Helping Struggling Readers
Reference:
How to Teach Reading When
You’re Not A Reading Teacher,
Dr. Sharon H Faber
If students cannot read, they
cannot be independent
learners.
• Teachers in all content
areas must model the
thinking processes they use
for reading for content.
– Break textbook assignments
into managable proportions
– Provide content related
vocabulary
– Highlight features of the
textbook
Researcher Richard Bloom
• The most critical age for
students is 13 because of
hormones, peer pressures,
and social forces.
Students Fall Into 3 Groups
1.
Students who sit in the front of
the room.
– Parents value school and
education
– Parents teach the rules of
school:
• Sit up front
• Do your homework
• Act like you like the
teacher
• Raise your hand to ask a
question
Students Fall Into 3 Groups
2. Students who sit in the middle of the
room.
–
Similar to group that sits in front with these
exceptions:
• Realist – know they have to go to
school and what they have to do
• Come everyday to see their friends
• Do required work
• Behave within requirements
Students Fall Into 3 Groups
3. Students who sit in the back of the
room.
–
Farther back = More at-risk students
• Wear coats and hoods
• Don’t mess with them body language
• Moved from, “I cannot read,” to “I will
not read.”
• Discipline problems
• Stay in school until they are old enough
to drop out.
Tom Landry, Football Coach:
• “Setting a goal is not the
main thing. It is deciding
how you will go about
achieving it and staying
with that plan that spells
success.”
Researcher Stephen Covey
• “To begin with the end in
mind means to start with a
clear understanding of
your destination. It means
to know where you’re
going so that you better
understand where you are
now so that the steps you
take are always in the right
direction.”
Take this Reading I.Q Quiz
Number your paper 1-10. Answer T (True)
or F (False).
1. Content reading strategies are useful
only with printed text.
2. If students have not developed a
strong inner voice, they will mumble
and move their lips as they read.
3. Many students have difficulty reading
aloud and comprehending at the
same time.
Take this Reading I.Q Quiz
4. Prior knowledge is an important part
of reading comprehension.
5. When good readers read, they look
at every letter and every word.
6. Readers must know what most of the
words mean before they can
understand what they are reading.
Take this Reading I.Q Quiz
7. Comprehension is selective. Good
readers focus on important
information, and poor readers focus
only on their interest in the text.
8. Good readers examine the structure
of words and use roots and affixes to
help comprehend new words.
9. Reading strategies and skills should
be taught explicitly and
systematically to both good and
poor readers.
Take this Reading I.Q Quiz
10. Only trained reading teachers,
working in pull-out programs, can
teach struggling readers to read at
the middle and high school levels,
because it’s took late to teach them
to read in their content classes.
How did you do? We’ll discuss the
answers at the end of the
workshop.
Researcher David Sousa
• “That the brain learns to
read at all attests to its
remarkable ability to sift
through seemingly
confusing input and
establish patterns and
systems. For a few children,
this process comes
naturally; most have to be
taught.”
National Institute for Literacy
and the Center for
Educational Statistics
40 million adults in
• ______
the U.S. are functionally
illiterate.
40
•About ____percent
of all 4th
graders lack the most basic
reading skills.
Matthew Effect
• "For unto every one that hath shall be
given, and he shall have abundance:
but from him that hath not shall be
taken away even that which he
hath." (Matthew XXV:29, KJV).
This line is translated as, "the rich get
richer and the poor get poorer."
The gap between good readers and
poor readers gets wider as they move
through school.
If a child is not reading on grade level
by 4th grade = high school dropout.
2000 National Reading Panel
• What is reading comprehension?
– “The intentional thinking during
which meaning is constructed
through interaction between the text
and the reader. The content of
meaning is influenced by the text
and by the reader’s prior knowledge
and experiences.”
– Reading is purposeful and active.
Comprehension
2 Levels:
• Literal Comprehension –
identifying individual words
and their meanings
• Higher-Order
Comprehension –
analytical, and reflective
comprehension.
Put Reading First
• Reading Research from the
National Reading Panel
• Provides scientificallybased research n how to
successfully teach children
to read.
• Identifies 5 areas of
reading instruction.
5 Areas of Reading Instruction
• Phonemic Awareness
• Phonics
• Fluency
• Vocabulary
• Text Comprehension
Area 1: Phonemic Awareness
• The ability to hear the sounds that letters
make when they are put together to
make words.
Example: /b/a/t/
• Phonemes = sounds letters make
• Sounds can be segmented (pulled apart)
• Sounds can be blended (put back
together)
• Sounds can be manipulated (added,
deleted, substituted)
Area 2: Phonics
• The relationship between the sounds heard
when spoken (phonemes) and the letters in
the alphabet (graphemes).
• Phonics involves sounding a word out.
• If a teacher was taught to sound a word out,
they will teach their students this method.
Area 3: Vocabulary
Development
• The ability to store
information about
meanings and
pronunciations of words
needed to understand
content.
– Denotation = dictionary
definition
– Connotation = real-life usage
• Often short term learning.
Area 4: Fluency
• The ability to read text with
accuracy, expression, speed,
and comprehension.
– Reading with inflection (phrasing).
– Fluent readers do not have to
concentrate on decoding words,
but can focus on content.
– Fluent readers make the
connection between the text and
their own personal experiences.
Fluency is the bridge
between recognizing
words and comprehension.
Area 5: Text
Comprehension
• The ability to understand,
remember, and explain to
others what you have
read.
• Comprehension strategies:
– Prior knowledge
– Text and picture support
– Intensive writing