Your Adolescent

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Your Adolescents Struggles With Reading A
Guide to Understanding and Helping

• by
• Juliana Meehan

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Purpose

• This slide show is designed to help you
• 1. Understand why some students struggle with
  reading and writing
• 2. Realize what classroom methods are being used
  to address these problems
• 3. Learn what you can do to help your struggling
  reader

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How to Use This Presentation

• Slides whose titles are numbered 1, 2, and 3 are
  the basic slides that give a general overview
  of each area
• Each basic slide has a series of underlined
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• Click on the underlined terms to learn more
• When youve read the material, return to the
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  previous slide in the lower right-hand corner

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1. Why Some Adolescents StruggleWith Reading and
Writing

• There are two dimensions to this struggle
• Cognitive
• Socio-emotional

After youve explored the slides under these
headings, click to the next slide in this series
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2. What the Teacher Is Doing

• Determining your childs needs through various
  ongoing assessments
• Applying individualized reading strategies
• Organizing students into various flexible
  groupings
• Supporting and encouraging his/her progress

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headings, click to the next slide in this series
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3. What Families Can Do

• Research confirms that the key to literacy
  success begins at home
• Suggestions for supporting literacy for
• Infants
• Toddlers
• Preschoolers
• Kindergartners
• Elementary school children
• Adolescents (middle and high school)

After youve explored the slides under these
headings, click to the next slide in this series
as you would for any PowerPoint presentation
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Resources

• Family Literacy Programs/Resources
• Head Start
• International Reading Association
• National Council of Teachers of English

After youve explored the information above,
click to the next slide in this series as you
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References

• Aratani, L. (2006, July 13). Upper grades, lower
  reading skills. Washingtonpost.com. Retrieved
  November 28, 2006, from http//www.washingtonpost.
  com/wp-dyn/content/srticle/2006/07/12/AR2006071201
  825
• Bellon, J. J., Bellon, E. C., Blank, M. A.
  (1992). Teaching from a research base. New York,
  NY Macmillan.
• Budd Rowe, M. (1986). Wait time Slowing down may
  be a way of speeding up! Journal of Teacher
  Education, (Jan.-Feb.), 43-49.
• Caldwell, J.S. Leslie, L. (2005) Intervention
  strategies to follow informal reading inventory
  assessment So what do I do now? New York
  Pearson Education, Inc.
• Calkins, L., Hartman, A., White, Z. (2005). One
  to one The art of conferring with young writers.
  Portsmouth, NH Heinemann.
• Stubbs, M. (2002). Some basic sociolinguistic
  concepts. In L. Delpit J. K. Dowdy (Eds.), The
  skin that we speak. (pp. 63-85). New York, NY
  The New Press.
• Faust, M. (2004). Mixing memory and desire A
  family literacy event. Journal of Adolescent
  Adult Literacy, 47(7), 564-572.
• Feldman, K. (2003, March 24). Reading problems in
  middle school and high school students.
  SchwabLearning.org. Retrieved November 28, 2006,
  from http//www.schwablearning.org/print_resources
  .asp?typearticler719poprefhttp3
• Georgetown University. (n.d.). What is
  plagiarism? Retrieved November 29, 2006 from
  http//gervaseprograms.georgetown.edu/hc/plagiaris
  m.html
• Institute for Education Reform. (n.d.). Building
  a powerful reading program From research to
  practice. Retrieved November 30, 2007, from
  http//www.csus.edu/ier/reading.html

Continued on Next Page
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References, continued

• International Reading Association. (2001).
  Supporting young adolescents literacy learning
  A joint position statement of the International
  Reading Association and the National Middle
  School Association. Retrieved November 28, 2006
  from http//www.reading.org/resources/issues/posit
  ions_young_adolescents.html
• International Reading Association Family Literacy
  Committee. (n.d.). What is family literacy?
  Retrieved November 30, 2006 from
  http//www.reading.org/downloads/parents/pb1044_in
  volved.pdf
• Kirk, L. R. (2001). Learning to read Painful
  mystery or joyful success? Journal of Adolescent
  Literacy, 44, 420 431.
• Levy, B.A., Gong, Z., Hessels, S., Evans, M.A.,
  Jared, D. (2006). Understanding print Early
  reading development and the contributions of home
  literacy programs. Journal of Experimental Child
  Psychology, 93, 63-93.
• Martens, P.A. (1999). Mommy, how do you write
  Sarah? The role of name writing in one
  childs literacy. Journal of Research in
  Childhood Education, 14(1), 5-15.
• Olin and Uris Libraries, Cornell University.
  (1998). Five criteria for evaluating web pages.
  Retrieved December 1, 2006 from
  http//www.library.cornell.edu/olinuris/ref/webcri
  t.html
• Owocki, G., Goodman, Y. (2002). Kidwatching
  Documenting childrens literacy development.
  Portsmouth, NH Heinemann.
• Sousa, D.A. (2007) How the Special Needs Brain
  Learns, Second Edition. Thousand Oaks, CA Corwin
  Press.
• Steinberg, A. (1992). When bright kids get bad
  grades. The Harvard Education Letter, III(6),
  1-3.
• Walker, B.J. (2005, April). Thinking aloud
  Struggling readers often require more than a
  model. The Reading Teacher, 58(7), 688692.
• Wiggins, G.P. (1993). Assessing Student
  Performance. San Francisco, CA Jossey-Bass, Inc.
• Zambo, D., Brem, S. K. (2004). Emotion and
  cognition in students who struggle to read New
  insights and ideas. Reading Psychology, 25,
  189204.

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Flexible Groupings

• Children learn as a result of interacting
  socially and transforming the language and
  actions of their social experiences into tools
  for independent thinking (Owocki)
• Social interaction in learning is especially
  important for adolescents
• Therefore, various student groupings are an
  integral part of a student-centered classroom
• Heterogeneous groupings
• Homogeneous groupings
• Random groupings
• Non-random, teacher-chosen groupings

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Non-Random, Teacher-Chosen Groupings

• Sometimes a teacher will choose reading buddies
  or writing buddies based on common student
  interests (rather than skill level)
• This information is gotten through student
  questionnaires
• Reading/writing buddies usually stay together the
  whole year unless a problem arises or a student
  leaves the class

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Heterogeneous Groupings

• By a teachers grouping students with different
  skill levels
• Advanced students can further master subject
  matter by re-teaching and/or reinforcing it with
  their less proficient peers
• Students less proficient in the task at hand can
  learn from their peers

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Homogeneous Groupings

• By a teachers grouping students with similar
  skill levels
• Students having difficulties in the same areas
  can receive direct instruction
• Students who are proficient can receive advanced,
  enrichment instruction

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Random Groupings

• It is important that students sometimes have
  choice in their group mates
• The following activities work well with
  student-chosen partners
• Think-Pair-Share
• Learning partners

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Think-Pair-Share

• A three-step discussion strategy that promotes
  cooperation with a partner and encourages all
  students to actively participate in class
• Students listen while teacher poses a question
• Students are given ample wait time so each one
  can think of an appropriate response
• Students are cued to pair with a neighbor to
  discuss their response
• Students are then invited to share their
  responses with the whole group

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Learning Partners

• A cooperative strategy that is useful for quick,
  energizing reviews
• Students self-select a learning partner (partners
  remain together throughout the marking period)
• Teacher announces a learning partner time and a
  focus question/problem is given
• Learning partners get together and work for 2-4
  minutes to answer the question/solve the problem
• Students return to their seats and the lesson
  resumes, with students individually giving oral
  responses to the question/problem that was posed

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Wait Time

• The amount of time a teacher pauses after asking
  a question
• A wait time of five seconds or more is required
  for optimum results (Budd Rowe)
• Better classroom climate
• Increased level of higher-order thinking
• Improved quality of classroom interactions
• Increased level of academic achievement
• Decrease in behavior problems

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Cognitive

• Cognition refers to how our minds perceive,
  learn, and reason
• Cognition with respect to literacy involves
• Word identification
• Fluency
• Comprehension

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Word Identification

• Some students fail to understand that letters
  represent sounds and that there are patterns to
  these sounds
• These students struggle to decode words
• They decode words at a very slow rate
• They cannot decode longer words
• So much effort is expended in trying to decode
  that comprehension suffers

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Fluency

• Fluency is that quality of written language that
  allows us to read with rapidly-executed skill and
  with almost effortless comprehension.
• When students lack fluency it is largely due to
  poor sight word recognition

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Sight Words

• Sight words are those words that are recognized
  instantly, without the need for decoding
• If students have only a few sight words at their
  disposal, their focus goes to decoding words
  rather than comprehending text meaning
• This results in slow reading and poor
  comprehension

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Comprehension

• Comprehension is the readers ability to
  understand and remember what is read
• Struggling readers often exhibit poor
  comprehension, even though decoding and fluency
  skills may be intact
• These readers lack comprehension strategies

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Comprehension Strategies

• Active reading
• How to carry on inner self-dialogue about the
  meaning of a text (Walker)
• How to explain, analyze, and comprehend words in
  context (Artani)
• How to adjust predictions in response to text and
  not ignore contradictory information (Walker)
• How to deal with different types of text

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Socio-Emotional Literacy Struggles

• Emotion and cognition are connected in literacy
• Negative past experiences
• Cultural differences
• Lack of support at home
• Individual attitude
• Adolescent brain development

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Adolescent Brain Development

• The frontal area of the brain is responsible for
  higher-order thinking, problem solving, and
  regulating emotions
• It does not mature until approximately age 24
  (click here for diagram)
• Adolescents ability to make rational decisions,
  understand the consequences of their actions, and
  curb emotional impulses is thus delayed
• This must be factored in to expectations of
  students of performance in school

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Frontal Lobe Maturation
Age 5
Age 8
Maturation of the frontal lobe shown in light
areas (Sousa, 2007)
Age 12
Age 16
Age 20
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Negative Past Experiences

• Negative memories
• Teacher critique
• Peer judgement
• Social promotion
• Never learned reading strategies
• Confusion builds and leads to more negative
  experiences and passivity

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Cultural Differences

• Students come to school with experiences of
  literacy based on their home cultures (Delpit)
• If a students home culture is very different
  from that of the school, students might lack the
  ability to make personal connections to literacy
• They cannot bridge the gap between home and
  school culture without help

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Lack of Support at Home

• No support framework
• Parents lack the time to assist in their childs
  literacy
• Non-English-speaking parents often are willing
  but cannot assist
• Low expectations students have permission to
  fail

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Individual Attitude

• Low self esteem
• Lack of confidence
• Passivity

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Emotions Influence Cognition

• The brain structures associated with long-term
  memory, the hippocampus and the amygdala, are
  also highly involved with emotions (Sousa, 2007)
• Effective learning experiences need to be
  associated with positive emotions
• This is especially true for struggling readers,
  who experience a great deal of negative emotions
  about reading and create negative self-schemas to
  deal with them

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Struggling Readers and Self-Schemas

• Self-schemas are ideas about our environment that
  contain thoughts and beliefs about ourselves
• They influence childrens moods which, in turn,
  affects the memories they will choose to remember
  (Zambo)
• Readers with negative self-schemas focus on
  short-term solutions rather than long-term goals

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Influence of Negative Self-schemas on Reading
Back to Previous Slide
Adapted from Zambo, D., Brem, S. K. (2004).
Emotion and cognition in students who struggle to
read New insights and ideas. Reading Psychology,
25, 189204
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Short-Term Solutions

• Struggling readers often develop a
  fight-or-flight reaction to reading (Zambo)
• They avoid the reading situation by making
  various excuses
• They may confront the reading situation with
  anger and defiance

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Low Self Esteem

• Some students develop negative beliefs about
  their ability to comprehend and therefore adopt
  negative practices (Walker)
• These students have low self-efficacy, i.e.,
  little belief in their ability to succeed
• They focus on lack of comprehension skills
  instead of the skills they already possess
• They turn this sense of failure into a reason for
  quitting

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Lack of Confidence

• Students who lack confidence decrease their
  efforts
• They believe they will fail no matter how hard
  they try
• This leads to a downward spiral of
• Less and less success
• Less motivation, ambition, drive, and willingness
  to spend time working on challenge

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Passivity

• Some students who have experienced failure find
  it hard to reward themselves for any progress in
  reading
• Consistent failure causes these students to
  become passive readers

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Assessment

• Students are given both formal and informal
  assessments
• Formal assessments include
• Class-wide periodic quizzes and tests
• State-mandated testing
• One-on-one reading tests
• Informal assessment includes
• Observation and note-taking
• Individual conferencing

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Formal Assessment

• Formal assessment is given to all students in the
  form of periodic tests and quizzes
• Some assessment is given before lessons
  (pre-assessment) in order to see what students
  already know about a subject and what they need
  to know
• Another type of formal assessment that gives much
  more individual data is the informal reading
  inventory

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Informal Assessment

• One of the best ways to understand a childs
  educational needs is by kidwatching
• Conferencing allows one-on-one instruction on
  various tasks, particularly writing

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Kidwatching

• Gaining insight into childrens learning by
• Intensely observing and documenting what students
  know and can do
• Documenting the ways they construct knowledge
• Using this information to plan instruction and
  address individual needs (Owocki, 2002)

Owocki, G., Goodman, Y. (2002). Kidwatching
Documenting childrens literacy development.
Portsmouth, NH Heinemann.
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Conferencing

• Informal conversation between teacher and student
  in which the teacher observes a student at work
  and then guides next steps
• During that conversation the teacher
• Observes and understands what the child is doing
• Decides what can be offered in the form of
  instruction for this task
• Teaches a skill to be immediately applied
• Names what the child has done for reinforcement
  (Calkins, 2005)
• Makes notes for follow-up instruction

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Tests and Quizzes

• Teacher- and district-generated tests and quizzes
  that correspond to district and state curriculum
  standards
• Standardized, state-mandated testing
• NJ Assessment of Skills and Knowledge (ASK)
• High School Proficiency Assessment (HSPA)

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New Jersey ASK

• A state assessment of student achievement in
  language arts, math, and science that was
  implemented in 2003 to meet the requirements of
  the No Child Left Behind Act
• Read more about the ASK

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New Jersey GEPA

• Measures progress in mastering the knowledge and
  skills specified in the State Core Curriculum
  Content Standards and needed to pass the High
  School Proficiency Assessment (HSPA)
• A primary indicator for identifying eighth-grade
  students who may need instructional intervention
  in three content areas language arts literacy,
  mathematics and science
• Go to NJ Department of Education site

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Pre-assessment

• By testing students on material before it has
  been taught, teachers are able to
• See what skills and knowledge students already
  possess in order to avoid re-teaching learned
  material
• Correct misconceptions students may have
• Focus on areas where students are most in need of
  instruction

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Informal Reading Inventory

• Grade-leveled passages are given to students to
  read to determine what level the student is
• Comfortable reading on (independent level)
• Able to read with teacher assistance
  (instructional level)
• Unable to read (frustration level)
• With such insights, teachers can put appropriate
  reading materials into childrens hands to
  increase reading fluency

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Reading Strategies

• Developing phonological awareness
• Word identification instruction
• Building on prior knowledge and concept
  development
• Vocabulary instruction
• Comprehension instruction

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Phonological Awareness

• Phonological awareness is a students
  understanding that language consists of units of
  sound
• Ideally, students become proficient in phonemic
  awareness in early elementary school through
  listening, rhyming, word games, and early reading
• Adolescents who struggle to read usually have
  poor phonological awareness (Caldwell, 2005), and
  this must be corrected if reading is to improve

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Strategies for Improving Phonological Awareness

• Phonological awareness can be taught, even in
  adolescence, through
• Listening
• Songs
• Rap
• Poetry
• Read-alouds and shared reading
• Playing interactive word games, especially those
  on computers or with peers

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Units of Sound

• Phoneme the sound of a single letter (e.g., /t/)
  
• Onset-rime
• The phonemes that precede a vowel sound (e.g.,
  tr-) and
• The sounds that follow (e.g., -ick)
• Syllables
• Units of words, each of which contains a vowel
  sound
• The word syl-la-ble contains three

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Word Identification Strategies

• Students need to be able to recognize a large
  number of words automatically, without having to
  decode them
• This can be done through
• Phonics instruction
• Teaching spelling patterns
• Teaching sight words
• Guided reading
• Shared reading

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Shared Reading

• Teacher selects an appropriate, enjoyable text
• Teacher reads the text while students follow
  along, pausing at times to clarify
• A new word
• An idiom or figure of speech
• A new or difficult concept

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Guided Reading

• Teacher introduces and guides reading of a text
  to a group of students with similar reading
  abilities (i.e., homogeneous group)
• Teacher engages students in a dialogue about the
  text
• Then each student reads text silently
• Goal to read books of increasing difficulty
  independently
• Groupings change as students abilities change

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Sight Words

• Students must see words over and over again in
  order to store them in memory
• They then become sight words, recognized
  instantly, without the need to decode
• Once students gain a large sight vocabulary, they
  can begin to read for meaning (context), not
  having to struggle with individual words

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Developing Sight Word Recognition

• Reading a wide variety of texts that are of high
  interest
• Word cards each card containing a
  student-selected word from favorite texts
• Word sorts manipulating word cards in various
  ways to reinforce meaning
• Teacher-directed (closed) sorts
• Student-directed (open) sorts

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Phonics Instruction

• Teacher-planned sequence of lessons on the
  relationship between letters and sounds
• Builds on what students already know about words
  and about the sounds of words
• Taught explicitly and clearly
• Integrated into the total literacy program not
  taught in isolation

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Spelling Patterns

• Teach word recognition (and spelling) by
  presenting common patterns seen in words
• Teach word recognition by analogy

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Common Spelling Patterns

• Think about what a word looks like, e.g., words
  with ea bead, bread, dead, instead, great, read,
  treat, break.
• Identify the spelling and group them according to
  pronunciation, e.g., for ea we have
• bead, read, treat (long E sound)
• bread, dead, instead, read (schwa sound)
• great, break (long A sound)
• Examine the spelling of word families, e.g.,
  great greater, greatest, greatly
• By teaching common spelling patterns in small
  words, adolescents can be assisted in decoding
  multi-syllabic words by recognizing the same
  patterns.

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Analogy

• Once students learn spelling patterns in small
  words, they can begin to see these same patterns
  in multi-syllabic words and begin to make sense
  out of them
• Teacher demonstration, read-aloud rhymes, and
  repetition will reinforce these patterns and help
  students begin to extend the analogies
  independently

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Building on Prior Knowledge

• To obtain knowledge from text, readers must think
  while reading and construct meaning
• Depending upon a students knowledge of a
  subject, he/she will gain more or less
  information from a given text on that subject
• Teachers assess what students already know to
  prepare them to actively read

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Assessing Prior Knowledge

• Having students give oral or written definitions
  of key words/concepts
• Oral free association
• Multiple-choice tests
• Judgements on whether statements would be
  included in a text
• Predictions of what is in the text
• Graphic organizers/maps
• Word splashes for pre-writing

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Vocabulary Instruction

• After new words are introduced through texts or
  in formal vocabulary lessons, students need to
• Tie them to concepts they already know
• Personalize words by using them in a context that
  intersects with their own lives
• Only then will they stand a good chance of
  remembering it for the long term

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Word Conceptualization

• Clustering word meanings
• When teaching one word, a group of synonyms, a
  cluster, is taught
• Thus, in teaching scamper, one would also have
  run, dash, gallop, jog, sprint, trip, trot
• Using semantic feature analysis
• Introduce a topic and then elicit all the words
  that pertain to it
• Under footwear we would have sneakers, pumps,
  sandals, high-heels, spats, clogs, thongs,
  flip-flops...

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Word Personalization

• Students are given opportunities to use new words
  in connection with their lives
• For instance, My Life Cards
• Students write everything they know about a word
  on one side of a card, and then write or draw the
  word as part of their life
• See example

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My Life Cards
Caldwell, J.S. Leslie, L. (2005) Intervention
strategies to follow informal reading inventory
assessment.New York Pearson Education, Inc.
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71
Comprehension Strategies for Expository Text

• One of the greatest challenges to students in
  middle school is the transition from reading
  largely narrative text (i.e., stories) to
  expository text (i.e., factual)
• Expository text is vastly different from
  narrative and requires a different set of skills
• In earlier grades, students learned to read now
  they must read to learn

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Head Start

• Provides numerous services for children from low
  income families
• Serves children with disabilities, age 3 to 5
• Visit their Web site Head Start

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International Reading Association

• Provides resources for parents and teachers on
  various literacy issues
• Among them are position papers with solid,
  researched-based information on ways to help
  children improve their literacy skills
• Literacy Development in the Preschool Years
• Supporting young adolescents literacy learning

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National Council of Teachers of English

• Provides online resources, articles, activities,
  and publications specifically for parents of
  children in all grade levels
• Visit their Web site www.ncte.org

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Success Begins at Home

• Family involvement in a childs education is a
  more important factor in students success than
  family income or education (International
  Reading Association)
• Childrens participation in conversation helps
  oral language
• Being read to enhances listening and
  comprehension skills

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Success Begins at Home (continued)

• Having books in the home develops print awareness
• Literacy development begins at the earliest of
  ages and is a lifelong experience (International
  Reading Association Family Literacy Committee)

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Infants

• Talking with baby, answering baby sounds
• Talking/touching games
• Peek-a-boo
• Pat-a-cake
• Reading to baby and encouraging baby to engage
  with books

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Toddlers

• Talking to toddler often
• Naming objects, clothing, colors, sizes, shapes
• Asking open-ended questions
• Answering toddlers questions
• Reading together
• Pointing to and identifying illustrations

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Preschoolers

• Share the alphabet
• Continue to read together
• Write together
• Encourage scribble writing that children then
  read themselves
• This type of writing is a precursor to formal
  letter formation (Levy, 2006)

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Alphabet

• Sing the Alphabet Song together
• Encourage writing the alphabet
• Research has shown that writing at this age
  positively influences letter recognition and
  phonemic awareness
• Phonemic awareness is the understanding that
  words can be segmented into constituent sounds
• Some research shows phonemic awareness is the
  single greatest predictor of later success in
  reading (Institute for Education Reform)

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Kindergartners

• Connect with school and reinforce skills at home
• Continue to read together
• Write with your child

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Elementary School Children

• Continue to connect home experiences with school
  through frequent communications with teachers
• Take trips to the library and book store
• Read daily through everyday experiences
• Encourage writing

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Adolescents

• Todays adolescents encounter more literacy
  demands than at any other time in history
  (Supporting Young Adolescents Literacy Learning)
• There is much families can do to support and
  develop adolescent literacy

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84
Reading With Kindergartners

• Use books that have repeated text and a
  predictable story line
• Encourage your child to
• Read passages that are familiar
• Memorize text
• Read to others
• Discuss how your own parents shared stories with
  you

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Writing With Kindergartners

• Create books together
• Discuss adult writing in everyday occurrences
  like newspapers, magazines, grocery lists, signs,
  captions, etc.
• Encourage invented spelling

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86
Invented Spelling

• The use of non-standard spelling to write a word,
  such as rnjr for ranger
• Research shows that such invented spelling and
  experimentation with language is essential for
  building self-confidence and understanding of
  language (Martens, 1999)

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87
Open-ended Questions

• These are questions that generate discussion and
  lead to analysis and opinion
• They usually begin with
• Why... or
• How or
• What do you think about

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88
Trips for Books

• Reinforce material being studied in school
• Help to find books on your childs reading level
• Choose your own books as well
• Children learn by example
• Share elements from your own reading (vocabulary,
  a character, a story, etc.)

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89
Everyday Reading

• Follow directions together (recipes, crafts)
• Read and share different parts of the newspaper,
  including the comics
• Read cards, signs, labels, captions

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90
Writing

• Write books, cards, letters
• Create memory books
• Keep journals and diaries
• Make lists
• Label objects around the house

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91
Support Adolescent Literacy

• Be a positive role model by reading and writing
  yourself
• Continue to be involved in school activities
• Give gifts of writing and high-interest books
• Keep up communication
• Connect literacy to other media

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92
Teen Book Sources

• Grouchy Café
• Teen Space
• New York Public Librarys TeenLink
• YALSA (Young Adult Library Services Association)
• Garden State Teen Book Awards

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93
Communication

• Discuss news articles, current events, books
• Write letters and notes to each other
• Discuss school activities
• Stress the importance of education
• Encourage the use of interviews and conversations
  as springboards for reading and writing

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94
Other Media

• Discuss television programs and movies and
  connect them to literature
• Capitalize on adolescents knowledge of
  technology and treat them as experts
• Have them write how-to directions for different
  computer functions
• Work with them to gather information about the
  world through an enlightened use of the Internet

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95
Internet Use

• Keep dialogue open concerning the good and bad
  applications of the Internet
• Warn adolescents of the dangers of Internet
  predators
• Learn how to determine whether a Web site is a
  valid source of information or not
• Discuss plagiarism and its implications for their
  school work

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96
Interviews and Conversations

• Encourage adolescents to interview older family
  members (Faust, 2004)
• They thereby gain varied perspectives on life
• They can then connect these perspectives to
• Their own lives
• Texts they are reading
• Their own writing

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97
Support and Encouragement

• Encouraging an incremental view of intelligence
  and discouraging the notion of entity theory and
  its negative consequences
• Attribution retraining and teaching effective
  effort
• Responding to students ability-based belief
  statements
• Giving positive feedback and effective praise

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98
Positive Feedback

• Feedback is information designed to enable
  (students) to accurately self-assess and
  self-correctso that assessment becomes an
  episode of learning (Wiggins).
• Feedback is positively related to student
  engagement rate. Students who are given accurate
  information about the correctness and quality of
  their work spend more time working on academic
  assignments (Bellon).

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99
Effective Praise

• Contingent the praise is for something earned
• Specific e.g., You included a topic sentence in
  every one of your paragraphs.
• Genuine the teacher really means it
• Appropriate matched to the student, his/her
  level, the type of person he/she is
• Varied not the same all the time
• Attributed to performance and effort tone is
  that the student obviously had the ability to do
  well, but because of effort exerted things turned
  out so well

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100
Responding to Ability-based Belief Statements

• Acknowledge students frustration and feelings
• Make a not yet but you will statement
• Identify what the student does know about a
  lesson
• Give a cue or ask a cuing question about the next
  step
• Continue to give cues until the student resumes
  working
• Make an I appreciate statement about the
  students effort
• Leave the student
• Come back later and praise the students efforts
  if he/she has continued to try

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101
Incremental View vs. Entity Theory

• An incremental view of education is the notion
  that people can get smarter by learning things
  and trying hard
• Although most students start school with this
  kind of thinking, by middle school many buy into
  the fallacy of Entity Theory
• You are born with a certain amount of
  intelligence
• Its fixed youre either smart or youre not

Steinberg, A. (1992). When bright kids get bad
grades. The Harvard Education Letter, III(6),
pages 1-3.
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102
Consequences of the Entity Theory

• Students who held entity theories and had high
  confidence at the start of seventh grade showed
  the most pronounced decline of any group
  (Steinberg)
• They give up easily and explain their failures by
  their lack of ability
• They predict future failures
• Entity theory must be vigorously rejected in the
  classroom and replaced by the notion that
  students will get smarter through strategic work

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103
Attribution Retraining

• Key messages of attribution retraining
• This is important
• You can do it, with effective effort
• I wont give up on you
• Counter I cant do with
• You cant do it yet, but Ill teach you how
• You cant do it yet, but Ill teach you
  strategies to help you get it
• Lets figure out what part is confusing, because
  you do know how to

Click here to go to next slide
104
Attribution Retraining, cont.

• Share own personal stories
• Ask students to recall examples of how they
  succeeded when they didnt give up
• Give examples of people who have succeeded
  through great effort
• Explicitly teach learning strategies
• Prior to tasks, have students identify which
  strategy they will use
• When students succeed at a task, have them
  identify the strategies that contributed to their
  success

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105
Effective Effort

• Hard work
• Learning strategies students deliberately use to
  get smarter at important knowledge and skills

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106
Hard Work

• Time willingness to spend the hours needed to
  finish the job well
• Focus no TV or distractions focusing only on
  the work
• Resourcefulness knowing where to go and whom to
  ask for help when youre really stuck
• Use of feedback looking carefully at teacher
  responses to work so you know exactly what to fix
• Commitment being determined to finish and do
  your very best
• Persistence if one strategy isnt working, keep
  trying different ones until you find the one that
  works

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107
Expository Reading Skills

• To adequately read expository text, students need
  to be able to
• Tackle unfamiliar material
• Pick out important information
• Put information in correct sequence
• Generally make sense out of what is being said
• This is difficult for many students, and they are
  in need of strategies for improving expository
  reading

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108
Improving Expository Reading

• Expository expectation grid
• Expository idea map
• Main idea map
• Teaching of these concepts
• Teacher modeling
• Students gradually assuming greater role in
  generating and completing grid until mastery

Caldwell, J.S. Leslie, L. (2005) Intervention
strategies to follow informal reading inventory
assessment.New York Pearson Education, Inc.
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109
Expository Expectation Grid

• Students fill in grid with information they
  already know about a topic in preparation for
  reading
• Activates what they already know about a topic,
  no matter how little
• Helps to organize information
• They then fill in details as they find them in
  the reading
• Example of such an expectation grid

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110
Expository Expectation Grid Example
What it looks like
paramecium
Where it lives
How it behaves
Its enemies
Click here to see how students fill it in
Back to Previous Slide
Adapted from Caldwell, J.S. Leslie, L. (2005)
Intervention strategies to follow informal
reading inventory assessment.New York Pearson
Education, Inc.
111
Expository Expectation Grid Filled In
What it looks like microscopic contains visible
nucleus vacuoles may be seen edges have hairs for
movement (cilia)
Where it lives freshwater ponds, lakes
How it behaves swims freely eats smaller
particles in water
paramecium
Its enemies not mentioned
Back to Previous Slide
Adapted from Caldwell, J.S. Leslie, L. (2005)
Intervention strategies to follow informal
reading inventory assessment.New York Pearson
Education, Inc.
112
Expository Idea Map

• Students need to make sense out of nonfiction
  text by analyzing it for various parameters
  description, sequence, cause/effect,
  comparison/contrast
• An excellent way to teach these skills is through
  an expository idea map
• Description
• Sequence
• Cause and effect
• Comparison and contrast

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113
Expository Idea Map for Description
DESCRIPTION Pterodactyls
In creating the pattern in this organizer,
students will better understand, remember, and be
able to retell the information from the text.
They will read actively and retain more of what
they read (Caldwell).
Type of pterosaur ("winged lizards"). Not
considered a true dinosaur The term dinosaur
refers to terrestrial animals (those who walk on
land)
Lived in the late Mesozoic period, about 251 to
65 million years ago
They had wingspans of between a few inches up to
over 40 feet long
It was a carnivore (meat eating creature) that
flew long distances. They had above average
eyesight to help them catch their prey
Their fossils have been found in found in North
America, United Kingdom, Europe, Africa and
Australia
Adapted from Caldwell, J.S. Leslie, L. (2005)
Intervention strategies to follow informal
reading inventory assessment.New York Pearson
Education, Inc.
Back to Previous Slide
114
Expository Idea Map for Sequence
SEQUENCE The PROPHASE of Mitosis
In creating the pattern in this organizer,
students will better understand, remember, and be
able to retell the information from the text.
They will read actively and retain more of what
they read (Caldwell).
Chromatin in the nucleus begins to condense and
becomes visible in the light microscope as
chromosomes. and.
The nucleolus disappears
Centrioles begin moving to opposite ends of the
cell
Fibers extend from the centromeres
Some fibers cross the cell to form the mitotic
spindle.
Back to Previous Slide
Adapted from Caldwell, J.S. Leslie, L. (2005)
Intervention strategies to follow informal
reading inventory assessment.New York Pearson
Education, Inc.
115
Expository Idea Map for Cause Effect
Cause Invention of the television
Effect Physical problems
In creating the pattern in this organizer,
students will better understand, remember, and be
able to retell the information from the text.
They will read actively and retain more of what
they read (Caldwell).
Excessive watching causes eye strain
National borders are no longer barriers
Obesity is widely observed in people who like
watching TV and eating snacks every day
Education and communication reach worldwide
People cannot get away from it it is addictive
This map can also be used for Problem/Solution
texts.
Back to Previous Slide
Adapted from Caldwell, J.S. Leslie, L. (2005)
Intervention strategies to follow informal
reading inventory assessment.New York Pearson
Education, Inc.
116
Expository Idea Map for Comparison and Contrast
CompareContrast Fresh vegetables
CompareContrast Canned vegetables
Lacks flavor because of chemical additives
Great flavor - all natural
DIFFERENT
SIMILAR
Part of a balanced diet
Part of a balanced diet
Lose nutrients due to long storage, additives,
chemicals can become toxic if too old
All natural vitamins and minerals are still inside
DIFFERENT
Cheaper
More expensive
DIFFERENT
Available seasonally
Available all year round
DIFFERENT
Requires more preparation time (peeling,
chopping)
Little preparation time (just open, heat and
serve)
DIFFERENT
Back to Previous Slide
Adapted from Caldwell, J.S. Leslie, L. (2005)
Intervention strategies to follow informal
reading inventory assessment.New York Pearson
Education, Inc.
117
Main Idea Map
Topic The appearance of the octopus
Finding the Main Idea in a passage is often a
difficult task for a reader. Here is one
approach. Step 1 Find the topic (this is often
a title) Step 2 Fill in boxes that contain
relevant details Step 3 Locate and generate a
main idea statement (If you cannot find a main
idea statement, at least youve identified the
topic and details and can write a decent summary.)
Detail Looks like a monster spider
Detail Eight tentacles attached to a bulbous
body
Detail Tentacles are studded with toothed
suction discs
Detail Enormous parrot-like beak with which the
octopus tears its food or enemies to pieces
Detail Lidless eyes often as large as saucers
Main Idea Statement The appearance of the
octopus is like that of a monster
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