The document discusses strategies for helping struggling readers. It explains that literacy expectations have increased with more complex texts and an emphasis on reading to learn content. Some students struggle with reading due to a lack of decoding skills, background knowledge, academic vocabulary, or practice reading. Key comprehension skills like summarizing, predicting, clarifying and questioning are reviewed. Effective teaching strategies include scaffolding instruction, using the gradual release of responsibility model from teacher-led to independent practice, and providing extra support for struggling students through visual aids, manipulatives and graphic organizers. The goal is to explicitly teach skills and make connections to prior knowledge to help students read proficiently.

1. Andrew Ordover, Ed.D.
Diane Rymer
STRATEGIES FOR STRUGGLING
READERS

2. Agenda
 How expectations around literacy are changing
 Why some students struggle with reading
 The explicit skills of comprehension
 Strategies to help provide scaffolded, effective instruction
2

3. CHANGING EXPECTATIONS
3

4. Balancing Types of Literacy
 Content-area teachers are
not being asked to be
English teachers
 Each discipline requires
unique forms of reading
and writing
 The way knowledge is
acquired, developed, and
shared in a given field often
requires discipline-specific
skills
Literature
Science
History/
Social Studies
Mathematics
Visual/
Performing Arts
Technical Arts
Literacy
Skills
4

5. Increasing Text Complexity
We are expected to expose students to increasingly complex texts.
Text Complexity Grade
Band in the Standards
Old Lexile Ranges
Lexile Ranges Aligned to CCR
Expectations
K-1 N/A N/A
2-3 450-725 450-790
4-5 645-845 770-980
6-8 860-1010 955-1155
9-10 960-1115 1080-1305
11-CCR 1070-1220 1215-1355
Figure 3: Text Complexity Grade Bands and Associated Lexile Ranges (in Lexiles)
The Common Core State Standards require students to meet more
rigorous expectations regarding text complexity.
5

6. Williamson, Gary L. "A Text Readability Continuum for Postsecondary Readiness." Journal of Advanced Academics19.4 (2008): 602-632. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 29 Mar. 2011.
The Gap
© 2013 CATAPULT LEARNING, LLC – ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 6

7. WHY SOME STUDENTS STRUGGLE
7

8. Learning to Read Means
 Learning how to decode written language:
– Phonemic Awareness
– Phonics
– Vocabulary
– Fluency
8

9. Reading to Learn Means…
 Reading to gain knowledge:
– Learn specific content in math, science and social
studies
– Utilize academic and content specific vocabulary
– Understand and solve problems
– Think critically about information presented
– Access information and develop understanding from
multiple sources
– Create and innovate
– Communicate to a global audience through 21st century
tools
9

10. Why Do Struggling Readers Struggle?
 For some, it’s a lack of basic decoding skills
 But for many others, it’s an inability to learn efficiently
from what is being read
 Why?
• Lack of background knowledge
• Lack of academic vocabulary
• Lack of practice
10

11. Lack of Background Knowledge
 “It was the best men’s tennis match I’ve seen in a
long time, certainly at Wimbledon, where serve-
and-volley is so dominant when the men play.
There was a lot of play form the back court. The
match went back and forth in terms of who was
in control. It looked as if Roddick was going to
take command just before there was the
inevitable rain delay in third set, and then
Federer stormed back to take over again.” (NPR)
11

12. Lack of Background Knowledge
 “It was the best men’s tennis match I’ve seen in a
long time, certainly at Wimbledon, where serve-
and-volley is so dominant when the men play.
There was a lot of play form the back court. The
match went back and forth in terms of who was
in control. It looked as if Roddick was going to
take command just before there was the
inevitable rain delay in third set, and then
Federer stormed back to take over again.” (NPR)
12

13. Tier 3 Words
Tier 2 Words
Tier 1 Words
Domain-specific
words
General academic
words
Words of everyday
speech
Lack of Academic Vocabulary
13

14. Lack of Background Knowledge
 “It was the best men’s tennis match I’ve seen in a
long time, certainly at Wimbledon, where serve-
and-volley is so dominant when the men play.
There was a lot of play form the back court. The
match went back and forth in terms of who was
in control. It looked as if Roddick was going to
take command just before there was the
inevitable rain delay in third set, and then
Federer stormed back to take over again.” (NPR)
14

15. Lack of Background Knowledge
 “It was the best men’s tennis match I’ve seen in a
long time, certainly at Wimbledon, where serve-
and-volley is so dominant when the men play.
There was a lot of play form the back court. The
match went back and forth in terms of who was
in control. It looked as if Roddick was going to
take command just before there was the
inevitable rain delay in third set, and then
Federer stormed back to take over again.” (NPR)
15

16. Lack of Background Knowledge
 “It was the best men’s tennis match I’ve seen in a
long time, certainly at Wimbledon, where serve-
and-volley is so dominant when the men play.
There was a lot of play form the back court. The
match went back and forth in terms of who was
in control. It looked as if Roddick was going to
take command just before there was the
inevitable rain delay in third set, and then
Federer stormed back to take over again.” (NPR)
16

17. Lack of Practice
 What kinds of “practice” do students need?
1. Being read to regularly at home
2. Having many books and magazines at home
3. Seeing their parents and siblings reading as a
regular part of their life
4. Having exposure to a variety of types and genres
of text
5. Engaging in sustained reading during the school
day
6. Engaging in conversation with adults who have
rich vocabularies
17

18. Where They Come From Matters
Professional
Families
Working Class
Families
Welfare
Families
Parent Utterances Per Hour 487 301 176
Child’s Recorded
Vocabulary Size
1,116 749 525
IQ at Age 3 117 107 79
18
From Vocabulary for the Common Core (2013) by Robert J. Marzano & Julia A. Simms

19. COMPREHENSION SKILLS
19

20. The Essentials
Essentials skills of reading comprehension:
Main Idea and Details
Predicting and Inferring
Questioning
Clarifying
Retelling
Summarizing
20

21. Summarizing is the most important
comprehension skill because it leads
to a deeper understanding and
retention of the information.
21

22. Summarizing
1
• Identify the main idea from the topic sentence
or from the use of basic signal words.
2
• Identify details that support the main idea.
3
• Delete less important information.
 Summarizing
22

23. Summarizing
4
• Analyze redundant information to determine
importance.
5
• Categorize, collapse, and label important
information.
6
• Create a summary.
 Summarizing
23

24. Clarifying Clarifying is the
awareness that the
text being read is not
making sense.
24

25. Clarifying
• Does this make sense?
• What does not make sense?
• Do I know what is going on in the text?
• Am I getting the main idea?
• Is there anything that I don’t understand—
vocabulary, sentence, paragraph, page, concept?
25

26. Predicting
Predicting is the use of
prior knowledge and
information in the text to
suggest or make an
educated guess about
what might come next.
26

27. Predicting
• Prior knowledge - Predicting requires you to
use your prior knowledge about the topic.
• Patterns - Predicting is based on noticing
patterns in text.
• Pictures - Important information revealed in
pictures and other text features can be
utilized for predictions.
• Proving - Confirm or change a prediction by
returning to text.
27

28. TEACHING STRATEGIES
28

29. Use but confuse
Scaffolding
Correct level of difficulty
Established
ACQUAINTED
Unknown
Enough knowledge to be dangerous
Can do on
my own
Can’t do
Frustration
Level
Independent
Level
Instructional
Level
29

30.  Systematic & explicit instruction based on formative assessment
data.
 Small group instruction at their zone of proximal development.
 Lessons / activities that are engaging / motivating.
 Repetition.
 Instruction that is presented in a variety of ways.
 Activities that rely heavily on the use of prior learning and make
connections to new skills.
What Struggling Readers Need
30

31. Gradual Release of Responsibility
31
e
TeacherControl
StudentControl
Show
Model
Guide
Think Aloud Scaffold
Support
Collaborate
Partner Work Independent
Transfer
Application
Modeled
(I do, you watch)
Shared
(I do, you help)
Guided
(You do, I help)
Independent
(You do, I watch)
31

32. A Dance . . . Gradual Release of Responsibility

33. A Dance . . . Gradual Release of Responsibility

34. A Dance . . . Gradual Release of Responsibility
TWO

35. A Dance . . . Gradual Release of Responsibility
35

36. Scaffold for Struggling Students
Designed specifically for students who
need the material to be presented in a
more concrete format in order for
mastery to occur
36

37. Scaffold for Struggling Students
Each activity focuses on providing the content of
the lesson in a format where the skill is taught in a
more explicit and systematic manner. The activities
rely heavily on the use of prior learning to help
make connections to the new skill.
Scaffolds include:
 Pictures
 Props
 Manipulatives
 Graphic organizers
37

38. Agenda
 How expectations around literacy are changing
 Why some students struggle with reading
 The explicit skills of comprehension
 Strategies to help provide scaffolded, effective instruction
38

39. Andrew Ordover, Ed.D.
Diane Rymer
STRATEGIES FOR STRUGGLING
READERS