T•I•M•E® for Teachers:
A Model Professional Development Program to Increase Early Literacy
Blanche Podhajski, Ph.D.
Teachers and their students have a lot in common. They both want to be successful at what they do. This mutual goal should be what drives professional development and classroom instruction in the area of reading. In recent years, however, how to teach reading and, subsequently, how to prepare teachers in this crucial instructional activity have become so controversial that success for either group often becomes secondary to preserving or defending a belief system. The two instructional perspectives most often polarized are whole language-phonics or meaning vs. code. Perhaps it is naive to think that we can refocus on promoting teaching and reading success, but it remains important for us to try.
One of the best ways to accomplish the goal of helping teachers and students feel more successful with regard to reading is to fill in knowledge gaps. Both whole language and phonics advocates have recognized that the formal study of language is a missing link in teacher preparation (Wilde, 1997; Moats, 1994). Both groups also acknowledge that not all children learn to read in the same way and that some need explicit instruction in how the language is constructed (Routman, 1996; Liberman, Shankweiler and Liberman, 1989).
The Committee on the Prevention of Reading Difficulties in Young Children (Snow, Burns and Griffin, 1998) underscores that the knowledge base about how children learn to read is now large enough to shift focus from reading controversy to reading peace. Effective reading instruction relies on multiple factors. Having a working understanding of how sounds are represented alphabetically – the alphabetic principle – is essential. Failure to understand how the language works through meaningful use of the alphabetic principle is a major obstacle to reading success (Snow, Burns and Griffin, 1998).
A Model Professional Development Program
To help achieve dual success by teachers and students when it comes to reading, T•I•M•E® for Teachers was created. T•I•M•E® is an acronym for Training in Instructional Methods of Efficacy, a professional development program that includes both a 35-hour course and a yearlong mentorship. Its goal is to show teachers how the English language works so that they can incorporate that knowledge into regular classroom reading instruction.Over the past three years, T•I•M•E® for Teachers has been presented throughout the state of Vermont to primary (K-3) classroom teachers. Administrators, special educators and paraprofessionals working with primary school children also participated. Derivational programs have also been presented in Arizona, Connecticut and New York.
To assess the effectiveness of T•I•M•E® for Teachers, pre- and post-tests of developmental spelling were administered to students of teacher participants. Developmental spelling tests were chosen as group measures of literacy effectiveness because of the important link which has been established between spelling and reading (Ehri, 1987, 1989; Ehri and Wilce, 1987). Results from the first two years of the T•I•M•E® project show that youngsters in classrooms of teachers who participated in T•I•M•E® demonstrated greater gains in spelling than youngsters in control groups. A further finding reinforced the critical importance of early literacy intervention. Gains in linguistic awareness skills important to reading were greatest among kindergarten students, suggesting that the earlier information about how the language works is offered to children, the greater the likelihood of literacy success. Teachers also felt successful: 93% believed that this kind of professional development should be made available to all primary educators (Podhajski and Maerlender, in press).
How DOES the language work?
The language we read is the same language we speak. The difference is that one is represented through print and the other through speech. In English, we use individual or groups of alphabet letters (graphemes) to represent sounds (phonemes). Moats (1995) talks about children coming to school as excellent little "phonologists", meaning that they have mastered the sounds of English quite nicely for talking. What we need to teach them is how speech maps to print since the English language does not have an easy one-to-one correspondence between its 26 alphabet letters and approximately 44 sounds.Crossing the bridge from speech to print is easier for children who understand that spoken language can be broken down into smaller units and manipulated. This phonological awareness enables them to break sentences into words, words into syllables and syllables into sounds. It is at the sound, or phonemic awareness, level that many youngsters encounter problems. Identifying which children these are and providing enjoyable activities to stimulate phonological awareness development are important to teaching and reading success.
Teaching about parts of language at the spoken level is less controversial than teaching about how the language works in print. Memories of "drill and kill" phonics worksheets with never a trip to a library to savor the riches of books would certainly be painful for anyone. But teaching sound-symbol correspondences directly to explicate the alphabetic principle need not be deadly, dull or devoid of rich literature experiences.
Phonics: It’s not all the same!
Synthetic phonics and analytic phonics are two ways to address the teaching of sound-symbol relationships. In response to the growing body of research support for explicit phonics instruction for some learners, confusions between the two approaches appear to be increasing. Synthetic phonics starts with the parts (sounds) and synthesizes them into wholes. Analytic phonics begins with whole words and analyzes them for their sound parts. Part to whole and whole to part: it’s not one versus the other but rather a question of for whom, with what and when.Being able to determine which students will benefit from which of these phonics strategies is essential for primary teachers if their students are going to be successful readers. Knowing when to use authentic, predictable and controlled text is also important. While authentic text should always be included in classroom instruction, it may need to be supplemented with other reading materials to assure independent reading opportunities for all.
The T•I•M•E® for Teachers Project
T•I•M•E® for Teachers teaches educators about the language they and their students use every day. TIME developed from the premise that knowledge is power and that both teachers and students can be empowered to achieve greater literacy success. The knowledge presented was based on current research about how children learn to read and which instructional approaches have proven to be most efficacious for youngsters who do not learn how the language works intuitively (Liberman and Liberman, 1990; Lyon and Alexander, 1996; Foorman, Francis, Shaywitz, Shaywitz and Fletcher, 1998; Torgesen, Wagner and Rashotte 1997).Over the past three years, participants in the T•I•M•E® program have come from varied professional backgrounds, including whole language, reading recovery, traditional phonics and special education. Most agree that this knowledge was absent in their professional training. This perception is consistent with concerns expressed about the inadequacy of personnel preparation programs for the teaching of reading (Moats, 1994; NCLD, 1995; Moats and Lyon, 1996).
Because the information about how language works is presented within a context of respect for different reading philosophies, teachers do not feel they receive a "magic bullet". Rather, they feel more knowledgeable about how English is constructed and incorporate this information within classrooms differently depending on their personal style. Recognizing that one size does not fit all is as important to classroom implementation as it is to reading instruction.
The T•I•M•E® Curriculum
TIME consists of a 35-hour course and yearlong mentorship. The objectives of the coursework follow:OBJECTIVES:
Teacher participants will demonstrate competence in:
Assessing and teaching phonics concepts within authentic text:
The T•I•M•E® Mentorship
In order to help teachers generalize course objectives within the classroom,
yearlong mentorships were made available to each teacher
participant. Master teachers experienced in teaching how the language
works provided
onsite assistance as mentors through discussion, observation,
demonstration teaching, and team teaching. The objectives of the mentorship
follow:
OBJECTIVES:
Teacher participants will demonstrate competence in:
T•I•M•E® for Teachers, an innovative professional development program for classroom teachers, has demonstrated that providing information to classroom teachers about how the language works directly impacts student literacy. If we want both teachers and children to feel successful when it comes to reading instruction, consideration must be given to filling in knowledge gaps for teachers about how our English language is constructed so that they can teach this information explicitly to their students. 1/5/99
Ehri, L.C. 1987. Learning to read and spell words. Journal of Reading Behavior, 19:5-31.
Ehri, L.C. 1989. The development of spelling knowledge and its role in reading acquisition and reading disability. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 22: 349-364.
Liberman, I.Y. and Liberman, A.M. 1990. Whole language vs. code emphasis: Underlying assumptions and their implications for reading instruction. Annals of Dyslexia 40:51-76.