struggling with literacy project

Helping Students With Their Literacy Helping Students With Their Literacy

By: Meaghan Bussey (O’Toole)By: Meaghan Bussey (O’Toole)

Why does literacy matter?

What does it mean to struggle with literacy?

Why do students struggle with literacy?

What can be done?

What Will We Cover?

Why Does Literacy Matter?The question is part of the problem…

Literacy is linked to EVERYTHING

Wellness

MENTAL

SOCIAL

PHYSICAL

SPIRITUAL

-Provides access to ideas not conceived by self - Allows for personal decision making

- Increases self-efficacy -Access to knowledge

-Communication

- Communication

- Ethnic Equality - Gender Equality

-Leisure Time-Political Participation -Disposable Income

Life Span - Infant Mortality - Recovery Time -

Medical Attention -

Reproductive Behavior -

- Self-Esteem- Personal Choice- Empowerment

What does it mean to struggle with Literacy?

Essentially…

Students are reading below the standard set for them.

This can mean MANY things including:-Reading/writing below grade level

-Not being able to read/write in a certain language-Not being able to read/write at all (Illiteracy)

Negative consequences: Grade retention, special education, or remedial services, and

progressive falling behind.

Who researches this issue?

1. Philip B. Gough is a seminal figure in Struggling Literacy issues, his main ideas include:

1. The Simple View of Reading -R=D x C (R=reading, D=decoding,

C=comprehension)2. The “Cipher” (Phonetic Awareness) and its

importance. -Gough brought phonemic awareness to light and

the link between the spoken word and written letters.

2. Connie Juel is another seminal figure in literacy issues, her longitudinal studies investigated:

1. The skills struggling readers/writers lacked2. The likelihood of struggling readers/writers to

recover

3. Joseph Torgesen’s research focuses on preventative measures vs. remedial actions for struggling readers.

-He proposes using testing as a preventative measure to identify students who show signs of becoming struggling readers and using early intervention to try and prevent the need for remediation.

4. Marilyn Jager Adams is the leading researcher on reading difficulties.

-She is a policy maker for the government designing reading policy for schools.-She chaired the publishing committee for the report, Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children (1998).

Why do students struggle?

Two Broad Categories

1.Support

2.Skills

Parental Support Teacher Support

Self Support

Alphabet

Phonemes

Decoding

4 Common Reasons Why Students Struggle

1) Reading role models and life experiences

2) The acquisition of reading skills, specifically phonics and comprehension

3) Visual Processing

4) Learning Disabilities

1Role Models and Life Experiences

IMAGINE THIS IS YOU. “Mom, I’m hungry!”, I complain walking into Mom’s room. “I’m sorry sweetie, I haven’t

gotten my pay yet for working at the diner and you know things have been tight after I stopped working at the

doctor’s office, you are going to have to wait until breakfast tomorrow at school”, said Mom. “But MOM!!”, I

exclaim, “my stomach is so loud its all I can hear and think about!”, “Well go outside and play or take a nap, do something to get your mind off of it”, she replied in a sad, defeated way that made me hate my stomach for daring to do anything that would upset mom, after all she tried

so hard to provide for us.

Would you be able or willing to read in this instance?

Role Models and Life Experiences 1

IMAGINE THIS IS YOU. “Mom can I talk to you for a minute?” I said peering into her dimly lit room. “Sure,

sweetie, what is it?” she said as she massaged her feet sore from being on her feet for the three jobs she works to support us. “My teacher said today that we should all

want to be good readers like our parents- I never see you read though so I wanted to ask if you are a good reader?”

“Well, honey, there’s not much time for reading when you’re busy trying to get a bunch of rascals warm and

fed,” replied my mother looking slightly hurt.”“Reading is too boring for me,” my older brother Alex said as he

walked in and sat down on the bed.

What conclusion would you make about reading if these were your role models?


Those scenarios are not just fiction but depict REAL CHALLENGES that children face during their early

literacy stages.

The first five years of a child's life is when they learn the most about the world and especially language.

These years are primarily spent with family not with

teachers.

“When students get off to a poor start in reading, they

rarely catch up,” (Campbell, L. & Kelly, C.,

2012).

CONCLUSION?

Literacy MUST be a shared endeavor between

parents, teachers, and their community!!

Research shows that parent support is MORE IMPORTANT to school success than a students IQ, economic status, or

school setting.

Role Models and Life Experiences 1

1Role Models and Life Experiences How can we remediate this???

Do:1.Everything in your power to promote parent

involvement (Breakfast sessions, positive reinforcement for parents, recruit parent volunteers to involve other

parents)

2. Find your students a reading role model.

3.EXPOSE, EXPOSE, EXPOSE them to models of fluency through books on tape, oral activities, read alouds.

4.Activate background knowledge (what are they interested in learning about through reading?)

** 2 & 3 are especially important for ELL students as they usually do not have such models in the household.


CHALLENGE 1What is one you can support parent

involvement or provide positive literacy experiences during the next school year?

Phonics and Comprehension2What sound does S make?

Meg Wes

Who has their phonics down and who needs support?

Wes needs support in Sound/Letter association.

Do: Systematic phonics instruction, read aloud, use manipulatives to make sounds, etc. ELL students

usually need support in this area of phonics learning.

Phonics and Comprehension2Identify (say) each of the following words.

If you struggled with any of these words for more than 3 seconds you cannot read the word by ‘sight’.“Poor readers at all grade

levels are characterized by slower than

normal development of a ‘sight vocabulary’ of words

they can read fluentlyand automatically,”

(Torgesen, J.K., 1998).

Sight Words Support

Phonics and Comprehension2Comprehension

What can I do?

Answer: I can do math.

Early readers often struggle with comprehension because they are too focused on trying to sound out words because of a lack of fluency.

Do: Increase Fluency with modeling and scaffolded practice.

Listen to recording 1 and answer the question.

Now, listen to recording 2 and answer the same question.

Phonics and Comprehension2 “All children need explicit, systematic instruction in phonics and exposure to rich

literature, both fiction and non-fiction,” (The Learning Alliance). THE GOAL OF READING=COMPREHENSIONBy means of…

1. Phonics:Developing Phonetic Awareness

DecodingFluency

Context Clues

2. Monitoring: “Monitoring for understanding is a skill that struggling

readers need in order to strengthen their comprehension of the text,”

(Campbell, L. & Kelly, C., 2012).

Vision 3I have a pet dragon. I call him Jag.Jag is a cool dragon. He can fly up into the sky and shoot out fire. He lives with me in my room. Mom only lets him shoot out fire when he is outdoors. The neat thing about Jag is that he can read.

Go from a to z in the alphabet and mark the first time you see each letter appear in the text.

This is called a vision alphabet timing test. This strengthens visual perception.

Vision3Children who struggle with reading may be

experiencing difficulty with visual tracking, eye teaming, double vision, and the ability to communicate what they see or don't see.

Do: Testing to identify students with potential vision issues, exercises to strengthen visual perception

including, the activity on the previous slide or “students can be asked to color in all sections of a

drawing,” (Campbell, L. & Kelly, C., 2012).

Learning Disabilities4Follow the directions below:

1. Say the word STOP

2. Delete the initial sound from that word

3. Say the new word (without the initial sound)

Explanation: After step 1 you must hold in memory the four phonemes /s,/t,/o,/ and /p/ and then delete the /s/ phoneme while maintaining the other three sounds in memory and then say the word TOP.

If you struggle to perform this task, the presence of a working memory deficit may be indicated (Boudreau and Costanza-Smith 2011).

Phoneme Deletion Task

Learning Disabilities 4Working Memory Deficits are just one potential learning difference that may hinder typical literacy development other common differences include:

1. Attention -“In order to process information we must be attending to it and this is true when learning PA during early literacy instruction,” (Torgesen et al. 1999).

2. Cognition - “It is cognitive skill that enables a child to be able to reason well enough to think about what is being asked of him or her and then respond appropriately (McBride-Chang 1995).

3. Speech Production - “These students might say, ‘‘tat’’ for ‘‘cat’’ and ‘‘doat’’ for ‘‘goat’’. These children are able to perceive the differences in the sounds, but are unable to produce the targeted sounds,” (Squires, Gillam, & Reutzel,2013).

4. Speech Comprehension - “Some children have difficulty hearing, interpreting, and understanding the difference between two similar sounds or sounds that are embedded within words,” (Massaro 2001).

What else can be done?

Programs

1.Success For All2.Reading Recovery3.The Spalding Method4.Early Intervention Reading 5.The Boulder Project6.The Winston-Salem Project

Support Services

1.RTI Process 2.Special Education

3.Reading Specialist4.Speech Pathologist

5.Tutoring

Essential Components of Effective Programs

1. Explicit Phonics Instruction(#1 skill that readers struggle with according to teachers)

2. Listening Comprehension(Teaching students to listen, modeling self-questioning,

etc.)

3. Reading Comprehension (Teaching reading behaviors, activating prior knowledge,

etc.)

4. Tutoring Opportunities (Tutoring for at risk students)

5. Extending Reading from the Classroom to the Home (Read alouds with parents, 20 minutes of reading/night,

etc.)

Preventative or RemedialIn Catch Them Before They Fall, Joseph Torgesen promotes using testing as a preventative measure rather than a reactive one,

“We are moving to a “remedial” rather than a “preventive” model of intervention. Once children fall behind in the growth of critical word reading skills, it may require very intensive interventions to bring them back up to adequate levels of reading accuracy (Allington &

McGill-Franzen, 1994; Vaughn & Schumm, 1996), and reading fluency may be even more difficult to restore because of the large amounts of

reading practice that is lost by children each month and year that they remain poor readers (Rashotte,Torgesen, & Wagner, 1997),”

(Torgesen, 1998).

Essentially…

“The goal is to describe procedures that will allow educators to identify children who need extra help in reading before they

experience serious failure and to monitor the early development of reading skill,”(Torgesen, 1998).

CHALLENGE #2: Do you use more preventative or remedial action with your students?

Final Thoughts

- Know your students holistically (academically, socially, physically, family, hobbies, etc.).

- Use this knowledge to activate, acclimate, and achieve in your classroom.

- At all times, developing children’s interest and pleasure in reading must be as much a focus as developing their reading skills,” (Learning First Alliance).

- Remember that according to Marilyn Jager Adams in regards to school/government policies, “…the extent to which these policy initiatives will have an actual impact on classroom instruction is a separate issue—and it is only changes in the classroom that really matter”.

“Struggling readers can and will make progress in their reading abilities when

taught by informed and committed educators,”

(Campbell, L. & Kelly, C., 2012).

Now go fight the good fight!

Always remember…

Burnett, N. (2005). Why Literacy Matters. In Education for all: Literacy for life (Chapter 5). Retrieved from Academic Search Complete Database.

In this chapter of Unesco’s book the effects of literacy development world wide are presented and considered. The chapter provides both written and statistical explanations of the impact that literacy has in political, social, and mental arena’s of individuals.

Unesco’s report on the effects of literacy are extremely insightful and helpful as they use real and accurate data points to draw their conclusions from. Thus we can see the true impact that improved literacy has on health, equality, political involvement, etc. as well as the positive effects it is having on the developing world.

References

Campbell, L. & Kelly, C. (2012). Helping Struggling Readers. Retrieved from http://education.jhu.edu/PD/newhorizons/strategies/ topics/literacy/articles/helping-struggling-readers/

Campbell and Kelly’s research article is a broad overview of the research done on how to help struggling readers. It includes an explanation of the consequences of struggling to read, as well as leading evidence as to why students struggle with reading and how to help them using supports and specially designed programs.

As an overview Campbell and Kelly’s article is an extremely helpful starting point from which to learn about where to go and how to begin helping students who struggle with reading. The article itself does not provide much in depth explanations on how to enact such supports but does bring clarity and understanding to the common causes of literacy struggles. Lastly it provides a good explanation of the criterion to look for in a good support program for struggling readers.

Gough, P. B. (1996). How Children Learn to Read and Why They Fail. Annals of Dyslexia, 46(1), 1-20.

In this seminal article renowned researcher Philip Gough opposes the idea that reading is a natural process and instead presents his idea of The Simple View of Reading which he explains as reading is the product of decoding (an unnatural process requiring teaching) and comprehension (a natural process). Further he posits that phonics and sight words alone are sufficient to effectively teach phonetic awareness as the cipher that can unlock both decoding and comprehension leading to the ability to read.

This article is both a systematic critique of the idea that reading is a naturally developing process and a reasoned introduction to a new, revised ideology that reading is comprised of both the natural process of comprehension and the unnatural, or learned process of decoding. Gough appropriately draws from prior research to invalidate the reading as a natural process idea and to justify his Simple View and explain why he believes it is important to develop phonetic awareness not just drill phonics and sight words. This work is both scholarly and ground breaking in the field of reading development.

Senechal M and Young L (2008) The effect of family literacy interventions on children’s acquisition of reading from kindergarten to grade 3: A meta analytic review. Review of Educational Research 78(4), 880–907

This article by Senechal and Young is a meta analysis of how family or at home literacy interventions effect children’s early literacy development. In the analysis they find that literacy development is greatly increased when family literacy interventions are in place.

A clear and organized meta analysis drawing from 14 studies to conclude that the effect of parent involvement in children's literacy development was statistically significant with a large effect size (.68). A clearly defined focus provided a clear analysis of parent involvement and its effects. Standard meta-analytic procedures were employed to examine the results of each study.

Squires, K., Gillam, S., & Ray Reutzel, D. (2013). Characteristics of Children Who Struggle with Reading: Teachers and Speech-Language Pathologists Collaborate to Support Young Learners. Early Childhood Education Journal, 41(6), 401-411.

This research article identifies the most common characteristics of children who struggle with reading and provides an explanation for how this characteristic effects reading as well as identifying possible supports and strategies for students who exhibit each of the characteristics.

Although the researchers claim that the supports offered to children demonstrating one of the described characteristics can be delivered by a speech-language pathologist it becomes clear when each support is described that both general and special education teachers can also provide many of the suggested supports. The article is a methodical and helpful resource for all educators looking for ways to identify and support struggling readers.

Pikluski, J. (1994). Preventing reading failure: A review of five effective programs. The Reading Teacher, 48(1), 30-39.

This research article is a review of five effective programs that provide support for at risk first-grade readers. The researchers argue for each of these programs as cost-effective programs that prevent both students needing remediation and the increased amount of money that would be spent on these more extensive and long term remedial programs.

This review article is well done and presents a clear argument for the use of preventative programs as opposed to remedial programs. Its arguments within each review attend to both the fiscal side of the question of literacy programs as well as the logic behind preventative programs over remedial programs. It is a valuable article for any school or community to review prior to deciding on a reading program.