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Struggling Adolescent Readers

Posted on: Thursday, 3 April 2008, 03:00 CDT

By Fisher, Douglas

FROM THE RESEARCH * You cannot learn from books that you cannot read (Allington, 2002). Yet, students are regularly assigned readings that are too complex and ones that they are not interested in. This is especially true for the most struggling adolescent readers.

* The amount of time that students spend reading is directly related to their vocabulary knowledge and overall academic performance (Cunningham ft Stanovich, 1998). Unfortunately, struggling readers spend less time reading as a result of reading interventions. Instead, they are required to complete isolated skills practice.

* Reward programs, such as Accelerated Reader and Book It, may encourage struggling readers in the short term but will have little long-term effect and may well reduce students' interests in independent reading (Biggers, 2001 ; Flora Et Flora, 1999).

* Isolated skills instruction-whether it be in phonics, vocabulary, or comprehension-will likely have little impact on students' reading more and reading better (Ivey ft Baker, 2004).

* Computer programs can provide struggling readers with application and practice opportunities, but they cannot replace a skilled teacher (Fisher ft Ivey, 2006). The teacher employs the strategic use of prompts, cues, and questions to get the students to do the work, whereas computers provide independent practice.

THE PROBLEM

For every 100 ninth graders, 68 graduate on time and 40 of those go to college. But by the following year, 13 of them have dropped out. To a large extent, these behaviors are correlated to reading habits (National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, 2004).

IMPLICATIONS FOR TEACHER-LIBRARIANS, TECHNOLOGISTS, AND CLASSROOM TEACHERS

* Acquire large collections of fiction and informational materials in all formats that teens want to read.

* Recommend specific texts for specific students-regularly invite them into books.

* Engage students with nontraditional texts, such as manga, graphic novels, anime, comics, YouTube, and the Internet. These texts require reading, and they build students' interest, motivation, and skills (Frey Et Fisher, 2008).

* Make such materials available everywhere in the school, for reading at school and for unlimited checkout at home.

* When working with teens, explain your thinking about texts by modeling comprehension strategies such as visualizing, connecting, summarizing, inferring, monitoring, and questioning.

* Involve everyone in fun, motivating, and interesting challenges that involve reading (e.g., http://knowville.org).

* Use Web 2.0 technologies to let teens share, write, and produce their creative products.

* Visit the National Council of Teachers of English web site and review its call to action for adolescent literacy (www.ncte.org/ about/over/positions/ category/read/118622.htm).

* Assemble a literacy team in the school not only to consider the problem but also to take collaborative action.

FROM THE BEST PRACTICES LITERATURE

BUILD THE TEACHER'S KNOWLEDGE

The most important thing that a struggling adolescent reader needs is a teacher who understands reading instruction, adolescent development, and motivation (Eisher & Erey, 2008). Struggling adolescent readers also need reading explained to them. Most often, this looks like modeling, in which a proficient reader explains the cognitive moves that he or she makes to make meaning from texts. For example, while reading, the adult might pause to explain how he or she summarizes and makes connections. A bit later in the reading, the adult might ask questions about the author's intentions and make predictions about what the author will discuss. Duffy (2003) provides a number of excellent examples of explaining reading.

ACTIVAIE STUDENTS' BACKGROUND KNOWLEDGE AND INTERESTS

As Broaddus and Ivey (2002) noted, knowing students as readers, maintaining a range of reading material on topics under investigation, and allotting time for reading in every class can support readers regardless of their motivation, interest, and ability. An important way of knowing students and connecting them with reading material is to activate and build background knowledge. Quick writes, for example, allow the teacher insight into students' thinking. Classroom discussions using KWL (know-want-leam) and other language charts provide information about students' background and prior knowledge such that the teacher can find reading material that students can and want to read. Visual displays also help struggling readers develop their understanding of the content as they discuss this type of information with their teacher and with one another. Ivey and Fisher (2007) provide a number of examples, across content areas, for accomplishing this objective.

NOT JUST BASIC SKILLS

It is tempting when working with struggling adolescent readers to revisit basic skills-after all, if only one can fill in the gaps of knowledge, then these students will be able to catch up. Unfortunately, decades of remedial and basic skills instruction have not fulfilled this promise. An adolescent who reads at a fourth- grade level is not the same as a fourth grader, and using materials and approaches effective at fourth grade will not yield positive results. Many struggling readers use what Thorkildsen and Nicholls (2002) describe as a performance goal orientation, meaning that readers compare their reading competence to that of others, resulting in a competitive learning environment and decreased reading motivation. It is essential for these students to develop a task value orientation, wherein they see worth in the task that they are attempting. Students who believe that they are being taught a watereddown version of the curriculum will not value the tasks. Wigfield and Eccles (2000) explain that task value is further influenced by the degree to which an individual is able to exercise choice and then persists with the task to completion. Curriculum and instruction that are rich in content and oriented toward the sophisticated thinking of adolescents will result in higher degrees of motivation. Differentiated instruction provides struggling readers with the necessary supports that they need to accomplish those tasks so that they are able to persist in their learning and fulfill their goals.

REFERENCES

Allington, R. L. (2002). You can't learn much from books you can't read. Educational Leadership, 60(3), 16-19.

Biggers, D. (2001). The argument against Accelerated Reader. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 45(1), 72-75.

Broaddus, K., a Ivey, G. (2002). Taking away the struggle to read in the middle grades. Middle School Journal, 34(2), 5-11.

Cunningham, A. E., Et Stanovicri, K. E. (1998). What reading does for the mind. American Educator, 22(1-2), 8-15.

Duffy, G. G. (2003). Explaining reading: A resource for teaching concepts, skills, and strategies. New York: Guilford.

Fisher, D., Et Frey, N. (2008). Improving adolescent literacy: Content area strategies at work (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill/Prentice Hall.

Fisher, D., ft Ivey, G. (2006). Evaluating the interventions for struggling adolescent readers. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 50, 180-189.

Flora, S. R., cents Flora, D. R (1999). Effects of extrinsic reinforcement for reading during childhood on reported reading habits of college students. Psychological Record, 49(1), 3-15.

Frey, N., a Fisher, D. (Eds.). (2008). Teaching visual literacy: Using comic books, graphic novels, anime, cartoons, and more to develop comprehension and thinking skills. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

Ivey, G., Et Baker, M. 1. (2004). Phonics instruction for older readers? Just say no. Educational Leadership, 61, 35-39.

Ivey, G., Et Fisher, D. (2007). Creating literacy-rich schools for adolescents. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education. (2004). Educational pipeline loss rate. San Jose, CA: Author. Retrieved January 23, 2008, from www.highereducation.org/ reports/pipeline/ loss.shtml

Thorkildsen, T. A., ft Nicholls, J. G. (2002). Motivation and the struggling to learn: Responding to fractured experience. Boston: Altyn Et Bacon.

Wigfield, A., Et Eccles, J. S. (2000). Expectancyvalue theory of achievement motivation. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 25,68- 81.

Douglas Fisher is professor of teacher education at San Diego State University. He can be reached at dfisher@mail.sdsu.edu.

Copyright Ken Haycock & Associates Feb 2008

(c) 2008 Teacher Librarian. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.

Source: Teacher Librarian

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