Struggling Readers3rd Grade and Up

Darlene Bleier

Katie Caldwell

Jackie Mascara

Yvette Wilder

FACT:

More than eight million students in grades 4-12 read below grade level according to the National Center for Education Statistics in 2005.

Only 31% of America’s eighth grade students – and roughly the same percentage of twelfth graders – meet the National Assessment of Educational Progress standard of reading “proficiency” for their grade level. (NCES, 2005, 2003)

Through this presentation…

You will be able to identify:

Characteristics of a Struggling Reader

Interventions Resources

FACT:

If students are to be truly prepared for college, work, and citizenship, they cannot settle for a modest level of proficiency in reading and writing.

Content area literacy instruction must be a cornerstone of any movement to build high-quality secondary schools.

According to The Alliance for Excellent Education:

Without ongoing literacy instruction, students who are behind in reading when they enter the middle grades likely will never catch up.

Even college-bound students often struggle with more advanced literacy skills.

Some Considerations Associated with Struggling Readers

There are many factors related to reading difficulties, but are not necessarily causes.

The most common include: Environmental factors (home and school) Social factors Emotional factors Physical factors Cultural factors

Environmental Factors: Home

Language development is greatly influenced by the child’s home experience with a parent (National Reading Panel, 2000)

Studies that compare good and poor readers show that “good readers are more likely to have favorable home environments” (Abrams and Kaslow, 1987; Hart & Risley, 1995; 2002; Whitman, 2000)

Home Continued

A “favorable” home environment typically has:– Sufficient bonding with a parent or parent figure in

infancy years– Safety (low-risk environment) – physical and

emotional– Intellectual stimulation – through books and

conversation– General emotional health and encouragement of

a good self concept (someone they can count on)

Environmental Factors: School

Gender differentiations Remedial stigma (high performing students

tend to “shun” lower performing students (Wong & Donahue, 2002)

Inadequate or inappropriate diagnosis and instruction

School district provisions

Social Factors

Relationships with peers Relationships with authority figures Confidence and participation – some innate,

extrinsic

Emotional Factors

Anxiety Depression Hostile-aggressive behavior Learned helplessness Learning Block Low self-esteem

Physical Factors

Hearing loss Visual impairment Neurological

dysfunction

Cultural Factors

As of 2002, nearly 17% of all children in this country were considered at poverty level

Language barriers (ELL) Impaired oral and written language

development

A Day in the Life of a Struggling Reader

Imagine you were required to speak Italian, Arabic, and Russian in the morning, followed by French, Swahili, and Spanish in the afternoon.

For struggling adolescent readers, that’s what it seems like to move from one subject to the next. From math to English to history to science to civics, each content area has its own vocabulary, textual formats, stylistic conventions, and ways of understanding, analyzing, interpreting, and responding to words on the page.

Alliance for Excellent Education (2006). Reading and Writing in the Academic Content Areas. Issue Brief.

In groups of four…

Picture a science class of twenty-five students from very diverse backgrounds- different social classes, different ethnicities, and varying achievement levels. Many of the students struggle with text materials. Describe some classroom strategies you might use to respond to struggling readers while maintaining high standards of content learning.

What does a child experiencing reading

difficulty look like?

Profiles of Students Experiencing Reading Difficulty

Let’s review what struggling readers look like at each grade level.

Remember…– Students don’t suddenly struggle once they reach

third grade.– They have often been struggling since the primary

grades.

Kindergarten

Miscalls or confuses letter names Cannot “get” letter-sound correspondences Invented spelling is indecipherable Can comprehend texts read aloud, but tends

to avoid reading independently Showing signs of avoidance and frustration Concepts about print very limited

First Grade

Recognizes letter names in isolation, but still cannot “get” letter-sound correspondences

Has memorized some sight words, but unable to apply decoding skills

Attempts to sound out words but cannot blend sounds Guesses randomly at unknown words or relies on pictures Uses first letter decoding skills Comprehension texts read aloud – but reluctant to read

independently Fluency very poor – reading is belabored and slow with

frequent errors Writing is immature; invented spelling resembles that of a

Kindergartener’s

Second - Third Grade

Inability to “keep up” is more noticeable Poor decoding skills; fluency is poor and not grade

appropriate Has memorized lots of words but cannot decode

unknown ones Signs of frustration and avoidance of independent

reading more apparent Comprehension and vocabulary knowledge starting

to skip – even when being read to Writing lacks appropriate elaboration, contains many

spelling and conventions errors, and vocabulary knowledge and usage is poor

Intermediate Grades

Decoding and fluency poor: students tend to hide when having to read aloud and/or make numerous errors – sometimes unknown to the student

Comprehension is to some degree compensated for – but is superficial at best; student demonstrates difficulty remembering and articulating major text ideas

Writing is constrained and often brief and undeveloped; little evidence of elaboration or interest in writing

Rarely reads independently; selects “easy” books or expository books for pictures more than for content

Middle and High School Grades

Does not complete text-book assignments or needs a great deal of time and support

Rarely reads and does not write well Still showing difficulty with decoding and fluency –

miscalls a lot of words when reading aloud Comprehension and interpretation of text is

superficial and often wrong Behavior manifestations of frustration and

embarrassment Vocabulary repertoire is poor and resembles that of

an elementary grade student Little knowledge of authors and genre

Other Characteristics of Struggling Readers in Middle and High School:

They sometimes have not mastered basic knowledge and strategies required for decoding unfamiliar words

They are almost always less fluent readers—their sight word vocabularies many thousands of words smaller than average readers

Usually know the meanings of fewer words Usually have less conceptual/factual knowledge Are almost always less skilled in using strategies to

enhance comprehension or repair it when it breaks down Will typically not enjoy reading or choose to read for

pleasure

The Fourth Grade Slump

Some students, especially those from socioeconomic disadvantage, may read adequately from kindergarten to third-grade but suddenly begin to struggle when they reach fourth-grade. This phenomenon has been referred to as the “fourth-grade slump.”

In fourth-grade, texts become more complex and abstract and contain language and concepts that are more challenging.

In subsequent grades, as texts become more and more difficult and supply less and less contextual support

Causes of the Fourth Grade Slump

Lack of fluency and automaticity which tends to result, ultimately, in children’s reading less and avoiding more difficult materials

Vocabulary words in text shift from high frequency to less common words.

Too many difficult words and technical terms in content area texts negatively effect comprehension.

Many upper-elementary grade teachers do not have, “substantial knowledge of how to teach reading,” (Grosso de Leon, 2002, p. 1).

“At the secondary level, the responsibility for teaching reading and writing often seems to belong to no one in particular.”

In a typical high-poverty urban school, approximately half of

incoming ninth-grade students read at a sixth-or

seventh-grade level or below.

How Can We Close the Reading Gap for Middle and High

School Students?

Interventions – Tips For Teachers

Make sure you scaffold Vary reading levels Differentiate instruction Explicitly teach reading strategies Provide students with reading choices

Fluency Interventions

Partner Reading Fluency Word Cards Word Folder And the answer is… Repeated Reading Readers Theater

Decoding Interventions - Strategies

Chunking Word Patterns Analogy Sight Words

Decoding Interventions - Activities

Jumping Syllables The Name Game “Riming” Race Mother May I?

Comprehension Interventions

Story Mapping Text Mapping Chunking The Text Answering the 7 “W’s” Word Study Boggle Tic-Tac-Toe Reciprocal teaching Questioning the Author Think-alouds QAR’s (question answer response)

Seeking Help for a Struggling Reader: Seven Steps for Teachers

Get to know the student Get to know the family Encourage good literacy habits at home Tap into the specialist and resources in your own

building Reflect on your own research-based teaching Advocate for the student through school-based and

outside resources Stay informed

1. Get to know the student

Find out the interests of your struggling reader and incorporate those into your teaching strategies and the materials you select.

Using past records or the student’s cumulative folder, find out more about the student’s history of school success.

2. Get to know the family

Helping a child learn to read is a community effort, and sometimes it requires sensitivity on the part of the teacher.

It is important to reach ESL families, they may require special accommodations, like a translator or materials sent home in their native language.

3. Encourage good literacy habits at home

Support family reading time by allowing students to borrow books overnight or for a few days.

Offer suggestions to parents for fun, easy things that they can do at home to support literacy development.

4. Tap into the specialists and resources in your own building

Schedule some time to discuss your struggling student with the speech/language pathologist.

Meet with your reading specialist. Special education teachers have a wealth of

knowledge regarding teaching dyslexia, learning disabilities, and the special education process.

5. Reflect on your own research-based teaching

Good beginning instruction teaches children how to identify words, to understand what they read, to achieve fluency, and to develop a love for reading that will motivate them and stay with them for the rest of their lives.

Most importantly, good reading instruction is tailored to the individual needs of students.

6. Advocate for the student through school-based and outside resources

Many schools have tutoring programs in place for the struggling reader.

Tutoring often takes place before and after school.

7. Stay informed

Whether you’re new to the profession or an expert teacher, its important to keep current with what’s going on in the fields of reading and special education.

Some Major Recommendations given by the CORE Literacy Leadership Summit, March 2006:

Direct, explicit comprehension instruction Effective instructional principles embedded in

content Motivation and self-directed learning Text-based collaborative learning, lots of

opportunities for meaningful discussion Diverse, interesting text at many levels Intensive writing Extended time for literacy

Direct Instruction in Comprehension

Teachers explicitly explain and model a comprehension strategy

Guided practice with feedback with discussion

Independent practice and review, with further discussionGerston, R., Fuchs, L., Williams, J., & Baker, S. (2001). Teaching reading comprehension strategies to students with learning disabilities: A review of research. Review of Educational Research, 7, 279-320.

Resources:

Florida State University and Florida Center for Reading Research www.fcrr.org

National Reading Panel www.nationalreadingpanel.org

Alliance for Excellent Education www.all4ed.org – Literacy Instruction in the Content Area: Getting to the Core

of Middle and High School Improvement– FactSheet, February 2006– Issue Brief, June 2006

Heller, R. & Greenleaf, L. (2007). Literacy instruction in the content areas: Getting to the core of middle and high school improvement. Washington, DC: Alliance for Excellent Education.

Vacca, Richard T., and Jo Anne L. Vacca. Content Area Reading. 9th ed. Boston: Pearson Education Inc., 2008. 34-66.

Jennings, Joyce H., JoAnne S. Caldwell, and Janet W. Lerner. Reading Problems. 5th ed. Boston: Pearson Education Inc., 2006. 26-27.

CORE Literacy Leadership Summit, March 2006 http://www.scoe.org/reading/docs/torgesen.pdf

Department of Education and Early Childhood Development http://www.education.vic.gov.au/studentlearning/teachingresources/english/literacy/concepts/4kcfourthgrade.htm

National Center Education Statistics, 2005 http://nces.ed.gov/

Alliance for Excellent Education (2006). Reading and Writing in the Academic Content Areas. Issue Brief.

Gerston, R., Fuchs, L., Williams, J., & Baker, S. (2001). Teaching reading comprehension strategies to students with learning disabilities: A review of research. Review of Educational Research, 7, 279-320.

Essential Reading Strategies for the struggling reader: www.tea.state.tx.us/reading/products/essential.pdf

Interventions for struggling adolescent readers http://www.adlit.org/article/19750

10 Ways to Teach and Support Adolescent Readers http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa4009/is_200710/ai_n21033481/pg_5?tag=artBody;col1

Seeking Help for Struggling Readers www.readingrockets.org