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Explore powerful literacy practices, motivation strategies, and disciplinary literacy to support struggling readers in understanding and learning from challenging texts across various disciplines, with intentional vocabulary instruction and comprehension strategies.
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Literacy and the Struggling Reader Presented by: Cindy Martin cindy.martin@sreb.org
Changes in Literacy Required in the Classroom • Challenging texts • Close reading • Writing from sources • Informational text • Multiple texts • Argument • Embedded technology • Disciplinary literacy
Changes in Literacy Required in the Classroom • Challenging texts • Close reading • Writing from sources • Informational text • Multiple texts • Argument • Embedded technology • Disciplinary literacy
Disciplinary Literacy • Disciplinary Literacy is a completely different concept • It is not about bringing ELA standards, methods, or approaches to the subject area classroom • Each discipline has its own ways of using text to create, disseminate, and evaluate knowledge, and it is this that the new standards are asking us to teach • Goal is to apprentice students into the disciplines • What is different across the disciplines?
How Do I Help the Struggling Reader? • Powerful Literacy Practices • Motivation • Taking away excuses • Understanding the nature and culture of the discipline • Intentional planning for vocabulary instruction • Intentional planning for comprehension strategies
Motivation • Plan for elements that make reading social • Make it relevant • Make it accessible • Give students a choice
Motivation- Social Learning is a social process, so classrooms must be social places. What we know and are able to do independently can be increased significantly through peer interaction and strong teacher modeling and support. Students need to discuss what they are learning with others. The best classroom environment for struggling readers is one where they can think and talk aloud with their classmates and the teacher about their ideas and questions. The focus of the classroom should not be on the reading itself, but rather on the process of making meaning and creating understandings about content. According to Vygotsky
Motivation- Choice If we are to pique the interest of our students, textbooks cannot be their main sources of information—especially for struggling readers. As Moore, Moore, Cunningham, and Cunningham (2003) tell us:
Motivation- Choice “Traditional content area textbooks are like freeways. They move you through a lot of territory, but they do it so quickly that you are unable to obtain close, personal insights into the area. The connecting roads of subject matter are materials such as library books, magazines, newspapers, the Internet, computer software, and industry books and documents. These materials provide multiple avenues to thinking and learning.” In order to genuinely know where you are and have been, you need to exit the freeway and travel the connecting roads.
Make it Accessible Taking Away Excuses Nature of the Discipline Vocabulary Instructional Delivery Reading Strategies
Taking Away Excuses • Struggling readers must be exposed to a wide variety of text genres and types, including newspaper and magazine articles, novels, and Web sites. • Understanding the features specific to different genres and types of text allows students to better predict what comes next and how the text will be presented. • Conducting read-alouds and walking students through thinking aloud about what they read can also be of help.
Taking Away Excuses • Many struggling readers are unfamiliar with everyday terms that the rest of us take for granted—terms such as compare, contrast, infer, and discuss. For these students, we must provide specific modeled lessons coupled with guided feedback on their performance. • Word-by-word readers often concentrate so hard on decoding that they do not absorb the meaning of what they read. These students must be reminded that when this happens, they have to stop and use a fix-up strategy such as rereading, considering the context, or asking for clarification.
Taking Away Excuses Given the length, density, and broad-ranging topics found within textbook chapters, preview the material and strategically select sections that align with specific learning objectives. Then give students a specific purpose and section to read so that they know why they are reading and what they are supposed to learn.
Taking Away Excuses Give clear, focused homework assignments. Instead of telling students, "Read Chapter 12 for tomorrow," teachers can include three parts to every homework assignment: the purpose for the reading, how students should approach the reading, and how students will use the information. For example:
Taking Away Excuses Tonight, you should read pp.230-240 and pp.255-260 in Chapter 12. The purpose for reading this is to understand the causes of the American Revolution. As you're reading, draw a T-chart to keep track of the British perspective and the American perspective. When we come in tomorrow, we're going to divide into two teams, take roles, and debate the reasons each side had for entering into war. The next day, students should be engaged in homework "application" where they are asked to use what they have read.
Teach students to figure out meaning from context • Preteaching of vocabulary is only the beginning • More guided practice figuring out word meanings • Include figuring out word meanings across a text(s) and the discipline • Specialized reference works from a field of study
Foundation for Lesson Design Terms (in the standard, the unit, and/or the lesson)
Foundation for Lesson Design Terms Tools • (to work with and understand the term)
Foundation for Lesson Design Terms Tools Application (to use the term in a unique situation)
Focus on… Students doing the work and talking!
Step 1 Provide a description, explanation, or example of new term.
Step 2 Students restate explanation of new term in own words.
Step 3 • Students create a nonlinguistic representation of term.
Step 4 Students periodically do activities that help add to knowledge of vocabulary terms.
Step 5 Periodically students are asked to discuss terms with one another.
Step 6 Periodically students are involved in games that allow them to play with terms.
6 Steps At-A-Glance 1—Define the term 2—Paraphrase/Restate 3—Visual representation 4—Activity with terms 5—Discuss/Verbal use of terms with group 6—Games
Frayer Model Formal Definition: Student-Friendly Definition: Term Tips to Remember: Visual:
How are the literacy strategies taught through explicit instruction? Teacher Responsibility I do it. Focus Lesson Guided Instruction We do it. We do it together. Collaboratively Independently We do it alone. Student Responsibility
Reading Strategies Students with reading difficulties must have explicit instruction and multiple opportunities to interact with the text.
What Does it Mean… • Activating prior knowledge • Making predictions • Previewing text • Establishing a purpose for reading/learning • Generating questions
