Tip: Help for “At Risk” Struggling Readers (Students should not struggle with reading. If they are struggling, they are being instructed on the wrong level.)
Shared Reading
Use material on their instructional level that are interesting. Do not try and force them to read an on-level- basal!!!!!!! Shared Reading is above their instructional level; however, students silently read unfamiliar words as they are heard, seen in context, and more likely understood. It is very powerful in supporting “At Risk” reader.
The best way to help students who are “struggling”- At Risk- is to allow them to be active learners. Start with instructing them on their interest and instructional level regardless if it is one or 12 levels below grade level. Use the same strategies that are used to teach on grade level students. Do not teach skills in isolation; there is little, if any, transfer. Students may need reinforcement -extended, explicit, or direct instruction to learn how to use a particular reading skill and strategy after it has been introduced or encountered during the guided reading; e.g., noting a phonetic element, lifting it from the text and working with other words with that element.
Students should not struggle! Students who do not have a disability should read fluently with comprehension regardless of their instructional level. Some disabled students can read with great comprehension but sound illiterate when they attempt to read orally.
Some disabilities and At Risk readers are caused by poor teaching. Others just do not have the necessary background knowledge to read some text. All too often they are left to passive learning- their brains aren’t stimulated. Some children have a problem with synchronizing the visual and oral.
Poetry
Poetry is always a sure way to succeed. We can always find poems that capture their interest. Concepts, skills, and strategies such as story structure, voc., phonics fluency are taught simultaneously. Students can repeat the poem many times in many ways without being bored. Repeated readings support fluency, and auditory discrimination. Above all, poetry reading develops confidence because the reader is supported by repetition, rhyme, rhythm, alliteration and brevity. Poems are easily duplicated and recite for review at different times. They serve as text to be reread at home, etc.
Read Alongs
Read Alongs (Cassette tapes or CD paired with the hard copy of a story) are a great tool to support the At Risk reader. They allow students to read above their actual reading level which is so important for older students who are levels behind especially if they are at the beginning stage of reading.
Read Alongs give support in many ways. They model fluency, the rhythm of the language; allow students to concentrate on the story line in lieu of decoding words; and develop vocabulary. Plus, the sound effects also help develop the story line.
The following excerpt from the Los Angles Times about “slow” children, is problematic for me.
“Many children will be left behind… reading and the slow learner
Drs. Kathleen and Robert Cooter / Los Angles Times
The No Child Left Behind legislation seems to promise all American children opportunities to successfully learn to read side by side and grade to grade with their classmates. But for some children, this promise cannot be kept.
Many children do not have the same intelligence and language skills as their classmates. They have been labeled as “slow learners.” As many as three or four learners in any typical classroom are markedly slower in learning and thinking. This makes reading extremely difficult for these children.”
That type of thinking causes a problem; it doesn’t shed light on the problem. Instead of saying,” Many children do not have the same intelligence ...” we should say, children do not come with the same opportunities or the background knowledge required to succeed in the present day school setting. Children in a regular classroom have the necessary intelligence. According to Gardner, there are many types of intelligences. Furthermore, intelligence is not static ; it is dynamic. With some children their IQ goes up with time spent in school.
True, some of the students who do not succeed, do not have the necessary language skills - both first and second language learners. That is no reflection on their intelligence. Some ESL students, learn quickly because the learning environment has become conducive to learning both at home and in school.
“As many as three or four learners in any typical classroom are markedly slower in learning and thinking. This makes reading extremely difficult for these children.”
There is no data to support that claim. We are not talking about special ed. students.
The wrong approach can make learning to read difficult. Children should not struggle to learn to read.
Children in an average classroom all have the potential to read grade level material - we are not speaking about mentally challenged students. However, there are as many reasons for the students not working up to their potential as there are students in the class and it is not because some students do not have the intelligence. Every student has to be given the support to meet their educational needs. Some children come to school behind before they begin. Those children need to be put in an accelerated program - a program that gives them double instructional time. They need to be instructed daily by both the classroom teacher and the reading specialists.
They need to be given books to take home - books for the parents to read to them and books they can read independently. If the parents can’t read, the students should be provided with read along tape/CD and book sets. If they have no tape player or CD player, a tape record should be provided. Reading literature books will accelerate them, not phonetically controlled books or the asinine worksheets the “slow” students have to fill out in the name of reading.
If there is a computer or iPad in the homes of the At Risk students, there are many read- along stories on line. Check out
Electronic Books. Check out Family Reading
If there is a student with an emotional problem who disrupts instruction, that student needs to be removed and taught in a special setting.
The reading gap is not due to a “lack of intelligence.” The “reading gap” has many possible causes. The biggest problem stems from the home. Parents’ attitude, children living in poverty, homelessness, and no books in the home. The school augments the Learning Gap by retaining students. Other contributing factors are using the wrong teaching approach. Teachers may not have the necessary background to teach reading; there may be too many underachievers in one classroom or some are simply behind before they begin.
To repeat: the teacher must engage the students in active learning - stimulate their higher order thinking skills.
Also, achievers need to out-number the underachievers in order to pull the underachievers along, otherwise the underachievers will pull down the achievers.
Coleman Report
Common Core Standards for Primary Reading Instructions will definitely be a major cause of the Learning Gap augmenting.
