Beginning to Read: Thinking and Learning about Print (Adams, 1990) was born out of a charge by the Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI) to review the research on phonics and early reading instruction. The Center for the Study of Reading, with offices at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Bolt Beranek and Newman in Cambridge, Massachusetts, applied for a federal grant (OERI's Reading Research and Education Center grant) to tackle key aspects of reading; in particular the grant proposal focused on writing a major report that would “thoroughly review all aspects of phonics and early reading instruction in a straightforward, evenhanded way” (Pearson, 1990, p. v). Upon being awarded this grant, the Center for the Study of Reading commissioned Marilyn Jager Adams of the Bolt Beranek and Newman branch to complete the report.
The Adams (1990) text is long and scholarly; it contains close to 500 pages and cites well over 600 references across a variety of disciplines. The book is organized around six parts. Part I provides an historical look at reading that led to the current concern over reading instruction. Part II addresses why phonics instruction is often seen as a “cure” for reading instruction. Part III focuses on what needs to be taught to beginning readers as determined by looking at proficient readers. Part IV focuses on how knowledge and skills are acquired by examining the nature of learning and what we want students to learn. Part V focuses on what children must learn on their way to becoming good readers and what educators can do to help them. Finally, Part VI offers a summary and conclusions, with focus on the proper place of phonics in reading instruction. An afterword by Dorothy Strickland and Bernice Cullinan is provided. This afterword notes concerns over the selection of studies and research interpretations used by Adams.
A summary of the book by Adams was written by Stahl, Osborn, and Lehr (1990). This summary is “more direct and is necessarily much less detailed” (Stahl et al., p. ii). The book is roughly 150 pages in length. Stahl and colleagues hoped to produce a document that was useful to a variety of audiences. It is from this summary that we will draw conclusions.
Key findings noted by Stahl, Osborn, and Lehr (1990) from the work of Adams (1990) included, but are not limited to, the following:
The single best predictor of students' end of year reading achievement was their ability to recognize and name upper- and lower-case letters with speed. A close second was phonemic awareness (i.e., the ability to discriminate sounds in spoken words).
Programs that included systematic and explicit phonics instruction consistently exceeded basal reading programs that did not include this important component in word recognition achievement scores. Further, comprehension skills were comparable to and spelling was significantly better than approaches that did not include this type of instruction.
The most critical factor for fluent word reading is the ability to recognize letters, spelling patterns, and whole words in an effortless and automatic manner.
Early on, children must learn that print symbolizes language and is important to convey information to others; they should see this in storybooks, toy instructions, grocery lists, etc. Unfortunately, many children approach school with very little print knowledge—they don’t know what a letter or word is, that print goes left to right, the front from the back of a book, or that sentences are made up of words.
Vocabulary acquisition depends in large part on how much a child reads.
The single most important activity for building background knowledge and other skills important for reading is reading aloud to children.
Phonemic awareness can be taught successfully.
Letter reversals seem to result from a lack of print knowledge.
In summary, Adams provided an analysis of beginning reading and phonics instruction and served as the sole author. She noted the importance of learning letter names, phonemic awareness, and explicit and systematic phonics instruction. On pages 123-127 of the Stahl, Osborn, and Lehr (1990) summary, a series of conclusions are provided. These conclusions are organized around the following headings:
predictors of reading acquisition
before formal instruction begins
beginning to read
phonics instruction
beyond the basics
These conclusions will help with actual classroom practice. We encourage you to read the summary of the Adams (1990) book by Stahl, Osborn, and Lehr (1990), or the Adams (1990) text, for a wealth of information about beginning to read.