Teaching Reading To Students Who Are at Risk or Have Disabilities Enhanced

Teaching Reading to Students Who Are
At Risk or Have Disabilities, Enhanced

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Preface
New to This Edition

■ To enhance affordability and portability the third edition is available as a Pearson eText.
In our work with teachers, the following concern was repeatedly raised: “Everyone
talks and writes about how I should teach reading, but it would be such a help to actu-
ally see these skills being taught to children.” The organization of this new electronic
version is more cohesive because links to videos and applied activities are integrated
throughout the text rather than ending each chapter. Both videos and pop-up informa-
tion reflect the latest evidence-based practices related to explicit, systematic reading
instruction. The video footage shows a teacher using the reading formats from the text
to teach critical reading skills to students in a small-group classroom situation. Viewers
can refer to the text as they watch phonemic awareness, letter–sound correspondence,
word reading, vocabulary, and passage reading with comprehension being taught.
■ Differentiating reading instruction for students who are at risk given the increased text
complexity required by the Common Core Standards will be challenging for educators.
This third edition includes issues and suggestions that will help teachers learn to juggle
the demands of research-based reading and spelling instruction necessary to increase
the rate of progress for children at risk within a multi-tier or RTI framework. Ideas on
how to prepare students for more complex text while still providing the instruction they
need in acquiring lower-level foundational skills are discussed throughout the chapters.
■ The assessment section of each chapter has been updated to include information about
the new DIBELS Next assessments and norms including a new First Sound Fluency
measure for beginning phonemic awareness, the move to scoring whole word reading
on the Nonsense Word Fluency Assessment, and a new measure to screen and monitor
progress in reading comprehension. Descriptions of these new assessments and tips for
analyzing student results reflect these latest changes.
■ Students who are at risk for reading problems often struggle to develop the reading flu-
ency necessary for comprehending text. An expanded chapter on teaching fluency
skills to students provides teachers with new strategies and activities to develop stu-
dents’ fluency. The section on strategies to assess and teach prosody in order to develop
students’ expressive reading skills has been greatly expanded. The fluency chapter now
also includes new interventions for building students’ reading rate using repeated and
wide reading.
■ This latest edition offers increased coverage of strategies to teach reading compre-
hension, providing more in-depth information on specific factors of more complex
text that are often problematic for students who are at risk and require intervention.
Accommodations for students in Tier 3 who are unable to read grade-level text are
expanded and reflect the latest technology developed since the last edition. While the
second edition provided much information about how to systematically and explicitly
teach comprehension, we wanted this third edition to reflect new research-based
vii
viii Preface
developments in this area and provide more support for teaching specific skills.
Teachers learn to conduct “Close Reading” of text, design four types of inferential
questions for both expository and narrative text, and use a grid to plan for their
teaching of comprehension.
■ The addition of chapter summaries provides additional organizational supports for
readers of the third edition.
Between 2000 and 2004 we implemented Project PRIDE, a four-year federal model demon-
stration project that employed evidence-based practices to prevent reading problems in
children who were at risk in three diverse, high-poverty urban schools. The principals of
these schools opted to reverse their course from a more naturalistic reading program and
make the commitment to retraining their staff because of a history of chronic reading prob-
lems and a teaching environment permeated by failure. Failure rates on the Illinois State
Achievement Test (ISAT) for PRIDE schools had ranged from 50% to 78%. Over the course
of the project, through ongoing progress monitoring of student achievement and a close
working relationship with the teachers, we had the opportunity to fine-tune instructional
strategies to a degree that would not have been possible without that collaboration.
During the 4 years of Project PRIDE, we gained an even greater appreciation for Louisa
Moats’s expression, “Teaching reading is rocket science.” On a daily basis we observed that
as the human mind acquires the intellectual muscle to learn to read, the teacher must not
only know how to carefully teach the sequence of small steps needed for reading at grade
level but also to recognize the missteps that can thwart those efforts. Whether students
came to school from high-poverty backgrounds, with no parental support, with learning dis-
abilities or behavior disorders, with medical conditions, from backgrounds of abuse, or with-
out English-speaking skills, most of them were able to learn to read. The research in reading,
summarized by the report of the National Reading Panel (2000), the invaluable research in
reading and multi-tier and response to intervention (RTI) approaches that have occurred
since, and our own extensive work in public schools after Project PRIDE provide a clear
guide for the use of systematic and explicit instruction to teach the largest number of stu-
dents to read. In this book we have translated that guide into a detailed blueprint based on:
(1) explicit, systematic instruction, (2) a multi-tier or RTI model, (3) data-based decision
making, and (4) professional development.
Professional development and coaching for PRIDE teachers and staff who carried out
instruction in Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3 was provided by the authors of this text. All teach-
ers attended after-school workshops and a series of summer institutes and received on-
site coaching. The after-school workshops and summer institutes were used to introduce
various teaching and assessment strategies, allow teachers to observe taped or live models
of the strategies, and provide practice for the teachers in small groups using simulated
experiences. During on-site coaching visits, data on tier implementation were gathered
directly in the classroom; teachers were given feedback on their instruction until they
demonstrated competence.
The impetus for writing and now revising this text came from the results attained dur-
ing our 4 years of PRIDE implementation as well as work with other urban school districts
that has followed. Our results have shown that all children can make progress toward learn-
ing to read when a system of assessments guides staff to identify children who are not
responding to instruction, allowing them to meet their individual needs using evidence-
based instructional options of varying intensities. The assessment and teaching strategies
that have been successful are those that occupy the pages of this text.
The data shown in Table 1 from one project school and a control school reflect the
percentage of children meeting or exceeding standards on the Illinois Standard Achieve-
ment Test (ISAT). Note the significant increases from 1999–2000 to 2003–2004, the latter
being scores for our first PRIDE cohort. It is interesting that the ISAT scores for our PRIDE
school began improving for the 2002–2003 school year, despite the fact that these were
Preface ix
TABLE 1 Percentage of Children Meeting or Exceeding Standard on the Illinois State Achievement Test
Third-Grade Reading 1999–2000 2000–2001 2001–2002 2002–2003 2003–2004
School 1 31 22 15.2 55.2 68.2

Control 39 40 36.4 28.6 39
students who were not officially part of the project. We believe that at least part of that
increase resulted because the school, seeing that PRIDE was working so well in the early
grades, began to implement some of the same practices in the later grades that were not
part of the PRIDE project.
It is clear from these results that more children met state standards in reading as a
result of Project PRIDE. It is also true that about 30% of the students did not meet state
standards. These were largely students who were receiving support in either Tier 2 or
Tier 3. Nonetheless, our results showed that, even though many Tier 2 and Tier 3 stu-
dents did not meet standards, they did make significant gains on all of the DIBELS meas-
ures. Nonetheless, challenges remain. Key among them is finding ways to implement
multi-tier or RTI models more successfully with those students who continue to struggle.
We know that more instructional time is needed, and that scientifically based reading
practices need to be implemented with greater fidelity. The improved delivery of multi-
tiered instruction will take enlightened and courageous leadership on the part of princi-
pals, more effective professional development for teachers, and a can-do attitude in the
face of chronic shortages of resources.
A common drawback of having different instructional options for children is that racial
minorities tend to be overrepresented in the groups of children who are not responding to
instruction. In PRIDE, children were assessed five to six times per year using highly effi-
cient assessments directly tied to curricular goals and objectives. These assessments
allowed us to make decisions in the best interest of individual children without being influ-
enced by potentially biasing factors such as race. Our results showed that the proportion of
African American children served in Tier 2 and Tier 3 was no greater than could be expected
given their proportion in our school population at large.
Whatever disagreements exist in the field about how to teach reading, few would argue
with the overarching goal of a nation of lifelong learners who enjoy reading for information
as well as for pleasure. We are troubled when educational strategies such as skill-based
grouping, pull-out, and drill-practice-and-review are viewed as antithetical to the enjoy-
ment of reading. Our results showed that child success is what truly matters when it comes
to students’ attitudes toward reading. Clearly, drill is one ingredient of an effective reading
program for students who are at risk and, if done effectively, can thrill—not kill.
We know that however positive the results, it is often teacher acceptance of an instruc-
tional approach that determines the likelihood that it will continue to be used over time. At
the end of each year of the project, we surveyed our teachers to find out their feedback on
all aspects of the PRIDE model. Satisfaction was of particular interest to us because of our
emphasis on teacher accountability for the reading achievement of each and every student.
Our teacher satisfaction results, shown in Figure 1, were very encouraging, with acceptance
ratings after the first year for all parts of the model being consistently rated over 3 on a
4-point scale, with 4 representing the highest satisfaction. In the words of one of our prin-
cipals, “It is interesting to watch the teachers’ perceptions of Project PRIDE transition from
fear and distrust to such high levels of satisfaction now that they are held directly account-
able for student growth. I’ve watched them quickly develop their capacities to serve all of
the learning needs within their classrooms after systematic professional development.”
At the conclusion of the project, we asked teachers whether they thought their school
should continue to implement Project PRIDE the following year. Twenty-nine, or 85%, of
x Preface
FIGURE 1 Teacher Satisfaction
2001 Teachers 2002 Teachers 2003 Teachers

4.0
Mean Satisfaction Score
3.0
2.0
1.0
0.0
Project Tier 1 Tier 2 Language Tier 3
Assessments Enhancements Boosters for Learning “Reading Mastery”
our project teachers responded to the question. Of the 29 teachers who responded, 28
(97%) wanted the project to continue.
Project PRIDE, with its emphasis on regular progress monitoring of all students and the
provision of a range of instructional supports based on need, is consistent with recent
trends in teacher accountability and implementation of RTI models as a way of identifying
students with learning disabilities. The results for children in all three of our tiers showed
that 95% of the children made reading progress, and that their attitudes toward reading
were positive. Our Tier I, general education, and special education teachers found the
model acceptable. Several years ago, one of our schools invited us to come back to do what
they referred to as a “refresher” session. Teachers were concerned about the quality of
model implementation when they saw their test scores in reading begin to decrease and
they wanted us to “put them back on the right track.” All of these results have encouraged
us to revise this text in hopes that it will empower even more teachers to teach children to
read who have been chronically unsuccessful. Since the conclusion of Project PRIDE, other
school districts around the country have developed and implemented a multi-tier RTI
framework to guide reading instruction. Information and stories from these districts can be
found at the RTI Action Network at www.rtinetwork.org/voices-from-the-field/blog.
Instructor Supplements
Available with the Third Edition is an Instructor’s Resource Manual with Test Questions and
a set of PowerPoint Slides. Both of these supplements are available online at the Pearson
Instructor Resource Center. www.pearsonhighered.com/educators
Acknowledgments
Over the years we have had the good fortune of working with and learning from a talented
group of educators firmly committed to the proposition that every child can learn to read.
Without the contributions of these dedicated professionals, writing Teaching Reading to
Students Who Are At Risk or Have Disabilities: A Multi-Tier, RTI Approach would have
Preface xi
been impossible. First, we owe a huge debt of gratitude to all of the people who have pro-
vided us as well as our field with a blueprint for success that will continue to have a positive
impact on children for many generations to come. Particular thanks are offered here to
Doug Carnine and Jerry Silbert for writing our “bible,” and to Diane Kinder for inspiring us
to prepare teachers with integrity and passion. We would also like to thank Louisa Moats for
impressing on us the importance of foundational information in language and spelling to any
teacher-change effort in reading. Her generosity in serving as a sounding board as we clari-
fied distinctions between different phonics-based reading approaches enhanced the quality
of our text. Our thanks also to Roland Good for developing a sound, practical set of mea-
sures and who, in an act of educational philanthropy of historic proportions, made them
available free on the Internet so that the data-based decision making so essential to a multi-
tier model could be accomplished. Many thanks to Sonia Martin for her invaluable assis-
tance with the preparation of the manuscript.
Portraying the teaching formats discussed throughout the text would not have been
possible without the skill of our master teacher Kelly Bolas, former students of Bluford
Communications Magnet School in Greensboro, North Carolina (Brianna Lorrick, Christina
Brown, Kamari Purvis, Jaquin Miller, and Paul Gaurdin), and their former principal, LaToy
Kennedy. Tom Lipscomb and Associates grasped the goals of the video immediately and
captured on video everything we wanted and more.
We also wish to thank the many colleagues who were instrumental in helping with the
development and refinement of the many aspects of the multi-tier model, but especially
Shirley Dickson, from whom we have learned so much. Thanks also to Val Bresnahan, Con-
nie Steigerwald, Connie Clark Williams, and Sue Grisco for their help with the Tier 3 tables
and to Simone Kern whose experience teaching comprehension to middle school students
led to further development of that section in this edition.
We are indebted to the federal government for funding Project PRIDE through a Model-
Demonstration grant (CFDA 84.324.T; H324T990024). We also owe a great debt of grati-
tude to Kishwaukee School, whose conscientious effort to implement multi-tier instruction
long past the funding period showed that we could have a positive impact on children who
had previously fallen through the cracks. A particular note of thanks goes to Paula Larson
and Nancy Dornbush, whose belief in the model and commitment to children sustained us.
Special thanks go to the reviewers of the book whose careful, constructive attention to
the manuscript gave us the confidence to proceed while at the same time improving the
final product: Emily Binks-Cantrell, Texas A&M University; Allison Kretlow, James Madison
University; and Mei Shen, Michigan State University.
A final thanks to teachers everywhere who are willing to do whatever it takes to deliver
effective, evidence-based reading instruction to their students. Your efforts will always
teach and inspire us as we continue to pursue the vision of helping every child learn to read.
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Contents
List of Teaching Formats xxi
Chapter 1 An Introduction to Systematic,

Explicit Reading Instruction 1
Learning Objectives 1
Who Are the Students at Risk for Reading Problems? 5
How Does Response to Intervention (RTI) Guide
Reading Instruction? 7
What Essential Skills Do Students Need to Become
Mature Readers? 9
Phonemic Awareness 10
Phonics 10
Reading Fluency 12
Vocabulary 12
Reading Comprehension 13
How Is Systematic and Explicit Instruction Used to Teach
Essential Reading Skills to Children Who Are at Risk
Using a Multi-Tier, RTI Model? 14
Tier 1 Instruction 16
How Do I Identify Struggling Readers, Monitor Student
Progress, and Diagnose Instructional Needs in a
Multi-Tier or RTI Model? 19
What Are the Instructional Enhancements for Students
Who Are at Risk? 22
Advance Organizers 22
Unison Responding 23
Effective Signals 23
Efficient Use of Teacher Talk 25
Perky Pace 26
My Turn–Together–Your Turn Format 26
Cumulative Review 26
Systematic Error Correction 27
Teaching to Success 27
Student Motivational System 28
Summary 33
xiii
xiv Contents
Chapter 2 Phonemic Awareness 35
What Letter Sounds Do Teachers Need to Know for
Teaching Phonemic Awareness and Phonics Skills
to Students Who Are at Risk? 36
Using the Chart of Letter Sounds 36
What Phonemic Awareness Skills Do I Need to Teach? 41
Essential Segmenting and Blending Skills 42
How Do I Assess Phonemic Awareness Skills in a Multi-Tier
or RTI Model? 44
Screening Assessments for Phonemic Awareness 44
Progress-Monitoring Assessments for Phonemic Awareness 48
Diagnostic Assessments for Phonemic Awareness 50
How Do I Teach Students to Segment and Blend? 52
Enhancements to Large-Group Tier 1 Instruction 52
Applying the Enhancements to a Commercial Reading Program 61
What Can I Do for Students Who Are Not Learning to Segment
and Blend Even with Enhancements? 63
Tier 2 Intervention Groups 63
What Can I Do for Students Who Are Not Learning to Segment
and Blend Even with Tier 2 Support? 65
Tier 3 Placement Rules in a Multi-Tiered RTI Model 66
Intensive, Alternative Reading Programs for Tier 3 66
How Can I Teach Phonemic Awareness to English Learners? 70
How Important Is Phonemic Awareness Instruction
for Older Learners? 72
What Games and Activities Will Reinforce Students’
Phonemic Awareness Skills? 72
What Activities Help Students Apply Their New Phonemic
Awareness Skills to Reading Words? 74
Summary 77
Chapter 3 Beginning Reading/Early Decoding 79
What Beginning Reading Skills Do I Need to Teach? 80
Sequence for Teaching Beginning Reading 83
How Do I Assess Beginning Reading Skills in an RTI
or Other Multi-Tier Model? 88
Screening Assessments 88
Progress Monitoring for Beginning Word-Reading Skills 93
Diagnostic Assessments for Beginning Word-Reading Skills 95
Spelling Assessment 97
How Do I Teach Beginning Reading Skills to My Students? 98
Identifying Letter–Sound Correspondences 98
Writing Letter–Sound Correspondences 101
Reading Regular Words: A Three-Part Process 103
Contents xv

Spelling and Writing Regular Words 116
Reading Exception Words 117
Reading Decodable Sentences 120
Reading Decodable Passages in Beginning Reading 122
Selecting Decodable Books 127
What Can I Do for Students Who Are Not Learning Beginning
Reading Skills Even with Enhancements? 131
What Can I Do for Students Who Are Not Learning Beginning
Reading Skills Even with Tier 2 Support? 132
How Can I Teach Beginning Reading Skills
to English Learners? 135
How Important Are Beginning Reading Skills
What Games and Activities Reinforce Students’ Beginning
Reading Skills? 138
The Word Box Game 140
Summary 143
Chapter 4 Advanced Word Reading 144

Why Teach Advanced Word-Reading Skills? 145
What Advanced Word-Reading Skills Do I Need to Teach? 146
Letter Combinations and Affixes 148
One-Syllable Words Containing a Letter Combination 148
Two-Syllable Words Containing Closed Syllables 148
Words with Rule-Based Sounds 148
Applying Structural Analysis to Reading Regular Words 153
Words with Two or More Syllables and One or More
Irregular Parts 156
One- and Two-Syllable Exception Words 156
Spelling Exception Words: Rule- and Pattern-Based Spelling
and Morphographic Spelling 156
How Do I Assess Advanced Word-Reading Skills in an RTI
or Other Multi-Tier Model? 157
How Can I Assess Students’ Advanced Spelling Skills? 159
How Can I Teach Students to Decode Advanced Words
and Words with Multiple Syllables? 159
Identifying Letter Combinations and Affixes Introduced
in the Curriculum 159
The Suffix -ed 161
Reading One-Syllable Words with Letter Combinations 162
Reading One-Syllable Words Ending in VCe 164
Reading Regular Words with Two or More Syllables 164
How Do I Teach Students to Apply Structural Analysis Skills
to Reading Regular Words? 169
Teaching Contractions 169
Teaching Affixes 170
Dividing Words into Syllables 171
xvi Contents
How Can I Teach Rule- and Pattern-Based Spelling and

Morphographic Spelling? 172
Teaching the Changing y to i Rule for Plurals 175
Applying the Teaching Enhancements to a Commercial
Reading Program 176
What Can I Do for Students Who Are Not Developing
Advanced Word-Reading Skills Even with Tier 2 Support? 178
How Can I Teach Advanced Word-Reading Skills
to English Learners? 179
How Important Are Advanced Word-Reading Skills
Advanced Word-Reading Skills? 182
Word Race 182
Short or Long Sort 183
Summary 185
Chapter 5 Reading Fluency 186

What Is Reading Fluency, and Why Do I Need to Teach It? 187
How Do I Assess Students’ Reading Fluency in a Multi-Tier
or RTI Model? 188
Administering and Scoring Oral Reading Fluency Measures 189
Using Oral Reading Fluency Assessment to Screen Students 192
Using Oral Reading Fluency Measures to Monitor
Students’ Progress 195
Setting Goals and Monitoring the Progress of Students
Who Are Significantly Below Grade Level 196
How Can I Use Oral Reading Fluency to Diagnose
Student Reading Needs? 198
Reading with Expression 198
Diagnosing Student Error Patterns 199
Matching Students to the Right Books 203
How Do I Teach My Students to Read Passages Accurately
and Fluently? 205
SAFER Passage Reading 205
How Do I Teach Oral Reading Fluency and Expressive Reading? 212
Repeated Readings 212
Expressive Reading 215
Multi-Dimensional Fluency Building 218
Wide Reading 219
How Important Is Fluency for Older Learners? 222
Putting the Pieces Together: What Does a Tier 1 Classroom
Look Like? 224
First and Second Grade 225
Beyond Second Grade 226
What Can I Do in Tier 2 for Students Who Still Aren’t
Learning to Read Fluently in Tier 1 Even
with Enhancements? 228
Contents xvii
What Can I Do for Students Who Still Aren’t Learning

to Read Fluently Even with Tier 2 Support? 228
How Can I Help Develop the Expressive Reading Skills
of My English Learners? 232
Up and Down the Scale 233
Turn Up the Volume 233
Variety Is the Spice of Life 233
Fluency Skills? 234
Summary 237
Chapter 6 Vocabulary Instruction 238

What Is Vocabulary Instruction and Why Do I Need
to Teach It? 240
What Vocabulary Words Do I Choose for Instruction? 241
How Do I Assess My Students’ Vocabulary Knowledge? 243
What Methods Do I Use to Teach Key Vocabulary Words? 246
Selecting Examples for Direct Instruction of Vocabulary 246
Teaching Vocabulary by Modeling 247
Guidelines for Developing Vocabulary Questions 248
Using Synonyms to Teach New Vocabulary Directly 250
Using Definitions to Teach New Vocabulary Directly 251
Using Text Talk to Teach New Vocabulary Directly 252
Using Semantic Maps to Teach New Vocabulary Directly 254
Using Keywords to Teach New Vocabulary Directly 256
What Methods Do I Use to Teach Students to Learn
New Vocabulary Independently? 257
Using Context to Teach Independent Word-Learning Strategies 257
Using Morphemic Analysis to Teach Independent
Word-Learning Strategies 259
Using the Dictionary to Teach Independent
Word-Learning Strategies 260
How Can I Teach My Students to Answer Vocabulary
Questions on High-Stakes Tests? 262
How Can I Provide Extra Vocabulary Practice for My Students? 263
Practice Activities for New Words 264
Practice Activities for Review Words: Coordinating
Vocabulary with Writing Activities 268
How Important Is Vocabulary for Older Learners? 270
Design of Vocabulary Instruction 270
How Can I Teach Vocabulary to English Learners? 272
How Can Teachers Reinforce Students’ New Vocabulary
and Language Skills Throughout the School Day? 275
Absurdity Is Fun 276
Thumbs-Up–Thumbs-Down 276
Plurals, Plurals, and More 276
Doing a “Word Morph” Through Twitter 277
Summary 278
xviii Contents
Chapter 7 Comprehension 279

What Is Reading Comprehension, and Why Teach It? 280
Text 280
Reader 283
Activity 284
Context 284
What Underlying Skills Do Students Need to Comprehend Text? 285
Oral Reading Fluency 285
Oral Language 285
Background Knowledge 287
How Do I Teach Students to Comprehend Text? 289
Use Explicit Instruction 289
Ask Questions 289
Calibrate Wait-Time Before Asking Questions 293
Scaffold Incorrect Answers and “No Responses” 293
Model Comprehension Skills Through Think-Alouds 294
Use Graphic Organizers with New Text 295
Teach Comprehension Before, During, and After
Reading the Text 298
How Do I Teach Comprehension at the Sentence Level? 300
What Comprehension Strategies Do I Need to Teach? 302
Summarizing 303
Main Ideas and Details 304
Comprehension Monitoring 305
Self-Questioning 307
Making Inferences 307
How Can I Use Multiple Strategies to Maximize Student
Gains in Reading Comprehension? 308
How Can I Assess and Monitor My Students’
Progress in Reading Comprehension in a Multi-Tier
or RTI Model? 311
Screening and Progress Monitoring 311
Diagnostic Assessment 313
How Can I Give Struggling Readers in Tier 3 a More
Systematic, Explicit Approach to Learning
Comprehension Skills? 319
Accommodations for Students in Tier 3 320
How Do I Prepare My Students to Pass High-Stakes
Tests in Reading? 321
Analyze Your State Test 321
How Do I Teach Comprehension to Older Learners? 325
How Can I Teach Reading Comprehension to English
Learners? 328
What Games and Activities Reinforce Reading
Comprehension Skills? 331
Find the Hot Spots 331
Provide Evidence 331
Contents xix
What Would Your Character Do? 331

Try Out Your Test-Making Skills 331
How Well Do I Understand? 332
The Text Detective 332
Summary 334
Appendix A Early Reading Assessment Batteries Used

in Multi-tier and RTI Programs 335
Appendix B DIBELS Next Benchmarks 338
Appendix C Consonant Blends, Consonant Digraphs,
and Diphthongs 341
Appendix D Beginning Phonics Diagnostic Assessment 343
Appendix E Lesson Plan for Beginning Reader 345
Appendix F Advanced Word-Reading Diagnostic
Assessment 348
Appendix G Diagnostic Spelling Assessment for
Advanced Readers 354
Appendix H Lesson Plan for an Advanced Word Reader 357
Appendix I Tests of Vocabulary 361
Glossary 363
References 370
Name Index 385
Subject Index 391
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List of Teaching Formats
Chapter 2 35
Segmenting 1: Format for Segmenting First Sound 53

Blending: Format for Blending Individual Phonemes 54
Segmenting 2: Format for Segmenting Individual Phonemes 55
Segmenting 3: Format for Phoneme Deletion and Substitution 56
Chapter 3 79
Format for Teaching New Letter Sounds in the General Curriculum 99

Sound Writing Format 102
Format for Reading Regular Words—Part 1: Oral Sounding Out 105
Format for Reading Regular Words—Part 2: Subvocal
Sounding Out 111
Format for Reading Regular Words—Part 3: By Sight 113
Regular Word Spelling Format 116
Format for Reading Exception Words 119
Format for Reading Stories in the Curriculum and Decodable
Books: Beginning Readers 124
Chapter 4 144
Format for New Letter Combinations and Affixes Introduced

in the Curriculum 160
Format for Reading One-Syllable Regular Words with
Letter Combinations 163
Format for Reading One-Syllable Words That End with VCe 165
Format for Reading Regular Words with Two or More Syllables 167
Teaching Contractions 169
Teaching Affixes 170
Spelling Exception Words 174
Teaching the Changing y to i Rule for Plurals 175
Chapter 5 186
Format for SAFER (Successful, Anxiety-Free, Engaged Reading) 207
xxi
xxii List of Teaching Formats
Chapter 6 238
Teaching Vocabulary Through Modeling 249

Direct Teaching: Synonyms 251
Direct Teaching: Definitions 253
Indirect Teaching: Context Clues 258
Teaching Multiple Meanings Using the Dictionary 261
C H A P T E R
1
An Introduction to
Systematic, Explicit
Reading Instruction
Learning Objectives
After reading this chapter, you will be able to:
1. State the prevalence and characteristics of students who struggle while learning to
read.
2. Identify ways that Response to Intervention (RTI) guides reading instruction.
3. Identify and describe five key skill areas that should comprise a reading curriculum for
students who are at risk.
4. Describe the key features of a prevention-based multi-tier or RTI model of reading.
5. Describe the role of assessments in a multi-tier or RTI model of reading.
6. Identify and describe ways to enhance reading instruction for students who are at risk
by making it more explicit and systematic.
Before a research-based multi-tier reading program started at Southwest, the discouraged,

pessimistic staff working in this high-poverty school tagged by the state as “failing,” com-
plained in the lunch room about the new kindergartener, Bryan: “Why didn’t they just start
him out in the special education program.” “I can’t imagine Bryan ever reading.” Over the
years, the teachers had implemented the latest fads in reading with no results and believed
that many of the students in their school were incapable of working at grade level. The
teachers already weren’t meeting the reading needs of 50% of their students, so they won-
dered aloud how they could work with a student who took medication for Attention Deficit
Disorder resulting from Tourette Syndrome—a boy whose lead levels were extremely high
when his parents adopted him as a baby and whose drug-addicted mother was so negligent
that she lost custody.
In August, when Bryan’s kindergarten teacher gave him the benchmark screening tests
in reading, he was unable to say the sounds of any letters, blend spoken sounds into words,
or name letters. These tests indicated that Bryan needed intensive support to read at grade
level. By midyear kindergarten, he was already working with a small group of students in a
Tier 3 alternative, research-based reading curriculum, taught by a Title 1 teacher. Out of all
the kindergarten Tier 3 groups, Bryan’s was the slowest paced. The weekly testing that his
teacher did to monitor his progress showed only small gains. In response to this lack of prog-
ress, the staff decided to provide more support and increase the amount of time he received
for reading instruction.
1
2 Chapter 1
With this additional help, Bryan’s end-of-the-year kindergarten benchmark testing

showed that he had learned the sounds of eight letters and could now blend sounds into
easy words. In contrast, most of the kindergartners knew all their letter sounds and could
read words that contained them. The staff was concerned that Bryan had only minimally
responded to the research-based reading curriculum.
At the start of his first-grade year, teachers still expressed skepticism that Bryan would
ever read. During his first-grade year, a skilled paraprofessional supervised by the special
education teacher taught the scripted Tier 3 curriculum used in Bryan’s reading group. This
paraprofessional was extremely motivating with her perky instruction providing extensive
practice on any new skill learned in class. By midyear first grade, weekly progress monitoring
showed that he was making more progress than the other students in his group, and so he
was moved to a faster-paced Tier 3 group. By the end of first grade, Bryan’s testing indi-
cated that he still required Tier 3 instruction, but he now knew more sounds and could read
short decodable stories.
During second grade, Bryan continued to respond well to instruction. To the staff’s sur-
prise, he tested near grade level by the middle of the year. The slower pace and extra prac-
tice in the intensive curriculum had finally made a significant difference. Following the
multi-tier model guidelines, the staff moved Bryan up to Tier 2. Now the general education
reading curriculum was no longer at a frustration level for Bryan. The teacher supported
Bryan’s learning by providing additional tutoring to him in a small group of three students
every day, reviewing what he had learned in the larger second grade reading class.
At the end of second grade, when all of the students had been tested in reading,
Bryan’s end-of-the-year benchmark testing indicated that he had scored higher than any
other second grader and no longer needed Tier 2 tutoring. Bryan would start third grade
in Tier 1 with no extra support in reading. That day in the teachers’ lounge, one of the
staff said, “You know, I’ve learned that if Bryan could reach grade level, any student
entering this school can.” Another teacher said, “We have to stop making these assump-
tions about students and make sure that we teach reading to all of them as if they can
come as far as Bryan.” Teachers were empowered with the tools and structure needed to
increase reading achievement. The staff now believed that Bryan’s response to instruction
was an example of why the number of students identified with learning disabilities was
decreasing in their school.
Why do you think many of the teachers initially thought Bryan should be in special educa-
tion? What factors do you think were responsible for his progress?
“Some people there are who, being grown, forget the horrible task of learning
to read. It is perhaps the greatest single effort that the human undertakes, and
he must do it as a child.”
John Steinbeck (1962)
No other skill learned by children is more important than reading, described as the gate-
way to all other achievement by the American Federation of Teachers (2007). Yet, despite
its critical importance for success in our society, millions of children in the United States
are failing to learn to read; in fact, many of them attend schools like the one in the chapter-
opening vignette. According to the 2011 National Assessment of Educational Progress
(NAEP), 33% of fourth graders and 24% of eighth graders could not read at the Basic
level, and thus are unable to demonstrate even partial mastery of fundamental knowledge
and skills. On the 2009 NAEP, 26% of twelfth graders could not read at the Basic level
(NCES, 2012; http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard). Students reading below a Basic
level cannot extract the general meaning or make obvious connections between the text
and their own experiences or make simple inferences from the text. In other words, they
cannot understand what they have read. Rates of failure in urban areas and among Black
An Introduction to Systematic, Explicit Reading Instruction 3
and Hispanic children are even higher. An examination of 21 large urban districts was
even more dismal, revealing that 45% of fourth graders and 35% of eighth graders were
below Basic. Only 23% of students in both grades scored Proficient or Advanced (Buck-
ley, 2011). Reading problems do not just reside among schoolchildren but pervade our
entire society. Experts estimate that more than 90 million adults lack a foundation of
basic literacy skills necessary to function in society, losing over 200 billion dollars a year
in income as a result (Whitehurst, 2003). Given these statistics, it is not surprising to
hear the current spate of literacy problems referred to as a national health problem.
(Lyon, 1998b).
In response to public concerns about unacceptably high rates of illiteracy and demands
for increased accountability, the U.S. Congress passed the Reauthorization of the Elemen-
tary and Secondary Education Act of 2002 (ESEA). One central provision of this act was
the mandate that all of our nation’s children be reading at grade level by the school year
2013–2014. Another provision was that data be disaggregated, so that the test scores of
subgroups of students in school districts were reported separately, holding school districts
responsible for increasing the scores of students in those subgroups. Included among the
subgroups were data for students who were economically disadvantaged, had disabilities,
or were English learners. A third provision required teachers in kindergarten through third
grade to teach reading based on “scientifically based” research.
While the goals were laudable, this bold legislation continues to raise many questions
among teachers trying to meet those goals. For example, which children have more trouble
learning to read and why? How can we identify them? Are there effective methods available
to teach these children to read? When is the most opportune time to teach children to
read? Do all children learn to read the same way? Can we really teach all children to read?
Teachers need practical research-based answers to these and other questions if they are to
make a legitimate attempt to teach all children to read. Unfortunately, in far too many
classrooms in the United States the teaching of reading has remained the same for the past
25 years with the most current high-quality research ignored (Moats, 2007). By September
2012, as the result of an outcry from districts claiming that having 100% of U.S. students
proficient in reading was unrealistic, 44 states had received or requested waivers to opt out
of the ESEA requirements (ED.gov, 2012).
Overlapping ESEA has been the development of the Common Core Standards (CCS),
which started in 2009 when the National Governors Association (NGA) and Council of
Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) began to coordinate an effort to develop more rigor-
ous standards in literacy and math instruction. Rather than a curriculum, the standards
are a set of shared goals and expectations that were developed in anticipation of the
minimum knowledge and skills that students will need to be successful and competitive
in the 21st-century global economy (NGA & CCSSO, 2010). The CCS are expected to
raise the level of rigor in U.S. schools, resulting in an emphasis on critical thinking skills
and the ramping up of expectations for content knowledge. Although foundational skills
in reading are stressed in the earliest grades, the application of grade-level reading skills
is emphasized throughout the Common Core. For example, the first-grade English
Language Arts-Literacy Reading Fluency standard is, “Read grade-level text with pur-
pose and understanding” (RF.1.4a), reflecting the focus on grade-level reading from the
earliest grade.
The complexity of text required by the Common Core Standards is also likely to
increase as nonfiction informational text comprises an increasing percentage of what stu-
dents read in school (Fiedler, 2012). This means text will increasingly include longer,
more complex sentences, contain more difficult and technical vocabulary, and require an
extensive knowledge base in order to be understood. This increase in text complexity is
evident in the sixth grade standard: “By the end of the year, read and comprehend literary
nonfiction in the grades 6–8 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed
at the high end of the range” (RI.6.10).
4 Chapter 1
The widespread adoption of the Common Core Standards

Explore the Common Core Standards raises serious questions about whether students who are at risk
under the “English Language Arts” cat- or who have learning disabilities will receive needed instruction
egory at http://www.corestandards.
in lower-level foundational skills. Haager and Vaughn discuss
org/the-standards.
this concern:
Our greatest concern with regard to the Foundational Skills is that, in efforts to plan and imple-
ment instruction that covers other areas of the standards that are new to the early grades—such
as close reading and deep analysis of text, increased use of informational text, and wide reading
across genres—teachers may overlook the critical importance of providing high quality, explicit
instruction in the foundational skills. (Haager & Vaughn, 2013; p. 8)
Why haven’t major policy initiatives increased student achievement in reading? Explana-
tions about why large percentages of students still do not attain minimum literacy levels
echo the reasons that students are at risk in the first place:
■ These students were raised in poverty.
■ Their parents never read to them as children.
■ These students have learning disabilities.
■ English is not their first language.
■ These students were premature babies.
Although educators agree that students who come to school with some or all of these fac-
tors present greater challenges, effective reading teachers believe that there are no excuses.
These teachers can and will teach every student to read. Yes, John’s mother took cocaine
before he was born, but he will learn to read. Yes, Marissa has an exceptionally difficult
time hearing the individual sounds in words, but she will learn to read. Yes, Shyron’s mother
has been married three times and amid a blended family of eight kids, he’s lost in the shuf-
fle. But he will learn to read. This tenacious attitude is necessary for teachers who get all or
most of their students who are at risk to read at grade level.
A tenacious attitude alone isn’t sufficient for success. Because of the greater challenges
in teaching students who are at risk to read, teachers need effective teaching techniques
and curriculum that have a proven track record of success with these students. Students
who are at risk for reading failure require more carefully coordinated curriculum and skill
instruction than do other students. Fortunately for today’s teachers, the reports of the
National Reading Panel (NRP, 2000) and the National Early Literacy Panel (NELP, 2008)
help translate research into practice. Both panels included leading reading researchers,
college professors, teachers, administrators, and parents. The panels spent considerable
time identifying those studies that met the highest empirical standards of scientific investi-
gation. Those high-quality studies were used to determine the most effective ways of teach-
ing reading to the greatest number of students and included students who were at risk, had
learning disabilities, or were underachieving. The work of the panels became a spring board
for current research refining and expanding on their findings, research that is included is
the third edition of this text (e.g., O’Connor & Vadasy, 2011; Rasinski, Blachowicz, & Lems,
2012; Samuels & Farstrup, 2011).
Between 2000 and 2004, we implemented Project PRIDE, a 4-year federal model dem-
onstration project that employed evidence-based practices to prevent reading problems in
children who are at risk in three diverse, high-poverty urban schools. Bryan, the subject of
the vignette at the beginning of this chapter, was a student in one of our Project PRIDE
schools. As the story of Bryan shows, given the right tools and a guiding and sustaining belief
in evidence-based reading practices, all children can make progress toward learning to read.
In the years following Project PRIDE, we have developed multi-tier programs in Georgia and
Ohio. The assessment and teaching strategies that were successful in these three projects
and/or found in the most current research are those that occupy the pages of this text.
Who Are the Students at Risk

for Reading Problems?
The strategies for teaching early literacy described in this text are based on the idea that when
it comes to reading instruction, “one size does not fit all.” Figure 1.1 shows how many children
in a typical kindergarten classroom are likely to struggle while learning to read. These figures
are based on research sponsored by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Devel-
opment (NICHD; Lyon, 1998a). Looking at the chart, you can see the following trends:
■ About 5% of students come to school already able to read. These children learn to read
naturally without any formal instruction.
■ Another 20% to 30% of students learn to read with ease, regardless of the approach to
reading instruction used.
■ For 20% to 30% of students, learning to read will take hard work, with some extra sup-
port needed. A research-based core reading program started in preschool or kindergar-
ten and taught well will provide enough support for many of these students. If parents
work with these students every night, reviewing books read in class and serving as
tutors, the students may learn to break the code. Extra practice with a volunteer tutor
may be enough to help them break the code.
■ An additional 30% of students will learn to read only if they are given intensive support.
These students require explicit systematic phonics instruction and extensive practice
reading the new words they are learning until they are at least able to read second-
grade text accurately and fluently. They may also need intensive language remediation.
If they do not receive appropriate support before second grade, many of these students
will have a reading level significantly behind that of their peers and never catch up.
Some may be incorrectly diagnosed as having learning disabilities.
■ The remaining 5% of students have serious, pervasive reading disabilities and are
served in special education. These students make very slow progress even in the pres-
ence of otherwise effective instruction (Torgesen, 2000).
In high-poverty schools, the number of children who need extra or intensive support may
be even higher due to language problems and deficits in background knowledge (Bursuck &
FIGURE 1.1 Typical First-Grade Classroom
Able to read:
Learn with ease:
Learn with support:
Learn with
intensive support:
Have pervasive
reading disabilities:
6 Chapter 1
Damer, 2005). This text refers to any students who require extra support to learn as at
risk. Regardless of the cause, these students will learn to read if a systematic, supportive
approach is in place.
Marilyn Adams (1990) explained reading difficulties in terms of the various intercon-
nected systems that help the reader decode and comprehend. The processing model that
she developed originated from a comprehensive review of the reading research literature in
education, cognitive science, and psychology. Her model describes the process that occurs
as fluent readers simultaneously and successfully engage the following four processors as
they read text: orthographic processor, phonological processor, meaning processor, and
context processor. The more fluent the reader, the more unaware he is of how his brain is
coordinating information on the sounds, letter shapes, meaning of words, and context as
his eyes rapidly move across the text from left to right (Adams, 1990). The work of each
processor and its connections with the others was described by Adams: “As the parts of the
system are refined and developed in proper relation to one another, each guides and rein-
forces the growth of the other” (p. 6).
When the reader sees text on a page, the orthographic processor recognizes the
visual image of words as interconnected sets of letters. For example, when the reader sees
the word cat, the orthographic processor sees the letters clustered into a spelling pattern
cat. The phonological processor is the system that processes the speech sounds of lan-
guage. When the reader sees the word cat, the “inner voice,” or phonological processor,
identifies and orders the sounds of the word /c/ /a/ /t/ rather than the letters c-a-t. In order
to develop automatic word reading, the phonological and orthographic processors must
work together efficiently and fluently to make the connections that activate associations of
past experiences with “cats.” The meaning processor focuses on definitions rather than
the letters or sounds and the reader thinks “furry four-legged pet that meows” when read-
ing cat. This meaning processor works quickly for words the reader knows, but slower for
unknown words as it connects parts of the word to meaning. Coordinating with the mean-
ing processor, the context processor brings prior knowledge to bear on understanding
the meaning of the word. When the reader sees cat, the context processor might think
about his friend’s cat.
Struggling readers have problems in one or more of these four processing domains, and
effective interventions need to address their specific area of difficulty. Students with defi-
cits primarily in phonological and orthographic processing have the vocabulary and con-
ceptual knowledge to bring meaning to text read to them but cannot decode printed words
accurately and fluently enough to extract meaning on their own (Foorman & Torgesen,
2001). These students require careful instruction in word reading and fluency. A second
group of struggling readers includes children living in poverty who enter school with
delayed development in all areas of language that prevent the efficient functioning of all
four processors. These children require intensive instruction in vocabulary and language
concepts as well as word reading and fluency. A third group of children have deficits in
vocabulary and concept knowledge but adequate phonological and orthographic skills. This
group of struggling readers, often referred to as word callers, comprises at most 10% of
struggling readers (Meisinger, Bradley, Schwanenflugel, Kuhn, & Morris, 2009), and
includes English Learners. Students in this group need carefully targeted comprehension
instruction, including both vocabulary and language concepts. These three groups of strug-
gling readers share two common characteristics: the inability to comprehend written text
and the need for early identification and reading support.
Recent studies using computerized imaging show that serious reading problems may
be brain-based, with the brain activity of the most deficit readers differing from that of stu-
dents who are skilled readers (Hudson, High, & Otaiba, 2007). Many deficit readers show a
pattern of underactivation in a region in the back of the brain that enables first accurate
and then automatic reading. These brain scans, which differ from those of skilled readers,
provide insight about why these students have problems learning to decode accurately and
fluently (Shaywitz, 2005). Fortunately, research also shows that effective language instruc-
tion, including systematic instruction in phonemic awareness and phonics, generates repair
in underactivated sections of the brain (Shaywitz & Shaywitz, 2007; Simos et al., 2007),
reinforcing the importance of early identification and remediation.
How Does Response to Intervention (RTI) APPLY YOUR
Guide Reading Instruction? UNDERSTANDING

1.1
The aim of the Response to Intervention (RTI) framework is to ensure that all the students
in kindergarten classes like the class just described are reading at grade level by third grade
at the latest. The key elements at the heart of an RTI framework are introduced here and
will be discussed more thoroughly throughout this chapter and the text. These include a
multi-tier model of instruction and evidence-based reading instruction.
A multi-tier model enables schools to provide students with the support that the
assessments indicate they need. Students vary in the amount of support they need for
learning to read. Reflect back on the typical kindergarten class (Figure 1.1) with its wide
range of learners. In a typical class, some students learn new material as fast as the teacher
can teach it; other students need extra practice before they learn it; and a third group
needs very deliberate teaching that slowly moves from easier skills to more difficult con-
cepts. Because of these differences, schools need a range of instructional options to meet
the diverse needs of their students. Teaching that provides this broader range of options is
known as differentiated instruction (Friend & Bursuck, 2014). Each of the three or four
tiers in a multi-tier model provides a different level of support, whether it be to “catch-up”
students to grade level or to challenge students with advanced reading skills.
Data-based decision making based on information from research-based assess-
ments and objective teacher observation provide the basis for making desicions about
whether instruction is effective, and, if it is not, what changes are recommended. The
school team routinely analyzes assessment data to determine whether students are
responding to instruction. Grade level reading is dependent upon the student making con-
tinuous progress in acquiring reading skills and learning new vocabulary. Assessments
that are sensitive to small gains in reading are used to help the team determine who is not
making necessary progress with a “no excuses” approach. The guiding question is, “What
additional support can we provide this student so that he reads at grade level?” Staff are
gutsy enough to believe that when a student isn’t making expected progress, providing
additional support, making changes to the curriculum, or adopting a new curriculum will
ensure students make the desired gains. Using data-based decision making is not as easy
as it sounds. Sometimes a school is using a favorite curriculum or a teacher has his own
distinctive teaching strategies, and if results do not show these are effective, changes are
needed. When educators find out that something is not supported by gains in the data,
they are tempted to dismiss the data instead of making changes (Damer, 2010). Obviously,
this is a course of action to be avoided.
One of the authors spent an entire summer rewritng the spelling program of a basal
curriculum that hadn’t been effective. After all that work and the teachers’ enthusiasm
about the change, everyone went through the year convinced that students’ spelling had
improved. The end-of-the-year tests showed that students had improved their phonetic
spelling; however, they were still misspelling the same percentage of words, causing your
author to face the fact that all her work had not yielded positive results. These data led to
an anlysis of why the program had failed and what spelling research indicated might be the
reasons. Eventually this data-based decision process resulted in the adoption of a more
comprehensive, intensive spelling curriculum for all students, and only then did spelling
gains increase.
8 Chapter 1
Evidence-based reading instruction includes instructional practices that have been

shown by research to be most likely to improve student reading outcomes in a meaningful
way (Cook, Tankersley, Cook, & Landrum, 2008). Evidence-based practices guide reading
instruction in all tiers. In a typical kindergarten, some students who are at risk may not
need intensive support if all general education instruction reflects scientific, research-
based instructional strategies and curricula. If Leila needs more practice saying the sounds
of letters, and she receives that practice by reading decodable books in a small group of
other students who also need the extra practice, she may not need to receive instruction in
a more intensive tier.
These are exciting times in reading research. Recent stud-
Do you have questions about whether ies in ophthalmology, neurology, cognitive psychology, and
a particular program or teaching education help guide us to determine the most effective
strategy is evidence based? Visit the instruction for students who are at risk. Because decision
Center on Response to Intervention making based on research rather than fads is still relatively
at http://www.rti4success.org/ new in education, educators have to approach claims that a
instructionTools. method or curriculum is “scientific” or “evidence-based” with
healthy skepticism.
Of course, effectiveness established by quality research isn’t the only consideration.
Implementation remains the critical link between research and practice (Cook & Odom,
2013). In considering whether to adopt a practice, it is important to consider these addi-
tional questions as well:
■ With how many similar learners has the practice been used?
■ What is the success rate of the practice when implemented appropriately?
■ How many schools/teachers in similar settings have adopted the practice?
■ How often has the practice been implemented with fidelity in real-world settings?
■ How many schools and teachers have maintained implementation of the practice
over time?
(Fixsen, Blasé, Metz, & Van Dyke, 2013)
Years ago, educators believed that reading skills devel-
Read and watch videotape excerpts oped naturally and that as long as children were immersed in
of leading reading researchers and a literature-rich environment, they would eventually learn to
educators at http://www.
read when they were “ready.” In a system based on this belief,
childrenofthecode.org.
struggling readers often were not given extra support until sec-
ond or even third grade. Since then, educators have been con-
fronted by a large body of research that has emphasized the importance of early identification.
Educators now recognize that many children who are at risk will never develop reading
skills naturally. Even more disturbing is evidence that once they are behind in reading,
most students do not catch up. For example, Juel (1988) found that only one in eight read-
ers who were behind at the end of first grade would catch up by fourth grade. Francis and
colleagues (1996) followed 407 children who were classified as poor readers in third grade
and found that 74% of these students still remained poor readers when they reached ninth
grade. Edward Kame’enui (2007) explained:
There’s a myth, and probably a popular myth, that if kids start off slow they’ll eventually catch
up, and what we know from the research is that that’s simply not the case. Kids who start off
slow, their trajectory of learning and reading continues to flatten out. In fact, their performance
decreases over time. So, what we know is that we need to intervene early and we need to inter-
vene because we don’t have any time to waste. Time is precious. Kids face the tyranny of time.
And in order to catch up, we have to be very strategic in what we do in the early years.
Why is later reading intervention so ineffective for students who are at risk? One key rea-
son is that once students get behind, it takes a significant expenditure of time and resources
to catch them up, resources that budget-strapped schools may not have available. For
example, getting older students who have not attained reading fluency by the end of third
grade to grade level costs seven to eight times as much in time and money (Wendorf, 2003).
Not only do older students have to relearn ineffective habits they have acquired, they also
must overcome pervasive feelings of failure and stress related to reading. Clearly, the best
method is to identify children as early as possible and provide them with the supports they
need to prevent reading problems in the first place. Although the teaching strategies
described in this text are effective for students of all ages, they are most effective when
used early.
What Essential Skills Do Students Need CHECK YOUR

UNDERSTANDING
1.1
to Become Mature Readers?
The NRP (2000) and NELP (2008) identified five key skill areas that should comprise
the reading curriculum for students who are at risk. These areas include phonemic
awareness, phonics, reading fluency, vocabulary, and reading comprehension. The key
skills comprising each of these areas are shown in Figure 1.2 and described in this sec-
tion. The time frame information in Figure 1.2 is intended to represent when each skill
area is emphasized as part of a core developmental reading program. These skills are
also essential for remedial readers. The only difference is that remedial readers will
learn them later than their peers. Chapters in this text will provide a clear description
of what is and what is not systematic and explicit reading
instruction in each of the five skill areas.
Increasingly, reading researchers are questioning why Publications from the NRP and reports
the National Reading Panel did not include spelling as the from NELP are free and available for
downloading at http://www.
sixth key skill area to investigate. The old-fashioned notion
nationalreadingpanel.org/
of spelling as a visual task or task of memorization does not Publications/publications.htm and
incorporate current research indicating that effective spell- http://www.nifl.gov/nifl/NELP/
ing instruction enhances word reading, fluency, vocabulary, NELP09.html.
and comprehension. Because of the reciprocal relationship
FIGURE 1.2 Scientifically Based Reading Curriculum
Kinder Kinder First First Second Third

Fall Spring Fall Spring All Year All Year
Phonemic Awareness
Segmenting X X X
Blending X X X
Alphabetic Principle
LS Correspondence X X X X X X
Regular Word Reading X X X X X
Irregular Words X X X X X
Spelling X X X X X X
Reading Fluency X X X
Vocabulary * X X X X X
Reading Comprehension * X X X X X
*Orally taught
10 Chapter 1
between spelling and reading, each chapter will also include information on how effec-
tive spelling instruction can enhance instruction in the highlighted skill area.
Phonemic Awareness
Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear and manipulate the smallest units of sound in
spoken language (Ball & Blachman, 1991). Students who are at risk are less likely to develop
this important foundational skill naturally. Word play activities and language games often
do not provide enough support. A considerable body of research shows that teaching pho-
nemic awareness skills to students who are at risk within a language-rich environment
makes it easier for them to learn to read (Armbruster, Lehr, & Osborn, 2001). Although
there are many different phonemic awareness skills, this text stresses the two that research-
ers have concluded have the most value in a beginning reading program: segmenting and
blending (Ball & Blachman, 1991). Segmenting is the ability to break apart words into their
individual phonemes or sounds. A student who can segment says /f/-/i/-/sh/ when asked to
say the sounds in fish. The ability to segment helps students strategically attack words
they will be reading in text and break words into phonemes when spelling. Blending, the
opposite of segmenting, is the ability to say a spoken word when its individual phonemes
are said slowly. A student who can blend can say the word fish after the teacher slowly says
the individual sounds /f/-/i/-/sh/. Blending enables students to read unfamiliar text by com-
bining single sounds into new words.
The Common Core includes phonemic awareness skills under CCSS.ELA-Literacy.
RF.K.2 with RF standing for Reading Foundations: “Demonstrate understanding of spoken
words, syllables, and sounds (phonemes)” (NGA & CCSSO, 2012). You will learn more
about phonemic awareness and how to teach it to students who are at risk in Chapter 2.
Phonics
Although a small percentage of students naturally become fluent readers, many will
develop these skills only through activities stressing the connection between written let-
ters and their most common sounds. Phonics is the teaching strategy described in this
text to teach the relationships between written letters, or graphemes, and the speech
sounds, or phonemes. Programs that emphasize phonics often will refer to teaching
sound–spelling relationships or graphophonemic knowledge. Both terms refer to the con-
nection between speech sounds (phonemes) and written letters of the alphabet (graph-
emes). Although some would argue otherwise, the English language has more than
enough regularity to merit the teaching of phonics. The Research Note covers this issue
in more depth.
The utility of teaching phonics has been clearly established, but not all phonics
approaches are equally effective. After identifying thousands of research studies and sub-
mitting them to rigorous review, the NRP (2000) and NELP (2008) concluded that sys-
tematic and explicit phonics programs are most effective for teaching students to read,
particularly students who are at risk. Armbruster, Lehr, and Osborn (2001) summarized
the key differences between systematic and nonsystematic phonics programs. These dif-
ferences are shown in Figure 1.3. The phonics strategies described in this text are designed
to be both systematic and explicit to ensure the success of students who are at risk.
The Common Core includes beginning phonics skills under the Reading Foundations
strand in kindergarten and first grade: CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RF.1.3, “Know and apply grade-
level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words.” In second through fifth grade,
students are expected to know and apply the phonics skills needed for increasingly more
difficult advanced word reading (NGA & CCSSO, 2012). Phonics skills used in beginning
reading as well as more advanced reading are covered in Chapters 3 and 4.
Research Note
Does Teaching Phonics Make Sense?
1. We must polish the Polish furniture.

2. “Tom, go around the corner and come to me now.”
Judging from these examples, teaching students to read would be much easier if there were
only one symbol for each phoneme or sound in our speech. In that case, the letter o would
have the same sound regardless of context or what letter it happened to be positioned next
to in a word. Unfortunately, as these examples show, that sound (as in polish), depends on
the meaning of the words surrounding it. In the second sentence, seven of the words contain
the letter o, and o makes a different sound in each word, depending in large part on the
adjacent letters. The question is, given all of this irregularity, does teaching phonics still make
sense? The truth is only about 13% of English words are exceptions with highly unpredict-
able letter–sound relations, whereas 87% of English language words are either very predict-
able or consist of more complex spelling patterns that can be explicitly taught (Venezky,
1970; Wijk, 1966). In addition, many of the exceptions, such as said and where, are easier to
remember when some of their sounds are taken into account. Research also shows that context
clues may be helpful only 10% to 20% of the time (Gough, 1983). Add to this over 40 years of
research evidence in support of teaching phonics, and the inescapable conclusion is that the
teaching of phonics is definitely justified.
FIGURE 1.3 Evaluating Programs of Phonics Instruction
Examples
Systematic programs that teach phonics effectively . . .
■ help teachers explicitly and systematically instruct students in how to relate letters and sounds,
how to break spoken words into sounds, and how to blend sounds to form words.
■ help students understand why they are learning the relationships between letters and
sounds.
■ help students apply their knowledge of phonics as they read words, sentences, and text.
■ can be adapted to the needs of individual students, based on assessment.
■ include alphabetic knowledge, phonemic awareness, vocabulary development, and the read-
ing of text, as well as systematic phonics instruction.
Nonexamples
Nonsystematic programs that do not teach phonics effectively include . . .
■ Literature-based programs that emphasize reading and writing activities. Phonics instruction is
embedded in these activities, but letter–sound relationships are taught incidentally, usually
based on key letters that appear in student reading materials.
■ Basal reading programs that focus on whole-word or meaning-based activities. These pro-
grams pay only limited attention to letter–sound relationships and provide little or no instruc-
tion in how to blend letters to pronounce words.
■ Sight-word programs that begin by teaching children a sight-word reading vocabulary of
from 50 to 100 words. After children learn to read these words, they receive instruction in
the alphabetic principle.
Source: Armbruster, B., Lehr, F., & Osborn, J. (2001). Put Reading First: The Research Building Blocks
for Teaching Children to Read (pp. 16–17). Washington, DC: Partnership for Reading.
12 Chapter 1
Phonics instruction helps students acquire skills in the following areas: identifying
letter–sound correspondences, sounding out words containing letter sounds previously
taught, reading text containing those words and new words with letter–sound correspon-
dences that have previously been taught, and identifying words by sight. As noted earlier,
spelling instruction should be integrated into all aspects of phonics instruction because of
the benefits of having students spell words they are also learning to read. Chapters 3
through 5 will explain how learning these skills will help your students become fluent read-
ers. Teaching students decoding skills involves some of the most difficult and precise teach-
ing you will do. The aim of Chapter 3 is to provide information and guides for teachers to
provide all students with the foundational decoding skills necessary to become fluent read-
ers so that their attention and memory resources are available to focus on comprehending
the meaning of the text they are reading.
Reading Fluency
Reading fluency is the ability to read text accurately, quickly, and with expression. All
three of these elements—accuracy, speed, and expression—are essential so that students
can apply their fluency skills during silent reading and comprehend the text (Chard,
Pikulski, & McDonough, 2006). That is because students who are able to read fluently can
focus their energy on finding out what the text means. Conversely, students who read in a
choppy, word-by-word fashion are so focused on getting the words right that they have lit-
tle energy left for deciphering their meaning. Reading fluency is an important part of the
reading curriculum for students who are at risk because they may not develop it naturally,
even if they have attained the alphabetic principle (Speece & Ritchey, 2005). Unfortunately,
teachers often omit teaching fluency, which prevents many students who are at risk from
transitioning into fluid, expressive readers. Fortunately, there is a large body of research
showing that fluency can be assessed and effectively taught (Fuchs, Fuchs, Hosp, & Jenkins,
2001; Wolf & Katzir-Cohen, 2001), particularly for students reading at grade levels 1 to 6
(Edmonds et al., 2009).
The Common Core Standards include reading fluency as a separate strand under foun-
dational skills between first and fifth grades. A typical standard in fluency indicates: “Read
with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension.” (NGA & CCSSO, 2012). In
Chapter 5, you will learn to teach students to do both.
Vocabulary
Vocabulary is the fourth key component of effective early literacy programs for students
who are at risk. As shown in Table 1.1, vocabulary can be either receptive or expressive and
oral or written. Oral receptive vocabulary involves understanding the meaning of words
when people speak; written receptive vocabulary concerns understanding the meaning of
words that are read. Oral expressive vocabulary means using words in speaking so that
other people understand you; written expressive vocabulary is communicating meaning-
fully through writing.
Knowledge of the meaning of a wide variety of words enables students to identify words
more easily. A student who knows the meaning of the word skeptic from hearing it in con-
versations, but who has never read the word before, will more fluently apply his decoding
knowledge when reading a sentence containing that word. He will also be more apt to
understand the meaning of the sentence. In turn, knowledge of letter–sound associations
provides a valuable memory cue and helps students remember vocabulary words more eas-
ily (Ehri, 2005). Students who are at risk, including those in poverty, those having disabili-
ties, or those who speak a second language, are likely to lag behind their peers in vocabulary
development (Hart & Risley, 1995). Equally disturbing is that vocabulary differences grow
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DANCE ON STILTS AT THE GIRLS’ UNYAGO, NIUCHI
Newala, too, suffers from the distance of its water-supply—at least

the Newala of to-day does; there was once another Newala in a lovely
valley at the foot of the plateau. I visited it and found scarcely a trace
of houses, only a Christian cemetery, with the graves of several
missionaries and their converts, remaining as a monument of its
former glories. But the surroundings are wonderfully beautiful. A
thick grove of splendid mango-trees closes in the weather-worn
crosses and headstones; behind them, combining the useful and the
agreeable, is a whole plantation of lemon-trees covered with ripe
fruit; not the small African kind, but a much larger and also juicier
imported variety, which drops into the hands of the passing traveller,
without calling for any exertion on his part. Old Newala is now under
the jurisdiction of the native pastor, Daudi, at Chingulungulu, who,
as I am on very friendly terms with him, allows me, as a matter of
course, the use of this lemon-grove during my stay at Newala.
FEET MUTILATED BY THE RAVAGES OF THE “JIGGER”
(Sarcopsylla penetrans)
The water-supply of New Newala is in the bottom of the valley,

some 1,600 feet lower down. The way is not only long and fatiguing,
but the water, when we get it, is thoroughly bad. We are suffering not
only from this, but from the fact that the arrangements at Newala are
nothing short of luxurious. We have a separate kitchen—a hut built
against the boma palisade on the right of the baraza, the interior of
which is not visible from our usual position. Our two cooks were not
long in finding this out, and they consequently do—or rather neglect
to do—what they please. In any case they do not seem to be very
particular about the boiling of our drinking-water—at least I can
attribute to no other cause certain attacks of a dysenteric nature,
from which both Knudsen and I have suffered for some time. If a
man like Omari has to be left unwatched for a moment, he is capable
of anything. Besides this complaint, we are inconvenienced by the
state of our nails, which have become as hard as glass, and crack on
the slightest provocation, and I have the additional infliction of
pimples all over me. As if all this were not enough, we have also, for
the last week been waging war against the jigger, who has found his
Eldorado in the hot sand of the Makonde plateau. Our men are seen
all day long—whenever their chronic colds and the dysentery likewise
raging among them permit—occupied in removing this scourge of
Africa from their feet and trying to prevent the disastrous
consequences of its presence. It is quite common to see natives of
this place with one or two toes missing; many have lost all their toes,
or even the whole front part of the foot, so that a well-formed leg
ends in a shapeless stump. These ravages are caused by the female of
Sarcopsylla penetrans, which bores its way under the skin and there
develops an egg-sac the size of a pea. In all books on the subject, it is
stated that one’s attention is called to the presence of this parasite by
an intolerable itching. This agrees very well with my experience, so
far as the softer parts of the sole, the spaces between and under the
toes, and the side of the foot are concerned, but if the creature
penetrates through the harder parts of the heel or ball of the foot, it
may escape even the most careful search till it has reached maturity.
Then there is no time to be lost, if the horrible ulceration, of which
we see cases by the dozen every day, is to be prevented. It is much
easier, by the way, to discover the insect on the white skin of a
European than on that of a native, on which the dark speck scarcely
shows. The four or five jiggers which, in spite of the fact that I
constantly wore high laced boots, chose my feet to settle in, were
taken out for me by the all-accomplished Knudsen, after which I
thought it advisable to wash out the cavities with corrosive
sublimate. The natives have a different sort of disinfectant—they fill
the hole with scraped roots. In a tiny Makua village on the slope of
the plateau south of Newala, we saw an old woman who had filled all
the spaces under her toe-nails with powdered roots by way of
prophylactic treatment. What will be the result, if any, who can say?
The rest of the many trifling ills which trouble our existence are
really more comic than serious. In the absence of anything else to
smoke, Knudsen and I at last opened a box of cigars procured from
the Indian store-keeper at Lindi, and tried them, with the most
distressing results. Whether they contain opium or some other
narcotic, neither of us can say, but after the tenth puff we were both
“off,” three-quarters stupefied and unspeakably wretched. Slowly we
recovered—and what happened next? Half-an-hour later we were
once more smoking these poisonous concoctions—so insatiable is the
craving for tobacco in the tropics.
Even my present attacks of fever scarcely deserve to be taken
seriously. I have had no less than three here at Newala, all of which
have run their course in an incredibly short time. In the early
afternoon, I am busy with my old natives, asking questions and
making notes. The strong midday coffee has stimulated my spirits to
an extraordinary degree, the brain is active and vigorous, and work
progresses rapidly, while a pleasant warmth pervades the whole
body. Suddenly this gives place to a violent chill, forcing me to put on
my overcoat, though it is only half-past three and the afternoon sun
is at its hottest. Now the brain no longer works with such acuteness
and logical precision; more especially does it fail me in trying to
establish the syntax of the difficult Makua language on which I have
ventured, as if I had not enough to do without it. Under the
circumstances it seems advisable to take my temperature, and I do
so, to save trouble, without leaving my seat, and while going on with
my work. On examination, I find it to be 101·48°. My tutors are
abruptly dismissed and my bed set up in the baraza; a few minutes
later I am in it and treating myself internally with hot water and
lemon-juice.
Three hours later, the thermometer marks nearly 104°, and I make
them carry me back into the tent, bed and all, as I am now perspiring
heavily, and exposure to the cold wind just beginning to blow might
mean a fatal chill. I lie still for a little while, and then find, to my
great relief, that the temperature is not rising, but rather falling. This
is about 7.30 p.m. At 8 p.m. I find, to my unbounded astonishment,
that it has fallen below 98·6°, and I feel perfectly well. I read for an
hour or two, and could very well enjoy a smoke, if I had the
wherewithal—Indian cigars being out of the question.
Having no medical training, I am at a loss to account for this state
of things. It is impossible that these transitory attacks of high fever
should be malarial; it seems more probable that they are due to a
kind of sunstroke. On consulting my note-book, I become more and
more inclined to think this is the case, for these attacks regularly
follow extreme fatigue and long exposure to strong sunshine. They at
least have the advantage of being only short interruptions to my
work, as on the following morning I am always quite fresh and fit.
My treasure of a cook is suffering from an enormous hydrocele which
makes it difficult for him to get up, and Moritz is obliged to keep in
the dark on account of his inflamed eyes. Knudsen’s cook, a raw boy
from somewhere in the bush, knows still less of cooking than Omari;
consequently Nils Knudsen himself has been promoted to the vacant
post. Finding that we had come to the end of our supplies, he began
by sending to Chingulungulu for the four sucking-pigs which we had
bought from Matola and temporarily left in his charge; and when
they came up, neatly packed in a large crate, he callously slaughtered
the biggest of them. The first joint we were thoughtless enough to
entrust for roasting to Knudsen’s mshenzi cook, and it was
consequently uneatable; but we made the rest of the animal into a
jelly which we ate with great relish after weeks of underfeeding,
consuming incredible helpings of it at both midday and evening
meals. The only drawback is a certain want of variety in the tinned
vegetables. Dr. Jäger, to whom the Geographical Commission
entrusted the provisioning of the expeditions—mine as well as his
own—because he had more time on his hands than the rest of us,
seems to have laid in a huge stock of Teltow turnips,[46] an article of
food which is all very well for occasional use, but which quickly palls
when set before one every day; and we seem to have no other tins
left. There is no help for it—we must put up with the turnips; but I
am certain that, once I am home again, I shall not touch them for ten
years to come.
Amid all these minor evils, which, after all, go to make up the
genuine flavour of Africa, there is at least one cheering touch:
Knudsen has, with the dexterity of a skilled mechanic, repaired my 9
× 12 cm. camera, at least so far that I can use it with a little care.
How, in the absence of finger-nails, he was able to accomplish such a
ticklish piece of work, having no tool but a clumsy screw-driver for
taking to pieces and putting together again the complicated
mechanism of the instantaneous shutter, is still a mystery to me; but
he did it successfully. The loss of his finger-nails shows him in a light
contrasting curiously enough with the intelligence evinced by the
above operation; though, after all, it is scarcely surprising after his
ten years’ residence in the bush. One day, at Lindi, he had occasion
to wash a dog, which must have been in need of very thorough
cleansing, for the bottle handed to our friend for the purpose had an
extremely strong smell. Having performed his task in the most
conscientious manner, he perceived with some surprise that the dog
did not appear much the better for it, and was further surprised by
finding his own nails ulcerating away in the course of the next few
days. “How was I to know that carbolic acid has to be diluted?” he
mutters indignantly, from time to time, with a troubled gaze at his
mutilated finger-tips.
Since we came to Newala we have been making excursions in all
directions through the surrounding country, in accordance with old
habit, and also because the akida Sefu did not get together the tribal
elders from whom I wanted information so speedily as he had
promised. There is, however, no harm done, as, even if seen only
from the outside, the country and people are interesting enough.
The Makonde plateau is like a large rectangular table rounded off
at the corners. Measured from the Indian Ocean to Newala, it is
about seventy-five miles long, and between the Rovuma and the
Lukuledi it averages fifty miles in breadth, so that its superficial area
is about two-thirds of that of the kingdom of Saxony. The surface,
however, is not level, but uniformly inclined from its south-western
edge to the ocean. From the upper edge, on which Newala lies, the
eye ranges for many miles east and north-east, without encountering
any obstacle, over the Makonde bush. It is a green sea, from which
here and there thick clouds of smoke rise, to show that it, too, is
inhabited by men who carry on their tillage like so many other
primitive peoples, by cutting down and burning the bush, and
manuring with the ashes. Even in the radiant light of a tropical day
such a fire is a grand sight.
Much less effective is the impression produced just now by the
great western plain as seen from the edge of the plateau. As often as
time permits, I stroll along this edge, sometimes in one direction,
sometimes in another, in the hope of finding the air clear enough to
let me enjoy the view; but I have always been disappointed.
Wherever one looks, clouds of smoke rise from the burning bush,
and the air is full of smoke and vapour. It is a pity, for under more
favourable circumstances the panorama of the whole country up to
the distant Majeje hills must be truly magnificent. It is of little use
taking photographs now, and an outline sketch gives a very poor idea
of the scenery. In one of these excursions I went out of my way to
make a personal attempt on the Makonde bush. The present edge of
the plateau is the result of a far-reaching process of destruction
through erosion and denudation. The Makonde strata are
everywhere cut into by ravines, which, though short, are hundreds of
yards in depth. In consequence of the loose stratification of these
beds, not only are the walls of these ravines nearly vertical, but their
upper end is closed by an equally steep escarpment, so that the
western edge of the Makonde plateau is hemmed in by a series of
deep, basin-like valleys. In order to get from one side of such a ravine
to the other, I cut my way through the bush with a dozen of my men.
It was a very open part, with more grass than scrub, but even so the
short stretch of less than two hundred yards was very hard work; at
the end of it the men’s calicoes were in rags and they themselves
bleeding from hundreds of scratches, while even our strong khaki
suits had not escaped scatheless.
NATIVE PATH THROUGH THE MAKONDE BUSH, NEAR

MAHUTA
I see increasing reason to believe that the view formed some time
back as to the origin of the Makonde bush is the correct one. I have
no doubt that it is not a natural product, but the result of human
occupation. Those parts of the high country where man—as a very
slight amount of practice enables the eye to perceive at once—has not
yet penetrated with axe and hoe, are still occupied by a splendid
timber forest quite able to sustain a comparison with our mixed
forests in Germany. But wherever man has once built his hut or tilled
his field, this horrible bush springs up. Every phase of this process
may be seen in the course of a couple of hours’ walk along the main
road. From the bush to right or left, one hears the sound of the axe—
not from one spot only, but from several directions at once. A few
steps further on, we can see what is taking place. The brush has been
cut down and piled up in heaps to the height of a yard or more,
between which the trunks of the large trees stand up like the last
pillars of a magnificent ruined building. These, too, present a
melancholy spectacle: the destructive Makonde have ringed them—
cut a broad strip of bark all round to ensure their dying off—and also
piled up pyramids of brush round them. Father and son, mother and
son-in-law, are chopping away perseveringly in the background—too
busy, almost, to look round at the white stranger, who usually excites
so much interest. If you pass by the same place a week later, the piles
of brushwood have disappeared and a thick layer of ashes has taken
the place of the green forest. The large trees stretch their
smouldering trunks and branches in dumb accusation to heaven—if
they have not already fallen and been more or less reduced to ashes,
perhaps only showing as a white stripe on the dark ground.
This work of destruction is carried out by the Makonde alike on the
virgin forest and on the bush which has sprung up on sites already
cultivated and deserted. In the second case they are saved the trouble
of burning the large trees, these being entirely absent in the
secondary bush.
After burning this piece of forest ground and loosening it with the
hoe, the native sows his corn and plants his vegetables. All over the
country, he goes in for bed-culture, which requires, and, in fact,
receives, the most careful attention. Weeds are nowhere tolerated in
the south of German East Africa. The crops may fail on the plains,
where droughts are frequent, but never on the plateau with its
abundant rains and heavy dews. Its fortunate inhabitants even have
the satisfaction of seeing the proud Wayao and Wamakua working
for them as labourers, driven by hunger to serve where they were
accustomed to rule.
But the light, sandy soil is soon exhausted, and would yield no
harvest the second year if cultivated twice running. This fact has
been familiar to the native for ages; consequently he provides in
time, and, while his crop is growing, prepares the next plot with axe
and firebrand. Next year he plants this with his various crops and
lets the first piece lie fallow. For a short time it remains waste and
desolate; then nature steps in to repair the destruction wrought by
man; a thousand new growths spring out of the exhausted soil, and
even the old stumps put forth fresh shoots. Next year the new growth
is up to one’s knees, and in a few years more it is that terrible,
impenetrable bush, which maintains its position till the black
occupier of the land has made the round of all the available sites and
come back to his starting point.
The Makonde are, body and soul, so to speak, one with this bush.
According to my Yao informants, indeed, their name means nothing
else but “bush people.” Their own tradition says that they have been
settled up here for a very long time, but to my surprise they laid great
stress on an original immigration. Their old homes were in the
south-east, near Mikindani and the mouth of the Rovuma, whence
their peaceful forefathers were driven by the continual raids of the
Sakalavas from Madagascar and the warlike Shirazis[47] of the coast,
to take refuge on the almost inaccessible plateau. I have studied
African ethnology for twenty years, but the fact that changes of
population in this apparently quiet and peaceable corner of the earth
could have been occasioned by outside enterprises taking place on
the high seas, was completely new to me. It is, no doubt, however,
correct.
The charming tribal legend of the Makonde—besides informing us
of other interesting matters—explains why they have to live in the
thickest of the bush and a long way from the edge of the plateau,
instead of making their permanent homes beside the purling brooks
and springs of the low country.
“The place where the tribe originated is Mahuta, on the southern
side of the plateau towards the Rovuma, where of old time there was
nothing but thick bush. Out of this bush came a man who never
washed himself or shaved his head, and who ate and drank but little.
He went out and made a human figure from the wood of a tree
growing in the open country, which he took home to his abode in the
bush and there set it upright. In the night this image came to life and
was a woman. The man and woman went down together to the
Rovuma to wash themselves. Here the woman gave birth to a still-
born child. They left that place and passed over the high land into the
valley of the Mbemkuru, where the woman had another child, which
was also born dead. Then they returned to the high bush country of
Mahuta, where the third child was born, which lived and grew up. In
course of time, the couple had many more children, and called
themselves Wamatanda. These were the ancestral stock of the
Makonde, also called Wamakonde,[48] i.e., aborigines. Their
forefather, the man from the bush, gave his children the command to
bury their dead upright, in memory of the mother of their race who
was cut out of wood and awoke to life when standing upright. He also
warned them against settling in the valleys and near large streams,
for sickness and death dwelt there. They were to make it a rule to
have their huts at least an hour’s walk from the nearest watering-
place; then their children would thrive and escape illness.”
The explanation of the name Makonde given by my informants is
somewhat different from that contained in the above legend, which I
extract from a little book (small, but packed with information), by
Pater Adams, entitled Lindi und sein Hinterland. Otherwise, my
results agree exactly with the statements of the legend. Washing?
Hapana—there is no such thing. Why should they do so? As it is, the
supply of water scarcely suffices for cooking and drinking; other
people do not wash, so why should the Makonde distinguish himself
by such needless eccentricity? As for shaving the head, the short,
woolly crop scarcely needs it,[49] so the second ancestral precept is
likewise easy enough to follow. Beyond this, however, there is
nothing ridiculous in the ancestor’s advice. I have obtained from
various local artists a fairly large number of figures carved in wood,
ranging from fifteen to twenty-three inches in height, and
representing women belonging to the great group of the Mavia,
Makonde, and Matambwe tribes. The carving is remarkably well
done and renders the female type with great accuracy, especially the
keloid ornamentation, to be described later on. As to the object and
meaning of their works the sculptors either could or (more probably)
would tell me nothing, and I was forced to content myself with the
scanty information vouchsafed by one man, who said that the figures
were merely intended to represent the nembo—the artificial
deformations of pelele, ear-discs, and keloids. The legend recorded
by Pater Adams places these figures in a new light. They must surely
be more than mere dolls; and we may even venture to assume that
they are—though the majority of present-day Makonde are probably
unaware of the fact—representations of the tribal ancestress.
The references in the legend to the descent from Mahuta to the
Rovuma, and to a journey across the highlands into the Mbekuru
valley, undoubtedly indicate the previous history of the tribe, the
travels of the ancestral pair typifying the migrations of their
descendants. The descent to the neighbouring Rovuma valley, with
its extraordinary fertility and great abundance of game, is intelligible
at a glance—but the crossing of the Lukuledi depression, the ascent
to the Rondo Plateau and the descent to the Mbemkuru, also lie
within the bounds of probability, for all these districts have exactly
the same character as the extreme south. Now, however, comes a
point of especial interest for our bacteriological age. The primitive
Makonde did not enjoy their lives in the marshy river-valleys.
Disease raged among them, and many died. It was only after they
had returned to their original home near Mahuta, that the health
conditions of these people improved. We are very apt to think of the
African as a stupid person whose ignorance of nature is only equalled
by his fear of it, and who looks on all mishaps as caused by evil
spirits and malignant natural powers. It is much more correct to
assume in this case that the people very early learnt to distinguish
districts infested with malaria from those where it is absent.
This knowledge is crystallized in the
ancestral warning against settling in the
valleys and near the great waters, the
dwelling-places of disease and death. At the
same time, for security against the hostile
Mavia south of the Rovuma, it was enacted
that every settlement must be not less than a
certain distance from the southern edge of the
plateau. Such in fact is their mode of life at the
present day. It is not such a bad one, and
certainly they are both safer and more
comfortable than the Makua, the recent
intruders from the south, who have made USUAL METHOD OF
good their footing on the western edge of the CLOSING HUT-DOOR
plateau, extending over a fairly wide belt of
country. Neither Makua nor Makonde show in their dwellings
anything of the size and comeliness of the Yao houses in the plain,
especially at Masasi, Chingulungulu and Zuza’s. Jumbe Chauro, a
Makonde hamlet not far from Newala, on the road to Mahuta, is the
most important settlement of the tribe I have yet seen, and has fairly
spacious huts. But how slovenly is their construction compared with
the palatial residences of the elephant-hunters living in the plain.
The roofs are still more untidy than in the general run of huts during
the dry season, the walls show here and there the scanty beginnings
or the lamentable remains of the mud plastering, and the interior is a
veritable dog-kennel; dirt, dust and disorder everywhere. A few huts
only show any attempt at division into rooms, and this consists
merely of very roughly-made bamboo partitions. In one point alone
have I noticed any indication of progress—in the method of fastening
the door. Houses all over the south are secured in a simple but
ingenious manner. The door consists of a set of stout pieces of wood
or bamboo, tied with bark-string to two cross-pieces, and moving in
two grooves round one of the door-posts, so as to open inwards. If
the owner wishes to leave home, he takes two logs as thick as a man’s
upper arm and about a yard long. One of these is placed obliquely
against the middle of the door from the inside, so as to form an angle
of from 60° to 75° with the ground. He then places the second piece
horizontally across the first, pressing it downward with all his might.
It is kept in place by two strong posts planted in the ground a few
inches inside the door. This fastening is absolutely safe, but of course
cannot be applied to both doors at once, otherwise how could the
owner leave or enter his house? I have not yet succeeded in finding
out how the back door is fastened.
MAKONDE LOCK AND KEY AT JUMBE CHAURO

This is the general way of closing a house. The Makonde at Jumbe
Chauro, however, have a much more complicated, solid and original
one. Here, too, the door is as already described, except that there is
only one post on the inside, standing by itself about six inches from
one side of the doorway. Opposite this post is a hole in the wall just
large enough to admit a man’s arm. The door is closed inside by a
large wooden bolt passing through a hole in this post and pressing
with its free end against the door. The other end has three holes into
which fit three pegs running in vertical grooves inside the post. The
door is opened with a wooden key about a foot long, somewhat
curved and sloped off at the butt; the other end has three pegs
corresponding to the holes, in the bolt, so that, when it is thrust
through the hole in the wall and inserted into the rectangular
opening in the post, the pegs can be lifted and the bolt drawn out.[50]
MODE OF INSERTING THE KEY
With no small pride first one householder and then a second

showed me on the spot the action of this greatest invention of the
Makonde Highlands. To both with an admiring exclamation of
“Vizuri sana!” (“Very fine!”). I expressed the wish to take back these
marvels with me to Ulaya, to show the Wazungu what clever fellows
the Makonde are. Scarcely five minutes after my return to camp at
Newala, the two men came up sweating under the weight of two
heavy logs which they laid down at my feet, handing over at the same
time the keys of the fallen fortress. Arguing, logically enough, that if
the key was wanted, the lock would be wanted with it, they had taken
their axes and chopped down the posts—as it never occurred to them
to dig them out of the ground and so bring them intact. Thus I have
two badly damaged specimens, and the owners, instead of praise,
come in for a blowing-up.
The Makua huts in the environs of Newala are especially
miserable; their more than slovenly construction reminds one of the
temporary erections of the Makua at Hatia’s, though the people here
have not been concerned in a war. It must therefore be due to
congenital idleness, or else to the absence of a powerful chief. Even
the baraza at Mlipa’s, a short hour’s walk south-east of Newala,
shares in this general neglect. While public buildings in this country
are usually looked after more or less carefully, this is in evident
danger of being blown over by the first strong easterly gale. The only
attractive object in this whole district is the grave of the late chief
Mlipa. I visited it in the morning, while the sun was still trying with
partial success to break through the rolling mists, and the circular
grove of tall euphorbias, which, with a broken pot, is all that marks
the old king’s resting-place, impressed one with a touch of pathos.
Even my very materially-minded carriers seemed to feel something
of the sort, for instead of their usual ribald songs, they chanted
solemnly, as we marched on through the dense green of the Makonde
bush:—
“We shall arrive with the great master; we stand in a row and have
no fear about getting our food and our money from the Serkali (the
Government). We are not afraid; we are going along with the great
master, the lion; we are going down to the coast and back.”
With regard to the characteristic features of the various tribes here
on the western edge of the plateau, I can arrive at no other
conclusion than the one already come to in the plain, viz., that it is
impossible for anyone but a trained anthropologist to assign any
given individual at once to his proper tribe. In fact, I think that even
an anthropological specialist, after the most careful examination,
might find it a difficult task to decide. The whole congeries of peoples
collected in the region bounded on the west by the great Central
African rift, Tanganyika and Nyasa, and on the east by the Indian
Ocean, are closely related to each other—some of their languages are
only distinguished from one another as dialects of the same speech,
and no doubt all the tribes present the same shape of skull and
structure of skeleton. Thus, surely, there can be no very striking
differences in outward appearance.
Even did such exist, I should have no time
to concern myself with them, for day after day,
I have to see or hear, as the case may be—in
any case to grasp and record—an
extraordinary number of ethnographic
phenomena. I am almost disposed to think it
fortunate that some departments of inquiry, at
least, are barred by external circumstances.
Chief among these is the subject of iron-
working. We are apt to think of Africa as a
country where iron ore is everywhere, so to
speak, to be picked up by the roadside, and
where it would be quite surprising if the
inhabitants had not learnt to smelt the
material ready to their hand. In fact, the
knowledge of this art ranges all over the
continent, from the Kabyles in the north to the
Kafirs in the south. Here between the Rovuma
and the Lukuledi the conditions are not so
favourable. According to the statements of the
Makonde, neither ironstone nor any other
form of iron ore is known to them. They have
not therefore advanced to the art of smelting
the metal, but have hitherto bought all their
THE ANCESTRESS OF
THE MAKONDE
iron implements from neighbouring tribes.
Even in the plain the inhabitants are not much
better off. Only one man now living is said to
understand the art of smelting iron. This old fundi lives close to
Huwe, that isolated, steep-sided block of granite which rises out of
the green solitude between Masasi and Chingulungulu, and whose
jagged and splintered top meets the traveller’s eye everywhere. While
still at Masasi I wished to see this man at work, but was told that,
frightened by the rising, he had retired across the Rovuma, though
he would soon return. All subsequent inquiries as to whether the
fundi had come back met with the genuine African answer, “Bado”
(“Not yet”).
BRAZIER
Some consolation was afforded me by a brassfounder, whom I

came across in the bush near Akundonde’s. This man is the favourite
of women, and therefore no doubt of the gods; he welds the glittering
brass rods purchased at the coast into those massive, heavy rings
which, on the wrists and ankles of the local fair ones, continually give
me fresh food for admiration. Like every decent master-craftsman he
had all his tools with him, consisting of a pair of bellows, three
crucibles and a hammer—nothing more, apparently. He was quite
willing to show his skill, and in a twinkling had fixed his bellows on
the ground. They are simply two goat-skins, taken off whole, the four
legs being closed by knots, while the upper opening, intended to
admit the air, is kept stretched by two pieces of wood. At the lower
end of the skin a smaller opening is left into which a wooden tube is
stuck. The fundi has quickly borrowed a heap of wood-embers from
the nearest hut; he then fixes the free ends of the two tubes into an
earthen pipe, and clamps them to the ground by means of a bent
piece of wood. Now he fills one of his small clay crucibles, the dross
on which shows that they have been long in use, with the yellow
material, places it in the midst of the embers, which, at present are
only faintly glimmering, and begins his work. In quick alternation
the smith’s two hands move up and down with the open ends of the
bellows; as he raises his hand he holds the slit wide open, so as to let
the air enter the skin bag unhindered. In pressing it down he closes
the bag, and the air puffs through the bamboo tube and clay pipe into
the fire, which quickly burns up. The smith, however, does not keep
on with this work, but beckons to another man, who relieves him at
the bellows, while he takes some more tools out of a large skin pouch
carried on his back. I look on in wonder as, with a smooth round
stick about the thickness of a finger, he bores a few vertical holes into
the clean sand of the soil. This should not be difficult, yet the man
seems to be taking great pains over it. Then he fastens down to the
ground, with a couple of wooden clamps, a neat little trough made by
splitting a joint of bamboo in half, so that the ends are closed by the
two knots. At last the yellow metal has attained the right consistency,
and the fundi lifts the crucible from the fire by means of two sticks
split at the end to serve as tongs. A short swift turn to the left—a
tilting of the crucible—and the molten brass, hissing and giving forth
clouds of smoke, flows first into the bamboo mould and then into the
holes in the ground.
The technique of this backwoods craftsman may not be very far
advanced, but it cannot be denied that he knows how to obtain an
adequate result by the simplest means. The ladies of highest rank in
this country—that is to say, those who can afford it, wear two kinds
of these massive brass rings, one cylindrical, the other semicircular
in section. The latter are cast in the most ingenious way in the
bamboo mould, the former in the circular hole in the sand. It is quite
a simple matter for the fundi to fit these bars to the limbs of his fair
customers; with a few light strokes of his hammer he bends the
pliable brass round arm or ankle without further inconvenience to
the wearer.
SHAPING THE POT
SMOOTHING WITH MAIZE-COB
CUTTING THE EDGE

FINISHING THE BOTTOM
LAST SMOOTHING BEFORE

BURNING
FIRING THE BRUSH-PILE

LIGHTING THE FARTHER SIDE OF
THE PILE
TURNING THE RED-HOT VESSEL
NYASA WOMAN MAKING POTS AT MASASI

Pottery is an art which must always and everywhere excite the
interest of the student, just because it is so intimately connected with
the development of human culture, and because its relics are one of
the principal factors in the reconstruction of our own condition in
prehistoric times. I shall always remember with pleasure the two or
three afternoons at Masasi when Salim Matola’s mother, a slightly-
built, graceful, pleasant-looking woman, explained to me with
touching patience, by means of concrete illustrations, the ceramic art
of her people. The only implements for this primitive process were a
lump of clay in her left hand, and in the right a calabash containing
the following valuables: the fragment of a maize-cob stripped of all
its grains, a smooth, oval pebble, about the size of a pigeon’s egg, a
few chips of gourd-shell, a bamboo splinter about the length of one’s
hand, a small shell, and a bunch of some herb resembling spinach.
Nothing more. The woman scraped with the
shell a round, shallow hole in the soft, fine
sand of the soil, and, when an active young
girl had filled the calabash with water for her,
she began to knead the clay. As if by magic it
gradually assumed the shape of a rough but
already well-shaped vessel, which only wanted
a little touching up with the instruments
before mentioned. I looked out with the
MAKUA WOMAN closest attention for any indication of the use
MAKING A POT. of the potter’s wheel, in however rudimentary
SHOWS THE a form, but no—hapana (there is none). The
BEGINNINGS OF THE embryo pot stood firmly in its little
POTTER’S WHEEL
depression, and the woman walked round it in
a stooping posture, whether she was removing
small stones or similar foreign bodies with the maize-cob, smoothing
the inner or outer surface with the splinter of bamboo, or later, after
letting it dry for a day, pricking in the ornamentation with a pointed
bit of gourd-shell, or working out the bottom, or cutting the edge
with a sharp bamboo knife, or giving the last touches to the finished
vessel. This occupation of the women is infinitely toilsome, but it is
without doubt an accurate reproduction of the process in use among
our ancestors of the Neolithic and Bronze ages.
There is no doubt that the invention of pottery, an item in human
progress whose importance cannot be over-estimated, is due to
women. Rough, coarse and unfeeling, the men of the horde range
over the countryside. When the united cunning of the hunters has
succeeded in killing the game; not one of them thinks of carrying
home the spoil. A bright fire, kindled by a vigorous wielding of the
drill, is crackling beside them; the animal has been cleaned and cut
up secundum artem, and, after a slight singeing, will soon disappear
under their sharp teeth; no one all this time giving a single thought
to wife or child.
To what shifts, on the other hand, the primitive wife, and still more
the primitive mother, was put! Not even prehistoric stomachs could
endure an unvarying diet of raw food. Something or other suggested
the beneficial effect of hot water on the majority of approved but
indigestible dishes. Perhaps a neighbour had tried holding the hard
roots or tubers over the fire in a calabash filled with water—or maybe
an ostrich-egg-shell, or a hastily improvised vessel of bark. They
became much softer and more palatable than they had previously
been; but, unfortunately, the vessel could not stand the fire and got
charred on the outside. That can be remedied, thought our
ancestress, and plastered a layer of wet clay round a similar vessel.
This is an improvement; the cooking utensil remains uninjured, but
the heat of the fire has shrunk it, so that it is loose in its shell. The
next step is to detach it, so, with a firm grip and a jerk, shell and
kernel are separated, and pottery is invented. Perhaps, however, the
discovery which led to an intelligent use of the burnt-clay shell, was
made in a slightly different way. Ostrich-eggs and calabashes are not
to be found in every part of the world, but everywhere mankind has
arrived at the art of making baskets out of pliant materials, such as
bark, bast, strips of palm-leaf, supple twigs, etc. Our inventor has no
water-tight vessel provided by nature. “Never mind, let us line the
basket with clay.” This answers the purpose, but alas! the basket gets
burnt over the blazing fire, the woman watches the process of
cooking with increasing uneasiness, fearing a leak, but no leak
appears. The food, done to a turn, is eaten with peculiar relish; and
the cooking-vessel is examined, half in curiosity, half in satisfaction
at the result. The plastic clay is now hard as stone, and at the same
time looks exceedingly well, for the neat plaiting of the burnt basket
is traced all over it in a pretty pattern. Thus, simultaneously with
pottery, its ornamentation was invented.
Primitive woman has another claim to respect. It was the man,
roving abroad, who invented the art of producing fire at will, but the
woman, unable to imitate him in this, has been a Vestal from the
earliest times. Nothing gives so much trouble as the keeping alight of
the smouldering brand, and, above all, when all the men are absent
from the camp. Heavy rain-clouds gather, already the first large
drops are falling, the first gusts of the storm rage over the plain. The
little flame, a greater anxiety to the woman than her own children,
flickers unsteadily in the blast. What is to be done? A sudden thought
occurs to her, and in an instant she has constructed a primitive hut
out of strips of bark, to protect the flame against rain and wind.
This, or something very like it, was the way in which the principle
of the house was discovered; and even the most hardened misogynist
cannot fairly refuse a woman the credit of it. The protection of the
hearth-fire from the weather is the germ from which the human
dwelling was evolved. Men had little, if any share, in this forward
step, and that only at a late stage. Even at the present day, the
plastering of the housewall with clay and the manufacture of pottery
are exclusively the women’s business. These are two very significant
survivals. Our European kitchen-garden, too, is originally a woman’s
invention, and the hoe, the primitive instrument of agriculture, is,
characteristically enough, still used in this department. But the
noblest achievement which we owe to the other sex is unquestionably
the art of cookery. Roasting alone—the oldest process—is one for
which men took the hint (a very obvious one) from nature. It must
have been suggested by the scorched carcase of some animal
overtaken by the destructive forest-fires. But boiling—the process of
improving organic substances by the help of water heated to boiling-
point—is a much later discovery. It is so recent that it has not even
yet penetrated to all parts of the world. The Polynesians understand
how to steam food, that is, to cook it, neatly wrapped in leaves, in a
hole in the earth between hot stones, the air being excluded, and
(sometimes) a few drops of water sprinkled on the stones; but they
do not understand boiling.
To come back from this digression, we find that the slender Nyasa
woman has, after once more carefully examining the finished pot,
put it aside in the shade to dry. On the following day she sends me
word by her son, Salim Matola, who is always on hand, that she is
going to do the burning, and, on coming out of my house, I find her
already hard at work. She has spread on the ground a layer of very
dry sticks, about as thick as one’s thumb, has laid the pot (now of a
yellowish-grey colour) on them, and is piling brushwood round it.
My faithful Pesa mbili, the mnyampara, who has been standing by,
most obligingly, with a lighted stick, now hands it to her. Both of
them, blowing steadily, light the pile on the lee side, and, when the
flame begins to catch, on the weather side also. Soon the whole is in a
blaze, but the dry fuel is quickly consumed and the fire dies down, so
that we see the red-hot vessel rising from the ashes. The woman
turns it continually with a long stick, sometimes one way and
sometimes another, so that it may be evenly heated all over. In
twenty minutes she rolls it out of the ash-heap, takes up the bundle
of spinach, which has been lying for two days in a jar of water, and
sprinkles the red-hot clay with it. The places where the drops fall are
marked by black spots on the uniform reddish-brown surface. With a
sigh of relief, and with visible satisfaction, the woman rises to an
erect position; she is standing just in a line between me and the fire,
from which a cloud of smoke is just rising: I press the ball of my
camera, the shutter clicks—the apotheosis is achieved! Like a
priestess, representative of her inventive sex, the graceful woman
stands: at her feet the hearth-fire she has given us beside her the
invention she has devised for us, in the background the home she has
built for us.
At Newala, also, I have had the manufacture of pottery carried on
in my presence. Technically the process is better than that already
described, for here we find the beginnings of the potter’s wheel,
which does not seem to exist in the plains; at least I have seen
nothing of the sort. The artist, a frightfully stupid Makua woman, did
not make a depression in the ground to receive the pot she was about
to shape, but used instead a large potsherd. Otherwise, she went to
work in much the same way as Salim’s mother, except that she saved
herself the trouble of walking round and round her work by squatting
at her ease and letting the pot and potsherd rotate round her; this is
surely the first step towards a machine. But it does not follow that
the pot was improved by the process. It is true that it was beautifully
rounded and presented a very creditable appearance when finished,
but the numerous large and small vessels which I have seen, and, in
part, collected, in the “less advanced” districts, are no less so. We
moderns imagine that instruments of precision are necessary to
produce excellent results. Go to the prehistoric collections of our
museums and look at the pots, urns and bowls of our ancestors in the
dim ages of the past, and you will at once perceive your error.
MAKING LONGITUDINAL CUT IN
BARK
DRAWING THE BARK OFF THE LOG
REMOVING THE OUTER BARK

BEATING THE BARK
WORKING THE BARK-CLOTH AFTER BEATING, TO MAKE IT

SOFT
MANUFACTURE OF BARK-CLOTH AT NEWALA

To-day, nearly the whole population of German East Africa is
clothed in imported calico. This was not always the case; even now in
some parts of the north dressed skins are still the prevailing wear,
and in the north-western districts—east and north of Lake
Tanganyika—lies a zone where bark-cloth has not yet been
superseded. Probably not many generations have passed since such
bark fabrics and kilts of skins were the only clothing even in the
south. Even to-day, large quantities of this bright-red or drab
material are still to be found; but if we wish to see it, we must look in
the granaries and on the drying stages inside the native huts, where
it serves less ambitious uses as wrappings for those seeds and fruits
which require to be packed with special care. The salt produced at
Masasi, too, is packed for transport to a distance in large sheets of
bark-cloth. Wherever I found it in any degree possible, I studied the
process of making this cloth. The native requisitioned for the
purpose arrived, carrying a log between two and three yards long and
as thick as his thigh, and nothing else except a curiously-shaped
mallet and the usual long, sharp and pointed knife which all men and
boys wear in a belt at their backs without a sheath—horribile dictu!
[51]
Silently he squats down before me, and with two rapid cuts has
drawn a couple of circles round the log some two yards apart, and
slits the bark lengthwise between them with the point of his knife.
With evident care, he then scrapes off the outer rind all round the
log, so that in a quarter of an hour the inner red layer of the bark
shows up brightly-coloured between the two untouched ends. With
some trouble and much caution, he now loosens the bark at one end,
and opens the cylinder. He then stands up, takes hold of the free
edge with both hands, and turning it inside out, slowly but steadily
pulls it off in one piece. Now comes the troublesome work of
scraping all superfluous particles of outer bark from the outside of
the long, narrow piece of material, while the inner side is carefully
scrutinised for defective spots. At last it is ready for beating. Having
signalled to a friend, who immediately places a bowl of water beside
him, the artificer damps his sheet of bark all over, seizes his mallet,
lays one end of the stuff on the smoothest spot of the log, and
hammers away slowly but continuously. “Very simple!” I think to
myself. “Why, I could do that, too!”—but I am forced to change my
opinions a little later on; for the beating is quite an art, if the fabric is
not to be beaten to pieces. To prevent the breaking of the fibres, the
stuff is several times folded across, so as to interpose several
thicknesses between the mallet and the block. At last the required
state is reached, and the fundi seizes the sheet, still folded, by both
ends, and wrings it out, or calls an assistant to take one end while he
holds the other. The cloth produced in this way is not nearly so fine
and uniform in texture as the famous Uganda bark-cloth, but it is
quite soft, and, above all, cheap.
Now, too, I examine the mallet. My craftsman has been using the
simpler but better form of this implement, a conical block of some
hard wood, its base—the striking surface—being scored across and
across with more or less deeply-cut grooves, and the handle stuck
into a hole in the middle. The other and earlier form of mallet is
shaped in the same way, but the head is fastened by an ingenious
network of bark strips into the split bamboo serving as a handle. The
observation so often made, that ancient customs persist longest in
connection with religious ceremonies and in the life of children, here
finds confirmation. As we shall soon see, bark-cloth is still worn
during the unyago,[52] having been prepared with special solemn
ceremonies; and many a mother, if she has no other garment handy,
will still put her little one into a kilt of bark-cloth, which, after all,
looks better, besides being more in keeping with its African
surroundings, than the ridiculous bit of print from Ulaya.
MAKUA WOMEN

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Teaching Reading to Students Who Are

At Risk or Have Disabilities, Enhanced

New to This Edition

Third-Grade Reading 1999–2000 2000–2001 2001–2002 2002–2003 2003–2004

School 1 31 22 15.2 55.2 68.2

FIGURE 1 Teacher Satisfaction

2001 Teachers 2002 Teachers 2003 Teachers

List of Teaching Formats xxi

Chapter 1 An Introduction to Systematic,

Chapter 2 Phonemic Awareness 35

Chapter 3 Beginning Reading/Early Decoding 79

Applying the Enhancements to a Commercial Reading Program 108

Chapter 4 Advanced Word Reading 144

Learning Objectives 144

How Can I Teach Rule- and Pattern-Based Spelling and

Chapter 5 Reading Fluency 186

Learning Objectives 186

What Can I Do for Students Who Still Aren’t Learning

Chapter 6 Vocabulary Instruction 238

Chapter 7 Comprehension 279

Learning Objectives 279

What Would Your Character Do? 331

Appendix A Early Reading Assessment Batteries Used

Segmenting 1: Format for Segmenting First Sound 53

Format for Teaching New Letter Sounds in the General Curriculum 99

Format for New Letter Combinations and Affixes Introduced

Format for SAFER (Successful, Anxiety-Free, Engaged Reading) 207

Teaching Vocabulary Through Modeling 249

Before a research-based multi-tier reading program started at Southwest, the discouraged,

With this additional help, Bryan’s end-of-the-year kindergarten benchmark testing

The widespread adoption of the Common Core Standards

Who Are the Students at Risk

FIGURE 1.1 Typical First-Grade Classroom

Learn with ease:

Learn with support:

How Does Response to Intervention (RTI) APPLY YOUR

Guide Reading Instruction? UNDERSTANDING

Evidence-based reading instruction includes instructional practices that have been

What Essential Skills Do Students Need CHECK YOUR

FIGURE 1.2 Scientifically Based Reading Curriculum

Kinder Kinder First First Second Third

1. We must polish the Polish furniture.

FIGURE 1.3 Evaluating Programs of Phonics Instruction

Newala, too, suffers from the distance of its water-supply—at least

The water-supply of New Newala is in the bottom of the valley,

NATIVE PATH THROUGH THE MAKONDE BUSH, NEAR

MAKONDE LOCK AND KEY AT JUMBE CHAURO

MODE OF INSERTING THE KEY

With no small pride first one householder and then a second

Some consolation was afforded me by a brassfounder, whom I

SMOOTHING WITH MAIZE-COB

CUTTING THE EDGE

LAST SMOOTHING BEFORE

FIRING THE BRUSH-PILE

TURNING THE RED-HOT VESSEL

NYASA WOMAN MAKING POTS AT MASASI

DRAWING THE BARK OFF THE LOG