Comprehension in literacy 1

Comprehension in Literacy for the Struggling Secondary Reader Constance A. Brown LTC 8915 Final Classroom Project University of Missouri http://916350260823888628.weebly.com/

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More times than not, special education students graduate from high school with a certificate of attendance rather than a true, official high school diploma, as reasons are referenced by NCEO Policy Directions, (Thompson & Thurlow, 2000). Ultimately, this transpires because they dont have enough credits to obtain a real diploma. Many times, these students are assessed as being incapable of doing the work that will even allow them to matriculate in courses geared toward gaining credits to graduate with a real diploma. Many of the students who fall in this category have had achievement tests administered to them throughout their quest for education. Although these tests are designed to measure a person's level of skill, accomplishment, or knowledge in a specific area, they are tests and can hence be subjective. In some variation, achievement tests measure the following areas:
Basic Reading Skill Reading Comprehension Reading Fluency Written Expression(grammar/mechanics) Numerical Operations Math Reasoning Math Fluency

Comprehension in literacy 3 The results of these tests are used to place students in particular levels of courses; but, more times than not, no additional support or intervention is extended to the student to increase his/her results. Therefore, these students fall through the cracks. Instead of giving the students support or intervention in the areas of weakness, they are placed in class levels of courses that, along with not addressing their particular area of need, move at glacial paces. Unfortunately, this additionally sets the students in a position to fall even further behind. I have taught some students who, sadly

enough fell through the cracks due to being (mis)evaluated because of the results of their achievement tests (many of whom are ELL students). Even more so, substantiated in an article written by Evanthia N. Patrikakou of DePaul
University, if parents/guardians arent informed, many students are unlikely to receive the

attention needed. (Patrikakou, 2008) For one reason or another, some students get wrongly placed in the category of ultimately being incapable of obtaining a diploma. Therefore, Id like to help these students with a curriculum that will prepare them for the General Education Development (G.E.D.) Test, even after theyve graduated from high school. It might just be the bridge that they need to connect them in their transition from teenage life to adulthood, while giving them a sense of self-worth and confidence.

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One of the key reasons that the deficit of not having enough credits exists in many of these students is their ongoing struggle with reading comprehension. According to Bergin and Bergin, emergent literacy skills should be evident by the age of three. By twelve years old, students should have developed conventional literacy meaning they should have a really good working vocabulary of sight words and reading strategies that allow them to read conventionally. From this point since basic reading skills have been founded, fluency only increases. The problem is this progression falls short in many people; by the time some students are in high school, they have become struggling readers. Now a very common learning disability is reading disability. This disability might be determined early in school in many students, but if

interventions arent implemented, the deficit goes untreated and gets no better. However, because the student gets older and instruction gets more advanced and complicated, the student basically falls behind. More times than not, this might occur with special education students; however, this scenario befalls general education students as well. Sometimes the disability has a

Comprehension in literacy 5 name. Its called dyslexia; however, more times than not, students arent found to be dyslexic, but simply are struggling readers who have serious issues with reading for whatever reason. There are many missing factors that determine a poor or struggling reader. However, studies and research highlight five key ingredients that must be present in order for one to be a successful reader: phoneme awareness, phonics, reading fluency, vocabulary and finally reading comprehension. The last component, reading comprehension, involves the ability to combine the prior four components with skills and strategies that ultimately leads to the ability to read.

Comprehension in literacy 6 Im very passionate about all peoples (e.g. races, genders, levels of intelligence, but mainly impoverished as opposed to affluent, disorders as opposed to no-disorders, special needs as opposed to normal and/or gifted) having a quality of life that God has ordained each of us to have. Im not impressed at how some people tend to disregard or act condescendingly toward others based on someones conjecture as opposed to simply and basically executing fairness to and leveling the playing ground for all people. I believe that all willing human beings deserve a fair chance to at least pursue a life of quality to the best of their ability. A primary interest of mine is to help people (mainly those who somehow left behind) who struggle with reading to acquire a basic life skill in reading. I have always taught in high school. When I started in education, I was immediately given a complicated task: I was to help a struggling reader (who happened to be a mild special needs student) overcome his literacy deficit(s) and become literate in terms of allowing him to have a productive life in as much as he could. This student had an intent desire to learn to read better; so, he was a willing student. I have since encountered students who werent as willing; however, once I helped them to realize that they werent stupid (really!) and had the ability to actually learn, the student(s) and I embarked on journeys that culminated in acquired reading skills that they didnt think were possible.

There are some students whom Ive taught, who sadly have fallen through the cracks due to being (mis)evaluated because of the results of their achievement tests (many of whom are ELL students. One such student is now a senior, preparing to graduate. He will graduate with an IEP Diploma or a certificate of attendance. This student came to the U.S. from Salvador when he was 8 years old. Neither he nor his parents spoke English. That was 10 years ago. Over the years, this young man was placed in ESOL classes early in middle school, but was somehow

Comprehension in literacy 7 released after a couple of years and transferred to special education services (in our school system, its rare for a student to receive dual services in special education and ESOL). In 2010, I transferred to the school where this young man was a freshman and only spent a small amount of time with him. He was 15 years old with serious truancy offences, such that his mother allowed him to quit school to go to work. However, after a year of working, he realized he didnt want that route and returned to school. At this point, Id become his case manager as well as his teacher. I found that he proved to be a very well-rounded young man. He could hold a

conversation about any number of topics on a level that far outreached people with intellectual needs, but he had been found to have a primary exceptionality of Mild Intellectual Disability, based on the results of his formal as well as informal testing. When I became affiliated with this young man, he hated school and only attended because his mother made him come (aside from the fact that hed experienced a bleak existence when he quit the previous year). His mother was very concerned about her son, but didnt know how to help him, barely able to speak English herself. I began to work with this young man and all the students in my Social Studies and Language Arts classes. Because we were in high school, I chose to respect my students and not belittle them by giving them grade-level content material, as my average student registered at 5th grade level. I painstakingly found material that was age-appropriate, yet modified so that we

could experience the same content that was being taught in the general education setting to their fellow members of the student body: some of whom were their family and friends. When I couldnt find such material, I created it! This was an arduous undertaking. By now, this young man and many of my other students had resolved themselves to the fact that they were somehow not smart and was beyond help. This young man who I will henceforth refer to as Sal(vador), distrusted teachers

Comprehension in literacy 8 and was unreceptive to me initially. I had to prove to him that I was on his side and was doing everything to support him as the intelligent young man that he was. The age-appropriate, yet modified material that I used in my curriculum was a tremendous ego-booster. I had to urge the students to use their background knowledge so that we could create the baseline that allowed us to move forward. Here is where deficiencies were clearly evident in areas where Sal should have mastered emergent and conventional literacy skills when he was much younger at a time before he even came to the U.S. and wasnt even speaking English. By the time Sal came to the U.S., he was already eight years old and should have, by the standards of normalcy, been reading at a comfortable conventional level of literacy. By the time Sal came to the U.S., he should have at least mastered (even mildly) three of the 5 essential components of reading: phoneme awareness, phonics and vocabulary, with a progressive procession on reading fluency and reading comprehension. However, Sal didnt have a grasp on the aforementioned three components,

which put him at a disadvantage with the entire concept of reading. I had to explain this to Sal, simultaneously congratulating him for conquering the ability to speak and understand English as fluently as he did (he was remarkable!) in such a short time. There were other struggling readers too, many of whom were accurately assessed and simply disallowed important pieces of the essential components in their reading. This resulted in their being struggling readers. For instance, because of the difficulty to remember concepts or the inability to connect actions to consequences, there was certainly going to be a deficit in the areas of being able to remember and manipulate individual sounds (phoneme awareness) or retain chunks of phonemes and graphemes which includes syllables and meaningful parts of words (phonics). These concepts could be ( and were) mastered, but the pace at which success comes is very glacial and deliberate. Therefore, we worked on a curriculum that was not time

Comprehension in literacy 9 sensitive, lagging behind our general education core classes. A success story of mine: I taught one student, who clearly had deficiencies in reading, but was patient and willing to work on getting better. There was also proof that this young man wasnt as low-functioning as some of his classmates and had a better grasp of the concept of phoneme awareness and phonics. His reading comprehension was much higher than many in the class, which enabled him to write on a higher level. I was able to give this young man a basic 5-sentence paragraph template that, once he mastered, led to me giving him a basic 5-paragraph essay to master. This young man mastered this template as well, which led to him passing the high school graduation writing test that ALL students had to pass in order to receive the high school diploma!!! The deficits that

pre-exist in my other students, prevent me from even helping them to master the basic 5-sentence paragraph with any continuity. All of these accounts as it relates to Salvador as well as the other students point to why the students current deficits in reading not only exist, but continue to prevail and seemingly grow, if interventions arent implemented. There are multiple, recorded accounts of the existence of struggling secondary readers. Lets examine a few of them. The concern at hand is how experts and researchers have identified secondary struggling readers and what can be done to remedy the problem. Louisa Moats state that once students fall behind, they rarely catch up. Moats, L. (2001). She goes on to state that many states promote early prevention to prevent reading problems. Dr. Moats further makes the account: Too few children can compete in higher education and about half fail to complete high school. In this community (Washington D.C.), the rate of adult illiteracy reading below 4th grade level is 37%, the highest in the nation. Nationally, 25% of all adults are functionally illiterate. Dr. Moats facts are startling; however, my claim is substantiated that when a deficit exists in early

Comprehension in literacy 10 grades, it will not go away without intervention. And, without intervention, the gap only appears to widen. According to Dr. Moats:
To complicate matters, the older student has not practiced reading and avoids reading because reading is taxing, slow, and frustrating (Ackerman & Dyckman, 1996; Cunningham & Stanovich, 1997). Therein lies the most challenging aspect of teaching older students: they cannot read so they do not like to read; reading is labored and unsatisfying so they have little reading experience; and, because they have not read much, they are not familiar with the vocabulary, sentence structure, text organization and concepts of academic book language. Over time, their comprehension skills decline because they do not read, and they also become poor spellers and poor writers. What usually begins as a core phonological and word recognition deficit, often associated with other language weaknesses, becomes a diffuse, debilitating problem with language spoken and written.

Like with Sal, by the time the students become teenagers in high school, their reading problem is exaggerated as well as exasperated. When the problem isnt addressed early on when the fundamentals of phoneme awareness and phonics are being cultivated, the deficit is created and becomes larger with time. Now and at this point, the teacher of comprehension must

simultaneously teach students about sentence structure, text cohesion, punctuation, phrasing, and grammar because comprehension can break down at the most basic levels of language processing. Moats, L. (2001) What is strongly stated with all studies and research considered is the fact that early prevention is paramount in curbing reading deficits in students. As it relates to reading fluency, in the findings of an article by Roxanne Hudson and Joseph Torgeson, secondary struggling readers lack fluency because they havent read enough to learn how to recognize words from memory, which can create two kinds of problems: a) these struggling readers wont instantly recognize or recall words as does students who dont struggle; and b) when struggling readers make an attempt to call/recall or identify words, they will most likely do so in error, which will only further frustrate them. If older students with these types of word-level problems receive powerful and

Comprehension in literacy 11 appropriately focused interventions, many of them can become accurate readers. Torgesen, J.K. & Hudson, R. (2006) Response to Intervention with Older Students with Reading Difficulties is an article that addresses literacy needs of the secondary struggling reader that takes a different approach. The experts responsible for this research find that raising the achievement level for all students will definitely address specific needs of struggling readers. While this study introduces screening, progress monitoring, intervention and assessment issues, the experts here find, as do other experts that have been highlighted thus far, the implementation of early intervention is the key concept to curbing this problem. Although the nature of my concern for struggling readers rises primarily from my teaching students with disabilities as well as ELL students, any secondary student can be impacted with reading deficits. This article expresses that older students may have difficulty with reading for several reasons: (a) not all students are provided with substantive early intervention, (b) some students are provided with inadequate early intervention, (c) some students who are provided with effective intervention early struggle later when text and knowledge demands increase, and (d) some students manifest reading difficulties later in their schooling who did not have reading difficulties early For these reasons, improved knowledge about effective interventions for older students is needed. (Vaughn, Fletcher, Francis, Denton, Wanzek, Wexler, Cirino & Barth, 2008) Many experts point to issues that might be responsible for the deficits that students encounter in literacy. Moreover, there are many experts who offer different strategies that can be used to alleviate literacy deficits in the struggling secondary reader and bring about reading comprehension to this struggling group. Heidi M. Feldman advocates helping older struggling

Comprehension in literacy 12 readers. Dr. Feldman has done studies to help these readers; in her article: Older Struggling Readers, Dr. Feldman lists 5 points that must be present in order for these readers to benefit: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Time Intensive Instruction Curriculum that works Practice Student Self-Advocacy

Ive found in my teaching as I pointed out earlier, my students always lag behind their general education peers, due to the fact that we have to move at such a slow pace in our curriculum, so as to ensure a success rate for the students. And not only do we move at tempered pace, but we do so with intensity that allows attention to be given to all needed areas. As was stated earlier, at this juncture in these students quest for education, the teacher of comprehension must simultaneously teach students about sentence structure, text cohesion, punctuation, phrasing, and grammar because comprehension can break down at the most basic levels of language processing. Moats, L. (2001) Hence, the instruction has to be intensive. It may be that we have to spend one week on one text; however, if that is what has to be done, then thats what will be done. Which brings the next point to fruition: a curriculum that works must be implemented.

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The advantage of working in special education directly with special needs students is the fact that the teacher does have the time to implement a curriculum that addresses the deficits effectively and doesnt have to worry about covering material by deadlines so that students will have what they need to be assessed by a certain date. (The information in the Response to Intervention with Older Students with Reading Difficulties article will be beneficial for general education students who are struggling readers, as it will assist them with their struggles in literacy earlier than later, which will take some of the pressure off of them as they go about their quests for education.) As a special education teacher of special needs students, an

implementation of practicing can be executed. Not only can it be executed, but implementation of practicing can be modeled for the students, followed by allowing the students to apply it as a self-advocacy skill. Clearly, this will all require much time and intensity; but, the expertise of Dr. Feldman has included these two very important concepts within the confines of essential points.

Comprehension in literacy 14 One of my all-time favorite textbooks that will become my bible for usage with struggling readers is When Kids Cant Read, What Teachers Can Do. (Beers, K, 2003) Dr. Beers guide for teachers of 6 through 12 grades has become a favorite of mine for many reasons. One reason is because she introduced herself as a mere teacher one who was starting out and only knew textbook remedies. I appreciate the fact that when she realized that education was not a cookie-cutter process where one-size-fits-all, she didnt try to force the fit. My mantra for my pedagogy is I meet each student where he/she is and raise their bar. I find it easy and reassuring when I study experts who subscribe to that same or similar belief. Dr. Beers text is full of strategies that are useful in assisting struggling readers, because thats who the text is written for and about. I have laid out my frame of strategies that stratify with the help of Dr. Feldman. Whatever the strategy or strategies that I use, each one will have to be used with the application of the five points that have been laid out by Dr. Feldman. That being said, looking at the strategy of Dr. Kylene Beers is like drifting into a reading comprehension utopia! Dr. Beers gives a 101 course in reading for the struggling as well as the strong reader. Moreover, she approaches reading from the grade-levels of 6 12 grades: secondary readers! Dr. Beers shows us how a difference can be made by teachers for secondary struggling readers; and, she shows how practical reading strategies can be used to simplify or alleviate the problems of literacy that secondary struggling readers encounter. Right out of the gate, Dr. Beers talks about how to create independent readers; she points out the difference between the independent and dependent reader, then gives ingredients that will be needed to transform the dependent reader into an independent reader. What is important to point out is the time factor that Dr. Feldman lists as being essential isnt only an important piece for the student, but also important for the teacher. It is incumbent on the teacher to know that

Comprehension in literacy 15 hastiness has no place in a curriculum of teaching struggling readers. Patience is definitely a virtue and also is a requirement if success is going to be obtained. In chapter 3, Dr. Beers lists dependent reading behaviors that abound struggling readers. (Beers, 2003) She then proceeds in the subsequent chapters laying out guidelines for how to assist struggling readers in overcoming these behaviors. This textbook is really a handbook (for me a bible) that helps to spot deficits in students as well as offering innumerous strategies to address these deficits. I have chosen three of the strategies given by Dr. Beers to highlight as primary ones that I would definitely use with my struggling secondary students. I have to keep in mind that my students are in a place where theyre already lagging behind their peers and going to have to hit all five components almost simultaneously (phoneme awareness, phonics, reading fluency, vocabulary and finally reading comprehension) but in a way that productivity is accomplished on all fronts. My reading is being taught inside the confines of Language Arts and Social Studies and has to be done while undertaking the core assignments of those courses. Therefore, in my experience, Ive garnered more effective results from the standpoint of approaching from the text-at-hand, as opposed to putting the conventional/fundamental pieces (phoneme awareness and reading fluency) up front. The first strategy that Ive chosen is Dr. Beers pre-reading strategy called frontloading meaning. This strategy deals more with the students background knowledge, giving the student a bit of confidence which makes moving forward not so scary. If the student feels that he/she has some knowledge, that reluctant feeling that causes people to stop and/or run in the opposite direction wont be present. It always amazes me how students are amazed at themselves when they realize that they have more knowledge about a topic or know vocabulary that they didnt realize was there! This frontloading strategy can help to bring this confidence to the forefront.

Comprehension in literacy 16 Once the student is confident with their prior knowledge (that they didnt know they had!), they will undoubtedly have confidence to respond. This is another strategy that Dr. Beers discusses in chapter 13. I know that the students are relying on me, so I have to keep the atmosphere positive and free of any kind of obstructions that might befall any of the students. Some of my students are higher-functioning and more advanced than others; however, I need for all of my students to feel they have a right to respond and not be ridiculed. Ive been in this position and have requested that the higher functioning students serve as peer-leaders and assist their classmates. I have seen success by doing this and have had some really good discussions on texts of various genres. Finally, I have chosen to highlight the strategy that Dr. Beers discusses in chapter 11, namely the word recognition strategy. Sometimes when we read, Ill have the students do the reading. When they are responsible for the reading, the lesson is extended beyond what we even call normal, because we spend a lot of time on word-calling. I wont allow the students to glaze over a word; if whoever is reading doesnt know how to pronounce a word, then well pause (I tell the other students not to help!) and allow the reader the opportunity to spend time with the word sounding it out, with hopes of a success with the pronunciation. In conjunction with this strategy, Ive also used the vocabulary strategy (chapter 9) allowing the student to figure out the definition of the word. Many times, even, we start out in the frontloading phase with a list of vocabulary that will facilitate the process of reading later on.

Comprehension in literacy 17 Whether Im in a classroom doing a content course other than reading or exclusively teaching reading, I will use the handbook created by Dr. Beers, as this book is jus t a hands-on guide that can only lead to success for the secondary struggling reader. I stated earlier that I choose age-appropriate material for my students, even though their average grade level is 4th to 5th grade. In an article about fluency interventions, it is stated that repetition is paramount, yet when done, students who are reading on elementary grade level can read cloze passages successfully on a higher grade level. The key is repeated practice of cloze passages is an absolute must. Wexler, J., Vaughn, S., Edmonds, M., & Reiutebuch, C. (2008). A
synthesis of fluency interventions for secondary struggling readers.

Modeling has become a great friend of mine. It has become the teaching strategy that I frequently use in reading with my reading/comprehension lesson plans. My students, although they are special needs, are higher functioning students who frown on any technique that resembles low grade level (even though thats exactly what they need!). Therefore, I have to use strategies that look and feel like high school stuff. The strategy that Ive recently found to be most effective is the one with the post-it notes. First, we read the text. We then summarize

what we read by breaking it down (mostly per paragraph) and answer as many of the four questions as we can: a)sum-ups what just happened? b)any words needing to be defined? c)any questions youre wondering about ex: clarifying up an inference; and, d)predictions: guess what will happen next? Now it doesnt work out perfectly each time; but, we are able to make valid connections and get lots of comprehension from this strategy. What Im presently doing is modeling the strategy. I actually use the post-its and show the students how to extract the answers to the questions. I actually am generating the questions and telling them right now what to look for; so, I have their attention. I am showing them the pertinent information to extract and retain; so I am applying the retention piece. I am requiring them to do their own note-taking,

Comprehension in literacy 18 which is allowing them to practice motor reproduction. They can observe me and then replicate my actions. And Im on them to write legibly because theyre going to have to read their own writing! And finally, I motivate the students to do this by showing them how this is helping them to comprehend what they read. Its working! Its really working!!! Consequently, my using modeling the use of post-it notes for reading/comprehension is a perfect example of how we can effectively use modeling to facilitate a persons learning. As time progresses, Ill be able to gradually remove myself from the equation; and, at some point, (at least some if not all of) the students will be able to independently use the post-it notes strategy independently of any modeling. Now, modeling is discussed in chapter 13 of Classroom Instruction That Works (Marzano). This text also spends time approaching Summarizing and Note Taking chapter 3. Among other strategies mentioned (some, Ive used, others, not yet), I do use these strategies as I strive to bring my students from their present level of reading to a higher and more skilled level of reading. I must say that I lean heavily on metacognitive theories more so than cognitive theories because metacognition involves the use of strategies for remembering information; metacognition is vital to the learning process that compliments my students. . When the students learn to apply and self-regulate themselves, theyll be able to do it anywhere. The concern that begs to be address now is the application that I will use to bring this curriculum of reading comprehension to fruition. I believe wholeheartedly in differentiated instruction, even when we are using text in content areas. I can visualize, in terms of metacognition, how an actual concept really can come together. If I place myself in the position of a choir director with the choir, I can watch each member bring their own voice to one of four sections to make one harmonious sound of beauty. As the director, I have to

Comprehension in literacy 19 know what each section is doing, as each section contributes something different. In terms of reading and my students, each student brings something different to the table. Consider Sal and the other student who actually passed the graduation writing exam. Both of these students are struggling readers, yet they struggle in different ways. I have to be able to determine what each of them is struggling with as we broach one text that they both (as well as other classmates) have to comprehend. Differentiated Instruction (henceforth known as DI) does not come with a recipe or formula. DI is all about student-centered learning and not teacher-centered teaching. Students should be included in the management and operation of a differentiated classroom environment. Teachers assess and monitor skills & knowledge levels for all students, before proceeding to create lessons and tasks with those levels in mind in DI. This assures each students growth, development and success. Imagine Conductor Duke Ellington and his orchestra. To me, that is the visual epitome that describes the above statements: different voices, instruments, etc., with the conductor at the helm making sure that everyone brings their best and takes away something great and valuable: the ability to be stronger readers!!!