Reading and Writing with Struggling Readers A Vygotskian Approach

1. Reading and Writing with Struggling Readers A Vygotskian Approach Isabel Peters De Activiteit National Center for Developmental Education Alkmaar, the Netherlands

2. Overview • Cultural-historical view on learning disabilities • Setup of the study • The approach to struggling readers • Conclusions

3. Cultural-historical view on learning disabilities • Coles (1987): schools can create learning disabilities • Vygotsky (1978): development is socially mediated • Peters & Van Oers (2007): teachers adopt a different approach to children they consider to be at-risk

4. Vygotsky: “Compensation, the individual’s reaction to a defect, initiates new, roundabout developmental processes - it replaces, rebuilds a new structure, and stabilizes psychological functions.” (1993, p.34)

5. Setup of the study Research question: Does the strategy ‘spelling’ (sounding out letters and blending them together) has a compensating function for struggling readers?

6. Series of case studies in two classrooms (Yin, 1994) • 2 boys and 2 girls (6, 7 and 8 years old) • Design experiment (Cobb e.a., 2003): cycles of invention and revision

7. Phase 1: reading a text • Teacher prepares children for reading • Children scan pages at ‘new words’ • New words are discussed • Children read the page • Reading of the page is discussed

8. Phase 2: practicing new words • Underlined words are read, spelled aloud and written down • Visual analysis • Other exercises

9. Phase 3: writing a text • Children finish the story • Teacher helps to fabricate a story • Teacher assists in the writing activity • Children make their own book • Children present their book to other children in the classroom

10. Conclusions: • Meaningful reading and writing activities • Observation of reading development • Action-oriented approach • Teacher offers those strategies that the child needs at a certain moment