Diana Smith

October 30, 2006

Simmons 446
Henry Willette

Implications of Jeanne Chall’s Stages of Reading Development

In Jeanne S. Chall’s Stages of Reading Development, she explains the different stages of

reading development and what skills are associated with each stage. For teachers,

especially teachers of special education students, and more specifically, teachers at the

Landmark School, one of the most important pieces of understanding the stages, is that

while children learning to read must acquire certain skills, not all children go through

each stage in order, or stay in a particular stage for a particular amount of time, or need to

be taught all the skills within a particular stage at school. Some come to school with

certain skills already learned, while others need more time and help in a particular stage.

Then there are those that do not learn the skills necessary to advance, yet grade-wise, he

or she advances through the grade levels without improving their reading ability. It is also

important to understand the hierarchy of the stages, and how, though stuck at a stage

could hold a child back, there are things that can be done to help move the child to the

next stage of reading development. Finally, teachers need to understand the frustration

and negative feelings associated with poor reading skills, and how these emotions

manifest themselves in their classrooms.

1
Skills acquired in stage one include things such as turn taking, pretend reading, and

naming letters of the alphabet. They are able to express themselves orally. This stage is

associated with the pre-school ages. Even if equal in other areas, those who cannot

understand words and their sounds prevent them from reading unfamiliar words. While

one might think a high school student who cannot orally express himself or herself is

beyond remediation, through oral expressive classes, and early literacy classes, students

can learn this skill set.

Stage one revolves around attaching meaning to the written word. This stage is usually

associated with first or early second graders. Some children do not need to learn this

stage at school; they have acquired this skill through their every day interactions at home

or in social settings. They started at the next stage, the alphabetic stage, rather than the

logographic stage. It is similar to a child who goes straight from rolling over to walking,

no crawling in-between. Again, the age associated with the stage is not indicative of the

ability of older students to go back and learn these skills, but it is reflective of the skills

within the stage of students who do not demonstrate reading difficulties. At Landmark,

we would help these students by teaching them phonics, by breaking words into syllables,

and by helping students understand the underlying basis for stories, such as literary

components.

Stage two deals with fluency and automaticity. This stage is generally associated with

those in second grade. At this stage, students are building their vocabulary, they apply

2
phonic skills to words, and by building on each level, and their reading is becoming more

fluent and a habit. If our students struggle in this area, we continue to practice by working

on the structure of words, and practicing reading on a regular basis.

A child who does not naturally acquire the skills in stages zero through two will not get

to stage three, which is the crucial stage because comprehension is learned. To be able to

comprehend material, students need to focus on decoding, understanding vocabulary,

having good questioning techniques, and having some background knowledge on the

subject.

There is a difference in a child moving quickly through a stage, seemingly not spending

much time there, and a child who has skipped through a stage without learning the skills.

For instance, often, students at Landmark School have missed certain portions of the

reading stage development, missing perhaps sound patterns (stage zero), or

comprehension (stage three), so as teachers, we must recognize this and be able to focus

in on the areas or stages our students need help with. Not only will children go through

the stages differently, how long they stay in each stage varies as well. As a teacher, the

most important thing is recognizing where our students are and then knowing how best to

support them through that stage.

Before we decide what reading approach to use with an individual student, we need to

identify what stage the student is at in order to address those particular weaknesses.

Without identifying what stage the reader is in, and therefore, not being able to identify

3
the skills that need to be taught, a reader may only be able to go so far. This is similar to

a child who relies totally on memory to do well on tests. There is only so much one can

remember, and once they reach that limit, their ability to proceed, to do well on tests, is

limited. During stage two, a student will understand phonetics and syllable patterns.

These skills from stages one and two are required before a student can understand the

material being read. This is the jump from …”learning to read to reading to learn”

(Chall, 6 ). These hierarchies of skills within the stages help teachers select the skills he

must work on with each student. While stages of reading usually follow alongside

particular ages, certain skills need to be taught if a student has not acquired those skills,

regardless of the age of the student. The great news is that students who have been poor

readers can learn the skills to become better readers with the correct instruction. That is

what is done at Landmark.

Finally, often times a student’s behavior is noted as bad or inappropriate. At Landmark,

we know how these behaviors are attached to years of a student being made to feel stupid

or inadequate. These feelings if frustration and low self esteem often present themselves

as classroom management issues, but often these bad behaviors are just defenses these

students have developed because they did not develop the skills necessary to be fluent

readers and therefore, successful students. When acquiring reading skills, students with

little difficultly come to love reading and find great success. Students with reading

problems often dread reading and they will go to any measures to avoid it. By teaching

students how to develop their reading skills by filling in the gaps, we are allowing

students to gain the confidence and self-esteem that they so desperately need. They no

4
longer need defenses to protect them from the shame and sadness associated with poor

reading skills. They can feel proud and successful.