Stages of Reading Development

Education 574
University of Bridgeport
Steven Rosenberg, Ed.D
Spring 2012
Stages of Reading Development

Jeanne Chall (1983)

 Theory
Learning and uses of literacy are the most
advanced forms of intelligence.

They depend upon instruction and

practice.
 Hypotheses
1. Stages of reading development resemble
stages of cognitive development.

Each stage has a definite structure which

differs qualitatively from another.
There is a hierarchical progression.
 2. Reading is, at all stages, a form of problem
solving in which readers adopt to their environment
through the processes of assimilation and
accomodation.

Assimilation: The use of learned processes in

reacting to new demands; we assimilate new
information

Accomodation: adaptation by changing or

restructuring the old to accommodate the new.

Adaptation: change to accommodate the new

information
 3. Individuals progress through the stages
by interacting with their environment:
home, school, community, and culture.

Models
Prior knowledge (including language) and
or experiences
Instruction
Expectations
4. Measures of having reached a given reading
stage will add to a further useful dimension to
standardized and criterion -referenced testing.
Such measures will add to the theoretical
understanding of how reading develops, and
how to help assist students move efficiently
from one stage to the next.
5. The notion of successive stages
means that readers do different
things in relation to text at each
successive stage, although the term
reading is commonly used for all
stages
6. Successive stages are characterized
by growth in the ability to read
language that is more complex, less
frequently encountered, more
technical and more abstract, and by
changing in how reading is viewed
and used.
7. The readers response to the text
becomes more general, more,
inferential, more critical, and more
constructive with successive stages.
8. The stages are also characterized by
the extent to which prior knowledge
is needed to read and understand
the text. Generally, the more
advanced the reading stage, the
more the reader needs to know
about the world and about the topic
which he/she is reading.
9. Ateach stage, readers may persist in
characteristic techniques or habits,
that if continued too long, may delay
or eventually prevent transition to
the next stage.

i.e. use picture cues to read words

Read accurately but not fluently
Read for facts, but cant summarize
what was read
10. Reading has affective as well as
cognitive components. The readers
attitude toward reading is related to
those of his/her family, culture and
school.
At all stages of development, reading
depends on full engagement with the
text; its content, ideas, and values.
Thus, motivation, energy, daring and
courage are aspects to be considered in
the full development of reading.
 Stage 0: Pre-reading: birth to age 6
Exposure to books
Listening to books
Reading signs, box tops, etc.
Writes name
Plays with paper and pencils
 Stage 0 contd

The purpose of written language is being

established; i.e. the goal is to get a
communication from another person (i.e.
the author).

Written language, by its very nature, is

more abstract

Most early readers started out as early

writers
 Stage 0 contd

Written language is more complex

than is oral language: Its vocabulary
is more uncommon, and its syntax is
more complex.
 Stage 1: Initial Reading or Decoding
Grades 1-2 ages 6-7 (K-1)
Sound-symbol correspondence
What letters are for; letters represent
phonemes (i.e. sounds in words)
A. Linguistic awareness
Word awareness
Syllable segmentation
Phonemic awareness
 Stage 1
B. Insight about the nature of the
spelling system; letters and groups of
letters; letter-sound relationships

Able to read simple text containing

high frequency words and
phonetically regular words
Stage 2: Confirmation, Fluency, Ungluing from print
Grades 2-3, ages 7-8 (1-2)

Correspondence of print to knowledge

Increased familiarity and fluency with print
Reading achievement at the end of grade 3
is strong predictor of future reading ability
Practice
Reads simple and familiar texts with
increased fluency
Uses groups of letters or spelling patterns
to decode unfamiliar words.
 Can recognize many/most words
automatically without recoding words to
sounds; go from printed word to meaning
directly.
Automatic word reading means reading
words without paying conscious attention to
the process. This allows attention to be placed
on the meaning of what is being read and not
on the decoding of the words.
Stage 3 Reading for Learning the New- a first step
A= grade 4-6 ages 9-11,B= grade 7-9 age 12-14

Growing importance of word meaning and

print knowledge; learning new words
primarily through reading
Learn the process of (1) how to find
information in a paragraph, chapter, or book,
and (2) how to go about finding
information efficiently
 Stage 3 contd
Most new vocabulary is being learned through
reading, and not by listening. The more words you
know, the easier it is to learn new words.
Those with decoding problems cannot learn this
new vocabulary; The rich get richer
Faster rate of word reading allows the reader to
read and comprehend longer texts.
Exposure to more texts allows the reader to learn
about more advanced syntactic structures and
styles or writing (I.e. complex sentences, dialogue).
This in turn, allows them to better comprehend
what they are reading.
 Exposure to more texts allows the reader to learn
about different text structures; narrative and
expository. This in turn, allows them to better
comprehend what they are reading.

Reading is becoming more meta-cognitive: the

reader has control to use different strategies based
on their purpose; reading a novel at the beach vs.
reading a textbook to get information for a report
on the Civil War.
 Stage 4 Multiple Viewpoints
grade 10-12 ages 15-17
Reading widely from a broad range of complex
material; can interpret, integrate and
evaluate the information for their own
purposes.
Different genres.
Continue to build up their vocabulary
knowledge by experiencing unfamiliar words
in a variety of contexts and thus extending
their concept of it.
Readers continue to build up a knowledge
base. The rich get richer
 Stage 5 Construction and Reconstruction
College and beyond ages 18+

Reading is for ones needs and purposes

Reading serves to integrate ones
knowledge with that of others
The reader can synthesize what is read
from different texts and create new
knowledge
Reading is rapid and efficient
 Cognitive Consequences of Literacy

It has been hypothesized that we would not have

been able to reach the stage of scientific (or logical)
thought without the technology of written language
in general, or alphabetic writing in particular.

Since written language is permanent, it allows us to

reread what we have written for the purpose of
identifying whether our ideas are consistent (or
logical). The fleeting nature of oral language does
not lend itself as easily to such in depth analysis.
 The reader too, can re-read this permanent form of
language in order to increase his/her
comprehension, and/or compare different texts for
the purpose of discovering the consistency of the
ideas.

Prior to the development of written language,

people were forced to memorize texts, and this did
not afford them as much opportunity to analyze it.

(Socrates was critical of written language because he feared

that people would lose their ability to remember texts.)
 Language (oral and written) is produced and
received sequentially (over time). i.e. requires
sequential analysis; one thing at a time.
Pictures (i.e. t.v. and graphics) encourages
parallel processing; process everything
simultaneously; does not require processing
the information into a precise sequence.
Parallel processing helps to integrate
information.
Most people process sequential and parallel
information equally (approximately)

Some people process sequential

information better than parallel information

Others process parallel information better

than sequential information.

The modality (i.e. auditory vs. visual) may

be incidental to the type of processing
required.