Teaching Reluctant Students to Read A CTAP project by Cindy Ranney, Elementary Special Education Teacher, Portola, California

Introduction CTAP Online Teaching With Technology II Implement a lesson design that I have heard and read is effective in specialized programs for children with reading disabilities; Produce measurable gains in students’ reading skills including: –Oral fluency –Recognizing high frequency words –Understanding word meaning My hopes and expectations for this lesson: My realities after implementing this lesson: Incorporate new technologies into my teaching including: –Computerized assessments –Digital image and sound media –Improved data collection

When a student has not learned to read by the age of 7 (second grade), then reading is most likely an activity she hates. He will avoid reading; he will misbehave in order to get out of it. Even going to the Principal’s office is better than being asked to do something he just can’t do, having to face the disapproval of his teacher and the ridicule of his peers. Reading for this kid is just plain torture….. Introduction CTAP Online Teaching with Technology II

There are many different methods for teaching reading. I wanted to try the method that has been getting rave reviews by many Special Ed. Teachers….. Practice Makes Perfect!! Introduction CTAP Online Teaching with Technology II It’s called “Scaffolded” or “Guided” Reading. But you will probably recognize it as something your Mama always told you…….

In this lesson, I scheduled 30 sessions of “guided reading”, each session 30 minutes long. Outcomes CTAP Online Teaching with Technology II Our successes included tremendous gains in students’ motivation to read, their reading fluency, their sight word recognition, and their ingestion of gummy worms…. The shortcomings of this lesson included deciding I won’t use the online computerized assessment again, due to it’s difficulty to administer and it’s poor ability to measure the specific outcomes I’d hoped it would measure. I ended-up still using hand-scored assessments (inventories, checklists, running records,etc.), just like I’ve always done!

I used a computer assessment program* as well as word inventories and skills checklists to measure three crucial reading skills (high frequency words, word recognition and word meaning) before and after. * Outcomes CTAP Online Teaching with Technology II

And I used “running records” to evaluate students’ oral fluency, before and after. Outcomes CTAP Online Teaching with Technology II

Here are their “before and after” scores on high frequency word recognition (using the Pressley list of 600 words, grade levels 1-6): Before After Results CTAP Online Teaching with Technology II

The computer program measured the subskills of Word Recognition (student must click on the correct spelling of a word that the computer says): Results CTAP Online Teaching with Technology II Word Recognition Word Meaning and Word Meaning (student must click on a picture that represents a spoken word).

These subskills are scored with “Standard Scores” (grade-level norms, using a scale of 1 to 100). The problem with the online assessment I used was that it did not compensate for students who have been retained (all of my students). Thus, their “normed” scores aren’t very valid. Before After Results CTAP Online Teaching with Technology II

So just what is “Guided Reading”? Step 1: Teacher reads a sentence out loud. Step 2: Students chorally repeat sentence. Results CTAP Online Teaching with Technology II

Step 3: Then one student reads back the whole paragraph…. Results CTAP Online Teaching with Technology II

While all the other students “finger track”….. Results CTAP Online Teaching with Technology II

“Finger tracking” forces the student’s eyes onto the words. Using this method, the student looks at each word that is read three times---first when the teacher reads, second when the class reads together, third when the individual student reads. Results CTAP Online Teaching with Technology II

That’s where the popsicle sticks come in….. Students are given popsicle sticks for keeping their fingers (and eyes) on the right words. At the end of the session, the popsicle sticks are counted. Students who earn at least 10 sticks get…………….. Revision CTAP Online Teaching with Technology II

A gummy worm!! Revision CTAP Online Teaching with Technology II

30 minutes every day In this lesson, I planned 30 minute daily practice sessions every day for six weeks. Fulfilling this lofty goal proved elusive, due to student absences, schedule changes, classroom management issues that disrupted the sessions, etc. But I definitely see that the success of this lesson for each student is totally dependent on the amount of time they spend in guided reading. Revision CTAP Online Teaching with Technology II

The culminating activity of this lesson is “cold reading” * *After sessions of guided practice of guided choral reading, cold reading is when students read a passage entirely independently. It must be a passage they have never before seen or heard. We assess their progress by their rate of fluency and the number of miscues they make. Synthesis CTAP Online Teaching with Technology II

Luis, whose first language is Spanish, is a 4 th grader. Here he demonstrates basic proficiency with this 1 st grade passage.

Kamrin attained a level of proficiency (fluency, word recognition and expression) that pleased us all. He is a 5 th grader. In September, Kamrin was reading at pre-primer level. Now, 5 months later, here he is reading “cold” from a 2 nd grade book. Synthesis CTAP Online Teaching with Technology II (Kamrin with his sister, Krystal--- they are practically inseparable!)

Synthesis CTAP Online Teaching with Technology II And here’s Krystal--- who made the most progress of any of my students. A 4 th grader, here she is demonstrating mastery level reading with a 4 th grade story! She is very proud of herself (and we are proud, too)!