Chapter 1:Introduction to Literacy Difficulties

Presentation by: Jenessa Lopez

Luz GarciaMaggie Viera

Yuleidys SosaZoe Leal

Think for a moment Have you read books or articles on reading and writing

difficulties? Do you remember from your school days what steps were taken

to help those classmates who struggled with reading or writing? If you are teaching now, think about students of yours who may

have difficulty with reading an writing. What problems are they manifesting? How are these students being helped?

Anticipation GuideTake a moment to answer these statements.

There are no wrong or right answers:

AGREE DISAGREE

A problem reader is one who is reading below his orher grade level.

In most instances, reading problems can be prevented.

Most cases of reading difficulty should be handled bythe classroom teachers.

Low-achieving readers need to have tasks broken downinto their component parts.

There is no one best approach for working with lowachieving readers.

Objectives

After the presentation of this chapter you will be able to: Explain functional, discrepancy and Response to

Intervention criteria from selecting students for corrective instruction and give advantages and disadvantages of each.

Contrast top-down, bottom-up, and interactive approaches to corrective instruction.

Explain the major principles of corrective instruction. Explain the impact of No Child Left Behind and the

Response to Intervention on preventive and corrective instruction.

Use SQ3R Graphic Organizer

While listening and watching this presentation please use the SQ3R graphic organizer to help you understand the chapter.

1. Survey: Look over, or survey, the copy of PowerPoint (PPT) presentation we are presenting to you. Use slide titles The Anticipation guide, objectives and titles on the slides will help you infer what the chapter is about.

2. Question: Create Who, What, When, Where Why, How, Compare and Contrast, Describe, List, Explain questions to help you focus on each section. Look at any headings and subheadings in the PPT presentation to help you create questions.

3. Read: Read through the copy of PPT and listen to the presentation to find answers to your questions.

4. Recite:Recall the questions you have created and the answers you have found.

5. Review: Were all your questions answered? Review the copy of the PPT presentation and your notes to find out.

Reading Difficulty Defined

Most Common Definitions for Reading Difficulty Reading well below grade level Interventions fail to assist Lack of reading skills interfere with other

school subjects Difficulty interferes with demands from life and

society

Approach to Indentifying Reading DisabilityDiscrepancy – difference between the student’s measured

ability and their achievement. Used to indentify students with learning disabilities prior to the

reauthorization of the IDEA Act of 2004 Due to the large gap needed between measured ability and

achievement, students were not identified to have a learning disability until third or fourth grade.

80% students would receive classification because of reading disability

 Controversies:

Measuring ability – students learn less due to difficulty; perform worse on tests of academic ability

Cultural fairness was questions in ability tests

Introduction to Response to Intervention (RTI)

RTI Defined: An approach in which struggling students are offered

additional intensive instruction. Means student has been provided with high-quality

research-based instruction but has failed to make appropriate progress.

Using RTI:No longer had to adhere to the discrepancy definition. School districts could use it in place of or along with the discrepancy identification process.School districts could use an alternative method.

RTI 3-Tier Process

Tier III – individual intensive intervention program

Tier II – specialized small group

Tier I – Student is provided with high quality instruction in the regular education program may be provided with additional help from teacher

Advantages of RTI

Focus on prevention and remediation All Students benefit under RTI

With high-quality classroom instruction, followed by supplementary instruction, and finally intensive instruction, most students will make progress.

15% of school special education funds spent on improving regular education programs Provides extra assistance to students in need

even though they have not been placed in a special education program

Clarifying the Discrepancy ConceptEven though RTI is an approach to help identify students withreading difficulty, the reader’s intellectual capacity and/or language development should be take into consideration.

A sizable discrepancy Large gaps between ability and achievement are thought to have

a greater number of deficits. Can be a sign of a severe difficulty.

Students well below average intelligence Often denied corrective services Belief that diminished intellectual functioning is the cause of their

reading problem.

A problem reader is one which is reading below intellectual capacity or oral language development.

Clarifying the Discrepancy Concept (Con’t.)

Standard Deviations -Measure of degree to which a score

is above or below average

Discrepancy was expressed in standard deviation Many states set the discrepancy to 1.5 standard

deviation between performance on test of academic ability reading achievement test

Very large difference Explains why discrepancies that met the criterion took

so long to become evident

*Judicious use of discrepancy approach is advisable

Clarifying the Discrepancy Concept (Con’t.)

Judicious use of Discrepancy Approach - being aware ofsome of the shortcomings of measuring cognitive and languageability. There is no agreement on a definition of intellectual ability or

how to measure it Fairness of IQ tests is questionable

Student may not have had the opportunity to learn the material

May fail to include items from student culture “Wait and Fail”

Students in early grades have not had much opportunity to achieve, therefore schools wait until the student faces serious difficulty.

Clarifying the Discrepancy Concept (Con’t.)

Solution to IQ Controversy: Listening tests

Listening comprehension is level of material a student can understand when the material is read

Comparing both IQ and Listening tests:Both contribute to confusion between cause and effect1. Poor readers are unable to fully utilize reading

a) They may do less well on verbal and intelligence tests2. When students are poor readers, they read less

a) Less knowledge, limited vocabulary3. Student discrepancy because of internal characteristics4. Discrepancy because of illness, absenteeism, high mobility,

mismatched reading program.

Functional Definition of Reading DisabilityAchievement fails to meet a certain standard or interferes with the reader’s in or out of school.

Advantages: -Reading Recovery will boost reading performance of

low-achieving first-graders, provide intensive one-on-one instruction for those students identified as being in the bottom 20 percent of reading achievement.

Disadvantages:- May overlook some bright underachievers.

NAEP Findings

The National Assessment of Educational Progressfound the following percentages of students wereunable to function on a basic level:

-Fourth Grade: 37%-Eighth Grade: 26%-Twelfth Grade: 26%

About 10% of school population have a mildproblem, 12% have moderate difficulties, and up to 3-6% have a more serious difficulty.

“Quiet Crisis”

Our middle and high school students are struggling with their academic levels.

Our students are not reading well enough, quickly enough or easily enough to comprehend.

On a good note, these students have mild or moderate problems that can succeed with additional help.

English Language Learners Poor performance on an English reading test

does NOT mean that an ELL student is a struggling reader!

The Problem with Using Labels Here is a problem with labeling a student

dyslexic: For some dyslexia means a serious reading

problems, others use it as a spelling problem, some use it as a mild or moderate problems, and others use it as a neurological condition.

Bottom-Up Approach

Students are taught letters and sounds before being taught to read words. Emphasis is on processing the text rather than making use of the reader’s background.

Top-Down Approach

Emphasizes constructing meaning through the readers’ use of background knowledge and language ability.

An Interactive View

Reading is a parallel, simultaneous process,

“top-down and bottom-up process”,

simultaneously use: Knowledge of language, Background knowledge, Contextual clues Letter-sound clues

Effective programs for struggling readers include: Strong decoding components Opportunity to practice skills by reading

To decode words, orthographic (letter),

phonological (sound), meaning and context

processors all work simultaneously.

Read the following sentence:

For good readers, the decoding skills become

automatic. When faced with a difficult text, the

reading process slows down. To make sense of the

text, the reader: Sounds out each word, Uses knowledge of language and background experience, and Uses decoding skills to make sense of the text.

Thez wrds ar speld fenetikle.

Approaches to Intervention

Cognitive-process – individual abilities, limitations of memory, use of strategies and background knowledge

Socio-cultural – reading and writing are learned from each other

Or a combination of the two (more effective, as

in reciprocal teaching)

Assessment

Cognitive-process – focuses on mental process and strategies used by student

Socio-cultural – focuses on student’s culture and his/her learning environment

Stages of Reading Development

Stage 1. Emergent Literacy Function of print Phonological awareness

Stage 2. Early Reading (K-1) Decoding skills – older students need age appropriate materials

that reinforce phonicsStage 3. Growing Independence (Grades 2-3)

Fluency – at the end of this stage, students should read about 3,000 words

Stage 4. Reading to Learn (Grades 4-6) Comprehension skills

Stage 5. Abstract Reading Construct hypothesis Different points of view Consider logical alternatives Evaluate

Application of Stage Theory

By understanding the stages of reading development, teachers are able to focus instruction and concentrate on the knowledge and stills most critical for helping students progress to the next stage of development.

Reading and writing problems affect all aspects of a student’s life: Emotional

why try, if failure is guaranteed? Physical

pains caused by stress Social

teasing by others

Remediation

Definition- a comprehensive plan to include the school, the home, and other institutions.

“Emphasis is on getting the child on the right track.”

A Program of Correction needs to take into account:

Instructional approach – Structured direct instruction Involvement learning

Reader – affected by context Task – affected by context Text – affected by context Situational context – affected by context

The interaction between the reader and text is like atransaction: the text is transformed by the reader, and thereader is transformed by the text. The degree of involvementdepends on the interest and/or difficulty of the text.

Principles of Intervention and Corrective Instruction The majority of poor readers have problems

decoding but there are excellent decoders who have difficulty understanding what they read.

Prevention versus Correction

Prevention is vastly superior to remediation, it safeguards self-esteem, eliminates ineffective strategies before they become habits and saves limited corrective resources for those who need it most.

Importance of Success (Building on the known) Teaching for success in reading is building

on what the student knows and taking into account the student's background.

Fostering Independence

Teaching for success in reading is building on what the student knows and taking into account the student's background.

Active Involvement

Unless the student is actively involved, the most carefully planned program will fail by default.

Personalized Instruction

No one intervention package fits all needs. Some students do best with holistic instruction while others learn best when instruction is parceled out in manageable bits.

Continuous Assessment and Progress Monitoring Initial instruction should be based on an

assessment that highlights the students' strengths and weaknesses and establishes an appropriate level of instruction.

A Full Range of Literacy Experiences Because low-achieving readers and writers

have difficulties with decoding, poor oral reading, spelling, and handwriting, there is a natural tendency to to remedy these deficiencies by providing lots of extra practice. As a result, struggling readers may end up working on fragmented skills.

Direct Systematic Instruction

Low achieving readers and writers need a program of direct, intensive, systematic instruction presented in the context of lots of real reading and writing.

An Integrated Approach

By providing varied and sustained experience with key concepts or themes, students develop a depth of understanding. Studying commonalities improves students' cognitive performance.

Wide Reading

In order to develop their capacities fully, poor readers need to make up for lost time. They need to read more, not less than their higher achieving peers.

Providing Materials at the Appropriate Challenge Level If students are to engage in wide reading,

reading should be relatively easy. In instructional settings, students apparently do best when they know 95 to 98 percent of the words in the seletion(Berliner, 1981; Gambrell, Wilson, and Gantt, 1981; Nation 2001

Using an RTI Approach

The idea behind RTI is that all staff members will work together to provide each student with effective instruction.

(Shanon, 2008) RTI tries to make sure that teaching is "up to snuff" and that when a student does falter, there will be a rich and ultimately, sufficient response to his or her reading needs.

Sources of Help for Low-Achieving Readers Classroom teacher A well implemented program

Some students may qualify for addition help from:

Title I Legislation Individuals with Disabilities Education Act

(IDEA)

Title I Legislation

Title I Legislation is designed to foster improvement in math and literacy skills of students living in poverty areas.

No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) Purpose: “to ensure that all children have a fair, and

significant opportunity to obtain a high quality education and reach, at a minimum, proficiency on challenging state academic achievement standards and state academic assessments”

100% proficiency by the 2013-2014

Schools are responding by:

Using assessment to plan instruction Aligning curriculum and instruction with

standards Increasing rigor of their curricula Provide extra instruction to underperforming

students

Individuals with Disabilities Education Act

9% of served under IDEA are classified as having a learning disability. A disorder in one or more basic psychological

processes involved in understanding or in using language, spoken or written, which disorder may manifest itself in an imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell, or to do mathematical equations.

Approximately 80% of students have a learning disability in reading

Under RTI, struggling readers are a concern of all staff members.

The Role Standards

Standards are instructional objectives that state what students should know and be able to do.

In the past, the goal for struggling readers was to make reasonable progress. Now, struggling readers are expected to achieve on the the same level of performance of the other students.

Anticipation Guide -- Revisited

AGREE DISAGREE

A problem reader is one who is reading below his orher grade level.

In most instances, reading problems can be prevented.

Most cases of reading difficulty should be handled bythe classroom teachers.

Low-achieving readers need to have tasks broken downinto their component parts.

There is no one best approach for working with lowachieving readers.