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The foundations of the PPIP instructional program are based on the findings and conclusions of the 2000 report from the National Reading Panel, Teaching Children to Read: An Evidence-Based Assessment of the Scientific Research Literature on Reading and Its Implication for Reading Instruction – Reports of the Subgroups. The National Reading Panel was mandated to help parents, teachers, and policymakers identify key skills and methods central to reading achievement. The Panel was charged with reviewing research in reading instruction and identifying methods that consistently relate to reading success. The Panel reviewed over 100,000 studies, and drew out only that research which met a rigorous criteria normally used by researchers who set out to determine the effectiveness of any educational program or approach. The work of the Panel focused on a “what works” basis, and helped lay a foundation for instructional programs like this, which is based on scientific evidence. The Panel came to several conclusions, two of which are particularly relevant to the Phonemic and Phonics Instructional Program (PPIP). The first is that phonemic awareness is important because it improves children’s word reading and reading comprehension and it helps children to spell. The second is that phonics instruction is important because it leads to an understanding of the alphabetic principle – the systematic and predictable relationships between written letters and spoken sounds.
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