Andrew Ordover, Ed.D. Diane Rymer
STRATEGIES FOR STRUGGLING READERS
Agenda
How expectations around literacy are changing
Why some students struggle with reading
The explicit skills of comprehension
Strategies to help provide scaffolded, effective instruction
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CHANGING EXPECTATIONS
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Balancing Types of Literacy
Content-area teachers are not being asked to be English teachers
Each discipline requires unique forms of reading and writing
The way knowledge is acquired, developed, and shared in a given field often requires discipline-specific skills
Literature
Science
History/
Social Studies
Mathematics
Visual/
Performing Arts
Technical Arts
Literacy Skills
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Increasing Text Complexity We are expected to expose students to increasingly complex texts.
Text Complexity Grade Band in the Standards
Old Lexile Ranges Lexile Ranges Aligned to CCR
Expectations
K-1 N/A N/A
2-3 450-725 450-790
4-5 645-845 770-980
6-8 860-1010 955-1155
9-10 960-1115 1080-1305
11-CCR 1070-1220 1215-1355
Figure 3: Text Complexity Grade Bands and Associated Lexile Ranges (in Lexiles)
The Common Core State Standards require students to meet more rigorous expectations regarding text complexity.
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Williamson, Gary L. "A Text Readability Continuum for Postsecondary Readiness." Journal of Advanced Academics19.4 (2008): 602-632. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 29 Mar. 2011.
The Gap
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WHY SOME STUDENTS STRUGGLE
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Learning to Read Means
Learning how to decode written language: – Phonemic Awareness
– Phonics
– Vocabulary
– Fluency
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Reading to Learn Means…
Reading to gain knowledge: – Learn specific content in math, science and social
studies
– Utilize academic and content specific vocabulary
– Understand and solve problems
– Think critically about information presented
– Access information and develop understanding from multiple sources
– Create and innovate
– Communicate to a global audience through 21st century tools
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Why Do Struggling Readers Struggle?
For some, it’s a lack of basic decoding skills
But for many others, it’s an inability to learn efficiently from what is being read
Why?
• Lack of background knowledge
• Lack of academic vocabulary
• Lack of practice
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Lack of Background Knowledge
“It was the best men’s tennis match I’ve seen in a long time, certainly at Wimbledon, where serve-and-volley is so dominant when the men play. There was a lot of play form the back court. The match went back and forth in terms of who was in control. It looked as if Roddick was going to take command just before there was the inevitable rain delay in third set, and then Federer stormed back to take over again.” (NPR)
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Lack of Background Knowledge
“It was the best men’s tennis match I’ve seen in a long time, certainly at Wimbledon, where serve-and-volley is so dominant when the men play. There was a lot of play form the back court. The match went back and forth in terms of who was in control. It looked as if Roddick was going to take command just before there was the inevitable rain delay in third set, and then Federer stormed back to take over again.” (NPR)
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Tier 3 Words
Tier 2 Words
Tier 1 Words
Domain-specific words
General academic words
Words of everyday speech
Lack of Academic Vocabulary
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Lack of Background Knowledge
“It was the best men’s tennis match I’ve seen in a long time, certainly at Wimbledon, where serve-and-volley is so dominant when the men play. There was a lot of play form the back court. The match went back and forth in terms of who was in control. It looked as if Roddick was going to take command just before there was the inevitable rain delay in third set, and then Federer stormed back to take over again.” (NPR)
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Lack of Background Knowledge
“It was the best men’s tennis match I’ve seen in a long time, certainly at Wimbledon, where serve-and-volley is so dominant when the men play. There was a lot of play form the back court. The match went back and forth in terms of who was in control. It looked as if Roddick was going to take command just before there was the inevitable rain delay in third set, and then Federer stormed back to take over again.” (NPR)
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Lack of Background Knowledge
“It was the best men’s tennis match I’ve seen in a long time, certainly at Wimbledon, where serve-and-volley is so dominant when the men play. There was a lot of play form the back court. The match went back and forth in terms of who was in control. It looked as if Roddick was going to take command just before there was the inevitable rain delay in third set, and then Federer stormed back to take over again.” (NPR)
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Lack of Practice
What kinds of “practice” do students need?
1. Being read to regularly at home
2. Having many books and magazines at home
3. Seeing their parents and siblings reading as a regular part of their life
4. Having exposure to a variety of types and genres of text
5. Engaging in sustained reading during the school day
6. Engaging in conversation with adults who have rich vocabularies
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Where They Come From Matters
Professional Families
Working Class Families
Welfare Families
Parent Utterances Per Hour 487 301 176
Child’s Recorded Vocabulary Size
1,116 749 525
IQ at Age 3 117 107 79
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From Vocabulary for the Common Core (2013) by Robert J. Marzano & Julia A. Simms
COMPREHENSION SKILLS
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The Essentials
Essentials skills of reading comprehension: Main Idea and Details
Predicting and Inferring
Questioning
Clarifying
Retelling
Summarizing
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Summarizing is the most important comprehension skill because it leads
to a deeper understanding and retention of the information.
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Summarizing
1 • Identify the main idea from the topic sentence
or from the use of basic signal words.
2 • Identify details that support the main idea.
3 • Delete less important information.
Summarizing
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Summarizing
4 • Analyze redundant information to determine
importance.
5 • Categorize, collapse, and label important
information.
6 • Create a summary.
Summarizing
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Cla
rify
ing Clarifying is the
awareness that the text being read is not
making sense.
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Clarifying
• Does this make sense?
• What does not make sense?
• Do I know what is going on in the text?
• Am I getting the main idea?
• Is there anything that I don’t understand—
vocabulary, sentence, paragraph, page, concept?
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Pre
dic
tin
g Predicting is the use of prior knowledge and
information in the text to suggest or make an
educated guess about what might come next.
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Predicting
• Prior knowledge - Predicting requires you to use your prior knowledge about the topic.
• Patterns - Predicting is based on noticing patterns in text.
• Pictures - Important information revealed in pictures and other text features can be utilized for predictions.
• Proving - Confirm or change a prediction by returning to text.
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TEACHING STRATEGIES
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Use but confuse
Scaffolding
Correct level of difficulty
Established
ACQUAINTED
Unknown
Enough knowledge to be dangerous
Can do on
my own Can’t do
Frustration
Level Independent
Level
Instructional
Level
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Systematic & explicit instruction based on formative assessment data.
Small group instruction at their zone of proximal development.
Lessons / activities that are engaging / motivating.
Repetition.
Instruction that is presented in a variety of ways.
Activities that rely heavily on the use of prior learning and make connections to new skills.
What Struggling Readers Need
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Gradual Release of Responsibility
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e
Teac
her
Co
ntr
ol
Stu
den
t C
on
tro
l
Show
Model
Guide
Think Aloud Scaffold
Support
Collaborate
Partner Work Independent
Transfer
Application
Modeled (I do, you watch)
Shared (I do, you help)
Guided (You do, I help)
Independent (You do, I watch)
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A Dance . . . Gradual Release of Responsibility
A Dance . . . Gradual Release of Responsibility
A Dance . . . Gradual Release of Responsibility
TWO
A Dance . . . Gradual Release of Responsibility
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Scaffold for Struggling Students
Designed specifically for students who need the material to be presented in a
more concrete format in order for mastery to occur
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Scaffold for Struggling Students
Each activity focuses on providing the content of the lesson in a format where the skill is taught in a more explicit and systematic manner. The activities rely heavily on the use of prior learning to help make connections to the new skill. Scaffolds include: Pictures Props Manipulatives Graphic organizers
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Agenda
How expectations around literacy are changing
Why some students struggle with reading
The explicit skills of comprehension
Strategies to help provide scaffolded, effective instruction
38
Andrew Ordover, Ed.D. Diane Rymer
STRATEGIES FOR STRUGGLING READERS