Reading Fluency

I have often worked on reading fluency with my students, but never to the detailed extent as presented in chapter seven of Becoming a Literacy Leader by Jennifer Allen.

The chapter presented the idea that we must make the students aware of how they will be assessed for reading fluency. I was impressed with the idea of using technology to make both a visual and auditory recording of the students as they read. This thought, although simple, was one that had ever occurred to me before.

The chapter goes on to offer suggestions for how to teach students (step by step) to evaluate themselves (via their recorded reading) for reading fluency. A reading fluency rubric is provided which is a helpful tool for students to be able to honestly and accurately access their own strengths and weaknesses. I also like the idea of involving students in their own reading-fluency goal-setting.


Building reading fluency in our students is an important focus because better fluency leads to better comprehension; which is ultimately the goal of reading.

Comprehension in the Contents

Are you a content-only teacher?

Sometimes when we teach content areas like math, social studies, and science, we tend to think the language arts teacher is the one responsible for teaching students comprehension. So we go about our business teaching what we love, while our middle school students feel more lost by the minute. Many times good readers struggle when they enter the middle school curriculum because their content area books become a challenge for them to comprehend unless we teach them. Yes, this even means the math teacher teaching comprehension!

Cris Tovani does an excellent job of teaching comprehension strategies in her book Do I Really Have to Teach Reading? The book is easy to read and gives strategies like the sticky note strategy, and templates like the Double-Entry Diary that can be used in the classroom immediately. Her strategies have been proven to help students catch their thoughts collectively and independently to help them comprehend content subjects in a way they didn't think they could. Even content teachers will find this resource easy to implement without having to add to their curriculum.

Isn't that what we all want? Proven strategies to help our students comprehend in any subject!

Variety is the Spice of Life

I recently read the chapter entitled "Eliminating Ability Grouping and Reducing Failure in the Primary Grades" from the book No Quick Fix. As I read the chapter, I continually thought of ways to modify the ideas presented to work within the context of a middle school classroom.

The selection records the efforts and successes of two elementary schools as they implement a program that combines four of the main approaches to reading instruction. Their program was daily divided up into four thirty-minute blocks which consisted of the following areas: a basal block, a self-selected reading block, a writing block, and a working with words block.

The programs grew out of the idea that all children possess individual differences in the ways that they learn, and therefore no one approach is best. Rather, a combination approach comprised of the best attributes of each individual approach is desirable.

These schools chose to discontinue the practice of grouping students by ability level for reading instruction - (which they found to be ineffective). Instead, they implemented multi-method, multi-level classrooms where students received whole-class instruction.

Since many middle school programs usually only provide (about) a 50 minute language arts block daily, the program (as it is designed) cannot work within the middle school framework unless major organizational changes are implemented by administration. However individual language arts/reading teachers can adapt the major concepts to implement with their students.

Several of the concepts that I will take away from the article to implement in my future middle school language arts class are as follows.

Allowing reading to take place in a variety of ways is a definite must. Even at the middle school level, students can benefit from large group reading, partner reading, individual reading, and even being read to by their teacher. Each method facilitates the acquisition and practice of different valuable skills.

All reading programs should include a variety of topics and genres. Reading should expose students to new topics so that they can become more knowledgeable about the world around them. They should be given plenty of opportunities, however, to pursue their existing interests. Students are more motivated to read when they self-select topics that are of great interest to them.

Middle school students should also have variety in the level of difficulty of their reading materials. Difficult materials facilitate skill acquisition and vocabulary development during large group instruction. Grade level material can be used for working on fluency during partner reading. A student's confidence and comfort can be improved by allowing them to individually read (successfully) with materials of a lower difficulty level. By providing reading materials of many difficulty levels, students have opportunities to be challenged, to learn new skills, to practice, and to gain confidence .

Our ultimate goal is to give students the skills they need to become life-long readers and writers. To begin this, we must first make reading and writing enjoyable for them. Reading is more enjoyable for them, if they experience successes in reading. Variety in how and what we present to them, is a step toward doing this.

An Extreme Comprehension Resource

What adolescent doesn't sit up and take notice to anything extreme?

Check out Tracy T's blog Extreme Reading from Park Campus. This focuses on 6th, 7th, and 8th graders who have developed this site with help from their teacher.

Find extreme poetry written by middle schoolers, and even post a comment about them, or have your students add some of their own!

Check out the extreme book talks to find books to motivate your students to read that are recommended and reviewed by the best in the business - teens!

And for the teacher in you, find lots of resources in the extreme teachers section.

No need to reinvent the wheel - get it straight from the teens' mouths, so to speak!

Using Writing to Increase Reading Comprehension

In our efforts to help middle school students better comprehend what they are reading, sometimes we forget to tie in a valuable skill that is connected to reading comprehension: writing. When a student gets involved in writing, he/she can use their new-found strategies being a writer to not only give them the tools to synthesize texts, but also motivate them to review others' written work.

Writing Fun gives tons of text organizers to assist in the writing process from informational writing to narrative to procedural to descriptions. By becoming more skilled in these areas of writing, students can be encouraged to be writing critics by reading samples of these forms of writing.

Teachers can motivate their students to look for strengths and weaknesses in texts written by different authors. Some ideas could be reading other student works, teacher works, and/or renowned literary works.

Get them writing and reading at the same time, and they may just begin comprehending even more!

Useful websites addressing reading comprehension

A website for teachers that explores comprehension and content reading strategies and when to use them.
http://www.readingquest.org/links.html

Here you will find reading comprehension teaching and learning tips, articles and links about giftedness and learning disabilities, learning differences, and difficulties.
http://www.resourceroom.net/comprehension/index.asp

This site provides reading comprehension resources for struggling readers.
http://www.literacy.uconn.edu/compre.htm

The following address offers effective teaching strategies, activities, lessons, lesson plans, worksheets, exercises, skills, tests, and assessments for reading comprehension and language arts.
http://www.readingrockets.org/helping/target/comprehension

This website provides strategies that can help readers to construct meaning.
http://readskill.com/Resources/LiteracySkills/TipsComprehension.htm

Here are some free reading resources, information, activities and articles for parents and teacher. Learn how proficient reading works and how to teach children and students to read.
http://www.righttrackreading.com/page2.html

Connecting with the text

Comprehensive Connections by Tanny McGregor discusses different strategies for reading comprehension. The author focuses on 6 key elements of reading comprehension and provides activities to improve reading comprehension in the 6 different areas.


1. Making connections
According to McGregor, there are 3 main types of connections made when reading.

• Text to self-making a connection between the reader’s personal experience and text
• Text to text-making a connection between text being read and a previous text
• Text to world-making a connection between the text and something occurring in the real world

Activity
Students can draw pictures or write words to show connection with the text. Have students share and discuss their connection chart with a classmate.

2. Creating Mental Images
In her book, Tanny McGregor said creating mental images of the text being read is a way to understand events and information presented in the text.

Activity
Students record their most vivid mental image from each text that had been read. After they have completed their chart, students are encouraged to take that mental image home and tell a family member what they read and what it was about. This can be done as little or as much as the teacher would like.

3. Questioning
Readers need to ask themselves questions as they read the text. However, they need to be able to know what kind of questions to ask and when to ask them for this to help increase comprehension.

Activity
The question chart is a place students can record a list of questions words. They can add to this chart at any time. Students should keep this list handy when reading a text. These questions words can be used while a student is reading a text to help increase comprehension.

4. Inferring
Students must make inferences when reading. Authors don’t always give every detail but instead give clues. Students must use those clues and prior knowledge to “read between the lines”. Inferences are predictions but must be supported by the text.

Activity
Ask the students a question about the text. In this inference chart, students will need to write down what they know. Then, they will need to write down what they know from the text. Students should use both pieces of information to make an inference.

5. Evaluating
Students need to know why they are reading and also decide which information and ideas are most critical in understanding the text.

Activity
Have students sit down in front of you, and dump everything out of your purse for students to see. Then, it will be their responsibility to fill out the determining purpose chart. They must decide what is necessary, could be necessary, or is unnecessary to have in the purse.

6. Synthesizing
Synthesizing is much like evaluating. In synthesizing, personal thoughts are included to form an understanding of the text. It can show how your thinking has changed throughout the reading of the text.

Activity
In this synthesizing target, students should write down words in the middle of the circle to show what they are thinking. Each time their thinking changes, it’s written in the next ring.

Six Reasons to Implement Informational Text

In order to provide students with opportunities to strengthen their reading skills and comprehension levels, teachers need to offer both narrative and informational texts. Many teachers feel it is easier to work with narrative text because they can talk about characters, the setting, the conflict, the resolution, etc. Informational text can be a little more intimidating. However, getting a better understanding of how using informational text can help students puts it all in perspective and can give teachers the confidence they need.

Scholastic.com offers six reasons why teachers should use more informational text.

1. It provides students with the key to success in later schooling. Textbooks, college articles, and tests are all concerned with information and facts. Understanding the format of these texts helps them in middle school, high school, and even college.

2. It prepares students with handling real-life reading. As children grow up, they will read the newspaper, magazine articles, manuals, the internet, etc.

3. It appeals to readers' preferences. Many male students prefer informational text and facts versus "girly" fiction and "feeling" stories. Girls will also feel more comfortable with informational text as they gain more exposure to it.

4. It also address students' questions and interests. Students are always asking deeper thinking question that even stump teachers. Supplying students with the resources to find answers through informational text takes their learning even deeper and gives them responsibility.

5. It builds on their understanding of the natural and social world. We know that kids love animals and nature. Reading about these topics will help them understand their own culture and world.

6. It boosts their vocabulary. Informational texts use vocabulary that is different than that of narrative texts. Students will discover a wider variety of vocabulary they can use in their own language and writing.

Some Informational Text Lesson Plan Ideas

A Road Map to Reading presents a lesson plan in studying the structure of informational texts.

Reading Informational Texts Using the 3-2-1 Strategy asks questions students can use to collect their own informational texts on computers or look through teacher supplied texts as they answer 3 new things they discovered in their reading, 2 interesting things, and 1 question they still have about the topic.

Reciprocal Teaching offers a deeper explanation of the importance of having students summarize and clarify their understanding of informational text. Additional resources and ideas are also included.

Assigned Text and Motivating Male Learners

The role of assigned text plays a big role in a child's comprehension and learning. Differentiated instruction meets each child at his/her level, works with his/her interest, and it done in response to his/her needs. This includes finding a way to get the learner excited about learning. One way to differentiate instruction is to allow students to choose what they read. If this is not able to occur, another way to differentiate is to provide texts that is of high interest for the child.

When assigning text to male students, their interests must be kept in mind. Having the desire to learn more about an interesting topic will help them progress through the process of comprehension so much more easily. The following ideas and topics are targeted for male readers in grade 5-9:

• Extreme sports: snowboarding, BMX biking, skateboarding
• Wilderness, hunting, hiking
• Bullies
• Al Capone, the mob, the mafia
• Sports: football, basketball, soccer, baseball
• Boogers, guts, bones, etc. :)

Some books boys enjoy are:

• Guinness Book of World Records
• Hatchet by Gary Paulsen
• Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan
• Artemis Foul by Eoin Colfer
• Go Big or Go Home by Will Hobbs
  

Thoughtful Response to Text

How can I tell if a child has taken their comprehension to a deeper level? What does a thoughtful response to a text look like? Some questions/writing prompts to foster thoughtful response include:

Predictions

• What are some predictions you have about the next chapter?
• What do you think will happen to one of the character's during tomorrow's reading?

Making Connections to Self:

• How do you think the character felt during an important scene from the story?
• What thoughts went through his/her mind?
• How would you react if you were in his/her situation? What would you do?
• What motivated one character to make one of his/her decisions? Do you think he/she made the right decision?
• How does this story relate to your own life? Family? Town? Nation? World?

Making Connections to Another Story:

• What other story does this remind you of? In what ways?
• If having trouble comparing to another story, what movie does this story resemble?
• What character seems familiar from another story?

Envisioning the Story:

• After reading the novel/selection, which of the following best describes how you feel: angry, awed, amazed, baffled, disgusted, disturbed, dissatisfied, irritated, joyous, uneasy, untouched, sad? Elaborate on your answer.
• If I were in this story, I would/wouldn't have...
• I really admire the character of ___________ because...
• I realized...
• I did/didn't like the way...
• I know the feeling of...
• The biggest thing that the character of _____ learned in this story was...
• The most important lesson that I, the reader, learned in this story was...
• Which of the following descriptive terms makes you think of one of the character in the story or novel we just read: lonely, angry, helpless, uncaring, helpful, wise, responsible. unselfish? Describe the character and explain why you think this character feels or personifies this emotion.
  

Reading Comprehension Techniques

I have posted three video clips over reading comprehension techniques. The first technique designed to improve reading comprehension is called reciprocal teaching. The goal of reciprocal teaching is to prepare students to run their own discussion. Before students run their own discussion, the teacher models what a discussion will look like with other group members. There are four important steps in reciprocal teaching that the video will discuss and are listed below:
1. asking a question
2. clarifying meaning of unfamiliar words
3. summarizing-finding the main idea
4. prediction
The following video will model reciprocal teaching:



The second technique to improve reading comprehension is called theme scheme. It is designed for struggling readers. It focuses not only on plot but on the underlying theme of a story. The theme scheme technique focuses on a higher order of thinking. This technique challenges students to find examples of the themes in their own lives to make connections to the text. Theme scheme encourages rich discussion and is a technique that has been proven to increase reading comprehension.
Click on the words theme scheme technique to watch the video.


The third techinque was called model and discussion to build comprehension. In this technique the teacher should model his or her thinking out loud for the students. The teacher must model and show out loud his or her connection to the text. The teacher will also share what is important to him or her. It can also be called read/write/talk. It is important to pick compelling text to hook the audience to promote discussion.
Click on the words modeling and discussion to build comprehension to watch the video.

Other Great Blogs to Checkout

Teachers need to work on their comprehension, too! The following blogs are from teachers/librarians sharing new ideas about teaching, video clips, resources, and thoughts about the wonderful world of teaching reading.

School Library Monthly is a blog that shares current ways to integrate more technology into the classroom. Lots of great ideas are shared as well as categorized lists of information topics along the right hand column.

NeedleworksPictures.com is another blog about way to implement technology into the classroom.

A Year of Reading highlights new and upcoming children's books to foster good reading. This blog helps teachers and parents stay up to date on the vast amount of new books emerging every moment. The authors also share keynote presentation information and conferences they recommend. Writing activities are also offered.

Resources for Understanding Processing and Comprehension

Article

Fluent and Nonfluent Forms of Transfer in Reading: Words and Their Message explains two different experiments that studied how students are able to fully comprehend what they read. The article discusses rereading strategies and evaluates what determines a child as a struggling reader or good reader. It also discusses ways to help students become more fluent readers.

Websites

Another way to help students in comprehension is to teach instruction around themes. Books by Theme offers many different books choices categorized by theme.

Thematic Instruction offers best-practice and research based information as how and why thematic instruction helps students learn.

Book

Reading Comprehension: Strategies for Independent Learners by Camille Blachowicz and Donna Ogle This book offers research-based approaches for comprehension instruction to help K-9 students and teachers. Its updated second edition shares print and online sources, ideas for developing vocabulary, building study skills, and motivating readers.


Videos

The Reading Process is a presentation that explains how students process the sounds of letters and how they use that information to create meaning. The speaker, Dr. G. Reid Lyon has over 30 years of experience as a public school educator, professor, research scientist, psychologist, and policymaker.



Teaching Reading is a presentation by Phyllis C. Hunter who explains how reading gives children freedom, civil rights, and liberation. It also shares why teachers need to implement research-based instruction strategies in their classroom. Hunter was appointed by Congress and former President Bush to serve on the board of the National Institute for Literacy, and has served as an advisor on the President’s Educational Transition Team.

Processing and Comprehension Strategies During Reading

While reading, students have many thoughts going through their minds. As they work through processing the information, students:
1. Decode the structure, organization, and sounds of the letters in a text and then move onto the words in a text.
2. Develop the meanings of vocabulary and words. They move past just recognizing familiar sight words, but really understanding what they mean.
3. Piece together the words into full sentences and then paragraphs to grasp the main idea and concepts of the text.

As they read, they are processing the new information they read while also trying to apply it to information they have already learned. They try to build on what they already know.

While trying to fully comprehend a piece a text, students ask:
1. What is the main purpose of this text? What should I have learned?
2. What is the author trying to say?
3. How is the text organized? How is it easy to follow?
4. What parts am I confused about?
5. What are some new vocabulary terms I should know in order to really understand the text?
6. How does this text relate to my own life, classroom, family, and world?
7. What should I do with this new information?

According to Jennifer Allen's book, "Becoming A Literacy Learner" students should move from simply knowing skills in isolation to learning skills in context. They shouldn't just have lessons about skills without working them into the overall theme or unit of instruction. The skills need to relate to something the students can remember. They also need to move from word recognition (and memorization) to comprehension. Can the students correctly use these words in their own verbal exchanges? If so, then they have taking their comprehension of those words to a deeper level.

Also, Allen suggests that comprehension and processing doesn't just stop with reading and writing, but also speaking. Can they think about what another person has said and offer their own thoughts in an organized manner? Do they communicate well or do they just add thoughts about different issues when it is not quite appropriate for the discussion? Can they talk about other religions, cultures, and aspects of society in a respectful way? Now of course early readers may struggle with this and will not be able to recognize these terms, but they can still talk about the main issues, just with different terminology.

Word Etymology

One way I've found to help build and strengthen my students' vocabulary is to study the Latin and Greek word roots. Etymology has been a very successful unit of study in my classroom. Students may not recognize or know all of a word; however, if they know part or parts of the word they can use context clues to help identify the meaning of a new word. There are many resources available out there to help educators teach and assess students learning of word roots. Occasionally, I'll have my students play Scrabble using the word roots we've been learning. Here are some additional sites I've found and use in my classroom to help build vocabulary.

1. Free Rice-This is a website that tests students' vocabulary but also feeds the hungry while they play. Every word they define correctly donates grains of rice to the hungry. I checked it out before using it and it really is true. If any students finishes early or has some free time, I often direct them to this site. They love it, and there are several content areas to choose from!

2. Latin and Greek Root Concentration-This is a matching game for students to play with word roots and their definitions.

3. VocabTest.com-This site offers tests or quizzes over SAT vocabulary. It's a way to get my students looking to see if they recogonize any roots and trying to define the word using the Greek and Latin roots.

Quick Picks

Looking for a selection of books that might make that adolescent non-reader want to pick one up? The Young Adult Library Services Association updates their "quick picks" list of books for reluctant young adult readers periodically.
Research has shown that texts that are authentic and relevant to students will better engage those that do not have a natural ability to read. Everyone knows the more a student reads, the better at reading they become!

RTI for the Newbie

After having spent six years as a music/high abilities teacher, last year I was asked to move into a sixth grade reading position. I was overwhelmed, but excited, about this change and everything that went along with it.
One of the most overwhelming ideas for me was meeting the needs of RTI, but I really didn't need to fret. There are many resources out there to turn to for help. Even though many deal with the younger elementary students, there are plenty that can benefit the upper elementary and junior high teachers as well.
Recently, I encountered the rtinetwork site that contains many articles with lots of information that helps sort the whole RTI process in plain terms. From tiered instruction to keeping your radar screen up and running - even in junior high, check this site if you're feeling overwhelmed!

RAFT

RAFT is a classroom strategy that focuses on several of the important aspects of writing to help develop good writers and give structure to struggling writers. This strategy is used to direct students' thinking about several different parts of the writing process, and it can be used at any point in the lesson or curriculum. RAFT stands for the following: role, audience, format, and topic. This classroom strategy can be used in any content area. Often times I have students that just begin writing and don't think about their audience or their purpose for writing. The RAFT will require them to put thought into their writing before putting information down on paper. Several students also need the structure that is provided by the RAFT in order to write a cohesive essay. It forces the student to think about who or what they are as a writer, to whom are they writing, in what format are they writing, and what are they writing about and why. This strategy should be modeled for the students, and they should be given a few prompts to practice as a class using the RAFT so they can see the different responses to the same prompt.

Snapshot Writing

Last year, I was assigned to teach a 7th grade language arts class for the final ten weeks of the school year. While I was eager to start out my school year, some of my new students had already checked out mentally for the year. I found it very hard to motivate these students in the area of writing.

One idea that I wished I would have focused more on during that time was snapshot writing. I believe greater use of snapshot writing would have encouraged my students to write longer passages with more detail and passion. This idea works because it allows students to write about people, events, places, and things of which they have intimate knowledge. They are given opportunities to select ideas that have special meaning to them; things that that evoke strong emotions for them. They are, in essence, creating a snapshot with words about a colorful experience from their own memory.
I'm sure that there are different ways to implement this idea within a classroom. One such idea is explained in My Life In Seven Stories from the book entitled Becoming a Literacy Leader by Jennifer Allen. I am excited about the prospect of investigating various methods related to this idea, and selecting the one I believe will work best to motivate the students in my future classroom.

Literature Circles

I have always loved reading and discussing literature. It is something that comes naturally for me. For this reason, I naively thought my students would automatically discuss literature in a productive way that demonstrated critical thinking. Some days they got it right. Their discussions showed great insight and thought. Other days, however, things seemed to go horribly wrong.
In retrospect, I see my serious mistake of neglecting to train my students how to participate in literature circles. Often, certain individuals would do the majority of the speaking while others would sit back and passively listen. Teaching them how to prepare ahead of time for discussion in a literature circle would undoubtedly help the reluctant students feel more confident about sharing their thoughts.

There seems to be some dispute among educators as to whether or not the assigning of roles in literature circles is best. Some think it takes the focus off the content being discussed while others feel it helps students stay focused. I personally would like to implement roles within my literature circles in the coming school year with the confidence that it will help my students stay focused.

I also embrace the idea (as presented in Becoming a Literacy Leader) of taking several weeks at the start of the school year to gradually introduce each role individually to my students. This will give them time to learn specifically what will be expected of them, and allow time for them to become comfortable performing each role.

Better Answers for Constructed Response

During this past school year, I was very frustrated about how my seventh grade students wrote answers to comprehension questions after reading a text selection. I observed that answers were usually written with incomplete sentences, and often didn't even address the specifics of what the questions were really asking the students to think about. Therefore, I am happy to have recently encountered the Better Answer formula.


Simply put, the Better Answer formula is a way of teaching students to effectively communicate their thoughts. The strategy is intended to be introduced to students over a six week period. This gradual presentation of the steps involved allows for ample teacher modeling and repeated student practice. The students are initially taught the strategy using personal questions, but eventually make the transition to applying it to classroom texts.

The Better Answer method is broken down as follows:
Week #1: Students practice restating questions.
Week #2: Students practice constructing gist answers (answers that give main or essential information).
Week #3: Students practice generating supporting details for gist answers.
Week #4: Students practice putting the skills from weeks #1-3 together to create constructed responses that stay on topic.
Weeks #5-6: Students practice applying the strategy to short texts.

I am hopeful that by spending the time to train my students in this method at the beginning of the school year, they will experience more success in constructing answers/paragraphs that present detailed information and show evidence of deep thought.

Graphic Organizers

Even confident writers who have been given ample quality writing experiences in lower elementary grades, may have trouble writing as they enter middle school where they are asked to write longer selections on more complicated subjects. The use of graphic organizers can help students organize their ideas in such a way so that they can then take those ideas and put them together in the form of a composition that flows naturally and is easy to understand.

There are a multitude of graphic organizers available to suit almost any purpose or academic level. However, students may not automatically be able to organize their thoughts simply because they are presented with a graphic organizer. It is a good idea for teachers that choose to utilize graphic organizers to train their students in the use of various ones. Some students may need repeated teacher demonstration and opportunities for practice.

Overloading students with too many graphic organizers may not be beneficial for them. Instead of the intended effect of helping them to organize their thoughts, students may end up confused by all the choices. Therefore, it is probably best for teachers to select only a few that they feel would best support the activities they have planned in their curriculum. Story maps and character webs are examples of graphic organizers that are widely used by many teachers.

Although I have utilized some graphic organizers in the past, I cannot say that I have trained my students in their use. I do feel it will be worthwhile for me to take the time to teach them how to use specific graphic organizers. I believe this will allow them to take ownership of many strategies that they can eventually independently apply as needed to organize their thinking.

First Aid for Jr. High Literacy

It seems that most information you find out there about literacy intervention is geared toward primary students, which is great because the earlier intervention begins, the less time those students will struggle and lag behind. But what do you do with those pubescent, poor self-esteem, coming-into-their own junior highers who still struggle with reading? Without skills, research shows that these students are at a high risk for failing, and eventually dropping out of high school.

Adlit has many valuable resources for students just like these. This link will take you to an article that gives many different strategies teachers can implement to help these struggling adolescent readers.

You may not be able to solve their problem of how to get rid of a pimple in an hour, but you may just find a solution that will help them succeed with reading!

Understanding RTI

One way to really reach the educational needs of those bubble kids (students who struggle with reading and are below grade level in reading and writing scores) is to set up an individualized Response to Intervention plan. There are three tiers to the RTI plan. The first level includes lessons given to all students. The second level includes students that are struggling with grade level material but are not classified as needing special education services. However, they would benefit from some extra help and interventions. The third level works with students with IEP's and are given resource aid because they qualify as needing special education services. This third level also brings attention to the high ability students who need more enrichment in their lessons because they are above grade level in their abilities. Teachers use this RTI pyramid of three tiers to classify what type of instruction each child needs. Yes, the world has come to having each student with their own IEP. However, don't fret, administering to the needs of all students can be done without hours of prep time.

When I was told to think of students who I thought would classify as Tier 2 students, I looked at NWEA scores, ISTEP scores, lexile scores and RIT bands, attendance, attitude, grades, student work, and participation. I focused on students that were putting effort into their studies and would really benefit from more individualized instruction.One student in particular, whom I will refer to as "Katie", really blossomed because of the RTI instruction. First, I talked with Katie about her studies and had her explain her frustrations and struggles. I also administered the Garfield Reading Survey to better understand her feelings towards reading. Then we came up with two goals she would work on in order to boost her scores and grades. I offered modified assignments to Katie, gave her extra time, and moved her to an easier spelling group. Luckily, our school has a program called Inform in which I could record the interventions I was offering Katie. After two weeks, I looked at her daily assignments,quiz scores, and daily participation. Katie was no longer getting F's, but getting high D's. I recorded that I would continue this intervention for another two weeks. Again, I repeated my assessments at the end of that time and she was now getting C's. I also recorded that I had met with her during more one-on-one conferences to make sure that she fully understood the requirements and assessed her progress.

Katie got a B as a final grade for the year and had created some really great products from her comprehension of units. I had her retake the Garfield Reading Survey and was excited that her attitude about reading and writing had also changed. She had also changed her group of friends to a more responsible, hard working group of girls who helped keep her motivated.

Literacy Assessment Resource

The International Reading Association website is a great place for both educators and parents to visit. It has articles, journals, and books that address literacy assessment. One thing I was impressed with on this site was the brochure for parents at the bottom of the page. In addition to the brochure, if you click on the article "Are Assessment Data Really Driving Middle School Reading Instruction?" on the left hand side of the page there will be a list of categories. Click on Podcasts. Then, it will have a list of Podcasts you can choose to listen to that all focus on ideas for teaching reading and writing. The only drawback to this site would be that some articles require you to be a subscribed reader. However, this might be a great site for the school to subscribe to or possibly taken from a library fund in order for all teachers to have access to it. Being aware of what literacy asssessment is and having resources available to educators and parents is the first step of improving literacy!

Resources for Struggling Readers

Okay, the hard part about helping the struggling reader is understanding why they struggle, what they need, and where a person can find resources to help them. Many times struggling readers get letters mixed up, or they think different phonemes (small letter combinations) make different sounds than what they actually do. Sometimes they can recognize and sound out individual letters but cannot sound out words or put those letters together. The following links help offer more information about these topics.

The Leveled Spelling Lists link provides lists of common sight words (everyday words) that children in each grade level will be exposed to. Parents/tutors can start exposing children to these words at anytime. In fact, if your child is only in first grade, go ahead and give him some spelling words from the third grade level, just to decrease that grade level gap if they are having a hard time with reading and writing.

The Understanding the Mind of a Struggling Reader link offers some explanation as to reading from the perspective of a struggling reader. There are multiple links within that site parents and teachers can search through to answer any questions about a struggling reader. What are they getting confused about? With what struggles are they faced? It is important for adults to look at issues from the perspective of the child they are working with, so they can work with that child on his/her level.

Two links to use for interactive sites students can manipulate in order to enhance their reading and writing skills are: Professor Garfield's Learning Lab and Student Interactives. These links recommend different interactive websites children can use to work on vocabulary, writing, organization, and the reading of both fiction and non-fiction texts. In our 21st century, children are not only required to read words from books and written texts, but should also become acquainted with the internet and technology.

Portfolio Assessments

Data, data, data. Yes, teachers hear about the importance of this millions of times a day. However, not until my graduate studies did I realize that I can change the format the data of my students to fit more of my style and classroom. Yes, standardized tests, running records, and DIBELS are all great methods of assessing data, but it is important for teachers to know that data is not only restricted to these types of assessments. It can also include:
1. Writing samples of each of the writing genres taught in class. Students love to read through old writings and see how much they have improved. These can be kept in a three-ring binder-portfolio style. I even recommend students to keep them somewhere in the attic so they can reread them when they are old and gray, for laughs.
2. A reading/writing questionnaire for the students and for the parents. This can also go in their portfolio. It can even be re-administered throughout each quarter to see how/if it changes. It asks them how they feel about reading/writing, lists strengths, and weaknesses, and can even include growths and goals.
3. Students' record of their own growths from one standardized test to the next. In my classroom, my students love racing up to tell me how many points they went up. Or, they realize, uh oh, I went down and want help fixing it. This helps them take responsiblity for their learning and also helps them have a little more appreciation for those dang state tests.

Just some thoughts anyway!

Intervention Environment

During one staff meeting, my principal kept referring to the "bubble kids" in our classrooms. Finally, I couldn't follow along anymore and raised my hand to ask, "Are bubble kids the kids that have a hard time filling in the bubbles on standardized tests?" Amid much chuckles and harassment from my colleagues and a frown from my administrator, I realized this was not what he was talking about. I thought it was a good question because we had just spent hours telling our kids during ISTEP remediation the importance of filling in the bubble heavily and completely. Needless to say, I finally recognized "bubble kids" as students are aren't quite identified as special educated students, but are pretty close to being qualified as such. They are at least one grade level below in their reading ability.

In trying to reach those bubble kids, it is important for teachers to recognize a couple of important components for offering the best intervention strategies.

1. Teachers should offer a classroom environment that has frequent, intensive, explicit, and individualized support for the student. A great way to provide this environment would be to establish an inclusive classroom that does not include the overwhelming demands of teachers.

2. Teachers should also provide students with support and strategies that will help them experience success and gain academic self-confidence they can take with them for life. Sure, not all students may master the art of reading, but at least they can take some strategies they can refer back to throughout their lives.

3. Also, the teachers of these bubble kids need to have a strong background in literacy instruction and in using assessment to guide instruction. They need to be able to provide students with clear and organized mini-lessons, purposeful activities relating to the personal lives of students, and assessments throughout the reading intervention that assess how the student is mastering lessons and comprehending strategies.