Tidbits from this week's readings.....

There are many important key points I gleaned from my research this week on matching readers to text and instruction. Below are a few highlights:

Afflerbach:

• Reading is CENTRAL to ALL success for students in and out of school.
• Critical reading abilities allow students to become critical consumers.
• The closing of the achievement gap must be a priority for schools.

Arlington (2002):

• The syntax of text becomes more complex and demanding. There is a greater emphasis on inferential thinking and prior knowledge.
• The "one-size-fits-all" approach works well f we want to sort students into academic tracks. It fails miserably if your goal is high academic achievement for all students (Baumann & Duffy, 1997).
• Exemplary teachers offer instruction tailored to each students individual needs.

Arlington (2013)

• Every primary grade teacher needs to know how to teach several decoding approaches effectively because no single approach works for every child. Effective teachers adapt their teaching until they locate the best method for developing decoding proficiencies for each child.
• Jorgensen, Klein & Kumar (1977) reported that struggling readers were more likely to be engaged when he texts they were reading better matched to their reading levels as compared with engagement when texts were at grade level.
• In short, to many struggling readers have desks full of grade-level texts that they cannot read accurately. Texts that will foster neither engaged reading nor reading development.
• Adams (1990) noted decades ago, "the most important activity for developing literacy is that of inducing students to read independently. Yet when a text is difficult for children, they comprehend little, learn little, and tire quickly."
• Struggling readers just participate in too little high success reading activity every day. This is one reason so few struggling readers ever become achieving readers. We could change that, but such change runs counter to the dominant one-size-fits-all entrepreneurial curriculum framework that dominates schools today and seems the dominant model for the future.

Dennis (2010)

• Tiered intervention plans such as Response to Intervention, offer educators a step-by-step process for implementing a multi-tiered intervention plan in the primary grades.

Essentially, students will be more successful at new tasks if the tasks are closely targeted to their academic skills and developmental stage. Round robin reading is not considered to be an effective tool for struggling reads. There are too many opportunities for teacher interruption to correct a reading error. Oftentimes, other students may begin correcting the reading error which further interrupts the struggling reader. Reading is so important to student success. As teachers, we need to be researching various methods and strategies to help reach each individual student based on their specific needs to help them become successful readers. :)