Have you ever wondered why the simple view of reading is set out in quadrants? I recently attended a training event with Christopher Such, who explained the Simple View of Reading as WR x LC = RC… Word Recognition multiplied by Language Comprehension equals Reading Comprehension. Although I have seen this equation previously, shared the quadrants on many occassions and read various different representations about the Simple View of reading; I never really reflected on why it was a multiplication equation rather than an addition until Christopher Such explained it… You can’t have one without the other!

If Gough and Tumner (1986) had shared the two skills of word recognition and language comprehension and shared it as WR + LC= RC then we might assume that if a child was lacking in one of the skills, you could fill it with the other and still achieve reading comprehension. This isn’t true for a multiplication though! If either side was 0 (ie no skill of word recognition or language comprehension) then the answer would also be 0! Fluency and confident readers with reading comprehension is unachievable if one of these skills is at 0!

This is why we need to work on both alongside each other to combine the two. So what are they?

Word recognition- put simply, is decoding… it is the skill of identifying words accurately and quickly. This is what we teach through our high quality phonics lessons and targetted interventions. Without it, individuals will see symbols and use images to take a guess at the word. I consider myself a fluent reader, however, if you asked me to read a piece of writing in Arabic script, I wouldn’t be able to get past the first word as I have 0 skill when it comes to the Arabic alphabet.

Language Comprehension- in simple terms, it is the ability to understand oral language. Can we create meaning from the words we hear and read? Again, fluent reader here, however if I was asked to read a medical journal on cardiovascular operations, I may be able to decode the words, but I would be able to draw very little meaning from the text! I certainly wouldn’t be performing any open heart surgery any time soon!

Language comprehension is made up of many factors including:

• Vocabulary- how many words does the indiviudal understand and how much do they understand about the word? For example a 2 year old will recognise and be able to use the word ‘bird’ but their understanding of it will be vastly different to an ornithologist (a scientist who studies birds).
• Background knowledge- we need to know and have experiences of what it is we are reading about to truly understand. When reading ‘ Rosie’s Walk’ consider, have the children ever seen a hen in real life? Have they felt feathers? What about a fox? What do they sound like when they move? Have they ever visited a farm? Seen a mill up close? I once had children with their shoes and socks off and feet in sand trays before reading poetry about the beach because it mentioned the feel of the sand between your toes and living in Northamptonshire, lots of the children had never been to a beach and experienced this sensation. To support children with gaining background knowledge, we must first provide wider curriculum experiences.
• Text structure- We interact differently with the texts we read. A WhatsApp message from your friend will be interacted with differently to reading an educational research paper… but they are both still a form of reading! Our job as educators is to provide a variety of texts to explore- poetry, leaflets, recipes, picture books, graphic novels, magazines etc. Take a look at your classroom bookshelf- how much variety is on offer?
• Sentence structure- take a look at how sentences are organised and why the author has written it that way. It is important for children to understand that every piece of writing has had an author at some point who is just a person – just like them- and will make choices about what they write and why they have written it in that way. Why is there a question mark there? Why has the author used a pronoun rather than the character’s name again? This helps chidren to become creative writers themselves too.
• Inference- what meaning can we deduce beyond the literal meaning? This is one of the most difficult skills to teach as it is all context specific and there is not necessarily a correct answer each time. Different indiviudals may infer different meanings based on their own experiences. The best way to help support children to develop their inference skills is to talk about texts and do it often. Model to them what you infer and why and encourage them to talk about the text. Christopher Such also talked about the power of ‘might’. Why might Peter be rushing home? He might be rushing home because it is getting dark. He might be rushing home because he is excited to play with his new toy. He might be rushing home because he heard a strange noise and it scared him. The power of ‘might’ reduces the pressure of getting the answer wrong.

As you can see, the skill of reading is made up of many aspects all carefully intertwined to create fluent (and hopefully enthusiastic) readers. It is a variety of complex skills all of which need praticising regularly to create fluent readers with strong reading comprehension skills, however it is still, simply, a mathematical equation:

WR x LC = RC