Reading and Writing Instruction for Students with Disabilities

Reading and writing instruction should be adapted for all students, especially
those with disabilities. Students must be taught reading strategies and
frequently assessed at their level to determine if they are making gains. The
assessments allow the teacher to adjust instruction as needed. The teaching
must be explicit, since students may not be able to infer what they should
learn about reading or writing. Teacher support is also important, as students
need to feel confident when they encounter unknown words.
Support for students' reading and writing skills begins early in their education.
Reading aloud daily and providing opportunities to use letters and manipulate
sounds builds a strong foundation. As children practice using letters, they
recognize that letters make sounds and, therefore, words. Letters generally
have 1-2 sounds they represent and combine in patterned ways. For example,
'b' always has the same sound, as in "baby," and vowel-consonant-e
combinations make a long vowel sound with a silent e, as in "cake."
As children's reading progresses, their writing should do the same. They
should have opportunities to connect their writing to their reading and their
writing should be purposeful.
Functional Language Arts Instruction
Functional reading instruction refers to teaching reading skills with a practical,
real-world application. It emphasizes teaching reading skills that are relevant
to daily life. The aim is to equip learners with the ability to apply reading skills
in various contexts, promoting independence. Functional reading tasks may
include:
reading signs
reading menus
following directions
interpreting instructions
Functional writing instruction incorporates the same practical, real-world
application for writing tasks. The aim is to equip learners with the ability to
effectively communicate in situations they may encounter in their daily lives.
Functional writing tasks may include:
writing emails
completing job applications
filling out forms
creating shopping lists
Evaluating Progress
Evaluating and tracking the progress of students with severe to profound
disabilities is crucial to ensure instruction is effective. Strategies for evaluating
progress include:
formative assessment
Reading: Have students read a bus schedule for understanding.
Writing: Have students write a brief email to a teacher about a recent activity.
Progress Monitoring
Reading: Track students' accuracy and speed in identifying and understanding
signs over time.
Writing: Monitor students' abilities to write legibly, spell correctly, and provide
relevant information in the appropriate spaces on a personal information
sheet.
Remediation
Reading: Offer guided practice with decoding and sight word recognition
tailored to the students functional needs.
Writing: Offer scaffolded support for writing taks by providing templates or
graphic organizers
Literacy Development
Special education teachers use their awareness of the stages and process of
literacy development to plan for an appropriate instructional progression of
skills. It is also key to the early identification of students who may have
reading disabilities. The following section outlines the basics of literacy
development.
Importance of Phonological Awareness on Literacy
Phonological awareness is the ability to recognize and manipulate the sounds
of a spoken language. When a learner has phonemic awareness (a subset of
phonological awareness), they are able to identify the individual sounds (the
smallest units) in a word. For example, in the word my there are two
phonemes, the /m/ sound, and the vowel sound. Having this knowledge is
believed to help the reader decode words and, in turn, help them read.
Reading studies and research show that explicit phonological awareness
instruction can help all students learn to read, including pre-kindergarten,
kindergarten, first grade, and older, less able students. The development of
these skills is also extremely helpful for all students in learning to spell.
Students need to be able to hear individual sounds as they make efforts to
"sound out" words in the process of spelling them. Additional information from
the reading research indicates that teaching children to manipulate phonemes
in words improves their reading.
Process of Literacy Development
Literacy development is the process by which students' reading, writing, and
oral language skills grow. In literacy development, there are often predictable
levels/stages of development beginning with the emergent and moving to the
proficient stages, but with variations at each stage. Literacy development
includes:
students' ability to recognize letters (alphabetic knowledge) and their sounds
(alphabetic principle)
students' ability to hear words, syllables, and sounds (phonological
awareness)
being able to sound out words by breaking them into simple forms (decoding)
reading and comprehending
the ability to write with meaning
Stages of Literacy Skill Development
It is important to understand various stages of literacy development in order to
ascertain (through formal and informal assessments) where students are in
their development.
The emergent stage of development is when children understand that written
language has meaning and gives messages. The students begin to recognize
words in the environment or in text such as signs at McDonald's, Walmart, etc.
These students may be able to write a few letters, especially in their names,
even though some of the letters could be reversed or in upper case.
Early or beginning readers begin understanding that reading from the printed
page needs to make sense - both from the pictures and from the print. The
students can usually identify most letters and know the sounds of some.
These skills help them decode words and they sometimes even know a few
words by sight, including times when they see the words in different
locations/texts. Early readers are usually able to write a few words or at least
the beginning sounds of words and should be able to re-read their own
writing.
Early fluent/fluent readers/proficient readers recognize many words and can
apply phonics and word analysis skills to figure out unfamiliar words. Fluent
readers do a better job at reading more easily and with accuracy and
expression. These students are improving their skills in revising their writing
and using correct punctuation and spelling.
Concepts of Print
Concepts of print refers to the awareness of how letters, words, and
sentences are represented in written language. Before students can learn to
read, they must understand:
Print Carries Meaning
Students recognize that print is used to communicate messages. They know
they will hear a story from a book and are familiar with the functions of text in
the environment, such as:
signs
cards/letters
emails/texts
menus
Recognizing environmental print and reading are not the same thing.
Pre-reading students can point to a familiar sign and say the name of their
favorite store.
Directionality and Tracking
Students recognize:
text is written left-to-right, top-to-bottom
books are read from front to back
tracking
identifying the next word to be read
return sweep
Letter, Word, and Sentence Representation
Students recognize:
words are made from letters
sentences are made from words with spaces in between
where sentences start and end by recognizing punctuation
Book Orientation
Students recognize features of a book, such as the:
cover
title
author's name
beginning of the story
Strategies for Supporting Concepts of Print in the Classroom
Create a print-rich environment including
labels
posters
bulletin boards
schedules
calendar
Read from oversized books
Preview the features
Point at the text as you read
Model appropriate tracking, including a return sweep at the end of a line
Importance of Phonological Awareness on Literacy
Phonological awareness is the ability to recognize and manipulate the sounds
of a spoken language. When a learner has phonemic awareness (a subset of
phonological awareness), they are able to identify the individual sounds (the
smallest units) in a word. For example, in the word my there are two
phonemes, the /m/ sound and the vowel sound. Having this knowledge is
believed to help the reader decode words and, in turn, help them read.
Reading studies and research show that explicit phonological awareness
instruction can help all students learn to read, including pre-kindergarten,
kindergarten, first grade, and older, less able students. The development of
these skills is also extremely helpful for all students in learning to spell.
Students need to be able to hear individual sounds as they make efforts to
"sound out" words in the process of spelling them. Additional information from
the reading research indicates that teaching children to manipulate phonemes
in words improves their reading.
Why Teach Phonological and Phonemic Awareness?
Through reading research, it has been determined that
phonological/phonemic awareness can be taught and can be a strong
predictor of children's future success in reading and spelling. That being the
case, it is extremely important that teachers make instructional time for
teaching/enhancing these skills. Other reasons for this explicit instruction are:
Phonological awareness is a strong predictor of reading success.
Most children are unable to develop phonological awareness skills without
explicit direct instruction.
Children who have not developed these skills often have difficulty learning to
read.
Teaching and practicing of phonological awareness skills alone will not
produce good readers. There must be a balanced curriculum that includes not
only the phonological awareness skills, but also other reading skills including
vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension.
Phonological Awareness
Phonological Awareness is an umbrella term that includes the ability to hear
individual words, syllables, and sounds in spoken language. It involves the
understanding that words can be broken into parts. Before learning to read,
children must recognize that words are made up of phonemes, or sounds of
speech.
There is often a misunderstanding that phonemic awareness and phonological
awareness are the same, but phonemic awareness is essentially a
"subcategory" of phonological awareness.
Phonological awareness encompasses the ability to recognize individual
phonemes, syllables, and words.
Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear and use individual units of sounds,
or phonemes.
Levels of Phonological Awareness
Phonological awareness typically develops in a simple to complex
progression.
Rhyme Awareness / Alliteration
rhyme - the ability to hear when words rhyme or sound the same at the end,
like blue and flew
alliteration - the ability to identify when words have the same first sound, like
candy and cookie
Word Awareness - knowing that individual words make up a sentence
There are 5 words in the sentence "My dog has black spots."
Syllable Awareness - the ability to hear the individual units with vowel sounds
that make up a word
education has four syllables: ed-u-ca-tion
Onset-Rime Production - hearing the sounds or sounds before the vowel in a
syllable as the onset, and the vowel sound and everything after it as the rime
onsets can be consonants, consonant digraphs, or consonant blends
/f/ is the onset and /ish/ is the rime in the word fish
/gr/ is the onset and /ape/ in the rime in the word grape
Phonemic Awareness - the ability to hear and use individual units of sounds,
or phonemes. Phonemes are the smallest individual sounds in a word. For
example, the word sock has three phonemes, s–o–ck. There are several skills
that fall under phonemic awareness, which also develop in a simple to
complex progression.
Phoneme Isolation: the ability to separate a single sound in a position of a
word
Initial Isolation: /j/ is the first sound in jet
Final Isolation: /t/ is the last sound in jet
Medial Isolation: /e/ is the middle sound in jet
Phoneme Blending: the ability to blend individual sounds to make a word
/j/ /e/ /t/ makes jet
Phoneme Segmentation: the ability to break down a word into separate
sounds
jet is made from /j/ /e/ /t/
Phoneme Addition: the ability to add one phoneme to a word
Jet with /s/ at the end sounds like jets
Phoneme Deletion: the ability to remove a phoneme from a word
jet without the /j/ sounds like et
Phoneme Substitution: the ability to replace a phoneme in a word with another
changing the /j/ in jet to /s/ sounds like set
Phoneme addition, deletion, and substitution are all considered phoneme
manipulation.
Alphabetic Principle and Word Analysis
The foundations for early reading skills typically start with exposure to texts
before formal education begins. Depending on a student receiving special
education service's specific learning disability, development of the skills may
rely more heavily on direct, explicit instruction, while still being accompanied
by traditional exposure opportunities.
Alphabetic Knowledge
Alphabetic knowledge is the ability to recognize, name, and form letters. This
is also commonly referred to as letter recognition. Students' alphabetic
knowledge is a strong predictor of early reading success. They develop
alphabetic knowledge by:
Singing the alphabet song - keep in mind that students must see the letters as
they're singing them to learn how to recognize them
Reading alphabet books such as Dr. Seuss' ABC and Chicka Chicka Boom
Boom by Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault
Playing with hands-on alphabet items such as blocks, puzzles, and plastic
letters
Forming letters in a variety of ways
Using fingers to form letters in small, flat containers of sand or rice
Using playdough to make letters
Tracing plastic, felt, or sandpaper letters
To develop alphabetic knowledge, students should recite the name of the
letter as they work with it.
Don't forget that students need to know both the uppercase and lowercase
forms of each letter!
Once students have solid alphabetic knowledge, they are ready to learn the
alphabetic principle.
The Alphabetic Principle
The Alphabetic Principle is the understanding that speech sounds (phonemes)
are represented by graphemes made of letters. This understanding is the
basis for phonics instruction.
Developing a base of knowledge for alphabetic principles begins with
exposure to texts from a very early age. However, the alphabetic principle
typically requires direct, purposeful instruction. The process of teaching the
alphabetic principle should follow these steps:
Direct instruction of the letter and the corresponding sound(s).
Opportunities for practice to reinforce the relationship between newly learned
letters and corresponding sounds.
Exposure to newly learned letter/sound relationships in books and other
decodable texts.
To develop the alphabetic principle, students should recite the sound of the
letter as they work with it.
The pacing and order of introducing new letters and sounds should be
thoughtful and systematic. It is helpful to begin with letters that do not have
multiple sounds associated. For example, "S" is a better beginning letter than
"C" which has two different sounds. Beginning letters should also be those
that occur frequently in short, simple words.
Word Identification Skills
There are several strategies readers can use to identify a written word.
Some strategies involve decoding, which is the ability to use knowledge of
letter-sound relationships (including groups of letters) to correctly pronounce
words.
Phonics - understanding the relationship between letters and sounds
applying the knowledge the 'sh' makes the /sh/ sound to decode the word
"ship"
Structural/Morphemic Analysis - using knowledge of word parts (morphemes)
breaking up the word "redo" into its prefix "re" and its root, "do," to decode the
word "redo"
There are other strategies too.
Sight Words - recognizing a word without decoding
who, of, you, they, etc.
Some words are introduced as sight words because they:
Do not follow the standard rules of phonics and cannot be decoded
Appear often in text and are known as high-frequency words
Fall into both of the above categories
The phonics rule needed for decoding hasn't been introduced yet
Contextual Analysis - using surrounding information in a text to help determine
a word
In the sentence "I went to the store to buy groceries" the word "buy" could be
recognized based on the clues in the rest of the sentence.
Reading Fluency
Reading fluency is a key factor in reading comprehension. For students with
disabilities related to reading, it is common for IEPs to include learning goals
related to fluency and comprehension. With those goals in mind, special
education teachers will regularly evaluate their students' reading fluency and
incorporate strategies to support fluency development.
Measuring Reading Fluency
Reading fluency is measured by three primary criteria:
Accuracy - the reader's ability to correctly pronounce words
To be a truly fluent reader, students must accurately pronounce words with
automaticity, which is the ability to read words effortlessly. For example, a
student may spend a significant amount of time decoding words to have
strong accuracy, but this would lower their speed.
Prosody - the reader's ability to convey appropriate expression
Speed - the pace at which the reader reads the text
Strategies for Teaching Reading Fluency
Fluency is the ability to read with accuracy, prosody, and appropriate speed. In
addition to the word recognition instruction students need to be able to
pronounce words accurately, they also need lots of opportunities to hear and
practice fluent reading to develop their own fluency.
Listed below are instructional strategies that promote fluency development:
Teacher-Modeled Reading: One of the best things teachers can do to help
their students develop fluency is to model fluent reading. When reading to the
class, use an appropriate rate and expression in your voice. It is also powerful
to read a snippet without fluency, such as by reading too fast or slow or in a
robotic voice to help students fully hear the difference between fluent and
non-fluent reading.
Choral Reading: In choral reading, the class first listens to the teacher read a
short passage aloud, and then the class and the teacher all read it aloud at
the same time. This is sometimes referred to as "echo reading." The students
will hear fluency modeled by the teacher, and also receive the benefits of both
rereading a text and reading aloud. It is also a low-pressure opportunity for
struggling readers to read aloud in class.
Supervised Oral Reading: Listen in as students read texts aloud. This is the
best way to effectively assess individual fluency needs and provide tailored
instruction in the moment.
Rereading Familiar Text: Students should have the opportunity to reread text
on their reading level to improve their fluency. Once unfamiliar words have
been decoded, students can focus their attention on improving their rate and
prosody. This strategy also helps build confidence for struggling readers.
Independent Reading: Reading fluency increases the more students read.
Encourage students to read texts that they are able to read without support.
This is a great opportunity to encourage repeated reading. Gradually extend
silent reading times as students' reading fluency increases.
Partner/Small Group Reading: Organize students into pairs or small groups to
read semi-independently. Place students at similar reading levels in groups.
Encourage students to take turns reading aloud to each other from a common
book. The more opportunities students have to read aloud, the more time they
have to practice their fluency.
Audio/Video-Assisted Reading: Play an audio recording of a book or show an
animated illustration of a book while students read along. Select books at the
students' independent reading levels. First, direct students to point to the
words as the text is being read. Next, have the students read along with the
audio. This is another hear and then practice strategy.
Readers' Theater: A readers' theater is a dramatic enactment of a play or
book. It is presented in the form of a script. When students are assigned a role
to act out, they have a unique opportunity to add expression to their reading.
Reading Comprehension
Not only do students need to be able to read words printed on a page, but
they also need to determine the meaning and learn something from them.
Otherwise, what's the point of reading?
Reading comprehension describes the processes through which students
construct meaning from the printed page. Comprehension is the primary
reading skill: all other skills are based upon it. Students cannot acquire any
other reading skills, such as identifying the main idea and supporting details or
inferring, if they do not have comprehension.
Students struggling with reading fluency may benefit from opportunities to
practice comprehension skills with audio versions of texts. Students will need
to continue working to develop fluency skills, but audiobooks and teacher read
alouds allow these students to focus on comprehension skills without the
added hurdle of decoding words. Consider students' specific learning
disabilities when planning reading comprehension instruction.
Teaching Reading Comprehension
Students need help moving from learning to read to reading to learn. Students
should be taught specific comprehension skills so they can have a clear
understanding of what they read. There are many strategies for building
student comprehension. While these strategies will play a role for students at
all levels and abilities, students with reading disabilities may depend more
heavily on strategies that are applicable to their specific needs. For example,
some special education students may have the use of graphic organizers
included in their IEP.
In this section, we'll focus on strategies that can help students comprehend all
text - not specifically fiction or nonfiction, or narrative or informational.
Strategies for All Texts
Some strategies focus on preparing students to read, others on supporting
students while reading, and still others on helping students process after
reading.
Before Reading All Texts
Schema Development: Good readers connect their schema (background
knowledge) to the information that is being read. Teachers should activate,
review, and/or develop background information before starting to read a text.
Viewing and discussing relevant videos, pictures, etc.
Ask pre-reading questions
"Have any of you ever…?
Can you tell us something about…?
What do you know about …"
Previewing: Good readers can gain a basic understanding of what they are
going to read before they begin. Teachers should provide students the
opportunity to make predictions about their reading based on structural
elements of the text.
Look through the text
Make predictions
Start a KWL: A great tool to use before reading is a KWL. A KWL is a graphic
organizer used to record what students know, what they want to know, and
what they learned about a topic. Fill in the K and W portions before reading,
and come back to the L section after.
While Reading All Texts
Self-monitoring: Self-monitoring happens as readers check in with themselves
while reading. They know when they understand what they are reading and
when they do not. Teachers should provide students ample opportunity to
pause and reflect on reading. When students realize they are not
understanding, they can then use "fix-up" strategies to identify and resolve
any problems with comprehension.
Paraphrasing the difficult passage in their own words
Skimming back through the text to see if some parts need to be re-read
Skimming forward into the text to search for information that might be helpful
Asking for help from a teacher or peer
Visualizing: making mental pictures about what is happening
Questioning: Good readers will actively ask themselves questions while they
are reading. Teachers should provide students the opportunity to ask and
answer text-dependent questions about what is being read. Students can also
generate their own questions while reading. These questions provide focus
and purpose to the reading, and can also be used after reading for review.
Questions can focus on different elements of the text, such as:
Main Idea
What is the text mostly about?
Cause and Effect
Why did _______ happen?
What was the effect of _______ ?
Making Predictions
What do I think will happen next?
Using Graphic Organizers: Good readers will be able to translate what they
are reading into a visual representation by using graphic organizers. Teachers
should provide students different organizational tools for mapping the
structure of a text or making connections between ideas. Some example tools
include:
Sequencing maps
Concept maps
Venn diagrams
After Reading All Texts
Summarizing: Teach students to summarize the content. Students should be
able to pull together important information from the text and put it into their
own words by paraphrasing. Teachers should scaffold summarizing skills to
focus students on including only the main points, rather than in-depth details.
Prompts to help students focus on the key points can be provided. For
example, students could be provided the following framework to generate a
summary:
Somebody...
wanted...
but...
so...
then...
Drawing Conclusions / Making Inferences: Not everything students need to
understand about a text is directly stated. That's why students need to draw
conclusions and make inferences to fully comprehend the text. Conclusions
are drawn and inferences are made when readers use background knowledge
plus clues in the text to form an idea. For example, when students are asked
to determine how a character feels in a story, teachers can prompt them to
think about what they know about how people show their emotions, plus how
the character acted to make their inference.
Schema + Text Evidence = Idea
Developing Readers
For students in the special education program, the approach to developing
engaged, independent readers require, in part, meeting students at their
current reading level. Ensure these students have access to high-interest,
appropriately leveled texts for both guided and independent reading
opportunities. Work to avoid situations where a student is offered texts clearly
aimed at younger students because they are reading below grade level.
Teach With a Variety of Reading Experiences
One of the most important things teachers do is to help students develop
reading skills. This can be accomplished by delivering a variety of reading
experiences, guiding them to self-select their independent reading material,
and ultimately holding them accountable for purposeful reading.
Give students opportunities for both independent and guided reading.
Guided Reading - reading done by students with teacher support. This
reading will be done within the framework of a lesson and is often in a
small-group setting with the teacher.
Independent Reading - reading done by students independent of the teacher.
This reading can be either assigned or student-selected.
Read aloud to students and provide many opportunities for them to respond
through discussions and retelling.
Use material from different genres. This includes poetry, fiction (such as
fables, fairy tales, short stories, and novel excerpts or chapter books), and
nonfiction (such as biographies, autobiographies, history, science, and
geography). Provide a range of books on topics you know your students are
interested in.
Give students continuing opportunities to read, orally and silently, and discuss
more interesting and challenging books/materials.
Student-Selected Books
The ability of a student to successfully select books for independent reading
will require teacher guidance and training. Students will generally need to
select books that are on their independent reading level. Access to leveled
books in the classroom can support that need. As students become more
advanced readers and more independent in their book selections, they won't
need to rely on a leveled book system to guide their independent reading as
much.
As a general rule, the more interested a student is in a topic, the more likely it
is that they will be able to read a book that is above their reading level. Allow
for flexibility to accommodate student interest. Interest surveys are an
effective tool to use to guide students toward choosing books they will enjoy.
Teaching Writing
Special education teachers must consider their students' specific learning
disabilities in the context of the writing process. The following information
provides a broad overview of the writing process, but the pacing and level of
support needed by individual students will vary at each stage of the process.
Stages of the Writing Process
Mark Twain said that "The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The
secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into
small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one." Like a lot of other
things, writing can be a complex process. Writers go through stages before
holding a final, polished product in their hands. The stages of the writing
process are prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing.
Prewriting / Planning
In the prewriting or planning stage, writers determine their purpose and
identify their audience. Prewriting gives students an opportunity to brainstorm
or generate ideas for writing. Graphic organizers are effective tools to use in
this step of the process. Choose graphic orgnaizers based on the purpose of
the writing. For example, a T-Chart for persuasive writing or a sequencing
chart for a narrative.
Drafting
In simple terms, drafting is writing the paper.
The organization of the paper is determined.
Ideas from the prewriting stage are fleshed out into meaningful sentences and
paragraphs.
Revising
Revising entails reviewing the draft and making adjustments to improve the
content of the writing.
This is the time to make sure the writing clearly addresses the purpose and
audience.
Improvements to the organization and word choice are made.
Details are analyzed to determine if there are any that should be added,
deleted, changed, or moved to support the overall clarity of the writing piece.
Editing
Editing also entails reviewing the draft, but this time focusing on improving the
conventions of the writing.
This is the time to zero in on proper grammar, spelling, punctuation, and
capitalization, and make corrections as needed.
Revising improves content. Editing corrects conventions.
Publishing
Publishing is rewriting the revised and edited draft into a final product. This
may be done by hand or word processing software.
Publishing also involves sharing the final written piece. Published writing may
be shared with the teacher, classmates, or an even wider audience using a
bulletin board or digital platform, like a class webpage.
Teaching the Writing Process
Teachers should provide direct instruction for each phase of the writing
process. It is important to note that the writing process is recursive, meaning
that the work done in each stage influences what will be done in the others.
Also, it is common to go back and forth between the stages. For example,
students may return to the editing and revising stages several times before
publishing.
Here are some tips to keep in mind for teaching the writing process:
Use modeling as a powerful strategy for teaching students what to do in each
phase of the writing process. It helps students to see your words put into
action in your own writing.
Use graphic organizers. They are an excellent tool to facilitate prewriting, and
students who struggle with a learning disability in expressive writing may
benefit from the scaffolding that graphic organizers provide. Structured
outlines in the form of a graphic organizer can serve as a bridge between the
prewriting and drafting stages.
Use tools to guide and support students throughout the writing process, such
as rubrics and checklists.
Use conferencing to encourage students to dig into their own writing even
more than they might on their own. Students can conference with each other
or with the teacher throughout the writing process. A fresh set of eyes on a
student's writing can help bring a new perspective or help them notice things
they may not have on their own.
It's also important to note that not every piece of writing must undergo all five
stages. Completing activities that focus on only part of the writing process can
help students develop particular skills that can later be applied to the process
as a whole.
Writing is a process. Budding writers need guidance and support to
understand what's involved in each stage as they develop their written pieces.
Study Skills Across Content Areas
Specific comprehension strategies can be taught to help students set their
purpose and fully understand the informational text they read. Many of the
strategies facilitate metacognition and encourage students to actively read a
text:
Previewing: Students look at the title, subtitles, captions, pictures, graphics,
and bolded words. This helps students to make predictions about what the
text could be about, priming their brains to receive new knowledge.
Reading Rate: When reading to learn about an unfamiliar subject, it is often
helpful for students to slightly decrease their regular reading rate to allow
more time to process information.
Annotating: Students make notes in the margins of the text or use sticky notes
in a textbook. Common annotations include a summary, key points, or
vocabulary words of note.
Text Structure: A text's structure or organization can provide comprehension
clues for the reader. Students can be taught to recognize transition or cue
words that give clues about what type of text structure they are working with.
Important organizational frameworks:
description
cause / effect
problem / solution
compare / contrast
sequence / chronological order
Complete a Graphic Organizer:
Main Idea Graphic Organizer: Students locate the main idea of the chapter,
section, or entire text and write it in a large box at the top of the page. The
main idea is what the section of text is mostly about. Below the main idea,
draw enough boxes to place the supporting details from the text that support
the main idea.
Venn Diagram: For a text with a compare/contrast structure, students
complete a diagram with two overlapping circles. The left and right sides of
the circles contain the differences between the 2 readings, and the center
contains what they have in common.
Summarizing: Students write a paragraph by answering these questions:
Who? What? When? Where? Why? How?
Steps to Take When Students are Struggling
Informational texts can pose a challenge to many students. There are several
strategies teachers can attempt in order to help students fully comprehend the
text they are reading.
Rereading: After reading one section of the text, the teacher encourages the
student to monitor his or her own comprehension by asking, "What is this
section mostly about?" If the student is unable to answer this question, the
teacher encourages the student to reread the section again to acquire the
main points and supporting details.
Questioning: At any stage in the reading or instructional process, the teacher
can invite the students to answer questions about the reading. These can
range from basic, lower-level knowledge questions (such as recall questions)
to higher-level ones (such as analytical or evaluative questions). Teachers can
use Bloom's Taxonomy levels to guide them as they scaffold questions.
Utilizing Resources: Many reference guides can help students make sense of
what they are reading. Encourage students to read or revisit the resources
within the text (table of contents, headings, subheadings, graphics, captions,
glossary, index) or apart from the text (encyclopedia, dictionary, other articles)
to gain additional information on the topic.
Use Reference Tools
There are features within a non-literary text that provide additional information
about the topics being discussed:
Table of Contents - a list included at the beginning of a text that lists the
chapters or sections included within the piece
Abstract - a short overview of the information contained in the text that is
usually provided in the beginning of the book or article
Preface - a short section at the beginning of a text that introduces the content
to follow
Headings - a title of a section of the text
Subheadings - a title for a smaller portion of text
Captions - short explanations below photos
Graphic Features - charts, graphs, photos, and graphic organizers that
support the ideas in the text
Footnote - a type of internal documentation, where the source is identified at
the bottom of the page
The footnotes correspond to numbers or symbols within the body of the text.
In-Text / Parenthetical Citation - brief citations used within the writing of the
text that connects to corresponding source information contained at the end of
the essay in a works cited page.
Works Cited - a list of sources used in the text that correlates to in-text
citations
Bibliography - a list of texts that were used in the author's research for the
related article or book
This is similar to a works cited page, but it is a more exhaustive list of texts
that the author explored while writing. A bibliography may contain titles that
are not directly cited within the text.
Glossary - a list of important words from the text along with their meanings
Index - a catalog list at the end of the text containing all of the topics
discussed, typically with corresponding page numbers
Determining Reading Level
Teachers need to determine and regularly assess their students' reading
levels for a variety of reasons:
Guide students to appropriately leveled books for independent reading
Know what books to use for guided reading instruction
Monitor reading level progress
Reading level assessments are typically administered one-on-one. The
teacher listens to the student read aloud. Listening to a student read aloud
may reveal fluency issues that cause comprehension problems. This type of
reading assessment uses leveled texts to determine students' independent,
instructional, and frustrational reading levels. There are several steps to take
to determine a student's reading level:
Before reading
There are different ways to decide what level text to begin with when looking
to determine a student's reading level, but many formal reading level
assessments begin by asking the student to read from a word list. Based on
the student's accuracy with the word list, the teacher can estimate the
student's reading level and determine what level text to initially use for their
oral reading assessment. If available, teachers can also use data from the
student's most recent reading level assessment to help guide the decision.
Before the student begins reading a passage, briefly discuss their reading with
them. This can broadly focus on their habits and feelings about reading.
During reading
Record miscues, generally using a predetermined system or shorthand
Observe prosody
Time students to calculate WPM
After reading
There are a variety of ways to assess comprehension after reading, such as:
Have students retell the story.
Ask questions that can be answered directly from the text. These might
include questions like, "What items do you need to bring on a camping trip?"
or "What is the narrator's favorite part of camping?"
Ask questions that rely on the text, but require the reader to infer information.
These might include a question like, "What parts of camping are not enjoyable
for the narrator?"
Starting around a 3rd-grade reading level, students may be asked to write
about the book to demonstrate comprehension.
The reading level assessment system will most likely include a scale or rubric
to use to evaluate the level of comprehension.
Identify the student's reading level:
Independent Reading Level - A reading level in which a student can read and
comprehend independently. A text is on a student's independent reading level
if they are able to read it with at least 95% accuracy.
Instructional Reading Level - A reading level that is challenging for the student
but manageable with teacher support. A text is on a student's instructional
reading level if they are able to read it with 90%-94% accuracy.
Frustrational Reading Level - A reading level that is difficult for the student
and would require extensive teacher support to ensure student
comprehension. A text is on a student's frustrational reading level if they are
able to read it with below 90% accuracy.
There are various leveling systems to use to determine students' reading
levels. Informal Reading Inventories are widely used in younger grades.
Upper grades will still use IRI assessments, but generally only with students
who have demonstrated a comprehension difficulty. Standardized
multiple-choice reading comprehension assessments, often administered
through a computer program, are more regularly used to track students
reading levels in the upper grades.
States, school districts, or individual schools usually determine which system
teachers will use in their classroom to determine the reading level. All systems
typically have books leveled by letters or numbers that correlate with a
grade-level equivalency. For example, one system might determine that
students should be reading at an independent level 10 by the middle of
first-grade to be considered on-level.
Teaching Media Analysis
Viewing and representing are skills that students need in order to interpret,
analyze, evaluate, and produce both images and messages from various
media, such as computer, television, magazine, and radio.
Here are some example tips and strategies for teaching media analysis to
students:
When teaching the functions and purposes of media, it is important to have
examples of each to show to the class as in video clips, commercials,
newspaper and magazine ads, posters, and signs.
Provide and discuss various forms of persuasive media: political cartoons,
magazines, newspapers, TV and computer ads, and signs in stores or on the
highway.
Direct students to first only look at the pictures rather than the text to try to
determine what the writer/illustrator is trying to say. Model this with slides or
printed materials asking students to determine the connotative and denotative
meanings of the examples. Next, have students create their own
advertisements after discussions about how visuals enhance meaning through
various colors, styles, pictures, or media.
Model and teach students how to interpret and comprehend graphs, charts,
maps, timelines, and other graphic organizers. They need to be taught to
scrutinize every point, letter, number, and description on the graphic organizer.
Next, have students develop graphic organizers based on "real-life" inquiries
from investigations of reading materials, interviews, or websites. Examples
might be as simple as "who likes what TV shows," "who lives on what streets
near the school," "other students' favorite foods," etc.
Discuss the strategies above and how visual image-makers probably decided
on styles, elements, or media to use for their purposes.
Ask students, "What did you notice first?" Then ask, "Why did you notice
that?" This discussion should lead to a discussion of style, colors, elements,
and use of that particular media. Provide opportunities for individual students
or small groups to develop a media presentation that will extend the meaning
of a topic while using these elements.
Teach the use of technology (especially publishing programs) to produce a
class or individual report, flyer, or poster.
When comparing a text to a performance, focus on a specific element of the
performance or storytelling.
Students might assess how their understanding changes from reading to
seeing, or why a director might choose to edit/change certain elements.