Most of our struggling students have already experienced several years of reading failure by the time they reach our doors. They lack both competence and confidence in themselves as readers – and often their coping strategy is to simply avoid reading altogether. 

With all the current emphasis on complex texts, I fear that too many students are missing out on the gratification of accessible recreational reading. Certainly we want to stretch our students as readers for instructional purposes but even the Common Core State Standards document says… “Students need opportunities to… experience the satisfaction and pleasure of easy, fluent reading” (CCSS, Appendix A, p. 9).

Literacy expert Richard Allington reminds us that if we want our students to become independent, proficient readers, they must have plenty of opportunities for “high success reading.” Allington and his colleagues spent over a decade studying the qualities of exemplary teachers. Here is one of the most important things those teachers figured out:  The students who received a steady diet of “easy” reading – texts that they could read accurately, fluently and with good comprehension – made the strongest gains in reading proficiency.

Not only did their proficiency improve, so did their motivation. Dramatically. When people enjoy reading and feel good at it, they read more. And when they read more, they get even better at it.  In fact, research suggests that a steady dose of grade-level text for below grade level readers not only fails to help them grow, it can even set them back. 

So let’s make sure to balance out those challenging texts for instruction with a whole lot of accessible reading for independence practice. If we can find time every day to provide our students with materials they can read and are interested in reading, it will pay off in both engagement and achievement.

High Interest Publishing (HIP) novels offer easy, but exciting and age-appropriate reading for students at all levels of reading proficiency.  

Check out the ARCHIVES of the SUPPORT FOR STRUGGLING READERS BLOG.

The post In Defense of Easy Reading appeared first on HIP Books.

Critics of reading level theory argue that restricting students to books at their “level” closes the door to a rich world of trade literature and nonfiction. Plus, students often have the capacity (or tenacity) to read texts that are beyond their tested “level.” We’ve all taught kids who can read a sample fourth-grade passage with ease, but struggle with a passage designated as third-grade level. What makes the difference? Background knowledge is a huge factor. It’s a lot easier to read something that you already know something about. Motivation is another: If the other kids are reading Harry Potter, I’m determined to read it too. And, on the flip side, just because our students can read all the words in a passage, it doesn’t mean that they understand the meaning of it. Reading assessments that define instructional reading levels must be tempered with teacher knowledge of the student’s reading behaviours.

We in education have a bad habit of throwing out the baby with the bathwater. I think we can still learn a thing or two from Betts, even if we no longer treat his research as the lodestar: 

1. Make sure students of all ages and stages have access to “easy” materials for independent reading practice. High Interest Publishing novels are a great source of exciting fiction at low reading levels.
2. Choose texts for instruction that stretch our students as readers, with teacher support. Gradually increase the challenge of these texts as students gain independence. Our criteria for “instructional” level might be broader than Betts originally envisioned, but with teacher guidance, students should be able to navigate increasingly more complex texts.
3. Use read-alouds and guided discussions to expose students to rich texts beyond their own reading levels.

One thing we know about reading instruction: one size doesn’t fit all. It can be useful for instructional planning to know how difficult a particular text might be and which of our students will have trouble reading it. Let’s tuck that guidance on reading levels into our pedagogical toolkits as we target instruction to meet the needs of all our students.

See also: Individual Reading Assessments: Who has time?

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It sounds simple:  ask a question and have students discuss the answer with a partner. What could go wrong?  And yet, in spite of compelling research in its favour, many of us have found that this strategy hasn’t always generating the rich discussion and deep thinking that we hope for.

There are two ways that PAIR-SHARE can go awry:

1.  Students don’t know how to have a discussion with a partner.  There are certain mores that go along with civil discourse (and unfortunately, students aren’t seeing many good models in social media). They might not know how to respond to someone elses’s ideas or to provide justification for their own. 

2.  Large-group sharing can be railroaded by irrelevant or even incorrect information.  When students are invited to volunteer to share or are selected at random, their contributions might not contribute most effectively to the large group’s understanding.  Carefully selecting those who are invited to share helps to ensure that everyone benefits from the conversation.

Click here for ideas about how to make PAIR-SHARE work in your classroom.

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But test scores aren’t the only reason that handwriting is back in style.

More and more classes are using keyboards for virtually all school writing. But current brain research tells us that writing by hand develops neural circuits that support learning to read, leads to more comprehension and retention than word-processing, and has even been shown to unleash creativity and promote positive thinking! Read more in “5 Brain-Based Reasons to Teach Handwriting in School” by spelling expert Richard Gentry.

The jury’s still out over the benefits of cursive writing over manuscript (“printing”), but experts agree that it’s important for every student to be able to produce some form of legible and efficient handwriting. As noted above, messy handwriting can seriously impede academic performance or test grades for students in middle and senior grades.

It’s pretty hard to fix bad handwriting habits once students are in middle school.  Occupational therapist and blogger, Miss Jaime, suggests giving students narrow-ruled paper and skip lines in between. She has found that writers take more care with smaller spaces.  She also recommends special “spacing paper” (RediSpace Transitional Paper by Mead) that guides writers in spacing letters and sticking to the margins. Moveable sticky arrows also guide writers in defining spaces between words.

For all your students, here are three ways to squeeze handwriting practice into even the most technologically advanced classroom:

• Have students take notes by hand, when listening, viewing or gathering information from another source.
• When doing high-frequency word work or other vocabulary or word-level studies, focus on letter formation and quality penmanship.
• Have students complete graphic organizers by hand. Handwriting slows readers down and forces them to synthesize and carefully choose the words they use.

And in case you’re still not convinced, it might surprise you to know that some doctors are actually prescribing handwriting to aging Baby Boomers to ward off dementia!

The post Cursed by Cursive? appeared first on HIP Books.

Technically, dyslexia is a complex neurological issue that interferes the brain’s ability to process language. But, for many, dyslexia has become one of those “catch-all” terms to explain an otherwise inexplicable struggle with reading. Elliot argues that true dyslexia affects about 1-2% of the population, as opposed to the 10% currently identified.

So, why are we labeling so many people “dyslexic” these days? No doubt there is some comfort in having a medical reason why your otherwise bright and healthy child has trouble learning to read. It’s a relief to know that the struggle is not a matter of laziness or lack of intelligence. And some believe that a diagnosis will lead to more effective intervention. Unfortunately, there is no “cure” for dyslexia and no “silver bullet” interventions guaranteed to work for every reader. Dyslexia can manifest itself in many ways: difficulties with speech or phonological awareness (the ability to hear individual speech sounds), decoding, fluency, spelling, comprehension – or all of the above. The challenge for schools is to identify every student’s specific reading difficulties and target instruction to remediate them as early as possible.

Whether or not we agree with Elliot’s assertion that we should retire the dyslexia diagnosis, it’s hard to argue with his belief that schools’ focus should be less about labels and more about excellent teaching.

Check out the ARCHIVES of the SUPPORT FOR STRUGGLING READERS BLOG.

The post Are we over-diagnosing dyslexia? appeared first on HIP Books.

 

The post Why Kids Should Read Novels During SSR Time appeared first on HIP Books.

Of course, that assumes that the reader isn’t just guessing.  That’s why it’s a good idea, for classroom assessments, that we require them to justify their choices. The 3 Es – Evidence, Examples and Elaboration – turn a random guess into a thoughtful response.

Read more about asking good questions and getting good answers.

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And I’m not alone! I’m told that the readers will only tolerate about half as many words on a web page as they did when the internet was first introduced. Tweets were first limited to 140 characters so they could be consumed easily on any device. Although X has expanded its character limit (for paid subscribers), a recent report by Buddy Media found that Tweets under 100 characters are most likely to engage readers. What about the ubiquitous Facebook? One researcher found that the 40-character post (that’s not 40 characters, not 40 words) received 86% higher engagement than longer posts. Read more in this interesting article (with a surprisingly unwieldy title): “The Ideal Length of Everything Online, Backed by Research.”

The question for us teachers is: In this world of brief news bytes, how do we get students to build the stamina to read a complete novel from beginning to end? What about students who are unable (or unwilling) to read novels that should be easy enough for them?

Without going into the foibles and flaws of readability, it’s not unreasonable that some readers who score at a certain level on a one-page oral reading record might be flummoxed by 70 or 100 of those pages bound together in a book. But there are ways that teachers can help.  Click here to read some tips for helping students build reading stamina.

The post Help! I’m losing my reading stamina! appeared first on HIP Books.

I think going to a workshop is a little like shopping for groceries. Some shelves I just breeze right past because I know my family isn’t going to touch those pickled jalapenos or liver medallions. Other shelves hold goods that my family loves and I probably already have them at home. I’ll usually check them out to replenish my stocks or to see if our favorite cereal is on sale or if there’s a new variety of ice cream treat. Frequently, however, there will be something new that my family might just like if I add a little spice here or some special sauce there.

That’s what workshop ideas are like. Some won’t fit my students or my teaching style. Others are golden oldies that I’m already using. But now and then there will be something a little bit unique, a new piece of research, a slightly different approach that I just might be able to spice and sauce and mix and stir to meet my tastes.

So rather than avoiding or dismissing teacher workshops this year, here are four ways we can make them work for us:

1. Be open to the idea that the presenters might actually know something we don’t. Classroom teachers have to know a little bit about a whole lot of subjects; consultants are generally experts in one field. They have time to read the research and best practice and synthesize it for the rest of us. At worst, they might confirm what we already know. At best, they might say something that challenges our own beliefs.  It’s not a bad thing to disagree with what a presenter says if it makes us reflect on our own practice.
2. Network with other teachers. Even if the presenter doesn’t give us anything new, other teachers might. We so rarely get to network with colleagues who might have the same issues and problem students that we do.  Take advantage of the opportunity to sit in grown-up sized chairs and talk to other people with the same vocabulary levels as ours. We might just learn something from one another.
3. Take advantage of some “think time” to reflect on our own practices.  We in schools rarely have the luxury of time to just sit back and think about what’s working and what we can do better. Here’s an opportunity to get into the zone without the phone ringing or someone tugging on our pant legs.
4. Use them to build our own sustained professional development. Plant those seeds of ideas that were scattered at the workshop to nurture our own sustained professional growth over the rest of the school year. Try implementing one new routine or practice. Add your own seasonings. And turn it into a whole year of professional learning.

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Wait Time

• The length and quality of student responses increased.
• The number of “I don’t know” and no-answer responses decreased.
• More students volunteered to answer.
• Teachers asked fewer, but richer and more varied questions.

Some researchers have turned this concept into “think time,” a period of uninterrupted silence so both teacher and students can process the information and consider the response.  This is not just a waiting time, but an intentional thinking time to organize ideas.

It’s not as easy as it sounds.  Three seconds of silence can seem interminable.  But it’s also powerful.  So the next time you ask an open-ended question, do the count: “one-pineapple, two-pineapple, three-pineapple” before calling on a student. It just might create magic in your class too.

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