Highlights from my presentations at the MARRE conference: In Defense of Balanced Approaches to Literacy by Dr. Sam Bommarito

This week, the MARRE (Missouri Associations of Reading Recovery Educators) conference was held in Springfield, Mo.

I had the honor of making two presentations at the conference, and I would like to share some highlights of what I said about the importance of having a balanced approach to literacy. This was from my first presentation:

I explained that, as a centrist, I believe that going to extremes is not the best path to literacy. Overdo phonics, and you create word callers. Overdo meaning, and you create word guessers. The best path is to include elements of both. That way, you can create engaged lifelong readers.

Meaning Matters:

There is really more to comprehension than building background knowledge. As Shanahan points out, focusing comprehension instruction solely on building background knowledge ignores many issues and studies.

I talked about the Science of Reading comprehension and the many resources available to implement that science,

I talked about how developing fluency does not automatically lead to developing comprehension.

I also talked about Reading Recovery Teachers’ success in creating students who are readers, not just word callers. Reading Recovery has a strong research base and record of success if you look at all the research.

The folks at this session learned how to make elevator statements. They created and shared those statements. Here is a sample of one (used with permission)

In the other session, we discussed how to Sing and Perform Your Way into fluency.

Based on the work of folks like Tim Rasinski, Chase Young and Eric Litwin, we shared ideas about resources for sing-alongs and readers theatre. We also broke into groups and performed some Readers Theatre pieces.

We shared research showing the power of repeated reading.

We shared a new book by Rasinski et al., which gives you everything you need to implement a Fluency Development Lesson (including word ladders, content area poems, and more!).

I want to thank the MARRE board for the opportunity to give these presentations, and of course, I’d like to thank all the RR folks for their enthusiastic participation in these events. These highlights provide many ideas to unpack. If you want copies of the full presentations, write to me at bommaritosam@yahoo.com with the subject line Springfield.

Happy Reading and Writing,

Dr. Sam Bommarito (aka, the guy in the center taking flak from all sides)

Copyright 2024 by Dr. Sam Bommarito. Views/interpretations expressed here are solely this author’s views and do not necessarily reflect the views of any other person or organization.

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