Larson Discussion Question Responses

○ According to Larson, what should be the unit of processing? Letter or word? LETTER

○ What is at stake with a word shape model of word recognition? UMM--it's crazy--the actual process of reading is not understood and would lead people to focus on unrelated features of the word. Our instructional time is limited. Struggling readers need the MOST time to spend reading and they need the highest quality of instruction--teaching word shape is ineffective and muddies the waters. You will have students who can't read because they didn't learn to decode.

○ Should we teach typical eye-movements (of a reader) to struggling readers? I don't know where I stand on this issue. My instincts say---maybe with the most disabled readers. But this seems so instinctual, so tacit. How do you teach it? It's a slippery slope issue. Teaching stuff like eye movement reminds me of having dyslexics focus on strengthening their eyes and their fine and gross motor skills. We DO teach students the conventions of how our print works--to read left to right and so forth.

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