Stages of Reading Development According to J. S. Chall
By Alyce Klein
Stage 0. Prereading: Birth to Age 6.
This stage covers a greater series of changes than any of the other stages.
Children begin to build a fund of knowledge about letters, words, and books.
Their ability to use language grows, and they gain some insight to the nature
of words, such as rhyming and alliteration (knowledge that some
words sound the same at their ends or beginnings), blending and synthesizing
(understanding that words can be broken into parts and put together to form
whole words). Children are learning to master their decoding skills at this
time.
By the time children reach preschool, they can usually discriminate the universal
features of writing, as well as write their names. The various skills acquired
during this stage are substantially linked to success with reading during grade
one. Much growth in reading during this stage takes place at home. Parents are
advised to take their children to the library, to provide them with books, and
to read to them often.
Stage 1. Initial Reading, or Decoding, Stage: Grades 1-2, Ages 6-7.
During this stage children learn to associate letters with the corresponding
various parts of words. This is termed the confirming stage. They interiorize
various aspects of cognitive knowledge about reading, such as what the letters
are for; how to discern a new word when a letter is changed, i.e. can is not
cat, and how to recognize when an error is made. The transition from Stage one
to Stage two occurs subtly. The child's fluency increases, although the tests
available today might not detect this change.
There are three phases that exist in this stage. During the first phase there
are word-substitution, many of which are semantically and syntactically correct.
During the second phase there is often an increase in errors that have a graphic
resemblance to the printed word, therefore some semantic acceptability is lost.
The least proficient readers continue to make the first type of error-substitution.
During the third phase errors are often graphic but there is a return to greater
semantic adequacy. Children who look beyond the meaning of words and work on
what words look and sound like progress to the next stage.
Stage 2. Confirmation, Fluency, Ungluing from Print: Grades
2-3, Ages 7-8.
Reading during this stage consolidates what was learned during Stage one. The
content of what is read is basically familiar, the reader is able to attend
to the printed words and focus on the most common, high frequency words. Along
with the basic decoding skills and insights learned during Stage one, the reader
can begin to match what is said in the book to his or her knowledge and language.
Most children use their decoding knowledge, the redundancies of the language,
and redundancies of the stories read in order to gain the more complex phonic
elements and generalizations that are learned in this stage.
Stage 3. Reading for Learning the New: A First Step.
Reading to Îlearn the new' begins during this stage of reading development.
Materials and purposes must be clear, within one viewpoint, and limited in complexity
due to the limited knowledge, vocabulary, and cognitive abilities of children
in this who are in this stage.
Before Stage three, children typically gain new knowledge through listening
and watching; by the end of this stage their efficiency of reading may allow
them to surpass any other means of gaining new information. The distinction
between primary level reading materials and those materials, which are on a
grade four level of readability or higher, occurs during this time. Materials
at the grade four reading ability level begin to include more abstract terms
and a larger amount of long, complex sentences. The task is now to master the
ideas in the text.
There are two phases of mastery during Stage three. Phase 3A covers grade three
through six. The task is to read books that cover introductions to materials
that require little or no special knowledge to understand.
Phase 3B is the middle school level, which brings the reader closer to the general
adult reading level. By the end of this phase, students should be able to read
the newspaper, popular adult fiction, and magazines such as Reader's Digest.
Making the transition between these phases requires students to increase their
ability to critically analyze what they read, as well as to react critically
to the different viewpoints presented in the literature.
Stage 4. Multiple Viewpoints: High School, Ages 14-18.
The task during this stage is to learn to deal with more than one point of view.
The textbooks available to high school students are lengthier due to the greater
depth of treatment and greater varieties of points of view. It is important
that the reader draw on previous knowledge during this stage in order to understand
the material in texts at this stage. The students acquire an ability to deal
with increasingly difficult concepts and to incorporate new ideas, points of
view, and theoretical concepts into their current schema during this developmental
reading stage.
Stage 5. Construction and Reconstruction-A World View: College, Age 18 and
Above.
This is the most mature reading stage. When this stage is reached, one is able
to read certain texts to the degree of detail necessary to suit the needs for
one's purpose. The reader in Stage five can discern what to read and what not
to read by simply skimming the printed material. This is a qualitative, more
abstract stage of understanding text. Many people are able to attain these abilities
by the end of their college years. The process of constructing knowledge from
text during this stage depends on analysis, synthesis, and judgment. The reader
also draws upon past knowledge and broad general knowledge in order to select
what to read. When text is unfamiliar, the reader uses a slower, study-type
pace for reading. Reading difficult philosophical and historical works may require
the reader to be in this stage in order to understand the literature.
Chall, J. S. (1996). Stages of Reading Development. Fort Worth, Texas:
Hartcourt Brace & Company.
Description and Summary of Research Practice: California Reading Initiative:
BALANCEd Reading Instruction References:
California State Department of Education (1996). Teaching Reading:
A BALANCE, Comprehensive Approach to Teaching Reading in Prekindergarten Through
Grade Three. Sacremento, CA: Author.
Jonson, K. (1998). The role of independent reading in a Îbalanced'
reading program: Re-thinking California's reading initiative. Reading
Improvement,35(2), 90-96.
Description:
The state of California has adopted a multi-faceted strategy in order to improve
reading instruction. The plan called Teaching Reading was drafted under
the direction of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (California State
Department of Education, 1996). This plan includes a guide on how to teach
phonics and spelling with a balanced approach to reading instruction.
Guidance is provided in the development of a balanced, comprehensive reading
program that includes both teacher-directed skills instruction and activities
and strategies most often associated with literature-based, integrated language
arts instruction.
Components of the Initiative are: Phonemic Awareness, familiarity with letter
names and shapes, systematic, explicit phonemes, Spelling, vocabulary development,
comprehension and higher order thinking, and appropriate instructional materials.
Diagnostic tools that assist teachers to follow students' progress are described.
Independent reading for at least ten minutes a day starting in Kindergarten
was noted by Kathleen Jonson (1998) to be a crucial component of a balanced
reading program. She suggests strategies for including independent
reading in elementary programs. Children are encouraged to choose their
own books for independent reading, and weak readers can be paired with a stronger
ãbuddyä. Sustained Silent Reading (SSR) and Drop Everything
and Read (DEAR) are silent reading programs that can be incorporated into the
school day.
Summary of Research:
Students who are involved in this program should progress at or above their
grade level. Teachers who have the appropriate training, materials, diagnostic
tools, and instructional guidelines support provided by this plan have been
shown to be effective, according to the Initiative. Students should be
able to improve their performance, according to the research conducted by the
developers of the plan.
The independent reading aspect of the balanced approach has been shown, according
to Jonson (1998), to improve comprehension, vocabulary, and background knowledge.
The amount of reading students do both in and out of school is said to correlate
with their reading achievement.
