Interactive Teaching Philosophy

There are currently three main approaches to teaching reading; the bottom-up model, the top-down model and the interactive model. Although both the bottom-up and top-down models have their merits, the interactive model blends the major strategies of them both together to form a more balanced well-rounded approach.

The bottom-up model, which was the sole method of teaching reading through the mid-1980s, places a heavy emphasis on decoding. The belief is that the eye directs the mind, and that reading begins with print and proceeds systematically from letters to words to phrases to sentences to meaning. Since meaning is at the end of the reading process, the reader would need to have their decoding skills down pat in order to comprehend
the text. Reading acquisition, therefore, requires the testing and the mastering of a series of word recognition sub-skills. Only by mastering all of these building blocks could the reader finally attain meaningful comprehension of the text.

The top-down model, which got its start in the mid-1980s, contradicts the bottom-up model by stating that the reading process begins with meaning. The reader uses his prior knowledge to compare everything he reads to what he already knows. In this model the mind directs the eye, and the reader only decodes enough to either confirm or reject the assumptions that he already has about something. Children learn to read through meaningful experiences in which they read, write, speak and listen. They need to be tested on the amount and types of information that they gain through their reading.

The interactive model stresses both what is on the written page and what a reader brings to it using a combination of both top-down and bottom-up skills.
This model doesn't discount the importance of decoding. The reader uses parallel processing by decoding and comprehending simultaneously. Whereas bottom-up processing may be easier for the reader who is skilled at word recognition but does not know much about the text topic, and top-down processing may be easier for the reader who may be slow at word recognition but has prior knowledge of the text topic, children who engage in interactive processing exhibit fluent reading that comes from both skillful decoding and the ability to relate textual information to their prior knowledge. To properly achieve fluency and accuracy, developing readers must work at perfecting both their bottom-up recognition skills and their top-down comprehension strategies. Fluent and accurate reading can result only from simultaneous interaction between these
processes.

Reading is an interactive conversation between the reader and the text.
Both the reader variables (interest level in the text, purpose for reading the text, knowledge of the topic, awareness of the reading process) and the text variables (text type, structure, syntax, and vocabulary) interact to determine the level of the reader's comprehension of the text. There is also convincing evidence that readers bring internalized models of the reading process to their reading. Research has shown that many readers centered in the bottom-up method equate good reading with sound identification or good pronunciation. They focus their attention on the graphic information in the text and may fail to understand or recall what they have read. Readers centered in the top-down method demonstrate good to excellent recall and comprehension of text, but only decode enough to gain that comprehension. The interactive model strikes a successful balance between bottom-up and top-down processing. This approach requires the teacher to model and directly teach the skills and strategies necessary for the interpretation and comprehension of the
text.

The interactive model stresses the importance of vocabulary. Since automaticity of word recognition is the most important strategy for a reader to gain fluency, continual development of recognition vocabulary is crucial.

People learn to read by reading. Not only will the reader benefit through extensive reading, but the teacher's approach to instruction is equally important to a reader's success. By modeling and providing practice in useful reading strategies, teachers will help students to see that reading can be of real value to them. The teacher also must incorporate a variety of tools to be used to assess the reader. The use of process-based formats of assessment including checklists, portfolios and the student's written responses to literature, will show the growth of the reader over time. Progress can be evaluated by assessing the child's ability to derive appropriate meaning from the text and by his flexible use of strategies to do so.

The over reliance on text based or bottom-up processing, or the over reliance on knowledge based or top-down processing, will undoubtedly lead to conflict in the reader's ability to both decode and comprehend the text simultaneously and efficiently. The interactive approach is a balanced approach to literacy that creates independent readers who can not only decode and comprehend the text, but who also understand the strategies that improve their skills in reading.