strategies to address specific learning disabilities in ...€¦ · there are two steps to sight...

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Copyright © 2017 Arizona Board of Regents, All rights reserved • SanfordInspireProgram.org For a complete list of references, refer to the On-Demand Module ‘Strategies to Address Specific Learning Disabilities in Reading.’

Strategies to Address Specific Learning

Disabilities in Reading

Transcript

Chapter 1: Specific Learning Disabilities

Introduction

Transcript:

This module will introduce you to common struggles experienced by students who have a specific learning disability, or SLD, in reading. You will also learn about strategies that can be used to help students address these struggles.

If you would first like to develop an understanding of what a specific learning disability is - as well as what its impacts are - click Learn More. If you already have an understanding and are ready to learn about specific learning disabilities in reading, click Proceed.

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Optional: What is an SLD? (4:30)

Transcript:

It’s important to highlight that a specific learning disability is different from a learning struggle. Here’s why. Students with an SLD have that disability for life (American Psychological Association, 2013). In contrast, students who struggle academically but do not have a disability can typically overcome this struggle with high-quality instruction and time.

Students with an SLD learn to use other skills to navigate around their disability. Students then apply these skills to be successful in their academic careers and life. As educators, it’s part of our job to help teach these skills.

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SLD Information

Transcript:

Click to explore SLD’s prevalence, impact, and critical beliefs and values teachers should possess.

Prevalence

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Impact

Beliefs

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Expert Introduction

Transcript:

Take a moment to watch differentiation expert Dr. Kathleen Puckett discuss the importance and benefits of focusing on a students’ abilities.

Video

Transcript:

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For kids with learning disabilities, focusing on the ability is probably the most important thing you can do. If you would look in history and look in our society, people with learning disabilities are some of the most productive leaders that we have. And part of it is because they understand what their disability is and things they cannot do, and they focus on their abilities. Their abilities to get things done. Their abilities to work through other people. Their ability to see clearly what the issue is without the tedium of getting bogged down in the details.

Data and Trends

Transcript:

Before closing, let’s acknowledge a couple of hopeful trends in the data surrounding students with specific learning disabilities.

First, the dropout rate of students with specific learning disabilities has fallen steadily from 35% in 2002 to 19% in 2011 (Cortiella & Horowitz, 2014).

Secondly, the number of students with an SLD who enroll in college has increased from just 30% in 1990 to 48% in 2005 (Cortiella & Horowitz, 2014).

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Closing

Transcript:

Research shows that high-quality instruction is the most powerful intervention students have (Benner, Bell, & Brommel, 2011; Wharton-McDonald, 2011). By accessing this module, you’ve already demonstrated a commitment to better understand and support students with specific learning disabilities.

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Chapter 2: What is an SLD in Reading?

Disability Types

Transcript:

Chances are that you either currently have - or will have - students in your classroom with a specific learning disability in reading. In fact, 60-90% of students with a specific learning disability qualify in the area of reading (Bender, 2004; U.S. Department of Education, 2015).

However, research shows that many teachers feel unprepared to teach students how to read (Manset-Williamson & Nelson, 2005; Taylor, Sobel, Blanton, & Pugach, 2007).

Before we get started, if you’d like to access a graphic organizer to keep track of ideas and concepts, click Download.

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What is it?

Transcript:

Generally speaking, an SLD refers to neurological differences in brain structure that impact a student’s ability to “receive, store, process, retrieve, and communicate information” (Cortiella, & Horowitz, 2015, p. 3).

Symptoms of a specific learning disability in reading include inaccurate, slow, and effortful word reading as well as difficulty understanding the meaning of what is read (American Psychiatric Association, 2013).

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Areas of Struggle

Transcript:

Reading is an intricate process because the brain is engaged in so many different activities simultaneously. For the purposes of this module, we will address three areas that most students diagnosed with an SLD in reading struggle with: word recognition, fluency, and comprehension (American Psychiatric Association, 2013; Hardman, 2006; Pierangelo & Giuliani, 2008).

These areas are all interconnected, but for the sake of clarity, we are going to examine each one separately.

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Chapter 3: Word Recognition

What is it?

Transcript:

First, we will look at word recognition. Word recognition refers to how accurately and automatically a student reads words that both follow and do not follow phonemic guidelines (Gillet et al., 2012; Turnbull et al., 2013). Phonemic guidelines refer to the sound system of a particular language (Turnbull et al., 2013).

For example, the word “can” follows the traditional sound system of English because it can be pronounced phonetically. Conversely, “the” does not follow the traditional sound system of English. It must be memorized.

Word recognition, or the ability to read words automatically and with ease, is a pre-requisite skill for comprehension (Turnbull et al., 2013).

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Frequent Struggles

Transcript:

You might see some of the following behaviors if a student is struggling with word recognition while reading.

- Omitting words or groups of words.

- Inserting a word or words into a sentence.

- Substituting a word in the text.

- Mispronouncing a word.

- Slow and labored reading (Gargiulo, 2009; Moats, 2005).

Click on each type of error to see an example.

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Omissions

Insertion

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Substitution

Mispronunciation

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Slow

Word Practice

Transcript:

There are two steps to sight word and/or content-specific word practice (Gillet et al., 2012)

First, identify word lists that are at the reading level of the student. You can use prepared lists of common sight words or develop your own list using words from your content area.

Second, have the student complete brief and engaging daily practice with these words.

If you would like to explore this strategy further, click Learn More. Otherwise, click Proceed.

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Optional: How to Support

Transcript:

For basic sight-word practice, consider using grade level lists such as the ones found on this website:

You can also develop a list of words specific to the content you teach by looking at an upcoming unit or lesson and identifying a list of ten to twenty frequently occurring words. You can also search the internet for vocabulary lists related to the upcoming topic.

Why the Strategies Work

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Transcript:

Working with students to increase word recognition is effective because it helps students develop accuracy through repetition and exposure to words (Hardman, Drew, & Egan, 2008; Salvia & Ysseldyke, 1998; Walker, Mokhtari, & Sargent, 2006). Students with a learning disability require more opportunities to practice and interact with words (Wharton-McDonald, 2011). Sight words represent 85% of reading material in the first eight years of school and it’s crucial that students are able to automatically read these frequently occurring words (Bender, 2004).

Pause and Think

Transcript:

Before continuing to fluency, take a moment to pause and think: What are key-takeaways about word recognition that are directly applicable to your setting and content area? Which upcoming lessons should have sight or content-specific word lists for your struggling readers? Take a moment to record your ideas.

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Chapter 4: Fluency

What is it?

Transcript:

Once a student increases his or her word recognition skills, he or she can begin to focus on reading with fluency.

Fluency describes the ability to read words correctly, with automaticity and expression (Kuhn, 2011; Moats, 2005; Samuels, 2006). Automaticity refers to how quickly a student can recognize and correctly read a word.

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Frequent Struggles

Transcript:

Students who struggle with fluency demonstrate many of the same behaviors as students who struggle with word recognition. In fact, the two often go hand-in-hand: difficulty with word recognition leads to non-fluent reading.

On the other hand, it’s possible that a student has good word recognition, but does not read with any fluency. She may sound robotic and monotone. This is still a fluency issue.

If you would like to take a moment to review indicators that apply to both word recognition and fluency, click “Review.” Otherwise, click “Proceed.”

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Optional: Review

Transcript:

You might see some of the following behaviors if a student is struggling with word recognition while reading.

- Omitting words or groups of words.

- Inserting a word or words into a sentence.

- Substituting a word in the text.

- Mispronouncing a word.

- Slow and labored reading (Gargiulo, 2009; Moats, 2005).

Click on each type of error to see an example.

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Why do we Address?

Transcript:

Fluency is important to address because there is a “significant and positive relationship between oral reading fluency and comprehension” (National Assessment of Educational Progress, 2002, p. 40). The opposite also holds true: students with low oral reading fluency show lower comprehension of what they read.

Therefore, by working to improve reading fluency, you can also indirectly help develop comprehension.

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Strategies

Transcript:

There are numerous strategies to help develop reading fluency. Here are four: modeling, echo reading, choral reading, or an independent timed read (Boon & Spencer, 2010; Kuhn, 2011; Moats, 2005). These strategies can be used as brief, daily activities to help promote fluency.

These strategies should be used based on the amount of support a student needs. They are listed in order from most-to-least support. Take a moment to explore each strategy by dragging the slider.

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Modeling

Echo Reading

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Choral Reading

Independent Timed Read

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Caveat

Transcript:

When selecting a fluency strategy keep a couple of things in mind. First, there should be a purpose behind the strategy. Next, the purpose should be communicated to students before the strategy is used. For example, when modeling a text, the teacher might say something like, “Since this is our first time reading this article, I’m going to read it to you. As I read, notice how I use punctuation to add to my expression. After we finish the first reading, you’re going to read to a partner so that you can practice your own fluency.”

If you would like to learn about how to organize and conduct a timed read, click Learn More. Otherwise, click Proceed.

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Optional: How to Support

Transcript:

When selecting a passage for a student to practice with, try to find one that will be interesting for him or her. Consider using both fiction and non-fiction as well as a text that can be read with 90-95% accuracy (Moats, 2005). These passages will most likely be below grade level, but can still be informational and interesting.

Here is how to conduct an independent timed fluency read.

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Pause and Think

Transcript:

Remember, by taking just a few minutes each day to increase fluency, you may also increase comprehension.

Before continuing, take a moment to pause and think: What are key takeaways about fluency that are applicable to your own setting? How can you provide opportunities for students to practice fluency in your classroom?

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Feedback

Transcript:

Click on any statement for an explanation of why it is true or false. Click Proceed when you are ready to continue.

Check for Understanding

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Transcript:

Let’s take a moment to check for understanding. Place a check in the boxes to indicate whether each statement is true or false. Click Submit when you are finished.

Chapter 5: Comprehension

Frequent Struggles

Transcript:

Let’s turn our attention to the critical reading skill of comprehension. Comprehension refers to a student’s ability to draw meaning from text (Bender, 2004; Gillet et al., 2012; Pierangelo & Giuliani, 2008; Turnbull et al., 2013).

You might see some of the following behaviors if a student is struggling with comprehension: [no audio]

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Why it's Important to Address

Transcript:

Comprehension is important to address because, as students progress through school, the comprehension of content-area texts becomes increasingly important and difficult (Common Core State Initiative, 2016; Turnbull et al., 2013).

In addition, comprehension heavily influences academic achievement (Hardman et al., 2008; Peterson & Pennington, 2010). If students can’t understand the text they read, then they can’t use that text to learn.

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Strategy: Making Connections

Transcript:

Students with a learning disability often struggle with processing information (Bulgren, Marquis, Lenz, Schumaker, & Deshler, 2009; Gillet et al., 2012; Moats, 2006; Turnbull et al., 2013).

Making connections is a strategy that helps students process information from a text.

By using this strategy, students will learn how to connect a text to their own lives, to another text they have read, or to the world around them (Allen, 2016). As a teacher, you facilitate this process by asking questions before, during, and after reading. Students record their connections on a graphic organizer and then have opportunities to use the information they have recorded (Tovani, 2004).

Making connections also allows students to tap into prior knowledge and experiences as they read, which will strengthen comprehension (Allen, 2016; Tovani, 2004).

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How to Make Connections

Transcript:

Three types of connections students might make are: text-to-self, text-to-text, and text-to-world (Allen, 2016). Each type of connection should be modeled for students before they are asked to do it on their own.

Click on each type to see a list of questions that can prompt that connection.

Self

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Text

World

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Graphic Organizers

Transcript:

Have students practice making connections as they read. They can use a graphic organizer like the one you see on-screen to record and explain their connections. This graphic organizer is available on the document entitled Additional Strategies and Resources.

After reading, students should have the opportunity to discuss and share their connections.

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Pause and Think

Transcript:

Before continuing, take a moment to pause and think: What are key-takeaways about comprehension that apply to your setting?

Caveat

Transcript:

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If you teach a specific content area, you might be thinking “I teach history. How and why does this apply to me?

If you would like to listen to an expert explain how content area teachers can provide support in reading, click “Learn More.” Otherwise, click “Proceed.”

Video

Transcript:

You’re probably not the kind of teacher who would actually be teaching the structural components of reading, but you are teaching them how to read in your particular field and your particular content area.

How can you read the titles and section headings to get a good idea of what the content is? So many times, a student with a learning disability, when they begin to read, they will not have, when they read in the content area, they will not have a strategy, so they will just begin at the beginning. And read as far as they can until they are exhausted, instead of reading strategically. What is the title? What are the headings? What might be some questions you could ask? So a content area teacher would teach how to read the content and the specific way that their field is organized.

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Text Features

Transcript:

Remember, when you are teaching specific content, you can help support students with an SLD in reading by teaching them how to notice and use text features such as titles and headings.

Conclusion

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Transcript:

Word recognition, fluency, and comprehension are the three biggest areas of struggle for students with an SLD in reading. You have learned what each one is and why it’s important to address. You also learned strategies that will help support each area of struggle.

Odds are, there is at least one student in your classroom who has a learning disability in reading. By working to address common areas of struggle, you can help these students be more successful.

Proceed to the Resource section where you will have the opportunity to hear from experts and teachers who have implemented these strategies in their own classrooms.

Chapter 6: Word Recognition

Introduction

Transcript:

Word recognition is an important pre-requisite skill for both fluency and comprehension. (show three icons with word recognition highlighted). In the Foundation section, you learned about daily sight word practice as one strategy. Previewing key words is another way to develop this important skill.

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Video

Transcript:

General education teachers who are working with kiddos who have a special, a specific learning disability in reading should…They can do a number of things. So if there’s a lot of text, and content-specific text, rather than ask the student to read all of the text and memorize all of the vocabulary words, I would recommend that they…That’s not going to benefit the student very much. They will probably just get a very shallow understanding of all the content. Rather than that, have the teacher pull out five, ten key words that are content-specific that a student can really learn, and understand, and get examples for.

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Chapter 7: Fluency

Fluency

Transcript:

In the foundation video, you learned that fluency refers to a student’s ability to read with accuracy and expression (Kuhn, 2011; Moats, 2005; Samuels, 2006). Here, you can watch a teacher named Mrs. Clark explain the strategy of modeling, or a teacher named Mrs. Arredondo complete a timed independent read.

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Mrs. Clark

Transcript:

So, I try to not, even on the days that I do read, I try not to read for too long because even though, you know, I feel like I’m a good reader that’s boring to just sit for 55 minutes and listen to somebody reading to you.

If it’s an article I’ll try and, you know, doctor it up, do what I need to so it’s shorter. But if there’s no way around it because the text is lengthy for whatever reason, then I have, like a couple of tricks up my sleeve, I guess. If it’s expository, and let’s say we’re reading an article.

So it’s like, ok, we’ll do, you know, I read, y’all read, and then you read. So it’s like, I’ll read the first section, to you guys. Help establish the background, you know, read, slash think out loud. You know, kind of get you prepped and, you know, built up and then, OK, in partners read the second section, pull out important details. OK. Now for the last ten minutes of class, finish up the article by yourself yadda, yadda, yadda. So trying to, like, release the responsibility a little bit.

The kids, I think, can see the real value, of like, punctuation. When it’s like, oh no - periods and commas don’t just exist to be like sprinkled about the page. But like dashes and ellipses and all these things actually are what create the voice in a story. And I don’t think they would get that necessarily, every kid would pick up on that if they were reading by themselves. I don’t know if other people feel the same way, but for some reason I feel like if I’m reading something out loud the kids are more comfortable asking like, “Hey wait, what does that mean?” Whereas if they were reading it by themselves, they’re not gonna…that same word, that same exact text - I don’t think they would necessarily be like, “Let me use my context clues to figure out what that word means”, or even, “Let me look it up on my phone.” I think they would skip over it. But I think that for some reason…I don’t know if it’s just something like the voice breaking down the barrier. Just the fact that it’s, even if I’m reading maybe it feels like a conversation.

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So learning how to pronounce, you know some academic vocabulary. Or even just words that they don’t use in daily life but like, I don’t know, like myriad. Words that, you know, they might have seen again, maybe in a textbook or a different class, but, I don’t know. I’m never gonna say that word, I’m never gonna incorporate it into my vocabulary, I’ve never seen somebody say it out loud. So now, it’s like oh, that’s how you say it, ok, cool. And then hopefully that increases the chances that they will actually maybe one day use that word.

It’s like, I read somewhere in some article about it. It’s like reading out loud is like a commercial for reading. Like it’s selling it to them. Cause, you know, if they don’t read for pleasure in high school, they’re not gonna be life-long readers. And that’s kind of sad.

Mrs. Arredondo

Transcript:

Mrs. Arredondo: Ok Olga, are you ready? We have done your cold read and you were able to read how many words per minute?

Olga: 100.

Mrs. Arredondo: Ok, and then I modeled reading this story a couple of times and you did a bunch of partner reads. Correct?

Olga: (Agrees).

Mrs. Arredondo: And then we set a goal as to the last time you read which is your hot read which is what we’re reading right now. How many words a minute did you want to read?

Olga: 105.

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Mrs. Arredondo: Very good. Ok, we’re going to see if you can reach that goal, ok? So, one minute timing. Go ahead and follow along. Are you ready? And, begin.

Olga: Many birds migrate but the Arctic tern takes it to extreme. Each year, this bird flies from one end of the earth to the other, and back again. The Arctic tern breeds in the northernmost [nuthern-must] part of the planet. An Arctic tern near the North Pole receives [re-sheeves] almost 24 hours of sunlight each day. But this bright summer is only temporary [termperly]. When autumn approaches, the bird begins [begin] its [the] amazing migration. By the time the harsh Arctic winter moves in, the tern is long gone. The Arctic tern files above the Arctic Circle all the way down to the shores of Antarctica [Un-tar-ti-cuh]. If the tern went in a straight line [complete circle], its journey would be about 10,000 miles. But (timer goes off).

Mrs. Arredondo: Stop right there. Awesome. You beat your goal. Ok. Let’s look at what we read. So 116, 117, 118, 119. So you read 119 words per minute. That’s awesome. And then there were still a couple words we still had some trouble with like temporary, and then Antarctica. Those are bigger words, they’re multi-syllabic words so…one, two, three, four, five, six, seven. So minus seven. So 119 minus 7…

Olga: 112

Mrs. Arredondo: So did you beat your goal of 105?

Olga: Yeah.

Mrs. Arredondo: So now we’re gonna go back and graph that on your graph. So you were able to, you colored in your cold score. So this was the first time you read this story, no help. You never had, you know, listened to me read it. You read 100 words per minute and now this time you were able to read 112 words. You were able to read 12 more words so you’re gonna color right up above here to 112.

Olga: (Colors graph in red).

Mrs. Arredondo: Ok. So that red line is gonna show you how much more you were able to read after practicing that story a couple of times. So, awesome job.

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Chapter 8: Comprehension

Introduction

Transcript:

Numerous strategies exist to support comprehension. In the Foundation section, you learned about making connections as one strategy. Another way to support comprehension is to use before, during, and after reading strategies.

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Video

Transcript:

Whenever we start a reading selection, I always post it either in like a notebook or in a PowerPoint. Why are we reading this text? What is the purpose for reading this text? This way, I try and get a little bit of a buy-in with the students. So they have, you know, a reason why this is important or relevant for them. And depending on what the text is, I try to also find some kind of connection to either modern-day relevancy, or their personal lives, or just something that is going to make them feel a little bit more attached to it. Rather than something, say, you’re reading this either because the teacher likes this particular piece of literature and that’s why we’re reading it, or it’s just from the curriculum. The curriculum requires you to read this, and in some cases that is the case, it’s true, but we need to find a way to get the student to realize that, hey, even though it’s something I’m required to read but there is a value to me as a student, as a person, as an individual.

Even with “The Pit and the Pendulum”, something that’s a little more modern, something that’s still the language…you know Poe is a little bit…his vocabulary was…pretty good and you’ve gotta clarify so you really understand exactly what happened here in this particular scene or this, you know, this section. And we talk about it a little bit and say okay, now I get it, I thought it was something…What do you think? What do you think? What happened? Well…I think this. Ok, well, does anybody think anything different? What impression did you get? What impression did you get? And then we kind of talk about it a little bit. And then if I get a couple of responses…If I find someone who- oh you’ve got it. You’re right, they nailed it, they got it perfect. Where, if not, then I’ll have to go back a little bit and say ok, let’s try it again. And then I will clarify it more fully if we need to. But, yeah, you always have to go back and re-read stuff. And again, that’s a skill or practice that they should be doing anyway. If you read something and you really don’t understand it, just don’t keep plowing along and keep going. Stop. Go back and use your context clues. Which we talk about a lot. And go back and re-read it. And even if at that point you’re still not sure, you know, get out the dictionary, and say I don’t know what

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this word means. I don’t understand this and then we can talk about it.

At the end of each day, no matter what we do, I’ll always try to put in some kind of exit ticket. Some kind of, you know, closure, where I’ll kind of circle back to, ok, so, for today: What was your connection to this? …Well, so how does your imagination help drive the story for you in the Pit and the Pendulum? Like what did you imagine was happening? What do you anticipate is gonna happen next when we come back tomorrow? What do you think is gonna happen? Why? What’s the next question that’s gonna come into mind? That’s partly to getting them to, you know, think about predicting. Which you know is one of the skills good readers typically do. And I’ll try to do that too, like predict what’s going to happen next in the story or if you were gonna take the next step, where would you go? But again, some kind of exit ticket that, again, just makes it relevant, makes it a little more real. Something that they can relate to, hopefully. And that, again, you can keep them with you ‘til the next day.

Chapter 9: Closing

Angela

Transcript:

Before we close, watch a 5th grader named Angela explain how one teacher worked with her to develop her reading skills, and how this impacted her participation in class.

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Video

Transcript:

Ms. Arredondo because when I started coming to this school and this program, like she helped me with my reading and my fluency. And it makes it easier because when, back when I was really small it was hard for me to read the words. So now I use her strategies and she told me to break up the words and that would make it easier and it helped me.

I feel good because it’s more easier for me. And back then it was really, really hard and confusing for me.

Angela: Yeah.

Interviewer: Why do you think you participate more?

Angela: Because back then I would always let the teacher read to me and I would never get to read by myself. Now I get to read and see what the words are and now it’s more easier.

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Re-cap

Transcript:

During this module, you have learned about what a specific learning disability in reading is and ways to support students in three different areas of struggle.

As you begin to implement these strategies in your own setting, remember how important it is to meet students where they are and build upon their existing skills.

strategies to address specific learning disabilities in ...€¦ · there are two steps to sight...

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