Which Reading Model Would Best Guide Our School Improvement Efforts?

Tim Shanahan

Teacher question:

I’m the lead reading coach in our school district. We want to present one of the reading models to our teachers and administrators to guide our efforts to improve reading achievement in the elementary and middle schools. Which of the models do you favor (e.g., simple view, Scarborough’s rope, active view)?

Shanahan responds:

All those models have some value… and they all miss a key issue it seems to me. Let’s first take a quick tour of those models that you are trying to choose among and then let me suggest a more relevant model that I think you might want to consider, Shanahan’s Wheels of Reading Improvement. 

Philip Gough and William Tunmer put forth the simple view as a hypothetical construct that could be tested in future research. The power of this model is in its simplicity. Its basic premises are that reading only has one special or unique set of skills – decoding, and that if you decode well enough to translate print to oral language (that is, if you can read text aloud), then your listening comprehension abilities should determine your degree of comprehension. 

Hollis Scarborough’s rope had a different genesis. Her model accepted the idea of those same two constellations of skills and abilities in reading. Hers wasn’t a model to be tested or a criterion for determining what matters, but a quick summary aimed at communicating what was then known about the reading process, in broad strokes. The rope sums up what scientists had determined to be component parts of decoding and comprehension. 

The more-recently issued active view model is the work of Nell Duke and Kelly Cartwright. This one is a response to what they view as the now-outdated simple view. Consistent with that purpose, the active model is significantly denser and more complicated. 

Each of these models can be useful and each has its problems. or your purpose, I think you might find helpful my Reading Improvement Wheels – a model of school reading improvement.  

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