Research to Support the ReVAMP Reading Process
Phonological and Articulation
Instruction
​
Since the late 1970s, groups of researchers have studied the theory that students with Developmental Dyslexia have brain wiring that limits their ability to feel the mouth movements that correspond with the sounds that make up our language. They posited that because the dyslexic brain was not set up to make the appropriate articulatory gestures, their ability to feel the sounds and sequence them properly made decoding, encoding, reading fluently and with meaning, more challenging. Part of their conclusion shows the need for articulation instruction, “Based solely on the acoustic properties of spoken words, it would be difficult for a child to know that a spoken word (e.g., cat) has a series of phonemes. Therefore, before a child can learn to use the grapheme-to-phoneme conversion system, the child must first develop phonological awareness (Gleitman and Rozin, 1977 as cited in Heilman, et al. 1996) and according to Ehri, “When students learn how the mouth moves to form phonemes, they are more likely to retain these and correctly reproduce them when reading new words” (Ehri, 2014). In essence, “instruction in these articulatory gestures helps students develop a more substantial base in phonemic awareness and, ultimately, decoding and word recognition.” (Equity Acceleration Personalization report of 2020 p. 33) The linkage of these differentiated brain areas then allows those components to function harmoniously. When we focus our attention intentionally it “specifically activates certain regions of the skull-based brain,* enabling us to selectively turn on certain regions. When areas are selectively activated, this creates the possibility of inducing structural changes in the brain… With this direct, intentional linkage, we are “harnessing the power of attention to create important changes in both function and structure.” (Siegel, 2012, Ch. 3 pg. 3)
​
Thus in ReVAMP Reading: I begin with explicit and structured phonological and articulation instruction. The ReVAMP process will train the mouth how to move to make each sound in our language and in the process it will retrain the brain to allow each student's brain to efficiently and effectively read, spell and write to communicate in beneficial ways as they pursue their goals in life.
​
Citations:
Heilman KM, Voeller K, Alexander AW. 1996 Developmental dyslexia: a motor-articulatory feedback hypothesis. Ann Neurol 1996;39:407-412.
Gleitman L.R., Rozin D. The structure and acquisition of reading. In: Reber AS, Scarborough DL, eds. 'Toward a psychology of reading. New Jersey: John Wilcy,
1977.
​
Linnea C. Ehri (2014) Orthographic Mapping in the Acquisition of Sight Word Reading, Spelling Memory, and Vocabulary Learning, Scientific Studies of Reading, 18:1, 5-
21, DOI: 10.1080/10888438.2013.819356.
​
Pimentel, S., Liben, M. (2021) Reading as Liberation—An Examination of the Research Base How Equity, Acceleration, and Personalization Improve Student Learning,
Student Achievement Partners, Feb. 2021.
​
Siegel, D. J. (2012). Pocket Guide to Interpersonal Neurobiology: An Integrative Handbook of the Mind (Norton Series on Interpersonal Neurobiology). United
States: W. W. Norton.
Morphology (Word Part)
Instruction
​
The essence of the LiPS process consists of being able to provide carefully structured practice for students in identifying, determining and sequencing the sounds in words and syllables that are novel. This process can be aided by helping students to exaggerate the movements for each sound in our language as they identify each sound. Then as they exaggerate the movements, they watch their mouth move, compare their movement to a picture of the most beneficial movement for that sound and connect those elements of the speech sound with what they hear. The more detailed, precise, and nuanced the description of each mouth movement can be, the more deeply ingrained the process will become in their neural circuitry. Consequently, they also reduce the likelihood that these elements will aid in the decay of the memory of each sound as they work to enhance their understanding of more complex non-word sound combinations.
A subsequent detailed and nuanced focus on mapping those sounds onto letters in ways that will allow the brain to add letter recognition to the brain circuitry is established early in this process. As the entirety of this process becomes more efficient, students will also better activate another part of their brain circuitry system that activates and stores real words that they begin to recognize by sight. As this process is applied to real words, it can add to their ability to understand the words that they read. When they have learned to break a word down not only by syllable but also according to the affixes that indicate the meanings of words.
According to Eric Claravall in an article from 2016 in Teaching Exceptional Children, “Students rely less on the use of phonological resources as decoding skills mature and texts become more complex (Juel, 1988).” When they have learned to break a word down not only by syllable but also according to the affixes that indicate the meanings of words. Claravall continues, “Repeated exposure to written words leads many older students to automaticity in word reading; specifically, as texts become more complex, students can become more aware of morphological structure (i.e., base words, suffixes, prefixes), which aid in meaning-making and spelling.” English is a morphophonemic language (Chomsky & Halle, 1968). Mapping of letters onto sounds is an incomplete process for teaching the foundational skills of reading and spelling. Studies have shown that morphological instruction supports literacy development among students who struggle to read (Bowers, Kirby, & Deacon, 2010; Goodwin & Ahn, 2010; Reed, 2008).
​
Thus in ReVAMP Reading: The next phase of instruction involves infusing morphology instruction into the process. Morphology is an essential component to help support the ongoing focus on helping the students to make meaning from what they read. Getting to understand and consistently utilize morphology provides students with a deeper understanding of how words are built. In the process, students learn how the meaning of words can change and be changed by manipulating the word parts that make a large number of the words we use to communicate.
​
Citations:
​
Claravall, E.B. (2016). Integrating Morphological Knowledge in Literacy Instruction: Framework and Principles to Guide Special Education Teachers. TEACHING
Exceptional Children, 48(4) pp. 195 - 203.
​
Juel, C. (1998). Learning to reading and write: A longitudinal study of 54 children from first to fourth grades. Journal of Educational Psychology, 80, 437 - 447.
​
Bowers, P., Kirby,, J., & Deacon, H. (2010). The effects of morphological instruction on literacy skills: A systematic review of the literature. Review of Educational
Research, 80, 144 - 179.
​
Reed, D. (2008). A synthesis of morphology interventions and effects on reading outcomes for students in Grades K - 12. Learning Disabilities Research &
Practice, 23, 36 - 49.
​
Chomsky, N., & Halle, M. (1968). The sound patterns of English. New York, NY: Harper & Row.
​
Goodwin, A., & Ahn, S. 2010). A meta-analysis of morphological interventions: Effects on literacy achievement of children with literacy difficulties. Annals of
Dyslexia, 60, 183 - 208.
Integration through Fluency
Instruction
​
There are several key concepts and approaches that are interwoven throughout the whole ReVAMP process. One of those is the idea of intentionally guiding attention to specific input at specific times and in both specific and broad-based contexts. Here we apply the idea of carefully directing our attention to the process of improving reading fluency. First, let’s define what fluency means from a ReVAMP Reading perspective. In 2006, Pikulski defined fluency as “a developmental process that bridges word identification and reading comprehension.” With that in mind, let’s explore how the wisdom of the ages describes how ReVAMP Reading explicitly links and integrates all aspects of reading.
In 1965, a few years before Charles and Patricia Lindamood developed the ADD (Auditory Discrimination in Depth) method, a woman named Nila Banton Smith included a quote from Lyman Cobb in her book American Reading Instruction. Lyman Cobb said, “A just delivery consists in a distinct articulation of words pronounced in proper tones, suitably varied to the sense, and the emotions of the mind; with due attention to accent, to emphasis, in its several gradations; to rests or pauses of the voice, in proper places…and the whole accompanied with expressive looks, and significant gestures…That the pupil may be assisted in forming a correct method of reading and speaking, a few rules shall be laid down, pointing out a proper use of each of those necessary parts of a just delivery.” Even at that time, Lyman Cobb recognized that fluency needed to be broken down into more discreet tasks and then modeled and integrated into a cohesive whole to ensure “a just delivery.” What that meant then, as it does now, is that fluency instruction starts with being able to deliver a “distinct articulation of words” which is the accuracy element we teach. Then this quote takes you through the process of helping the students discover the best way to break the passage into meaningful chunks (phrases), and blend them together using prosodic elements.
The primary method we use is known as Guided Repeated Oral Reading. In general, researchers from Jay Samuels in 1979, to William Therrien in 2004 and others since have “documented that this particular form of practice, repeat reading, can lead to significant increases in students’ fluency.” (Rasinski, 2010) Additionally, James Zull, a brain researcher points out that the prosodic elements of reading tap into the right hemisphere of the brain. “This area understands [that] the meaning of language comes through emphasis on particular syllables - the rhythm, the pitch, the tone and the inflection… they are of immense importance for meaning.” (Zull, 2002, p. 171) This process ties in with making meaning as one reads. In the ReVAMP process, we link elements of prosodic reading to visualizing what we read. This visualization component is the foundation of our comprehension instruction. As the students learn to read with more expression and greater emphasis on prosody we also carefully structure their ability to form imagery. See the Post on Visualizing and Comprehension for more detailed information.
​
Thus in ReVAMP Reading: Fluency starts with being able to deliver a "distinct articulation of words" which is the accuracy element I teach. Then the student learns how to discover the most beneficial way to break the passage into chunks or phrases. Once these phrases of meaning have been delineated, the students learn how to weave them together in ways that make the reading flow. The next step which adds to the process is to link elements of prosodic reading to help us visualize what we read. This visualization component is the foundation of our comprehension instruction. As the students learn to read with more expression and greater emphasis on prosody we also carefully structure their ability to form imagery. See the Post on Visualizing and Comprehension for more detailed information.
​
Citations:
​
Pikulski, J.J. (2006). Fluency: A Developmental and language perspective. In S. J. Samuels & A.E. Farstrup (Eds.), What Research has to say about fluency
instruction (pp.70 - 93). Newark, DE: International Reading Association.
​
Smith, N.B. (1965). American reading instruction. Newark, DE: International Reading Association.
​
Cobb, L. (1835). The North American Reader. New York: B. & S. Colins.
​
Samuels, S.J. (1979). The method of repeated readings. The Reading Teacher, 29, 403-408.
​
Therrien, W.J. (2004). Fluency and comprehension gains as a result of repeated reading: A meta-analysis. Remedial and Special Education, 25(4), 252 - 261.
​
Rasinski, T. V. (2010). The fluent reader: Oral and Silent reading strategies for building fluency, word recognition and comprehension (2nd ed.). New York:
Scholastic.
​
Zull, J.E. (2002). The art of changing the brain. Sterling, VA: Stylus.
Visualizing and Comprehension
Instruction
​
The essence of the process leading to comprehension has been the development of language, the ability to identify, sequence and manipulate sounds. The next step was to assemble those sounds to make words and to learn that those words have meaning. To deepen the meaning element I also learned to incorporate word parts; to learn they have meaning within words and that the larger word meaning can change with the change of a single sound or single syllable. As I carried the meaning-making forward, I learned to group words into phrases of meaning. From there we enhanced our access to meaning by reading to bring a text to life. I accomplished this by helping our reading to flow, to have expression and to use prosodic elements such as rhythm, mood, and pace. I learned to evoke the mood and enhance our audience’s understanding through helping the characters to find their voice. In order to deepen our own engagement and make reading a process we not only enjoy but do with ease and efficiency, I will learn strategies to deeply understand what we are reading. This will involve expanding our background knowledge through reading many varieties of short, interesting stories. I will read to find what is most important about the story, I will learn to describe who or what the “unifying figure” is and then build imagery to watch them; experience with them the events and information in the story. I will grab onto elements that we connect to our past readings and life experience, we will ask questions; of ourselves, of the author, of the characters. Some of those questions will have answers we can find or infer, others will sit out there as a place to hold our engaged understanding and in so doing deepen our connections to the text. I will carry in our background knowledge to fill in the gaps left by the author that is to infer deeply to enhance our understanding of each text. I will highlight specific kinds of information to intentionally focus on specific thought strategies and write notes meant to make the experience of reading stay with us longer. I will analyze different texts and use our capacity with language to make our understanding accessible to our future selves as well as to our other audiences. I begin that comprehension process by building sensory imagery through careful, focused instruction that will be reinforced by structured activities that incorporate talk (General idea from Kathy A. Mills (2009).
The ability to form imagery in the mind is utilized across the entirety of our Reading Process System. According to Tomlinson in 1997, “...the ability to produce images in the mind in the process of reading appears to be vital for greater comprehension and recall of texts.” However, (Tomlinson continues) “research has indicated that many poor readers seemingly do not visualize as they read. On the contrary, those readers who do typically visualize achieve greater comprehension and recall.”(Tomlinson 1997). In 2001, Pressley stated, “the strategy of visualizing uses the mind’s capacity to imagine what is being communicated by the words, images, gestures, spatial layout, and sounds within a text. Mental imagery anchors new ideas in the reader’s mind by linking abstract propositions to a concrete experience -- image, feeling, sound, smell, or taste. Students need to be taught to recall ideas in a visual way in appropriate reading contexts.” (Pressley, 2001) This description also ties together the essential elements that I integrate throughout the ReVAMP process. As with the phonological and articulation instruction I use visual imagery to connect the sounds with the articulatory gestures, the morphology work seeks to use imagery and a process of breaking words apart into the smaller parts that make them up as well as making the words easier to experience. Then in fluency the reader analyzes words to decode, understand and add prosodic elements to incorporate what they feel, see experience to bring the reading to life. These essential elements are used to deepen meaning in other metacognitive ways as well. One of the other foundational strategies we use is making connections. “Making connections is linking what the students read, to what they already know. This strategy helps students comprehend text, by activating their prior knowledge and making meaning of what they read. [Debbie Draper] suggested questions that students may ask themselves as they read to help them make connections with the text. The use of teacher modeling, the teacher think-aloud process, and student practice of the reading comprehension strategies which included predicting, making connections, visualizing, inferring, questioning, and summarizing had a positive impact on student comprehension.” (Draper, 2010)
Thus in ReVAMP Reading: My comprehension instruction is initially focused on constructing imagery in the mind to allow the reader to more deeply experience the text. This instruction is intertwined with fluency instruction with intentional focus on the expressive and prosodic elements of how we read. As these skills develop we layer on the other components mentioned above as well as others as the students' skills improve. This consists of 5 essential strategies: finding the essential information, making connections, asking questions, drawing an inference and summarizing. All of these are accompanied by writing and a use of specific language to guide thinking. Having the ability to talk about, write about and reflect on how our brains process the text we read helps our students to integrate all of what they have learned and to build the linkages in their brains to be successful life-long readers, writers, and effective communicators.
​
Citations:
​
Mills, Kathy A. (2009) Floating on a Sea of Talk: Reading Comprehension Through Speaking and Listening. The Reading Teacher, 63(4), PP.325-329.
​
Draper, D. (2010). Comprehension Strategies: Making Connections.
​
Hartman, H. J. (2001). Developing students’ metacognitive knowledge and skills. In Metacognition in learning and instruction (pp. 33-68). Springer, Dordrecht.
​
McKown, B. A., & Barnett, C. L. (2007). Improving Reading Comprehension through Higher-Order Thinking Skills. Online Submission.
​
Pressley, M. (2001). Comprehension Instruction: What makes sense now, what might make sense soon. Reading Online, 5(2)
​
Tomlinson, B. (1997). The role of visualization in the reading of literature by learners of a foreign language. (Ph. D. Dissertation). University of Nottingham.
Microfilmed version: The British Library, British Thesis Service.
Transition to Phonics
​
Most children with Dyslexia have great difficulty learning to apply the "alphabetic principle" to take advantage of grapheme-phoneme regularities in reading unfamiliar words. They are often unable to attain fully alphabetic (Frith 1985) reading skills. Not only does this problem limit their ability to read independently, but it may also prevent subsequent development of more sophisticated orthographic word reading strategies (Frith 1985). Students who can “track” phonemes within spoken syllables and show their facility in doing so with the coloured blocks are then allowed to discover the connection between this process and decoding and spelling. (Truch, 1990)
The transition to word identification and spelling occurs in a sequenced fashion that moves from simple to complex to multi-syllable levels. Work is done with both nonsense patterns (to minimize memorization) and real words. Overlap to contextual reading is also made using material at about the same level as the student can “track.” Spelling exceptions and irregularities in real words are introduced in a systematic fashion.
The starting point of both the ADD program and the ReVAMP process then, is with phonological awareness. Once this foundation is solidly established in a student’s mind, then the overlap to orthography begins. By contrast, most phonics programs begin with orthography and do not usually include much additional feedback regarding phonology.
Other researchers who use strategies that begin at a phonological level (rather than an orthographic level) have also noted encouraging gains. Of special note is the work being done by Benita Blachman (Blachman 1991). These are some of the foundational studies that demonstrate the efficacy of teaching the phonological elements first and then carefully and systematically mapping the orthographic symbols onto the sounds. As these studies demonstrate this approach allows students to successfully make the transition to word identification.
​
Thus in ReVAMP Reading: I actively monitor each student's ability to make all of the essential kinds of changes using mouth pictures and sound tiles, that they will need to most efficiently read and spell words in context and writing. Once they can effectively and consistently make each change, then we carefully map the letters and letter combinations onto the sounds that they represent. I work to help them continue to manipulate letters within words to make reading and spelling words most efficient.
​
Citations:
​
Alexander, A.W., Andersen, H.G., Heilman, P.C., Voeller, K.K.S., and Torgeson, J.K. 1991. Phonological Awareness training and remediation of analytic decoding deficits
in a group of severe dyslexics. Annals of Dyslexia 41”193-206.
​
Blachman, B. 1991. Early interventions for children’s reading problems: Clinical applications of the Research in phonological awareness. Topics in Language
Disorders 12:51-65.
​
Frith, U. (1985). Beneath the surface of developmental dyslexia. In K.E. Patterson, J.C. Marshall, & M. Coltheart (eds.), Surface dyslexia (pp. 310-330). London:
Erlbaum.
​
Truch, S. 1990. The Missing Parts of Whole Language. Calgary: Foothills Educational Materials.
Improve Working Memory
​
When we intentionally link differentiated brain areas, we utilize the working memory approach described and laid out by Baddeley and Hitch. I start by activating a network in the brain known as the phonological loop (PL), this network is the verbal working memory component of how we learn. The PL contributes to the development of long term phonological processing skills. The PL “ha[s] a primary role in the acquisition of novel phonological sequences during language learning by children.” (Aboitiz et al. 2006) Why would this happen? This circuit links new speech and language input, by binding these novel concepts through an “episodic buffer” to long term memory. Then, as I link the phonological and articulatory input to what we see, I use the visuospatial sketchpad to deepen the connection through visualization. All of this processing is linked to and guided by a “central executive”. This process sends a message to the vocal cords to be transmitted as “silent speech” in the form of an image to the speech input region. This in turn allows the original input to be integrated with what you see, feel and hear. The next essential element is to use “novel” stimuli. This is one of the main reasons we need to teach students to construct pseudo-words as they use the phonological loop. When the PL is activated, the students ReVAMP their neural pathways. Importantly, by using non-words you keep the brain from tapping into a rote memorization pathway that is more of a default pathway for students with Dyslexia. The primary role of the phonological loop referenced above is the “acquisition of novel and increasingly complex phonological sequences.” (Aboitiz et al. 2006 p. S63)
Thus in ReVAMP Reading: I ensure that students are following a structured process as they develop their abilities to connect all of the aspects of the articulation and phonology instruction and linking those with long-term memory. That structured process ensures that they are building their capacity to hold more information in short term memory and linking it with the long-term memory. I continue to build working memory as we follow plans for build and manipulating words via mouth pictures, sound tiles, and letters as they build toward reading and spelling longer and more complex words.
Citation:
​
Aboitiz, F., Aboitiz, S., & Garcia, R.R. (2010) The Phonological Loop: A Key Innovation in Human Evolution. Current Anthropology, 51(S1).