Reading Interventions for the Struggling ReaderDr. Lisa CastaldoGreen

Factors that Influence Literacy Skills

• Physical• Cognitive/Neurological• Language• Personality• Family• Educational

Chall’s Stages of Literacy

• Emergent: functions of written language, alphabet, phonemic awareness

• Decoding: letter-sound correspondences• Confirmation and Fluency: automatic word recognition, use of

context• Learning the new view: how to learn from text, vocabulary

knowledge, strategies• Multiple Viewpoints: reconciling different views• A Worldview: developing a well-rounded view of the world

Spear and Sternberg’s Reading Stages

• Visual-cue word recognition• Alphabetic Insight• Phonetic Cue word recognition• Controlled word recognition• Automatic word recognition• Strategic reading• Highly Proficient reading

Modified Cognitive Reading Model

• What are the pieces of the skill of Reading Comprehension ?

Cracking The Code

• Phonemic Awareness• Phonics• Reading Fluency • Vocabulary Development• Reading Comprehension

Phonological Difficulty Range

Hard

Easy

Deletion and SubstitutionRhymeAuditory DiscriminationPhoneme BlendingWord-to-Word MatchingSound IsolationCountingPhonemic Segmentation

Developing Phonemic Awareness

• Nursery Rhymes• Alliteration• Sorting Tasks• Counting Tasks• Add Letters• Word Building• Stretch Sounding• Adding Sounds

Phonics Approaches

• Synthetic: direct instruction of individual letter-sound correspondences; blend sounds into words

• Compare/Contrast: compare new words to already known words; use analogies to decode new words; useful for polysyllabic words

Vowel Patterns

• Closed: a word or syllable that contains only one vowel followed by one or more consonants• “One lonely vowel stuck in the middle says its special sound

just a little.”• sat, fin, bed

• Open: a word or syllable that ends with one long vowel• “If one vowel at the end is free, it pops and says its real

name to me.”• me, she, hi

• Silent “e”: a word or syllable that ends in “e”, containing the final e and one long vowel before the consonant• The preceding vowel says, “I’m stuck in the middle! Please

magic “e”, come and free me!”• make, ride, hope

Vowel Patterns• Double vowels; Double Vowel Talker: a word or syllable that

contains two adjacent vowels; the first vowel is long• “When two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking.”• rain, day, see

• Bossy “r”: a word or syllable that containing a vowel followed by an “r”; the vowel sound is altered by the “r”.• R is the boss. You must do what it says, or it will be cross.• car, her, horn

Vowel Patterns• Consonant + le: the syllable ends in “le” and is preceded by a

consonant; this pattern is found in two syllable words• “This consonant loves “le”. It pulls it towards itself and is filled

with glee.”• bubble, puzzle, apple

• Double vowel whiner: A word or syllable that contains two vowels. • “Neither vowel says its long or short sound; instead it makes a

whiney sound.”

Syllabication Patterns• C + le: ta-ble, pur-ple• VC/CV: doc-tor, win-ter• V/CV: be-gan, fi-nal• VC/V: cab-in, rob-in• V/V: po-et, ru-in• Chin method

Guided Reading• Small Group Instruction

• Leveled Text• Students at particular levels need appropriate fluency and

comprehension strategies to progress as readers

• Strategy Based • Interventions that target individual reading needs

• Components of a guided reading lesson:• Word Work• Fluency Practice• Vocabulary Instruction• Comprehension Strategies

Word Work• Explicit teaching of phonemes and phonics• Develops fluency and flexibility in visual processing of written

text• 1 -3 minute mini-lesson• Explain the rule• Show examples• Student activity – put the rule to work

• Dry erase boards• Pencil/paper• Magnetic letters• Sentence Strips

Fluency Instruction

• Echo reading

• Repeated reading

• Tape reading

Vocabulary Instruction

• Develop awareness of stages of word knowledge• Build experiential background for students• Make word learning related to students’ backgrounds• Develop depth of meaning through multiple sources and

repeated exposures• Foster appreciation and enthusiasm for word learning• Teach strategies for independent word learning• Teach words in context

Comprehension Difficulties• Poor Decoding?• Phonemic Awareness• Phonic• Fluency

• Limited Prior Knowledge and Vocabulary?• Fluency• Vocabulary• Background Knowledge

• Poorly Developed Strategies?• Text Attack

Comprehension Strategies

• Pre-reading

• During Reading

• Post-reading

Strategic Reading Strategies

• Making connections• Asking questions• Visualizing

• Drawing inferences• Determining main

ideas• Synthesizing

information• Repairing

understanding

Four Types of ReadersPerkins and Swartz

• Tacit Reader• Lacks awareness of how they think when they read; don’t realize when meaning

has broken down

• Aware Reader• Realize meaning has broken down when reading but don’t have strategies to fix

the problem

• Strategic Reader• Use thinking and comprehension strategies to enhance understanding; are able

to monitor and repair meaning

• Reflective Reader• Strategic about their thinking and able to apply strategies flexibly depending on

reading purpose

Making Connections

• Based on schema theory• Three kinds:• Text-to-self• Text-to-text• Text-to-world

• Connections to genres, forms, structures of text

Questioning• Schools demand answers, not questions• Before, during, and after reading• Why?

• Construct meaning• Enhance understanding• Find answers• Acquire information• Discover new information• Propel research• Clarify confusion

Visualizing• Overwhelming images and feelings• Make the words on the page real and concrete• Stop, think, visualize• Why?

• Enhance meaning• Link past experience• Strengthen connection to text• Stimulate imaginative thinking• Joy!

Making Inferences

• Educated guess about underlying theme• Prediction about what is next• Conclusion based on prior knowledge, questions, and text• Create meaning before, during, and after• Use pictures

Determining Important Ideas• The ones we want to remember• Depends on our purpose:

• Remember new information• Build background knowledge• Distinguish important/interesting• Discover theme, opinion, perspective• Answer a specific question• Finding the author’s message

Synthesizing Information

• Combining new and existing information to form an original idea or creation

• Putting separate parts into a new whole• Discovering a new pattern in ideas• Sift and sort through information• Make judgments about importance• Stop, think, create

Repairing Understanding

• Teach effective comprehension strategies to develop this ability

• Requires monitoring of comprehension• Independent application of strategies• Strategic/Reflective readers

Questions/Comments?

Thank you for your time and attention.