1) Despite an increase focus on early literacy programs in the past 10 years 38 percent of America's fourth graders and 29 percent of America's 8th graders were still reading below the basic level on the 2005 National Assessment of Educational progress tests.
2) According to the U.S. Department of Education, roughly 80 percent of high school dropouts are poor readers
3) If reading strategies are implemented with content areas 90 percent of struggling readers can be helped significantly. We recognize the behaviors but with the age they are at we sometimes let them slide under the radar.
1) Implementing Interactive Reading Guides. This is an effective strategy that will help students learn information from the text at an independent reading level.
2) Making sure all reading lesson plans have before, during, and after activities. This will help with schemata and review to make sure the student understands the content. The during activities will be helping the student retain more information.
1) What can we do for those students who come from a minority/low income family overcome the barriers that are placed in front of them when it comes to literacy?
This is the powerful statement: reading strategies are implemented with content areas 90 percent of struggling readers can be helped significantly.
ReplyDeleteI feel that with the implementation of strategies that 95% of ALL students can be helped significantly. This group includes the college bound, the grey kids who are just surviving but not struggling too much, the different learning styles kids.
I also feel that with good teaching, the before, during, and after format with writing, word study, and study skills emphasis aids ALL students. I also feel that teachers are the key to implementing quality lessons for ALL students.
Question: The first step is the BEFORE part of the lesson. Teachers must be sure the students understand the key words and have a firm foundation of the content before they can continue. If the students are Hispanic, many of the terms have cognates in their language and the teacher can help connect the English word to the Spanish word. Then the second step is the during part and this is were the scaffolding for the reading can take place. It can be in a small group, or pairs, or even on tape but the teacher must select the right strategy and procedure to help students.
Another idea is to provide time for the students to think and discuss before asking them to recite in class. Think, pair, share is just one of many strategies which help these students. These students especially need time to convert their inner language into the school language.
Then there is the SIOP model of lesson plans which is an effective lesson plan format for all students. This lesson plans directs explicitly the steps to check while constructing a lesson plan.