Stover, K., O'Rear, A., & Morris, C. (2015). Meeting the Needs of Struggling Adolescent Readers. Texas Journal of Literacy Education, 2(3), 60-68. (original) (raw)

Call for Action: Supporting the Needs of Struggling Adolescent Readers

2008

This article shares the experiences of a high school reading teacher, Tara, who used reader identity and motivation as tools in meeting the needs of her students. Tara looked beyond the assessments that placed the students in the striving reader class to determine how the students viewed themselves as readers as well as what motivated them to read. She used this data to plan a responsive curriculum for teaching her students to think about in-school texts while preparing the students for high stakes assessment. Tara’s experiences remind teacher educators that teaching reading is about both knowledge of content and knowledge of students and that it is the integration of the two that will lead students to be more successful. Call for Action: Supporting the Needs of Struggling Adolescent Readers America’s middle and high schools are at a turning point in the field of adolescent literacy. Students must be prepared to read for information while participating in a global society at a time ...

Effective Instruction for Adolescent Struggling Readers: A Practice Brief

2008

The contents of this document were developed under cooperative agreement S283B050034 with the U.S. Department of Education. However, these contents do not necessarily represent the policy of the Department of Education, and you should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government. Editorial, design, and production services provided by RMC Research Corporation.

Preparing Secondary Educators to Support Adolescent Struggling Readers

Preventing School Failure, 2012

The authors examined 3 secondary special education teachers’ implementation of reading knowledge and strategies acquired during a 2-year preparation program. They collected and qualitatively analyzed interview and observation data to ascertain what strategies teachers used and why. Findings indicated that contextual factors (e.g., school-adopted curriculum, students’ abilities) were important influences on the extent to which teachers could situate reading knowledge acquired during the preparation program. Implications for teacher educators and school personnel involved with the design and delivery of secondary reading instruction and teacher education are provided.

Engaging Struggling Adolescent Readers to Improve Reading Skills

Reading Research Quarterly

This study examined the efficacy of a supplemental, multicomponent adolescent reading intervention for middle school students who scored below proficient on a state literacy assessment. Using a within-school experimental design, we randomly assigned 483 students in grades 6 to 8 to a business-as-usual control condition or to the Strategic Adolescent Reading Intervention (STARI), a supplemental reading program involving instruction to support word reading skills, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension, and peer talk to promote reading engagement and comprehension. We assessed behavioral engagement by measuring how much of the STARI curriculum activities students completed during an academic school year and we collected intervention teachers' ratings of their students' reading engagement. STARI students outperformed control students on measures of word recognition (d = .20), efficiency of basic reading comprehension (d = .21), and morphological awareness (d = .18). Reading engagement in its behavioral form, as measured by students' participation and involvement in the STARI curriculum, mediated the treatment effects on each of these three posttest outcomes. Intervention teachers' ratings of their students' emotional and cognitive engagement explained unique variance on reading posttests. Findings from this study support the hypothesis that (a) behavioral engagement fosters struggling adolescents' reading growth and (b) teachers' perceptions of their students' emotional and cognitive engagement further contribute to reading competence.

Struggling readers: Who they are, why they struggle, what helps them read, and the school librarian's role

A review of the literature indicates that very few researchers mention the school library or librarian when talking about how to help struggling readers. This research shows that in order to make the transition from struggling to successful readers, students need interesting and culturally relevant texts, individual solutions, and adult support. The school librarian can aid struggling readers by developing the school library collection, collaborating with all teachers to tailor the instruction of these students, and creating library programs that foster literacy and an environment of support.

Who’s Really Struggling?: Middle School Teachers’ Perceptions of Struggling Readers

RMLE Online

This study explored middle school teachers' perceptions of struggling readers, including influences such as: understandings of components and factors relating to reading difficulties; views of struggling readers' behaviours and affect; classroom implications of their difficulties; and feelings of both competency and responsibility in the teaching of struggling readers. Using a phenomenological case study approach, survey data from 35 respondents, and interview data from ten participants across three different school districts were analyzed using both a within-case and cross-case analysis method. Identified common themes included teachers' difficulty defining and assessing students who struggle with reading, and tending to attribute the difficulties to factors beyond their control. Teachers realized the correlation between reading difficulties and motivation, but were unsure how to mitigate the ensuing behaviours in their classrooms. Participants believed that middle school students should be competent grade level readers and did not believe it their job to teach specific reading skills in content area classes, as they were constrained by both a lack of knowledge and time. The findings suggest that teachers, both pre-service and in-service, need more education about reading difficulties, classroom strategies and practice. The research indicates a need for more optimal use of specialist teacher time, professional development and literacy coaching.

How to Help the One: A Story of Reading Intervention for a Struggling Middle School Boy

Online Submission, 2014

This report describes the assessment, evaluation, and subsequent development of reading intervention strategies for a struggling middle school student. The family background and popular culture of the student were the primary means for creating the interventions. The student was taught to apply the reading strategies while completing classroom-based, subject area assignments.