For Struggling Readers

October 22, 2013

“Questions are the master key to understanding” (Harvey & Goudvais, 2007, p. 109). 

About two years ago I read a book called Teaching Content Outrageously by Stanley Pogrow (2009).  Basically this book teaches instructors how to make lessons across content areas engaging and exciting for students, from the “youtube” generation, who need to be entertained.  “Outrageous” lessons incorporate elements of drama (on the teacher’s part) but ultimately lead the students to read material with a purpose or question in mind. 

A sample lesson from this book may look something like this:

(note this was an ACTUAL lesson I created and taught to my class)

Subject:  Science
Assignment:  Read a nonfiction article about right whales who migrate from Maine to the Atlantic waters of Florida to give birth.  Identify problems right whales face as they migrate and what’s being done to help whales avoid these problems.

So this could have been a cut-and-dry lesson for students.  Read the text, answer the questions. 

This is how I “outrageou-fied it”

I entered the class wearing a shiny black garbage bag declaring that I was Betty the right whale.  You’d better believe that got their attention.  I told them some details about my life as a right whale and that I’d recently given birth a beautiful baby daughter Betsy, but that on our way back to Maine she had disappeared.  I pleaded my cause to my students, asking them to help me figure out what happened to my Betty.  With this problem presented to them, they began to read the article about right whales with a different purpose in mind and ultimately, it was a memorable lesson that they won’t soon forget (“Mom, my teacher came into class wearing a trash bag today!”)

I bring this lesson up because I realized, through trying to teach content outrageously, that when students have a question or problem in mind BEFORE they read, their focus is more intense and engaged as they are reading.

This past week, I have been implementing questioning strategies presented in Chapter 8 of Strategies That Work (Harvey & Goudvais, 2007).  Below is an example of one of the strategies I implemented with struggling readers in my class. 

Strategy:  List and categorize questions to promote understanding

Procedure:

1.       Setting the Purpose:  First I reminded the students of strategies we have talked about that good readers use as they read to help them better comprehend a reading selection. These strategies include:  making mental pictures, making connections, predicting, empathizing with characters, and asking questions.  I told the students we would focus on the strategy of questioning during this lesson.

2.       Modeling:  I told students I would read a short article to them and show them how I asked questions in my mind as I read.  Instead of just thinking the questions, I told them I would write the questions down.  As I read, and they followed along, I paused after 1-2 sentences to jot down a question on a sticky note that I had about the reading selection.

3.       Categorizing:  After I went through the article and wrote down about 4-5 questions, I told the students that I was going to categorize these questions into five categories: 

a.       Questions that were answered in the text:  “Answered”

b.      Questions that are answered from someone else’s background knowledge:  “Background Knowledge”

c.       Questions whose answers can be inferred from the text:  “Inference”

d.      Questions that require further research:  “Research”

e.      Questions that signal confusion:  “Huh?”

I placed, with help from the students, each question into each category

4.        Guided Practice:  I then let the students practice this strategy by themselves.  They read a short article, wrote down a few questions, and we all discussed and helped them choose which category to place the questions in.

Reflection:

I did this activity with two groups of struggling readers.  I emphasized explicitly and directly to them how important is it to think about what you think about as you read, because good readers actually think about a lot of things as they read.  The more we identify what we think about, the more we can make sure we are connecting and ultimately comprehending what we read. 

Half of my students took to this activity easily and jumped right in.  The others struggled at first and I had to continue to push them towards my expectations.  Overall, though, when we finally got through the assignment with everyone sharing at least three questions and categorizing, I found that the students had more questions and found it easier to categorize the questions as we went along.

I think this was an extremely valuable strategy to teach these students.  Most of all, my students were able to see that some of their questions were answered in the text.  At first, they were slow to realize this, but eventually began to look back in the article to see if the question was in fact answered!  Rereading!!!  Something struggling readers rarely do!  Also, the students were able to realize that they could use clues and make inferences from the text to try and answer their questions…a skill that is difficult to teach struggling readers. 

I will definitely continue to teach this strategy and more of the questioning strategies discussed in Chapter 8.

References:

Harvey, S. and Goodvis, A. (2007). Strategies that work: Teaching comprehension for understanding

     and comprehension. (2^nd ed.). Portland, Maine: Stenhouse.

Pogrow, S. (2009).  Teaching Content Outrageously. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

October 21, 2013

After teaching an academically at-risk population for almost 10 years, this statement cannot ring any truer to my ears.  This is quoted from a research report regarding a study performed to determine if Chess instruction for at-risk students enables them to develop higher-order thinking skills leading to greater reading and verbal aptitude on standardized tests.  Ultimately, the study's hypothesis was unclear, although previous studies had proven the hypothesis. 

After years of remediating instruction and breaking down to basic, repetitive exercises, I must say..."What I wish I had known then..."

"A common approach for students at risk is to remedy their deficiencies in the basics, like reading, writing, and math.  This approach mostly relies on repetitive drill. Knapp and Shields (1990) criticized the repetitive drill approach that tends to:  (a) underestimate student competencies; (b) prevent students from accessing more challenging and interesting work; and (c) DEPRIVE students of a MEANINGFUL context for learning.  Such criticism sheds light on the development of higher order cognitive skill instruction (Means & Knapp, 1991).  Pogrow's model supports the view that teaching higher order cognitive skills provides students at risk with opportunities to use what they already know, in the form of encoding and retrieving processes.  Consequently, these processes could lead students at risk to major gains in basic skills."

Reference:

Fraenkel, J., Wallen, N., Hyun, H. (2012). How to design and evaluate research in education.  
       New York, NY: McGraw Hill.     


October 21, 2013

I am posting a recent Literature Review I completed for an Educational Research class.  Certainly, I am not posting this to punish you, or inflict pain as you read it, which is literally what I went through as I spent 15+ hours writing it, in  one weekend! While not opinions of my own (until the last 2 paragraphs) which is an indicative characteristic of a Lit. Review, it is filled with some surprising and beneficial suggestions for any reading teacher:

INTRODUCTION

There is much consensus among educational professionals in regards to preparing students to meet the literacy demands of the 21^st century (Harvey & Goudvis, 2012).  At the forefront of literacy education, is the idea that students should be able to construct meaning from a text, usually by performing several tasks such recalling information, developing mental images, making connections to background knowledge, predicting, questioning and so on (Brown, 2008, Hess, 2008, Keene et. al., 2011).  In fact, researchers conclude that the most important thing about reading is comprehension and that the ultimate goal of proficient literacy is comprehension (Pressley, 2006). 

The means in which to accomplish such a feat have been the subject of interest for educators throughout the ages.  In order to meet the demands of critical areas of literacy, and more specifically comprehension instruction, it is crucial for teachers to pinpoint specific and effective strategies for use in the classroom (Harvey & Goudvis, 2012, Keene et. al., 2011).  This literature review will focus on methods that should be employed in classrooms to ensure optimal reading comprehension.  Such methods include:  explicit, teacher-led instruction, the use of graphic-organizers to aid in reading comprehension, and encouraging independent reading practice.  As the literature will suggest, students who are constantly exposed to concentrated encounters in which the teacher is explicitly modeling strategies such as understanding purposes of text features, use of graphic organizers and eventually allowing guided and independent reading experiences, will become empowered and purposeful readers (Bluestein, 2010; Fealy, 2010; Moss, 2005).

While there seems to be much documented about what teachers should do, not as much is known about how teachers should actually implement strategies or how much daily class time should be devoted to teaching reading comprehension (Connor, Morrison, & Petrella, 2004).  This may certainly be a topic for a future literature review and/or study. 

TEACHING READING COMPREHENSION THROUGH EXPLICIT, TEACHER-LED INSTRUCTION

Perhaps the most beneficial way for students to learn to comprehend text is through explicit instruction of reading strategies, in which teachers directly and intentionally instruct students on how to strategically monitor their understanding and comprehension of a reading text (Ness, 2011). Simply put, students must be exposed to and explicitly instructed in the strategies required to grapple with and ultimately comprehend content area and informational text (Fealy, 2010; Moss, 2005). 

For purpose of this literature review, it may be helpful to distinguish between explicit and implicit instruction.  Explicit instruction deals primarily with teaching students to extract meaning from texts through specific strategies such as summarizing, inferring, making predictions, identifying the main idea, and so on (Conner et. al., 2004).  Reading activities that do not directly focus on specific comprehension strategies, but rather address students’ abilities to decode and allow for independent practice of reading are implicit in nature.  Implicit activities may also include student-managed independent or group work. 

Oftentimes, authors such as Beers (2002) may refer to the generic term ‘showing, not telling’ to direct attention to the idea of what explicit instruction actually looks like in a classroom.  She states that “we sometimes confuse explaining to students what is happening in a text with teaching students how to comprehend a test." (p. 40).  The key to ‘showing’, involves the words explicitly and directly.  Teachers must explicitly and directly instruct students by using teacher think-alouds, modeling, guided instruction, direct instruction, scaffolding, and any other method that will ensure students have ample opportunities to learn, develop and successfully implement strategies while reading independently (Block, Parris, & Whiteley, 2008). 

To be sure, there is ample literature and research to suggest that explicit, teacher-directed instruction is most beneficial to ensuring student comprehension of reading texts (Ness, 2011, Conner et al., 2008).  In one study performed by Conner et al., (2008), they concluded that third grade students with initial low reading scores achieved greater growth on standardized tests in classrooms where more time was spent on teacher managed reading comprehension instructional activities, rather than student managed activities.  Furthermore, Block, Parris, & Whiteley (2008) demonstrated in their research that when primary grade students receive explicit, teacher-led comprehension instruction, their performances on measures of literal, inferential, and metacognitive comprehension increase (as cited in Ness, 2011, p. 101).  Andreassen & Braten (2010) also found in a study that by using explicit instructional methods with struggling readers in an intervention group, after five months, these students increased their strategic competence and comprehension performance relative to their peers. 

Explicit instruction is a vital part of any reading comprehension program.  Furthermore, teachers may choose to use a variety of reading genres and texts such as basal texts, chapter books, poetry, nonfiction articles, and so on, to employ these methods.

TEACHING READING COMPREHENSION THROUGH USE OF GRAPHIC ORGANIZERS

Visual representation of text, in the use of graphic organizers, has been a long-standing reading comprehension strategy among teachers (Fealy, 2010; Manoli & Papadopoulou, 2012).  Organizing information graphically involves taking the traditional, linear view of text and visually displaying it in a variety of ways depending on the relationship and nature of the text.  Serving many purposes, the graphic organizer not only represents information visually and organizes schema, but Vaughn & Edmunds (2006) attest to its usefulness in organizing key concepts and unknown vocabulary in a text. Research shows the many benefits of using graphic organizers to facilitate reading comprehension, adding to the growing body of evidence to support use of graphic organizers in the classroom (Fealy, 2010; Kirylo & Millet, 2000). 

From a historical perspective, graphic organizers originated from early cognitive theorists such as Barron and Ausebel (Kirylo & Millet, 2000; Manoli & Papadopoulou, 2012).  These theorists supported the idea that new information is learned when built upon or integrated into already existing schemata.  Thus, the purpose of graphic organizers is to “activate students' prior knowledge and relate the new material to the previously stored information providing optimal anchorage and rendering the new material more familiar and meaningful” (Manoli & Papadopoulou, 2012, p. 348).

Typically, graphic organizers come in a variety of forms, the most common being: story maps, semantic maps, concept maps, tree diagrams, and venn diagrams, among others.  The genre and structure of the reading text determines the type graphic organizer that should be used. Readers use graphic organizers to help identify and better comprehend text structure in regards to problem/solution, cause/effect, compare/contrast, to name a few. 

Regardless of the graphic organizer used, research has shown the benefits are universal. In her study, Fealy (2010), found that students were able to learn new concepts more easily, determine important information in a text, and eventually successfully use graphic organizers independently.  On a similar note, Kirylo & Millet (2000), concluded that the use graphic organizers is a practical and dynamic method of fostering conceptual relationships in a text, ultimately leading to a “facilitation of comprehension” (p. 179).  Overall, research supports the idea that graphic organizers boost awareness of text structure, enhance students’ summarizing abilities, and facilitate identification of higher level organization, all critical factors in comprehension (Manoli & Papadopoulou, 2012; Oliver, 2009). 

DEVELOPING READING COMPREHENSION THROUGH INDEPENDENT READING EXPERIENCES

The use of strategies is a crucial element to any successful reading comprehension instructional program, however strategies alone may not be sufficient for a successful reading experience (Hess, 2008).  Implementing an independent reading time, in which students can practice strategies and increase personal motivation to read may be highly effective in promoting overall reading comprehension success (Hess, 2008; Kirzimi, 2010).  If the goal of reading is for students to authentically comprehend and ultimately become independent readers and learners, then they must be given time to practice independently (Kirylo & Millet, 2000).

Although considered implicit in nature, independent reading indirectly allows students to strengthen their reading comprehension skills (Connor, et al., 2004).  In addition, because student motivation generally does not increase through use of explicit instruction, motivation can be improved through use of independent silent reading time in the classroom (Andreassen & Braten 2010, Kirzimi, 2010). Hess (2008) concludes that “a key foundation” of the comprehension instructional process is the “gradual release of responsibility” in which the teacher gradually transfers the responsibility of a reading strategy from himself or herself to the student (p. 99).  Calkins (1997) put it directly when she quoted 2^nd grade teacher Hannah Foster, “If our efforts to teach reading don't affect what happens during independent reading, they probably don't affect kids' lives as readers, [and] my whole goal is to help kids invent richly literate lives for themselves."

Studies have shown however, that sustained silent reading time is not always effective for struggling readers, unless teachers engage these students with teacher guided reading and discussion (Bryan, Fawson, & Ruetzel, 2003).  Oftentimes, struggling readers do not have a home climate that fosters independent reading, therefore, motivation to read independently at school may take engaging encounters with a teacher and/or adult to nudge these students towards independent reading.  

Suffice it say that authentic reading experiences, both guided and independent are a vital part of building lifelong, engaged readers who can comprehend reading texts of all genres and types. 

SUMMARY

In order to meet the demands of current literacy expectations of students, teachers must be prepared to offer authentic, engaging and effective instruction.  Teachers should be equipped with a proven repertoire of strategies that not only ensure the facilitation of reading comprehension, but also foster independent readers who can successfully comprehend all genres of texts. 

While there may be endless reading comprehension strategies available for teachers to choose from, suffice it say that effective instruction should focus on explicit and direct, teacher-led instruction, facilitation of graphic organizers and an ultimate release of responsibility to students to independently practice strategies during a sustained reading time. 

Explicit instruction should involve direct, teacher-taught lessons which focus on any given strategy such as summarizing, identifying main idea, comparing and contrasting, etc.  As opposed to simply explaining to students how to comprehend a text, the teacher actually models specific steps and actions required of the reader to ensure comprehension, and guides students to do the same. 

To aid in the direct and explicit teacher-led instruction, educators may choose to use graphic organizers which will greatly benefit the reader.  Depending on the type of reading selection and relationships needed to be identified within the text, a teacher can choose from various types of graphic organizers.  Helping students activate prior activate, is a key benefit of graphic organizers as students then document and organize new information visually, which can then be meaningfully integrated into students’ existing schema. 

Many professional educators agree that a fundamental element of any successful reading program must include the transfer of strategies from teacher to student, practiced and indicated during the independent reading process.  Teachers should allow students ample opportunities to engage in authentic, independent reading experiences.  Strategies taught during the teacher-led instruction should help foster successful student-led reading experiences.  Teachers should keep in mind however, that they may need to step-in during sustained reading time to ensure all readers are engaged and successfully implementing comprehension strategies. 

CONCLUSION

While teaching reading comprehension may forever be an integral part of any curriculum, teachers will just as surely receive a new crop of students each year with varying reading levels and abilities.  The strategies discussed in the literature review can be viewed as universal tools to ensure better comprehension for all students, but teachers should be always be prepared to cater strategies to individual needs and challenges of students.   Furthermore, while personalities and capabilities of students may differ, the same can be said of teachers.  How teachers deliver reading comprehension strategies may be a topic of further interest.  Do boisterous, energetic teachers find more success with these strategies as compared with teachers who are more reserved?  Does teachers’ use of technology effect how these strategies are received and successfully implemented?  Certainly there are ample questions that can continue to be researched in regards to reading comprehension instruction.  May these questions continue to be investigated and answered in the quest to ensure reading comprehension for all. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

REFERENCES

Andreassen, R., & Broten, I. (. (2010). Implementation and effects of explicit reading comprehension instruction in fifth-grade classrooms. . Learning and Instruction, 21, 520-537.

Beers, K. (2002). When kids can't read what teachers do:  A guide for 6-12 teachers. 

     Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Block, C. C., Parris, S. R., Reed, K. L., Whiteley, C. S., & Cleveland, M. D. (2009). Instructional approaches that significantly increase reading comprehension. Journal of Educational Psychology, 101(2), 262-281.

Bluestein, N.A. (2010). Unlocking text features for determining importance in expository text: A

       strategy for struggling readers. Reading Teacher, 63(7), 597-600.

Bryan, G., Fawson, P., & Reutzel, D. R. (2003). Sustained silent reading: Exploring the value of literature discussion with three non‐engaged readers. Reading Research and Instruction, 43(1), 47-73.

Calkins, L. (1997). Get real about reading. Instructor, 107(8), 37.

Connor, C. M., Morrison, F. J., & Petrella, J. N. (2004). Effective reading comprehension instruction. Journal of Educational Psychology, 96(4), 682-689.

Fealy, E. M. (2010). Explicit instruction of graphic organizers as an informational text reading comprehension strategy: Third-grade students' strategies and perceptions. Proquest Llc, Ph. D. Dissertation (Fordham University)

Harvey, S. and Goodvis, A. (2007). Strategies that work: Teaching comprehension for understanding

     and comprehension. (2^nd ed.). Portland, Maine: Stenhouse.

Keene, E. O., Zimmerman, S., Miller, D., Bennett, S., Blauman, L., Hutchins, C., … McGregor, T.,

       (2011). Comprehension going forward: Where we are and what's next.

       Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Kirmizi, F. S. (2010). Relationship between reading comprehension strategy use and daily reading time. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2(2), 4752-4756.

Kirylo, J. D., & Millet, C. P. (2000). Graphic organizers: An integral component to facilitate comprehension during basal reading instruction. Reading Improvement, 37(4), 179.

Manoli, P., & Papadopoulou, M. (2012). Graphic organizers as a reading strategy: Research findings and issues. Creative Education, 3(3), p. 348.

Moss, B. (2005). Making a case and a place for effective content area literacy instruction in the

 

        elementary grades. The Reading Teacher, 59, 46-55.

 

 

Ness, M. (January-March 2011). Explicit reading comprehension in elementary classrooms: Teacher use of reading comprehension strategies. Journal of Research in Childhood Education, 25(1), 98.

Oliver, K. (2009). An investigation of concept mapping to improve the reading comprehension

     of science texts. Journal of Science Education and Technology, 18, 402-414.    

Vaughn, S., & Edmunds, M. (2006). Reading comprehension for older students. Intervention in School & Clinic, 41(3), 131-137.

 

Discussion #2

October 2, 2013

 

Recently, I’ve been trying a new strategy with my students to build background knowledge or at least allow students to activate their own thoughts or make connections to reading content. 

The strategy I’ve been using has been called “Tea Party” according to Kylene Beers’ When Kids Can’t Read, What Teachers Do (2002).  Basically the strategy’s purpose is to help students predict a passage, but it requires activating prior knowledge and revealing predisposed ideas and thoughts towards certain passages from the text. 

Procedure of the strategy:

-Choose a reading selection for students to read (I’ve chosen poems and nonfiction articles recently).

-Choose a certain number of phrases or words from the selection depending on size of class (I usually like to have about two times as many students for each phrase). 

-Write these phrases or words on an index card:  one phrase per card. 

-Instruct students that when they get the card they need to:

                -make a connection to the phrase (What does it remind you of?)
                -ask a question about it
                -express empathy if there is a character in the phrase
                -tell what you know about the phrase or what it might mean
                -tell what the phrase makes them think of or describe a mental picture they have as they read
                  the phrase

-Pass out one card to each student.

-Have students “Stand-up-Hand-up-and-Pair-up” with a partner and share about their card.  Move to a new partner when they are done sharing. 

-Do not have students trade cards when they are through sharing. I haven’t figured out yet if it would be beneficial to trade or not.  I feel the ability to keep the same card allows students to form a deeper connection with the phrase as they continue to share their thoughts about it.  They may gain new thoughts the more they discuss it

-When students are done sharing with classmates, invite students back into a group (or in my classroom, their original groups). 

-With group, students should be comparing ideas about their prediction of the reading selection.  Based on what they shared with partners, what do they think the reading selection will be about. 

-Students share prediction ideas.

-Teacher then reads selection out loud with students following along and students confirm or change their initial predictions.  Teacher also takes this time to help students understand difficult phrases by asking questions like, “What do we learn from the text that can help us understand this word/phrase better?”

My experience with this strategy:  I love that the students get to talk about their prior knowledge or what something makes them think of. 

This past week, I chose a reading selection about the Thirteen Colonies and certain events that led up to the Revolutionary War.  There were some difficult concepts in the passage.  One of the phrases I wrote down on a card was, “The British were meddling in Colonial affairs”.  Note, I was using this strategy with struggling readers who scored either a 1 or 2 on last year’s FCAT. 

One of the students said, “This phrase reminds me of Scooby Doo, when someone in Scooby Doo says—Those meddling kids!”  I was able to use his connection of the word meddling to help him draw out what the meaning of meddling was and how it applied to the British and the Colonies.  It was a moment of fulfillment for me!  A short moment, but still I felt the strategy was serving its purpose as students found more connections like these. 

Since using this strategy, students have had a better memory and recall of the articles and poems we have read.  And overall, I feel this strategy at least gets them used to activating their prior knowledge bank in their minds and realize that that’s what good readers do:  connect reading texts (even when it’s difficult to understand) to their own experiences. 

 

Reference: 

Beers, K. (2002). When kids can't read what teachers do:  A guide for 6-12 teachers.  Portsmouth, NH:  Heinemann. 

 

 

Intensive Reading Intervention Plan  March 21, 2013:

Make a case for an optimal intervention program for struggling elementary readers or struggling secondary readers. Support your vision with textbook and/ or article citations. Describe the objectives, resources, personnel, materials, and assessments of your intervention program.

My case for an optimal intervention program for struggling readers will be developed for intermediate elementary students, grades 3-5, since this is the age group of students I am most comfortable and experienced in working with. 

The suggestions I make will be based on personal experience but, more probably more importantly, on Richard L. Allington’s book What Really Matters For Struggling Readers: Designing Research-Based Programs, Third Edition (2012).

OBJECTIVE: 

Students reading below grade level will be reading on grade level, or make a year or more growth by the end of the school year. 

PLAN OF ACTION (P.O.A):

This endeavor would be quite an undertaking and take much more serious thought than what I am putting into this discussion forum.  However, with that said, I feel confident that I can offer a skeletal version of the necessities of such a plan.

FIRST:  Students must be assessed by teacher.  Regardless of the student’s FCAT or SAT-10 score from the year before, the teacher must personally know the issues each student struggles with whether it be fluency, decoding, comprehension, motivation, etc.  Assessment may come in different forms and may not just be a standard test given at the beginning of the year, but may be a compilation of tests, reading with the teacher, or reading surveys. 

SECOND:  Once the teacher has properly diagnosed (which may take some time, preferably no more than a month as to minimize wasteful instructional time) each student with areas of weakness, the teacher can then begin to prescribe “treatment”.  As Allington attests, no reading program or added personnel can adequately substitute for effective teaching (2012).  In other words, the teacher, if effectively trained, will make the most difference in his/her students’ reading abilities.  If the student is struggling with fluency issues, then the teacher must prescribe an intensive fluency building activity.  If the student is struggling with comprehension, the teacher must prescribe intensive comprehension building activities.  And so on, and so on.  (Of course, most teachers can attest that if students are struggling with decoding, then fluency, and comprehension are a problem as well.) 

Allington (2012) suggests that struggling readers benefit most from tutoring from a highly-effective tutor, and then the next best solution would be to be in a small (3-5) student group, receiving intensive instruction. 

THIRD:  Lastly, teachers must be able to track students’ progress (hopefully) within these intensive instructional periods.  Assessments must be carefully considered and chosen in order to show students are improving in areas of weakness, and ultimately will attain the objectives set forth by this plan.    

So, what will be needed to carry this through?  Following are my thoughts on this:

RESOURCES/PERSONNEL:

Time, money (if necessary), and effort must be invested to see changes.  As pointed out before, Allington has strong convictions about the value of effective teaching.  In order to improve instruction, teachers should be willing to participate in studies of how to meet the needs of struggling readers.  Perhaps, schools can invest money in subscribing to professional magazines/journals which will offer reading that can best assist teachers in dealing with current issues.  Then, there must be accountability to ensure that teachers are reading and following through with suggestions made and discussing findings and opinions with colleagues.  Expert peer teachers, who are usually used as resource specialists can then use time to train and mentor teachers, rather than primarily students. 

Additionally, teachers need to have access to books and other reading material that meet the needs of each struggling reader in the classroom.  This may not be a standard text book series, but an array of magazines, books, leveled readers, etc. that match all students’ interests and readability. 

Because one-on-one tutoring seems to be the most effective form of intensive reading instruction, teachers may call on volunteers and paraprofessionals (who are adequately trained in how to help students with specific issues, otherwise this is a waste of time) to sit, read, and address immediate needs of each student.  This may consist of the volunteer practicing sight words, or decoding skills, or building fluency with timed passages, whatever the need may be with the student.

Obviously I could go into far more detail as to specifics on how to build comprehension, fluency, vocabulary skills, etc with this intervention plan, however that may take a Thesis to cover each topic. 

Hopefully, with an outline of a successful plan, the other important pieces will be sought out to plug in and work for the betterment of each struggling reader.

Resources:

Allington, R.L. (2012).  What really matters for struggling readers: Designing-research based programs (3^rd Ed.). Boston, MA:  Pearson Education, Inc. 

 

Uninterrupted Reading Time Value   March 21, 2013:

This post is in response to a discussion forum post from a fellow classmate in which I replied to.  The assignment was to design an intervention program for struggling readers.  Her suggestion was to implement a school wide time of 30 minutes dedicated to independent, uninterrupted reading time for each student in which the student could read a book of his/her choice and read it during this time.  Most schools have this in place already (hopefully).  Below is my reaction and response to her post:

I agree that an uninterrupted reading time is a crucial component to any reading intervention program and seems almost ludicrous that any school would not have such a thing. 

In my experience however, this reading time could be a WASTE of time with struggling readers if not handled properly.  It isn't simply enough for teachers to hide behind a desk or even a book (as setting an example of reading) with struggling readers out there in the classroom "lost in space".  They may have a book in front of them, but reading may not be going on as I'm sure you can imagine. I have found in classrooms where at least 1/3 of my class used this time ineffectively, that the greatest incentive to get my struggling readers to actually read during this time was to READ WITH THEM one-on-one.  I would beg, borrow, and steal anyone who was willing to come into my class for this 30 minute period (parents, volunteers, non-instructional school personnel) to just come and sit with one student, take turns reading the book and offer meaningful thoughts, connections, and questions regarding what they were reading about.  Many of these students had never had one person sit and read a meaningful story or nonfiction article with them ever. 

I have literally seen miracles happen because of this... students who never finished one book on their own in months complete a book, and then anxiously check out another one by the same author...and other tantalizing tales of reading success. 

So, thanks for sharing this crucial element to an intensive reading program.  I firmly believe that students become better at reading but READING and not just through some cardboard, scripted reading program, but through authentic reading experiences. 

Marliss

Why Telling Isn't Showing; "Show Me The Money"February 27, 2013

Reading this question subconsciously conjures up a hesitant, and somewhat shameful, groan on my part.  I groan and almost feel sick to my stomach because I think back on my last nine years of classroom teaching and am ashamed to admit that A LOT of my teaching has probably been TELLING, rather than SHOWING! 

As classroom teachers with many demands, I think we get caught up in trying to race through all the material we need to cover in a day, quarter, and of course before the almighty FCAT!  With that in mind, I know that I have thought that if I just simply tell my students what they need to know, that somehow magically they will actually know it when they come to some test question or problem they need to solve. 

Silly, silly me!  Beers could not be more right when she says that telling, indeed, is not showing and not TEACHING!  In her book When Kids Can't Read: What Teachers Can Do, Beers sympathizes with my inadequacies when she says, "We sometimes confuse explaining to students what is happening in a text with teaching students how to comprehend a test." (p. 40).  If students cannot make their own brain connections in order to comprehend what they need to do in a present and future settings, then no amount of the teacher telling them what to do, how to do it, and how to understand something will register in their brain.  Furthermore, students may learn to become dependent on teachers in order to "think". 

If we as teachers do not equip students with the cognitive tools to read and comprehend, well sadly, they cannot simply rely on our explanations.  And just how do we teach and equip our students to be comprehensive, independent readers?  Beers says, the "key lies in the words explicitly and directly" (p. 41).  We must explicitly and directly model and show students how to make inferences, recognize the author's purpose, compare and contrast, and all many reading skills required to become successful dependent readers. This cannot be done by simply following a scripted directive, for our ability to empower our students relies on our ability to respond and make connections with our students' questions and comments. 

Beers offers a six-step approach to teach by SHOWING, rather than TELLING:

1.  Choose which specific strategies you will model and what text to use.
2.  Tell your students specifically and directly which strategy you will be modeling while reading the passage.
3.  Read the passage and model the strategy by using a "Think Aloud" approach.
4.  Give students authentic and multiple reading experiences in which they can practice the strategy. 
5.  Continue modeling when using new genre or based on students' needs.
6.  Give students chance to practice independently.

These basic steps, coupled meaningful and personalized teaching and learning experiences, are powerful tools to help students grasp meaning, rather than just hearing it from teacher.  It's not enough to just tell me about the money, I want you to show it me so I can feel it in my own hands and my own pocket.  Without that, 

instruction has little to no value. 

Reference:

Beers, K. (2003).  When kids can't read: What teachers can do.  Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. 

Why Readers Struggle?

January 28, 2013

Well, isn’t this the million dollar question.  If we could just figure out why students have trouble reading, then we should be able to then come up with some probable and successful solutions. 

So, after all the years of teachers, textbook companies, intervention programs, technological programs, and every other resource out there to help struggling readers, why do children still struggle with reading?  Shouldn’t we have come up with a sure-cut solution by now? 

In her book, When Kids Can’t Read, What Teacher’s Do (2003), Kylene Beers, in my opinion, hits the nail on the head.  First she states that there is “no one answer” to explain why children struggle with reading (p. 7).  Each person is an individual, and not one of us is the same.  Therefore a diagnosis for one, may not be appropriate for another. 

On another note, here’s the hopeful part Beers (2003) offers:  while there may not be one answer, there ARE answers! 

So what are they?  Well, before we figure out WHY children struggle and HOW we can help them, it’s important to know WHAT they struggle with.  Ultimately this list can be endless, but Beers (2003) categorizes each issue into five main areas:

• Comprehension
• Vocabulary
• Word recognition, fluency, and automaticity
• Spelling
• Responding to literature and finding books that interest them

So, now that we know WHAT students can struggle with, once again we ask WHY do they struggle?  Well, thankfully, Beers (2003), once again, offers some insight.  If students are struggling with any of the five previously mentioned issues, chances are they:

• Lack cognitive abilities to read independently
• Have negative attitudes toward reading that result in a lack of reading confidence
• Don’t know which types of books interest them and lack endurance to complete a text

Other experts and teachers alike can definitely agree, but also add to Beers’ list. Among other reasons, results have shown that students from low-income families typically score lower on reading tests (Allington, 2012).  This may be probable because parental educational attainment is low, which could result in students not being read to and read with.

So, in my own experience, after nine years of teaching experience, why do I think readers struggle?   Well, if I could add to what’s already been presented I would say that some students struggle with reading because they have not had enough one-on-one reading instruction with a parent, teacher, or whomever could serve as a reading instructor and model.  I also believe students struggle with reading because they do not read enough, regardless if it’s material they are interested in or not. 

So, while it may be seemingly simple to pinpoint why children struggle with reading, solving those problems, is a whole other issue.  That, possibly, is a topic for another discussion.

References:

Allington, R. (2012).  What really matters to struggling readers (3^rd ed.) Boston, MA: Pearson.

Beers, K. (2003).  When kids can’t read, what teachers can do.  Portsmouth, NH: Heineman.