Correlates of Effective Reading- A Series of Posts Reflecting on the Theoretical Basis of Reading- Part 1

As an elementary RtI reading interventionist and a reading coach, I confront many multi-leveled reading issues on a daily basis:  from students struggling to automatically read CVC words such as bat and wish  to students failing to decode multisyllabic words efficiently without disrupting reading fluency to readers lacking accuracy and depth of understanding of a text.  In partial contrast to our secondary counterparts in the middle school and high school, elementary school teachers offer reading instruction with a dual purpose:  learning to read and reading to learn.  Learning to read tends to take place within small group instruction whereas, reading to learn can be facilitated through small or whole group lessons.  With this construct in mind, I present research-based reading theory and its foundational presence in the elementary school.
The LaBerge-Samuels model of information-processing depicts three major components:  visual memory, phonological memory, and semantic memory.  Visual memory includes the eye's reception of features such as lines, curves, angles, and intersections.  Word configuration and word length may also combine with the processing of these print features.  The phonological memory system uses acoustic input and articulatory input to build a hierarchy of memory units which move from features to phonemes to syllables to words.  Semantic memory then brings meaning and comprehension to the words and text.  This foundational process is reflected in the elementary school as students develop phonetic decoding skills.  Letters are processed in visual memory which are then connected to sounds of the phonological memory system which are then connected to the word and its meaning in semantic memory.  The LaBerge-Samuels model also places high consideration to the role of attention within the context of this cognitive process.  Attention is needed to produce accurate reading.  With repetition and practice, students will reach automaticity.  Opportunities for practicing automaticity in a connected text comes in a variety of forms in the elementary classroom.  The use of leveled text within small group instruction offers elementary students an opportunity to "solve new words and think in complex ways against a background of sufficient accuracy, " according to Fountas and Pinnell in an article titled, "The Critical Role of Text Complexity in Teaching Children to Read." "Books are leveled based on a range of factors that represent the cognitive behaviors and understandings that the reader must acquire and apply to meet the demands of a text."  This staircase of text complexity presents essential stepping stones as students in the elementary school learn to read.  Additional non-leveled text selection is also based on student self-choice and content area objectives as the read to learn component of instruction is addressed and a balance of materials are presented.
The Construction-Integration Model (W. Kintsch, 1988, 1998) presents a process of comprehension in which understanding is constructed within two bottom-up phases:  the macrostructure  and microstructure phases.  The microstructure phase takes the words from the text and makes them into ideas and thinking. The macrostructure phase takes the ideas to form a summary or "general gist," according to Walter Kintch.  Kintch also references the importance of conceptual structure for comprehension.  In practice, when students have an understanding of the text structure, it supports accurate understanding and comprehension.