The Reading Guarantee
How does this research link to the early reading and music partnership?
This report is about evidence-informed reading practice. Its release from the Gratton Institute has caused considerable recent interest in the education field. The report unpacks what is evidence-informed practice and how various education systems teach reading across Australia. The report advocates that governments and education systems should deliver reading instruction based on the scientific research presented in the report, in a more consistent manner; and cease using teaching strategies that are at odds with the science-based evidence referred to in the report.
The main message of the ‘The Reading Guarantee’ is clearly stated on the front page…
‘Australia has a reading problem. A third of our children can’t read well. We need to transform the way we teach reading in school. Here’s how to do it’… (Hunter, Stobart & Haywood, Feb. 2024)
The report champions a need for a strong focus on phonics in the early years, and ongoing, regular identification and remediation of reading difficulties. It refers to the big six pillars of early reading acquisition. I note the report advocates the importance of phonics in line with the National Reading Panel Report (NRP) (2000) and other key research papers that span the western world. These reports underpin best practice in teaching reading. The Reading Guarantee advocates for consistency in teaching reading, based on the scientific evidence cited in the report, the same research I draw on in my work in the Early Reading and Music Partnership.
This is the link between the Reading Guarantee and the Early Reading and Music Partnership. The six evidence-based pillars of effective reading instruction comprise phonemic awareness, phonics, oral reading fluency, vocabulary, comprehension, and oral language.
The NRP’s empirical research identified the most effective ways to teach reading (NRP, 2000, p34), as did significant studies that followed, including Teaching reading: Report and recommendations (Australian Government DoE, 2005) and a British study, Independent review of the teaching of early reading (Rose, 2006). Together, these studies underpin contemporary literacy policy and practice. Following are the main features of each of the Big Six, the components deemed essential in the effective teaching practice of early reading (DoE, 2005; Konza, 2014; NRP, 2000; Rose, 2006). I articulate the links between the mutually supportive processes of learning to read and learning music, which cohere to The reading guarantee research.
Excerpts from this blogpost are amended from Beveridge (2023), The early reading and music partnership. PETAA, p4-6.
Phonemic awareness
Phonemic awareness is the ability to identify, distinguish between and manipulate the phonemes in oral language (Cox et al., 2019, p186). Sometimes it is confused with phonological awareness. Phonological awareness refers to manipulating units of speech larger than individual phonemes, like words, syllables, onsets and rimes (IRA, 2016). In contrast, phonemic awareness relates to the ability to discriminate and manipulate individual speech phonemes, or sounds. Students need to hear and understand that spoken words are composed of individual phonemes when learning to read (Beck & Beck, 2013, p28).
Phonemic awareness is taught on a continuum. Beginning phonemic awareness activities may include simple rhyming games. For example, students provide a rhyming word that begins with the same phoneme as their name that best describes themselves (e.g. laughing Lorri). At the other end of the continuum, more challenging phonemic awareness activities include orally identifying individual phonemes in words or orally blending phonemes to form words, assisting the development of students’ orthographic awareness at the same time. A fun musical activity I that observed in a Kinder classroom to reinforce blending sounds to make words, linked to a well-known rhythm pattern, Shave and a Haircut, includes:
Keep a beat and identify the rhyming words in texts. When students hear a word that rhymes with a previous word, they strike an instrument: for example, a glockenspiel. Similarly, identify words that begin with the same letter (alliteration) from Bland, N. (2008) The Very Cranky Bear:
In the jingle jangle jungle on a cold and rainy day. Four little friends found a perfect place to play.
These types of musical activities build students’ phonemic awareness and assist them to enjoy their favourite texts in class, supporting them in their reading acquisition.
Phonics
Phonics refers to the correspondence between the sounds of spoken language, called phonemes, and the letters of the alphabet, called graphemes or graphs. Phonics also refers to the explicit teaching of sound and letter correspondences in early reading, often referred to as grapheme–phoneme correspondences (GPCs).
Songs that teach GPCs, are springboards that help children learn to read. Blending phonemes together with a simple musical rhythm help children learn to combine phonemes to make words. Once students can aurally identify individual phonemes (have phonemic awareness), and understand that graphemes represent specific phonemes, they are on their way to learning to decode unknown words.
Musical activities that support the acquisition of phonics knowledge, include Ants on the Apple; Word chains; Rhythm song and Vowel song (Beveridge, 2023). For example,
Example of song that builds students GPC knowledge.
Vocabulary
Vocabulary is ‘our wealth of words’ that ‘can determine our status in life’ (Quigley, 2018, p.1). Children come to school with extreme differences in their vocabulary, i.e. the number of words they can draw on in their mental lexicon (Beck et al., 2013). Children who are exposed to fiction and are avid readers benefit from an enriched vocabulary and a wider knowledge of the world (Simpson & Cremin, 2022). Yet not all children come to school being readers, having been read to or having had access to books. The number of words students know when starting school is linked to how much they have been immersed in language that supports their reading development.
Create soundscapes to help students learn Tier 2 or 3 vocabulary in literary and informative texts and build fluency. For example, in the text Coming home to Country (Bancroft, 2020), challenging vocabulary is explained by adding related sound effects. ‘A rolling storm drops a majestic downpour’ comes alive by adding rainsticks and thundertubes, clarifying the meaning of unfamiliar vocabulary for students.
Talk about meaning in the illustrations in texts. Ask the class What sounds may match these illustrations? For example, loud, soft, fast, slow, high, low sounds, drawing on elements of music. In the text My possum plays the drums (Meatheringham & Hamilton, 2020), for example, students make sounds to match the onomatopoeic language in the text – rustle, bang, hiss, scratch, crash, tap, screech, strum, rattle, thump, pluck, shhhh – describing the many sleep-disturbing sounds that possums make that keep us awake throughout the night.
Front-loading (explicitly teaching) unfamiliar words prior to reading them in texts helps to set students up for reading success. In the photo below, students completed art and craft activities and wrote a short song together to familiarise them with and drill new vocabulary prior to reading the text, Waters (2022). Love from Australia. This integrated English unit (K-2), Australia my country unit is available Australia: my country — Primary English
Reading fluency
Reading fluency is defined as the ability to read texts quickly, accurately and with proper expression (prosody; Beck & Beck, 2013; Konza, 2014; NRP, 2000). Reading fluency is not a quest for speed. Fluent oral reading sounds confident and effortless. It occurs without effort when all the skills of reading are in place, including phonological and phonemic awareness, alphabetic knowledge, phonics, and auditory and visual processing. Word recognition is automatic, freeing up readers’ cognitive energy to focus on meaning in texts. To develop automaticity, students should engage in wide reading of a range of genres, as well as deep reading – reading texts repeatedly until a level of fluency is achieved, with prosody. Fluency is central to authentic reading as the aim of reading is to make meaning from text. To do so students must be able recognise words with automaticity.
Fluency can be supported by musical activities, as both skills develop smooth reading. Examples of reading and musical activities that develop fluency include chants, jingles, street rhymes, clapping to the beat, playing rhythm instruments, songs, poems and choral chanting. Kolb, 1996; Routier, 2003). Texts used to support fluency development in reading are ones that will eventually be performed. Performance could include songs, poems, plays, dance or other forms of creative expression, focusing on developing meaningful expression or prosody, improved automaticity in word recognition and greater comprehension (Rasinski, 2012). Video: Chicken on a fencepost (Kodaly action song)
Comprehension
Comprehension is defined as ‘the act of understanding and interpreting information within a text’ (Shanahan, 2010, p.28). It involves a reader thinking about a text through the lens of their own knowledge, experience, and beliefs, to make sense of it. To make meaning from texts as readers, students must first be able to read the words: to decode with a degree of automaticity, be fluent oral readers and understand the vocabulary contained in the text. Comprehension depends on the prior pillars of effective reading instruction being firmly in place, so readers have more cognitive resources available to allocate to comprehension. Children can also comprehend texts that are read to them, that they are not yet able to read themselves, through listening and discussion.
Use dramatic play to imagine possibilities about characters and situations in familiar literary texts by asking students to imagine what happens next. You could use Bertie and the bear (Allen, 1989), Thelma the unicorn (Blabey, 2015) or The wonky donkey (Smith & Cowley, 2007). Use relevant vocal techniques and musical instruments to emphasise, elaborate on or add meaning to texts.
Identify the main facts in an informative text. Add these facts as lyrics to a simple ‘piggyback’ tune . Piggyback tunes are songs that use a familiar tune (like The farmer in the dell) but have an alternate set of lyrics. Singing assists recall and comprehension of the main ideas in a text. Topsy turvy world(Murray, 2012), for example, is an informative text that recounts the arrival of the first Europeans to Australia and their reactions to Australian animals. By pairing facts in information texts with classical piggyback tunes, students benefit from the effects of music on the cognitive, affective and motor components of the brain, helping children to learn, understand and remember information.
Creating songs and instrumental scores (happy, sad, fast, slow music) about characters in texts helps students to understand how the main characters are feeling and why; based on dialogue between characters, illustrations, and plot; building comprehension.
Oral language
Oral language is ‘the ability to produce or comprehend spoken language’ (Shanahan, 2010, p.282). Rich, structured talk is the bedrock of language development and a well-established means of developing vocabulary (Stanovich, 1986), yet many students are disadvantaged by a lack of talk. Children need to be competent listeners and speakers before they can become competent readers and writers.
The crucial importance of talk is evidenced in Coady’s beginner’s paradox (Coady, 1997), which describes how children need to know some words from which to learn new, related words. Similarly, Stanovich (1986, p.391) uses the Matthew Effects to rationalise how the word-rich get richer, and the word-poor get poorer, which can result in a language and vocabulary gap that impedes beginning reading acquisition. These two paradoxes demonstrate the importance of building word consciousness in young children.
Action songs, rhymes, morning circle activities are all wonderful opportunities to build student oral language through the integration of musical activities. Chant, sing and dance a multitude of traditional nursery rhymes and lullabies.
Use spoken texts, chants and songs as vehicles for students to share personal experiences with peers in a semi-formal situation, like a sharing circle. The song ‘That’s what I like’ (Beveridge, 2023) teaches students about each other, fostering wellbeing, a sense of belonging and a cohesive classroom. It also builds vocabulary and oral language, pillars of effective early reading. Musically, the song develops pitch, beat and rhythm recognition through play. The piggyback song ‘Who lives with you’ (Beveridge, 2023), sung to the tune of ‘The farmer in the dell’, provides opportunities for students to share who they live with, building oral language confidence and feelings of wellbeing and class cohesiveness. The tune is repeated by each student who wishes to share the compilation of their family. The song ‘How do you feel today?’ (Beveridge, 2023) invites individual students to share how they are feeling and why. Music provides a vehicle to articulate and discuss feelings, provide personal responses, and discuss a variety of opinions about texts; all contributing to building students’ oral language skills.
The partnership between learning to read and learning music
Learning to read and learning music are highly correlated, complementary cognitive processes (Telesco, 2010; Collins, 2020; Hallam & Himonides, 2022). The inclusion of music in early reading programs has many cognitive, educational, and social benefits that can scaffold students along the path to becoming successful readers. Cognitive benefits include improved inhibitory control and executive brain function, which assist students to concentrate, stay focused and manage their emotions (Levitin, 2006; Jones, 2010; da Silva et al., 2021). Executive functions and other ‘soft skills’, like interpersonal and behavioural skills, are identified as increasingly important in today’s workforce (Hansen et al., 2014).
Identified educational benefits of integrating music in early reading include improved rhythmic abilities, sound to symbol correspondence, phonemic awareness and reading prosody (Wennerstrom, 2001; Collins, 2020; Godde et al., 2020). Socially, music has the propensity to calm and engage reluctant learners, facilitate cooperative group learning, and ensure students feel comfortable and confident in the classroom (Curtis 2007; Saefudin, 2019; Debreceny, 2021).
What’s no longer recommended
Based on The Reading Guarantee, a whole language approach is not recommended, neither is levelled texts, predictable texts or the 3 cueing systems. Added to this reading recovery was maligned as it was said to cohere with a whole language approach and doesn’t assess foundational reading sub-skills of phonological awareness, phonics and fluency.
It was recommended phasing in instructional literacy specialists, to work with teachers in-class to hone their skills. As well, a greater focus on teaching early literacy based on the evidence in undergraduate programs in universities.
A national perspective
A significant strength of the report is providing a snapshot of education systems’ practices in each state, in terms of how reading is taught. Some states fared better than others, and it was acknowledged that some states, rated more highly in terms of early reading teaching practice in the report. The main take home message was clear- everyone (governments, systems, schools and teachers) needs to get on the same page and use similar evidence-based practices to teach reading. There were lots of shoulds throughout (high modality). Across our education systems, certain things should be happening (and others should not) in relation to how reading is taught in schools and every person in education is accountable. That is the essence of The Reading Guarantee. The theoretical underpinning of the report sits well alongside my work in the Reading and Early Reading partnership as outlined in this blogpost. They are mutually supportive.
