COR - The Components of Reading - Part 3 - Cognitive Flexibility

COGNITIVE FLEXIBILITY

Continuing our series on COR Instruction, where we highlight the activities explored in the HOT ROD activity books, this month’s topic is Cognitive Flexibility.

What is Cognitive Flexibility?

Cognitive flexibility is an important executive function skill that centers on the ability to switch between different types of information. It can involve switching between different tasks or thinking about more than one concept at a time. Working memory is an important element of cognitive flexibility that helps a person manage more than one task, concept, or piece of information simultaneously. It impacts reading, writing, spelling, and more.

How Cognitive Flexibility Impacts Reading

Specific to reading, cognitive flexibility is essential for both decoding and comprehension. Students need cognitive flexibility to hold different possible pronunciations for a letter or combination of letters in mind while decoding unfamiliar words. At the same time, they must consider the word’s meaning. Working memory enables a reader to compare the possible pronunciations of a word with words in their lexicon (internal dictionary). While figuring out how to pronounce the word and determining what it means, a reader must also keep the rest of the sentence in mind. The content and structure of the sentence will also affect the word's meaning. If a word has multiple meanings, cognitive flexibility is required to hold the possible options in short-term memory while making judgments about the best fit within the context of the sentence and paragraph.

While many tasks help develop cognitive flexibility, few directly relate to reading and decoding. The activities developed for the HOT ROD (Higher Order Thinking through the Reading Of Decodables) activity books address executive function skills that directly relate to a structured literacy scope and sequence, as well as to the content found in our decodable stories. 

Students can work on cognitive flexibility by sorting words that belong to two different categories simultaneously. If you and your students are tired of the same old word card drills, consider spicing up your routine by incorporating Cognitive Flexibility games. The easiest way to understand how these games work is to explore one of them with your students.

Free Level 3 Game. 

The game above was part of a research project completed by me and Kelly Cartwright, Ph.D., last year that focused on open and closed syllables (long and short vowel sounds) in the first syllable of two-syllable words. Now that the study is over, the 8 different word sorts used in the study are available at Boom TM Learning. The first game is free HERE or at the link above, but you must open a free Boom account. The complete Bundle of 8 digital games is available for $5.99 HERE. It contains several target words from the Level 3 decodable book, The Raven Remix: A Mashup of Poe Titles.  Printable PDF copies of all 8 games may be found in The Raven Remix Activity Book: 50+ Activities and Games for Decoding, Reading Comprehension, Writing, and Speech. Both titles, as well as books for Levels 1 and 2, are available on Amazon or in the online STORE on our website.

The target words in the free online Boom game are from the Category Sort #1 from the activity book and include the categories of Foods and Objects.

This digital Boom Deck has three component parts:

1. First, students sort words into two categories (ex., Foods vs. Objects). 

2. Next, they sort the SAME cards into two different categories: Open vs. Closed Syllables (found in the first syllable of a word).

3.     Finally, students sort the same words on a 2x2 matrix in the Multiple

Classification Activity while considering all 4 categories at once.

The online Bundle of 8 digital Boom TM Learning games is available HERE for $5.99. If you participated in the research study, you should still be able to access these games for free. If that is not the case, please contact me at info@wordtravelpress.com. 

If you would like to receive future information about the study results when they are available, sign up for my newsletter HERE.

References:

Cartwright, K.B. (2023). Executive skills and reading comprehension: A guide for educators (Second Edition). New York, NY: Guilford Press. 

Tunmer, W.E., & Chapman, J.W. (2012). Does set for variability mediate the influence of vocabulary knowledge on the development of word recognition skills? Scientific Studies of Reading, 16(2), 122–140.

Vadasy, P.F., Sanders, E.A., Cartwright, K.B. (2022). Cognitive flexibility in beginning decoding and encoding. The Journal of Education for Students Placed at Risk, in press.

Zipke, M. (2016). The importance of flexibility of pronunciation in learning to decode: A training study in set for variability. First Language. 36 (1), 71–86.

DyslexiaCon 2023 Conference Highlights

Last week the International Dyslexia Association held their 74th Annual DyslexiaCon Conference in Columbus, Ohio. For me and members of the Branch Council, festivities began on Wednesday night with a special reception for the presidents and board members of the 44 branches of IDA.

Thursday morning I had the great honor of co-presenting a 2-hour session with Kelly Cartwright Ph.D. called Hercules Vs. Heracles, the Importance of Cognitive Flexibility. Kelly is not only brilliant, but she is also able to translate that brilliance into language and practical examples everyone can understand. To our surprise and delight, close to 500 people attended our session. Many of them stopped by my booth for Word Travel Press later that day to continue the conversation. Kelly and I are currently working on a study to determine the effects of cognitive flexibility games on decoding. To find out more, check out my website page on Cognitive Flexibility.  Kelly's publisher is offering a special discount on her book. Use code AF2E at Guilford Press.

Friday morning I started my day with a brainstorming session with the presidents of the Western Region branches (Austin, Dallas, Houston, Arizona, Utah, Rocky Moutain, and Southwest). I'm always inspired by this lively group. They shared ideas and inspirations. That night we all went to dinner at Buca Di Beppo. I have been serving as the IDA Advisor for the Western Region for over a year now, and it has been a pure delight getting to know these women who are changing laws and transforming lives.

After dinner, we attended a viewing of Harvey Hubbell's new movie, Hopeville, about a school called Hopeville that turned around student performance by implementing structured literacy. Afterward, Harvey (far left) led a discussion of the movie with leaders in the field of dyslexia.

I was so busy that I didn't get to attend many sessions, so I'm really looking forward to the conference recordings. I did take a spin around the exhibit hall and met up with my old friend Mary Jo O'Neill at the Brookes booth. She wrote a chapter for my book, Story Frames for Teaching Literacy about her work as a family advocate. She helps parents write a Family Story that they then use to help teachers and administrators better understand their students. 

I'm already getting ready for next year. The 75th Annual Conference on Reading, Literacy & Learning will be held in Dallas, Texas. I hope to see you there!

Sign up for my newsletter to keep up with upcoming book news and free offers. Visit the Sign Up Page on my website and receive a FREE digital copy of my decodable book, No Gift for Man.