• Wrap-up. Wrap-up is a closure activity that allows students to review in their mind what has been learned to ensure that it makes sense and has meaning, thereby increasing the chances the brain will remember it. Focus students on the new learning by asking them to generate questions whose answers would show what they learned from the passage. They should also review key ideas.
Start with questions that focus on the explicit material in the passage, such as who, what, where, and when. Afterward, move to questions that stimulate higher-order thinking, such as “What might have happened if . . . ?” and “What could be another way to solve this problem?” Writing down the response will help students sort out and remember the important ideas.
PHASE 2
Cooperative Learning Groups
This phase puts the students into cooperative learning groups to practice CSR in an interactive environment. Research on memory clearly shows that we are much more likely to remember information when we discuss, clarify, and review it with others. True cooperative learning groups are usually made up of about five students of mixed ability levels who learn and perform certain roles in the group to ensure completion of the learning task (Johnson & Johnson, 1989). The roles rotate among the group members so that every student gets the opportunity to be the leader and use the various skills needed to perform each task. Although there are many roles that students can perform, here are the most common (assuming five members per group):
• Leader. Leads the group through CSR by saying what to read next and what strategy to use.
• Clunk expert. Reminds the group what strategies to use when encountering a difficult word or phrase.
• Announcer. Calls on different group members to make certain that everyone participates and that only one person talks at a time.
• Encourager. Gives the group feedback on behaviors that are to be praised and those that need improvement.
• Reporter. Takes notes and reports to the whole class the main idea that the group has learned and shares a question that the group generated during its wrap-up.
Here are suggestions for using the cooperative learning groups with this strategy:
• Cue sheets. Giving all group members a cue sheet to guide them through the CSR provides a structure and focus for the group. The cue sheet should be specific for each role. For example, the leader’s sheet contains statements that steer the group through each step of CSR (e.g., “Today’s topic is . . . ,” “Let’s predict what we might learn from this,” and “Let’s think of some questions to see if we really understand what we learned”) and also direct other group members to carry out their role (e.g., “Announcer, please call on others to share their ideas” and “Encourager, tell us what we did well and what we need to do better next time”).
• CSR learning logs. Recording in logs helps students to keep track of what was learned. Students can keep separate logs for each subject. The log serves as a reminder for follow-up activities and can be used to document a student’s progress as required by the individualized education plan.
• Reading materials. CSR was originally designed for expository text, but has also been used successfully with narrative text. For the strategy to be successful, select reading passages that are rich in clues, that have just one main idea per paragraph, and that provide a context to help students connect and associate details into larger ideas.
Additional Strategies
Reading Aloud. Some of the models for teaching reading discussed in Chapter 3 that involve repeated oral reading are appropriate to use with older struggling readers. Paired (or partner) reading and readers’ theatre are particularly effective classroom strategies. Reading aloud helps students of all ages gain confidence in their developing reading skills. This is especially important around the fourth grade where there is a large increase in vocabulary words with irregular pronunciations. Struggling readers need considerable practice with these words to develop fluency and avoid the well-known drop in reading performance that occurs in fourth grade. Two of the main sources of irregular pronunciation problems are
1. words that contain the same root but are pronounced differently—for example, bough, cough, dough, and rough; have and gave; or bead and dead; and
2. words where the same letters get different pronunciations, as in the following pairs: electric-electricity, grade-gradual, nation-national, muscle-muscular, and sign-signature.
These words must be learned and overlearned by repeated practice as part of the fluency exercises given in class.
Question the Author. Older struggling readers can be unenthusiastic about engaging with a text and processing information from it. Their motivation needs to be primed. This brain-friendly strategy is one way to do that. It encourages students to ask questions of the author and the text, such as “What is the author’s message?” and “Does the author explain this clearly?” For the students, forming these questions raises their interest level, engages the problem-solving areas of their brain’s frontal lobe, and helps them find sense and meaning in what they are reading. Doing so increases comprehension.
Using this strategy involves several steps (Beck, McKeown, Hamilton, & Kugan, 1997):
1. Select a passage from the text that both is interesting and can provoke a good conversation.
2. Decide on those points where you believe you need to stop in the text because you think the students need to obtain a greater understanding.
3. Create some questions for each of these stopping points. For example:
• What is the author trying to say up to this point?
• Why do you think the author used the following phrase . . . ?
• Does what you have read so far make sense to you?
4. Show your students a short passage along with one or two questions that you have created ahead of time.
5. Model for your students how to think through the questions.
6. Ask the students to read and work through the questions that you prepared for their readings.
If appropriate, you can expand this activity by asking the students to summarize their ideas by completing the following phrase: “If I were the author, I would . . . ” Ask some students to volunteer their responses, and engage the class in an appropriate discussion. Remember that your role is to facilitate the discussion, not lead it.
Attention Therapy to Improve Comprehension
Successful reading requires sustained attention to the printed text. Researchers now recognize that attention is a complex process that requires the brain to focus, shift, sustain, and encode relevant stimuli while simultaneously impeding the processing of irrelevant stimuli (Posner, Rothbart, & Sheese, 2007). In reading, visual attention (the eyes scanning the page) must be sustained long enough for the visual processing system (in the rear of the brain) to perceive the text and send it to the visual word form area so that the cognitive processing system (frontal lobe) can eventually comprehend the text. Visual attention, therefore, is the catalyst that links perception to comprehension.
Students with attention deficits often have reading difficulties as well. Because visual attention is a learned skill, the research question here is this: Can giving students with reading difficulties attention therapy that improves visual attention practices lead to better reading comprehension? In a pivotal study (Solan, Shelley-Tremblay, Ficarra, Silverman, & Larson, 2003), 30 Grade 6 students with reading problems were split into two groups. One group received 12 one-hour sessions of individually monitored, computer-based attention therapy programs. The second group served as the control and was given no therapy during the 12-week period. The therapy program consisted of computer-based activities designed to improve perceptual accuracy, visual efficiency, visual search, visual scan, and visual span. Each session was followed with paper-and-pencil exercises for additional practice. The program also emphasized improving visual memory.
After completing the program, the mean reading comprehension scores improved significantly, from the 23rd to the 35th percentile
, and a grade-equivalent increase from 4.1 to 5.2. Because this improvement is well over one standard deviation, it is unlikely that the results can be attributed to the practice that occurred as part of the program. This study is significant because it showed that (1) attention skills are malleable and measurable, (2) attention therapy improves attention duration, and (3) students who receive attention therapy score better on tests of reading comprehension than controls. Follow-up studies have revealed a common linkage between reading comprehension and visual attention (Solan, Shelley-Tremblay, Hansen, & Larson, 2007), and the positive impact of attention therapy on comprehension for struggling adolescent readers (Shelley-Tremblay, Langhinrichsen-Rohling, & Eyer, 2012).
Although the samples in these studies were small (from 30 to 42 students), the results were intriguing and consistent. If further studies continue to support these findings, then computer-based attention therapy programs may someday become another tool that teachers of remedial reading may consider in their efforts to improve their students’ reading comprehension.
Answer to Test Question #8
Question: Many poor readers have attention problems that schools are not equipped to handle.
Answer: False. Many poor readers expend a great deal of effort at first trying to decode text, but their struggle leads to frustration and eventually to inattentiveness.
Tutoring in Reading for Fluency
Tutoring can be a significant enhancement to fluency in reading (Snow, Burns, & Griffin, 1998). Tutors can be volunteers, older students, or parents. Essentially, tutors provide individual guided practice and corrective feedback to a student while the student reads aloud from meaningful text at a suitable level of difficulty. To be effective, it is important that the tutors have a specific approach to the tutoring session. All tutors should be provided training in basic tutoring techniques and in the selection of appropriate materials. These materials should be closely related to the reading materials that the students are using in their classes.
Parker, Hasbrouck, and Denton (2002a) suggest three types of tutoring interventions: (1) repeated reading with a model, (2) oral reading with monitoring and feedback, and (3) error monitoring and reading practice.
Repeated Reading With a Model
Simultaneous, repeated reading with a tutor is an effective method for improving the fluency of reluctant readers (e.g., Kuhn & Stahl, 2003; Ring, Barefoot, Avrit, Brown, & Black, 2013; Therrien, 2004). By carefully adjusting the timing and control of the repeated readings, the tutor helps the student foster independent reading skills. Here are the three steps to this approach:
• Step 1: Introduction
Start with a passage that will take 3 to 5 minutes for the student to read aloud.
Read the title.
Give a general description of the topic.
Ask if the student knows anything about the topic.
Give a reason or purpose for reading the topic.
Explain that the passage may be difficult, so you will read it together.
• Step 2: Simultaneous reading
Read the passage with the student, sitting slightly behind so as not to be a visual distraction.
Read slowly in a clear, soft voice as the student reads aloud at the same time.
Regulate your speed of reading to allow the student to keep up.
The student and you should move your fingers under the printed text as you read.
Listen carefully as to whether the student is following, reading with, or leading your reading of difficult words. Most students will initially follow the tutor. But with greater confidence, they will read more nearly with the tutor, and eventually will lead.
As the student comes closer to your reading speed, soften your voice. As the student leads more, soften your voice further and slow your pace slightly to allow the student to lead even more.
• Step 3: Simultaneous repeated readings
After a short break, begin rereading. From two to five readings will be beneficial, depending on the student’s motivation and age.
With each rereading, maintain a smooth pace and encourage the student to read with you and to lead by softening your voice and slowing your pace slightly.
Oral Reading With Monitoring and Feedback
Oral reading is one of the effective practices recommended by the National Reading Panel (NRP, 2000). This process uses a text that the student can read with 90 to 95 percent oral reading accuracy, and at a moderate level of difficulty. The tutor provides direct feedback on difficult words encountered in the text. The aim here is for the student to avoid long pauses while attempting to decode unfamiliar words and to build fluency and confidence in reading. Here are the two steps in this process:
• Step 1: Introduction
Ask the student to read the passage aloud as smoothly, quickly, and accurately as possible.
Reassure the student that, although you do not want to interrupt the reading, you will help with words that are unfamiliar or misread.
Show the student how to use a finger or marker to pace the reading and to keep on track.
• Step 2: Providing feedback
Sit slightly behind the student so as not to be a visual distraction.
Immediately pronounce correctly any mispronounced word, and have the student quickly repeat it without breaking stride in reading.
Strive for minimal interruption, but immediately correct each error. If the student is making more than one error every 10 words or so, then the passage is too difficult.
Ask the student to use a finger or marker to pace the reading.
Take note of any pattern in the student’s errors, such as any specific words that are missed with high frequency, missing specific letter or sound patterns, and violations of phonics rules. This is an advanced tutoring skill and should only be done by tutors who have a good knowledge of phonics and word structure.
Error Monitoring and Reading Practice
This approach gives students the opportunity to practice difficult words not connected to text. Students practice reading word patterns, words, and sentences from flash cards. The flash card practice proceeds rapidly, without interruption, for 15 to 25 cards, or 3 to 5 minutes, depending on the student’s age. If the student gets stuck on a word, wait only 1 to 3 seconds before saying it. Stick the more difficult words back in the deck toward the front so the student has more practice with them. Here are three different variations of this reading practice:
• Variation 1: Word patterns
Write the words to be practiced on index cards. The student can help make the cards, if appropriate.
Consider writing the word on both sides of the card to make it easier for you to see it.
Group flash cards with similar error patterns for later, focused practice.
• Variation 2: Word practice
As the student is reading a passage aloud, mark any word reading errors with a pencil check, or underline them on a separate copy.
Allow the reading to continue until the student has made 5 to 15 errors. Stop the reading at the end of a sentence or paragraph.
Prepare flash cards with selected missed words on them. Avoid the names of characters, places, or vocabulary specific to the story as well as unusual or rarely used words. Select words that are commonly used by the student and that reflect useful phonemic and structural patterns.
• Variation 3: Sentence practice (in context)
As the student is reading a passage aloud, mark on a separate copy any word reading errors with a pencil check or underline.
Allow the reading to continue until the student has made 5 to 15 errors. Stop the reading at the end of a sentence or paragraph.
Point out the student’s first error and ask, “What is this word?” If the student cannot read it, identify the word.
Ask the student to read the entire sentence again until it can be done without hesitation or error. Continue this process with all the original errors.
When completed, have the student c
ontinue reading the passage until another 5 to 15 errors are made. Repeat the above steps.
Evaluating the Effectiveness of Tutoring
Effective tutoring should enable the student to read meaningful, connected text at that student’s instructional reading level. Reading performance can be evaluated by three indexes: oral reading accuracy (ORA), oral reading fluency (ORF), and comprehension as measured by answers to questions presented after the student has read a passage. These evaluations should be carried out periodically to provide feedback to the tutor.
Oral Reading Accuracy. Oral reading accuracy (ORA) is calculated by a simple formula in which the number of word errors (not counting repetitions or self-corrected errors) is subtracted from the total number of words read, and then dividing that result by the total number of words. The resulting decimal is multiplied by 100 to yield a percentage.
Have the student read a previously practiced passage without the tutor and calculate the student’s ORA. For example, if the student reads a passage of 150 words and makes 15 errors while reading all the words, the calculation would be 150 minus 15, which is 135, divided by 150. The result is 0.9, which is then multiplied by 100 to yield 90 percent. The goal is for a 95 percent ORA. If the goal is not met, the student continues to practice on that passage with the tutor, attempting to reach the goal.
Oral Reading Fluency. Because time is involved, ORF is also known as the student’s reading rate, and is the same as the calculation of words correct per minute (WCPM) discussed in Chapter 3 (see Table 3.2).
For example, a third-grade student reads a passage of 150 words with 17 errors in one-and-a-half minutes. Subtracting the 17 errors from the 150 words yields a total of 133 words that were correctly read in 1.5 minutes. Dividing the 1.5 minutes into 133 words yields a WCPM of 89. Comparing the 89 to the average reading rates listed in Table 3.2 shows that this student is reading at the lower end of the range for third grade.
How the Brain Learns to Read Page 22