Making Meaning: Scientific Basis

Scientific Basis  |  Research Results  |  Vocabulary Research  |  State Correlations

The Making Meaning program is based on current research findings including those of Michael Pressley, P. David Pearson, Nell Duke, and Isabel Beck. It also draws on portraits of successful teachers and classrooms, including those described by Lucy McCormick Calkins, Ellin Oliver Keene, and Susan Zimmermann. Making Meaning is highly congruent with the findings of the National Reading Panel.

Good Readers Construct Meaning

Isabel Beck says, “Building understanding is currently viewed as what a reader needs to do to read successfully. It is important to consider that building understanding is not extracting information from the page, which is how reading was once characterized. Rather, building understanding involves determining what information means. Reading is constructing meaning.”1

Teaching Comprehension Strategies Works

According to the National Reading Panel, “Explicit or formal instruction in the application of comprehension strategies has been shown to be highly effective in enhancing understanding.”2

P. David Pearson and Nell Duke say, “Comprehension improves when teachers provide explicit instruction in the use of comprehension strategies.”3

Providing Good Literature Is Essential

Ellin Oliver Keene says, “Teachers need to use authentic and challenging texts (high-quality children’s literature and well written nonfiction) to help their students move along the continuum from novice to proficient reader.”4

Informational Literacy Is Crucial

Nell Duke says, “Informational literacy is so crucial to success in education, citizenship, and work in this ‘information age.’” Studies show:

• The majority of the reading and writing adults do is nonfiction (Venesky, 1982).
• Ninety-six percent of sites on the Internet contain nonfiction, informational texts (Kamil, Lane, 1998).
• Academic achievement in school subjects relies on informational reading and writing.5

Reading Aloud Is Key

According to Lucy McCormick Calkins, “In the teaching of reading, there is only a handful of things that everyone agrees is essential. Perhaps the most important of these is the fact that children need to listen to the best of children’s literature read aloud to them.”6

Cooperative Learning Improves Comprehension

The National Reading Panel says, “Having peers instruct or interact over the use of reading strategies leads to an increase in the learning of the strategies, promotes intellectual discussion, and increases reading comprehension. This procedure saves on teacher time and gives the students more control over their learning and social interaction with peers.”7

Student Discussions Are Important

Michael Pressley says, “Children’s comprehension of the ideas in text increases when they have conversations about literature with peers and teachers.”8

Classrooms Should Be Listening Communities

Lucy McCormick Calkins says, “If we want children to know what it is to take in the words and thoughts and stories of another person and to let those words leave a lasting mark, then we need to mentor children to become citizens in a listening community.”9

Notes

1. Isabel Beck, Margaret G. McKeown, Rebecca L. Hamilton, and Linda Kucan, Questioning the Author: An Approach for Enhancing Student Engagement with Text (Newark, DE: International Reading Association, 1997.)
2. National Reading Panel, "Teaching Children to Read: An Evidence-Based Assessment of the Scientific Research Literature on Reading and Its Implications for Reading Instruction," National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (2000).
3. International Reading Association, “Effective Practices for Developing Reading Comprehension,” What Research Has to Say About Reading Instruction (Newark, DE: International Reading Association, 2002.)
4. Ellin Oliver Keene and Susan Zimmermann, Mosaic of Thought: Teaching Comprehension in a Reader’s Workshop (Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 1997.)
5. Nell K. Duke, “Using Nonfiction to Increase Reading Achievement and World Knowledge.”http://teacher.scholastic.com/professional/literacypapers/duke.htm (accessed September 13, 2008).
6. Lucy McCormick Calkins, The Art of Teaching Reading (New York: Allyn & Bacon, 2000.)
7. National Reading Panel, "Teaching Children to Read: An Evidence-Based Assessment of the Scientific Research Literature on Reading and Its Implications for Reading Instruction," National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (2000.)
8. Michael Pressley, "Effective Beginning Reading Instruction: The Rest of the Story from Research," National Education Association (2002.)
9. Lucy McCormick Calkins, The Art of Teaching Reading, (New York: Allyn & Bacon, 2000).