Connecting Bottom-Up and Subskills Phonics-First Reading Instructional Practices

Bottom-Up Theories of the Reading Process

• During reading and learning to read, language is processed from the parts to the whole, as in builiding a structure from blocks one at a time.
• Learning to read is based on stimulus-response chains posited by behaviorists.
• Learning to read is accomplished by reducing the skill of reading to its smallest parts to be mastered one at a time.
• Repetition in reading is focued on practicing the parts of the complex skill of reading to a level of overlearning or automaticity.
• Language stimuli for reading are carfully contolled to represent consistently identified language rules or patterns to be learned.
• Mastery of the smallest parts of reading is assumed to lead to competent understanding and performance of the whole act of reading.
• Automatic decoding of the smallest parts of language is a prerequisite to reading and comprehending connected texts or books.
• Correctness is expected; mistakes are to be corrected.
• Pronouncing words provides access to one's speaking vocabulary to enable comprehension.
• Comprehending words provides access to new vocabulary words and comprehension of text.

Subskills of Phonics-First Reading Instructional Practices

• Reading instruction is begun by learning the 26 letters and the 44 sounds.
• Instruction proceeds to demonstrate the association(s) between the 26 letters and the 44 sounds.
• Blending the sounds represented by the letters in a word from left to right in temporal sequence or "sounding out"  phonically regualr words is taught.
• A limited number of high-frequency sight words are taught.
• Texts composed of carefully controlled words that are either known sight words or are phonically regualr words are introduced to children for reading practice.
• More phonic patterns, rules and generalizations are taught and learned.
• Texts are controlled to include new words as application for the patterns, rules, or generalizations learned.
• Control over text is gradually released, allowing phonically irregular words.
• Comprehending text is a direct outgrowth from the ability to pronounce words.