Older Students Need Fluency in Complex Text
Teachers in grades 4-12 often ask how they can help struggling readers understand difficult texts used in content classrooms. They complain that students cannot read the material in the print resources that districts have given them for content learning.
While teachers know that they need to improve the reading comprehension skills of their students, many have no idea how to help readers understand difficult texts.
They say that while they were well trained in their content, they were not trained in how to be reading teachers.
To address this problem, teachers want ideas on how they can help their students improve their ability to read complex text in higher grades.
As children move through the grades, content reading becomes more difficult. While students may have passed their eyes over the assigned text, they finished their task with little understanding of the concepts covered in the text they have been asked to read.
Connecting to Background Knowledge Improves Comprehension
First, students may lack understanding of what they have read due to limited background knowledge, To help students succeed in content instruction, we must activate what students already know about a subject.
We must also help students make connections between new knowledge and what they already know about a topic.
When students make connections between what they already know about a topic to the text they are reading, their comprehension increases.
Effective readers continually try to make sense out of what they are reading. They also try to connect what they already know about a topic to the new information that they are learning.
Previewing Helps Reading Comprehension Skills
Before students begin reading, students should understand how to preview the text and know how to set a purpose for their reading. Readers know what they will be expected to do with the text when the purpose is clear.
When students know what they are expected to accomplish by the end of their reading, they are more successful.
By helping students make predictions about what they will learn from the text, we can also increase motivation and foster interest. By spending a significant amount of time “front-loading” our units, we can help students make better connections with the new information they will learn.
Anticipation guides, study guides, or graphic organizers (concept maps, flow charts, KWL charts, etc.) are a great way of helping students think about what they already know about a topic. These tools can also help students verify their predictions and connections as a reading follow-up.
Teaching Vocabulary Helps Struggling Readers Understand Text
Reading comprehension difficulties are connected to the size of a person’s vocabulary. Poor readers often have smaller vocabularies than more proficient readers. This means that they can become overwhelmed by unknown words in the text and lose understanding.
Readers cannot understand what they are reading if they do not understand what the words in the text mean. For this reason, helping students build their vocabulary storehouse is also critical.
Explicitly teach new words as these words arise in text. Then, provide students with numerous opportunities to see and use these words.
Help students see and use their new vocabulary not only while reading but also during classroom discussions and in various writing activities.
Help students add new words to their active vocabularies by creating a student-friendly definition, by creating visual cues to help students connect to the new word.
Reinforce their learning by helping students see and use their new vocabulary on multiple occasions so the words become more familiar to them.
Marzano’s Six Steps of Vocabulary Learning
Marzano has provided a six-step process that teachers can use to introduce new vocabulary words to their students.
The six steps are as follows;
1) Explain – Explain the word by providing a student-friendly definition;
2) Restate – Ask students to create a definition in their own words;
3) Show – Ask students to draw a picture, symbol, or graphic representation of the new word;
4) Discuss – Discuss the new word and help students add to their knowledge about the word;
5) Refine and Reflect – Refine word definitions with connections to other uses or similar words;
6) Apply – Play with words in games that allow students to review the meaning of words previously learned.
Increase Opportunities for Collaborative Reading in the Classroom
While many content teachers have used Round Robin reading in the classroom, there is no evidence that Round Robin reading helps students improve their reading comprehension.
Round Robin reading, also known as “popcorn reading,” or “popsicle stick reading,” involves students reading orally from a common text, one child after another. During this time, the rest of the class is directed to follow along in their own copies of the text.
Round Robin reading and similar strategies force poor readers to endure embarrassment and humiliation by reading in front of the entire class.
Round Robin reading weakens comprehension for other students in the class. This is because some students read too fast while others read too slowly. Some read in a halting or interrupted manner that does not allow listeners to follow along. This causes them to lose meaning.
As a student, you probably had a strategy for this when you were in school. You probably counted ahead to see which passage you would be required to read. Then, since no one wanted to look “dumb” in front of peers, you silently practiced the passage until you were confident that you could read it fluently in front of your peers.
While practicing your own passage, the content that another student was reading at the time was ignored. So, no learning was taking place on your part.
Round Robin reading creates stress in the classroom. It neither promotes improved reading skills nor does it deepen comprehension.
Collaborative Reading Practices to Help Struggling Readers
There are many collaborative ways besides Round Robin reading to help students deepen their reading skills.
Students can share in the reading and presentation of information within the class. Some ways to do that include the following methods: Choral reading; partner reading, echo reading, and buddy reading to name just a few.
These methods are not only more engaging, but they also do not evoke the level of stress in the classroom that we see with Round Robin reading methods.
Students can make a presentation either in jigsaw “expert” groups or as a whole class presentation about their section of text. Others can ask questions to make sure that they have understood the section of text.
Struggling students are engaged when they are allowed to read more of the text themselves. They develop more fluency with practice and have a deeper level of understanding when they are allowed to interact with the text on a more extended level.
Games are also a good way to practice new vocabulary and key concepts. Game formats such as Kahoot Quizzes, Jeopardy, or Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? are fun. Many versions can be found on the internet and used on a classroom, on the Smartboard or on a computer.
Think about the reading skills you want your students to learn in the upcoming months, what might be some ways that you can deepen student motivation as well as enjoyment in what they will be reading?
Learn more ways to enhance your students skills in reading. See Literacy Strategies for Grades 4-12: Reinforcing the Threads of Reading.
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