the goals of instruction. Objectives are short-term—one or two lessons to as many as 10-20 lessons—and usually a child must learn several objectives in the process of becoming competent in the goal that the objectives serve. In learning an objective, the learner is usually able to accomplish some behavior that she or he was not able to accomplish before instruction. The specific behavior should not be viewed as the only purpose of objectives, however, as many other factors may need to be taken into account in order to use that behavior (e.g., knowing what situations and circumstances call for this skill or strategy, knowing those situations where this skill or strategy is not appropriate, knowing several alternatives to the strategy, knowing how to check the accuracy of the application of the skill, etc.). You should ask yourself questions such as thefollowing to help you delineate the objectives that serve the goals of instruction you have identified for the child:
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		From all the specific knowledge, skills, or strategies that a child might be taught to reach the stated goal of instruction, which do you think are most important and should be learned first? (Suggestion: list all the specific skills and strategies you can think of that would help the child learn the stated goal, then winnow that list in terms of importance by excluding what the child already knows and what the child will not be able to learn until having mastered many other objectives.) Is there an order to which these objectives (i.e., knowledge, skills, strategies) should be taught and learned? If so, state it and why this order is important in this child’s case. Are there any other goals that are served by this or these objectives?
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For the third goal stated for Andrew (word analysis or phonics), the clinician stated the following objectives. The objectives might be stated in a report as they appear in the following list, but they would never be stated in list form and never without further elaboration. At this point in conceptualization, however, you are simply to delineate the objectives that you think might be appropriate to help your student meet the goals you have established for him or her. Note also that only the objectives for the word analysis goal are presented in this example, other objectives would be established for the other three goals.
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		One phonics objective is for Andrew to become aware of patterns and consistencies in our orthography. Other terms for patterns includes word families or phonograms: i.e., “ack” as in “black,” “ank” in “tank,” “ail” as in “pail,” “ite” as in “bite.” A second phonic objective for Andrew is learning two-letter word families (rimes): e.g., “at” as in “bat,” “it” as in “sit,” “ot as in “hot,” “ut” as in “cut."
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		A third phonics objective will be for him to learn three-letter phonograms ending in silent e, especially those beginning with “a,” “i,” and “o": e.g., “ate” as in “skate,” “ite” as in “bite,” and “obe” as in “robe.” A related objective here is for him to learn the rule of the silent e. At this stage of his learning of phonics, he will probably be ready to begin to learn some of the fine-tuning aspects of phonics: namely beginning consonant blends and digraphs and short vowels. It will probably take at least two months of instruction before he will be introduced to these objectives. One objective that would be useful for him to learn early in his instruction, especially while learning phonograms, is the compare/contrast method (sometimes called the analogies approach). Another instructional objective is for Andrew to begin to write each and every class period.
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Evaluation:Evaluation is judgment of the quality, merit, or worth. In instruction, evaluation is the process of observing change in a child’s learning (technically this is called measurement and assessment) and judging the quality of that learning (this is the evaluation component). (Altogether, measurement, assessment, and evaluation are what we call Diagnostic Assessment or Diagnostic Evaluation, and Diagnostic Assessment is the foundation of Diagnostic Re- Mediation.) Evaluation is a daily activity in re-mediation, occurring many times in each lesson. In the simple process of teaching a child to read four or five words, a teacher must evaluate progress—judge the fluency in reading the words—just to know if she should continue the sight- vocabulary instruction or go on in the lesson. Diagnosis “is a process of gaining thorough knowledge of a person’s reading performance, strategies, skills, and instructional needs through accurate observations for the purpose of modifying instruction” (Kibby, 1995, p. 2). Measurement, assessment, and evaluation are the bases of diagnosis. Instructional recommendations should provide some advice on how teachers might evaluate the child’s progress towards the goals and objectives that have been stated. Questions to help you in your “mind discussion” about evaluating progress might include the following.
	• •
		If the child is or is not making progress toward the objectives, how will I know? How do I insure that my evaluations are of the child’s application of the objective in contextual reading?
In the example of Andrew and the goal of learning sight vocabulary, the clinician incorporated the following statement regarding the evaluation of Andrew’s progress in sight vocabulary acquisition.
		The acquisition of sight vocabulary is not a “list-learning” activity, but is instead, the reading of words in text quickly, accurately, and fluently. Being able to read words in a list on a chalkboard or on flashcards is of no value if those words are not also readily recognized in text the Andrew is reading.
Structuring the Learning Period:Analyze this child’s interest, attention, attitude, behavior, learning rate, and instructional goals and estimate the organization structure of lessons that seem best for this child’s needs: e.g., length of time child is able to attend to lesson, pace of instruction, need for repetition and review. This should be written in paragraph format, probably only one paragraph, two at the maximum. If the child’s ability to focus attention or the child’s motivation are of particular concern, than every objective you write should account for these issues of attention and motivation



		Extension Activities:What activities might extend learning beyond the instructional sessions at the Center for Literacy and Reading Instruction and help child apply new learning to situations at home and at school: i.e., share books read at Center at home or school; share writing done at Center at home or school; find words learned at Center in newspapers, These objectives were not presented in the report one right after the other, but were presented over the course of many paragraphs. In the report, each goal was viewed by the clinician as a major heading (thus the re- mediation recommendations had four major headings)
			Preparing to Write Recommended Goals, Objectives, and Instructional Techniques.
		This section, Preparing to Write Recommended Goals, Objectives, and Evaluation Techniques, views these preparatory thinking and organizing activities as discussions within your mindor *Mind Discussions*. Two Mind Discussions are conceived. Mind Discussion 1 is focused only on goals. There are two components for Mind Discussion 1. •A statement of each of the long-term goals and the rationale for each long-term goal (i.e., why this long-term goal is important in reading). •A statement of the specific goals required to attain this long-term goal, and the rationale for each goal (i.e., why this goal is important in reading and the diagnostic data you have collected that tells you this child needs yet to accomplish this goal). Mind Discussion 1 should be fully written out before beginning even to think about Mind Discussion 2. There are two parts to Mind Discussion 2. Part A—Each goal and its rationale is separated from the other goals and rationales, and specific objectives and the rationale for that objective are written for each goal. Part B—After objectives and their rationale have been listed for each goal, then you go through that list again, this time filling in the instructional methods and evaluation techniques for each objective.
		Mind Discussion 1 State Long-term Goal 1 Rationale for Long-term Goal 1 (i.e., why you know that Long-term Goal 1 is important for this child) State Goal 1 Rationale for Goal 1 (i.e., why you know that Goal 1 is important for this child) State Goal 2 Rationale for Goal 2 (i.e., why you know that Goal 2 is important for this child) State Long-term Goal 2 Rationale for Long-term Goal 2 (i.e., why you know that Long-term Goal 2 is important for this child) and so on . . .
		If you are using a word processor, you would complete Mind Discussion 1. Then as you begin Mind Discussion 2, Part A, you would copy Mind Discussion 1 and paste it below Mind Discussion 1 (now you have two copies of Mind Discussion 1). Then using Mind Discussion 1 as a framework, you fill in the objectives for each goal. When this is completed, you copy Mind Discussion 2, Part A and paste it below Mind Discussion 2, Part A. Then you begin piecing in instructional methods, materials, and evaluation techniques objective by objective. Examples of the organization of Mind Discussions 1 and 2 follow.
		An example of the statement of goals and their rationale follows.
		Long-term Goal 1:Reading for Comprehension



			Rationale for Long-term Goal 1:Reading comprehension is required for school learning and for enjoyment. Andrew’s reading comprehension is several grades below his expected level.
		Goal 1: Learning—or strengthening his understanding—that reading is a process of gaining meaning from text. Rationale for Goal 1:Children who have had a program with a heavy emphasis on phonics may view the goal of reading as accurate word naming instead of viewing reading as a process of gaining meaning. Though use of phonics is important, and nearly all good readers are effective users of phonics, too much emphasis on phonics instruction may lead a pupil to view reading as “merely getting the words” instead of reading for meaning. To be sure, “getting the words” is crucial in developing meaningful reading, but “getting the words” is not an end in itself. To some extent, because Andrew struggles so long and hard to sound out each and every word in a text, he appears to view reading as a process of “getting the words.” Given that he can read no more than 25 words, this view is understandable. Therefore, it is important that during all phases of his instruction that meaning is uppermost in Andrew’s mind.
		Long-term Goals 2:Word Recognition for Reading Comprehension Rationale for Long-term Goal 2:Accuracy and speed in word recognition (automaticity) are requirements of fluent reading (Allington, 1983, Fluency: The neglected reading goal. The Reading Teacher, 36, 556-56); LaBerge & Samuels, (1974). Towards a theory of automatic information processing in reading. Cognitive Psychology, 6, 293-323). To be able to read fluently, the words in a text must be identified quickly and efficiently—by sight—and those words that are not recognized by sight must be quickly recognized using phonics or context for word recognition. Andrew has limited word recognition abilities and these limited abilities interfere with his reading fluency and his reading comprehension.
		Goal 2:Establishing a sight vocabulary (core of words that Andrew recognizes on sight) so that his reading fluency develops. Rationale for Goal 2: Andrew has an extremely limited sight vocabulary. It is because of this that Andrew must rely on his decoding skills in order to identify words. This requires Andrew to focus all of his attention onto each word, thus he is unable to attend to meaning. This makes word recognition time consuming, thus interfering with fluency and breaking down reading comprehension. Therefore, Andrew must come to the understanding that he can recognize words as wholes (sight words).
		Goal 3:Developing word analysis (phonics) strategies. Rationale for Goal 3: Phonics is the strategy that Andrew consistently attempts to apply when encountering a word he can identify, but beyond knowledge of consonant sounds at the beginning of words, he has limited phonic knowledge. He has especially limited knowledge of vowel sounds.
		Goal 4:Learning to use of context for word recognition. Rationale for Goal 4: Context for word recognition is not a strategy that can be deployed well unless a reader is able to identify correctly, quickly, and fluently most of the words of a text; that is, there is little context available to a reader if he has misread a large percentage of the text’s words or has taken considerable time to work out many words. Even good readers who identify 98 or 99 percent of the words in a text accurately and



			quickly will not use context as their first strategy when they encounter a word they do not recognize—they will generally use phonics. But in spite of the fact that context for word recognition is not at the top of the list of important of reading strategies, it is still a useful ability, and is an important goal for Andrew to be sure that he develops the ability to use context for word recognition as his development in reading progresses.
		Mind Discussion 2: Part A State Long-term Goal 1 Rationale for Long-term Goal 1 (i.e., why you know that Long-term Goal 1 is important for this child) State Goal 1 Rationale for Goal 1 (i.e., why you know that Goal 1 is important for this child) Objective 1 for Goal 1 Objective 2 for Goal 1 … Objective n for Goal 1 State Goal 2 Rationale for Goal 2 (i.e., why you know that Goal 2 is important for this child) Objective 1 for Goal 2 Objective 2 for Goal 2 … Objective n for Goal 2 State Long-term Goal 2 Rationale for Long-term Goal 2 (i.e., why you know that Long-term Goal 2 is important for this child) and so on . . .
		An example of one goal for Mind Discussion 2, Part A follows.
		Long-term Goal 1:Reading for Comprehension Rationale for Long-term Goal 1:Reading comprehension is required for school learning and for enjoyment. Andrew’s reading comprehension is several grades below his expected level.
		Goal 1: Learning—or strengthening his understanding—that reading is a process of gaining meaning from text. Rationale for Goal 1:Children who have had a program with a heavy emphasis on phonics may view the goal of reading as accurate word naming instead of viewing reading as a process of gaining meaning. Though use of phonics is important, and nearly all good readers are effective users of phonics, too much emphasis on phonics instruction may lead a pupil to view reading as “merely getting the words” instead of reading for meaning. To be sure, “getting the words” is crucial in developing meaningful reading, but “getting the words” is not an end in itself. To some extent, because Andrew struggles so long and hard to sound out each and every word in a text, he appears to view reading as a process of “getting the words.” Given that he can read no more than 25 words, this view is understandable. Therefore, it is important that during all phases of his instruction that meaning is uppermost in Andrew’s mind. Objective 1 for Goal 1 and its Rationale:One objective for Andrew that will help him further this goal of understanding that reading is a process of gaining meaning from text is for him to learn to see the connection between spoken and written language. Objective 2 for Goal 1 and its Rationale:A second objective that will help Andrew come to the understanding that the process of reading is to gain meaning, is for him to learn to be able to predict words coming up in the text he is reading. The use of predictable texts will greatly facilitate instruction in this objective. Predictable texts will allow Andrew to use prediction as a means of recognizing words. Andrew will,



			therefore, be able to spend less time on word recognition strategies thus enabling him to focus more attention on reading for the purpose of gaining meaning. Using this strategy Andrew will be able to increase his reading fluency thus gaining the confidence he needs to take more risks when reading and predict words that he does not know (this predicting will also create more fluency).
		Mind Discussion 2: Part B State Long-term Goal 1 Rationale for Long-term Goal 1 (i.e., why you know that Long-term Goal 1 is important for this child) State Goal 1 Rationale for Goal 1 (i.e., why you know that Goal 1 is important for this child) Objective 1 for Goal 1 Instructional Methods, Materials and Evaluation Techniques for Objective 1 Objective 2 for Goal 1 Instructional Methods, Materials and Evaluation Techniques for Objective 2 … Objective n for Goal 1 Instructional Methods, Materials and Evaluation Techniques for Objective n State Goal 2 Rationale for Goal 2 (i.e., why you know that Goal 2 is important for this child) Objective 1 for Goal 2 Instructional Methods, Materials and Evaluation Techniques for Objective 1 Objective 2 for Goal 2 Instructional Methods, Materials and Evaluation Techniques for Objective 2 … Objective n for Goal 2 Instructional Methods, Materials and Evaluation Techniques for Objective n State Long-term Goal 2 Rationale for Long-term Goal 2 (i.e., why you know that Long-term Goal 2 is important for this child) and so on . . .
		An example of one goal for Mind Discussion 2, Part B follows. It is the framework of Mind Discussion 2: Part B that you use for writing diagnostic and instructional reports.
		Long-term Goal 1:Reading for Comprehension Rationale for Long-term Goal 1:Reading comprehension is required for school learning and for enjoyment. Andrew’s reading comprehension is several grades below his expected level.
		Goal 1: Learning—or strengthening his understanding—that reading is a process of gaining meaning from text.
			Rationale for Goal 1:Children who have had a program with a heavy emphasis on phonics may view the goal of reading as accurate word naming instead of viewing reading as a process of gaining meaning. Though use of phonics is important, and nearly all good readers are effective users of phonics, too much emphasis on phonics instruction may lead a pupil to view reading as “merely getting the words” instead of reading for meaning. To be sure, “getting the words” is crucial in developing meaningful reading, but “getting the words” is not an end in itself. To some extent, because Andrew struggles so long and hard to sound out each and every word in a text, he appears to view reading as a process of “getting the words.” Given that he can read no more than 25 words, this view is understandable. Therefore, it is important that during all phases of his instruction that meaning is uppermost in Andrew’s mind.



		Summary of the Mind Discussions Mind Discussion 1 State Long-term Goal 1 Rationale for Long-term Goal 1 (i.e., why you know that Long-term Goal 1 is important for this child) State Goal 1 Rationale for Goal 1 (i.e., why you know that Goal 1 is important for this child) State Goal 2 Rationale for Goal 2 (i.e., why you know that Goal 2 is important for this child) State Long-term Goal 2 Rationale for Long-term Goal 2 (i.e., why you know that Long-term Goal 2 is important for this child) and so on . . .
		Mind Discussion 2: Part A State Long-term Goal 1 Rationale for Long-term Goal 1 (i.e., why you know that Long-term Goal 1 is important for this child) State Goal 1 Rationale for Goal 1 (i.e., why you know that Goal 1 is important for this child) Objective 1 for Goal 1 Objective 2 for Goal 1 … Objective n for Goal 1 State Goal 2 Rationale for Goal 2 (i.e., why you know that Goal 2 is important for this child) Objective 1 for Goal 2 Objective 2 for Goal 2 … Objective n for Goal 2 State Long-term Goal 2 Rationale for Long-term Goal 2 (i.e., why you know that Long-term Goal 2 is important for this child) and so on . . .
		Mind Discussion 2: Part B State Long-term Goal 1 Rationale for Long-term Goal 1 (i.e., why you know that Long-term Goal 1 is important for this child) State Goal 1 Rationale for Goal 1 (i.e., why you know that Goal 1 is important for this child) Objective 1 for Goal 1 Instructional Methods, Materials and Evaluation Techniques for Objective 1 Objective 2 for Goal 1 Instructional Methods, Materials and Evaluation Techniques for Objective 2 … Objective n for Goal 1 Instructional Methods, Materials and Evaluation Techniques for Objective n State Goal 2 Rationale for Goal 2 (i.e., why you know that Goal 2 is important for this child) Objective 1 for Goal 2 Instructional Methods, Materials and Evaluation Techniques for Objective 1 Objective 2 for Goal 2 Instructional Methods, Materials and Evaluation Techniques for Objective 2 … Objective n for Goal 2 Instructional Methods, Materials and Evaluation Techniques for Objective n State Long-term Goal 2 Rationale for Long-term Goal 2 (i.e., why you know that Long-term Goal 2 is important for this child) and so on . . .