AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT SUMMER SCHOOL FOR TEACHERS OF LITERACY AND NUMERACY

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Engaging Struggling Readers

Developed by Deslea Konza

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Session 1: Understanding the Needs of Struggling Readers

• Differences in social and cultural experiences

• Differences in cognitive characteristics

• Differences in learning contexts

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Social and cultural factors• SES differences may lead to

poorer health; inadequate nutrition and sleep; absenteeism; lower energy levels, predispositions to colds and chronic ear infections which affect hearing

• students with two or more languages may be less able to “switch codes”; to differentiate between “home talk” and “school talk”

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Social and cultural factors…

• negative familial experiences with education systems may lead to education and literacy being less valued

• languages other than English spoken in the home may lead to fewer opportunities to become familiar with sounds, vocabulary and syntax of English language.

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Social and cultural factors…• Low educational level of

primary carer• low parent and teacher

expectations of educational achievement

• more restricted access to play groups and preschool experiences

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Cognitive characteristics• short and long-term

memory difficulties affect the ability to process, store and retrieve linguistic information

• selective and sustained attention problems affect the ability to focus on what is relevant and concentrate long enough to process information sufficiently

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Cognitive characteristics…• planning and

organisational difficulties lead to problems in mobilising facts, sequencing, classifying, categorising, summarising, seeing and remembering patterns, and difficulties with abstract thinking

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Cognitive characteristics…• Language-based difficulties are the most

significant of all cognitive factors for reading development

• Some discussion of specific language-based cognitive factors that affect reading follows…

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Language factors…• phonological awareness - the

ability to tune into the sound aspects of words, particularly to the fact that words can be broken up into individual sounds. The most significant of these skills are segmentation and blending.

• letter-naming ability - the ability to identify letters is an early predictor of reading; probably reflects broad exposure to text material and other literacy experiences

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Language factors…• Rapid Automatised Naming

(RAN) skills - connecting a verbal label to an abstract symbol requires many reading-related skills - visual detection and discrimination, retrieval of phonological label, integration of semantic and conceptual information and activation of motor response to articulate name of letter.

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Example of naming speed task

a t s c k n s k c a s k s c a

t s n c k s n s t c k a s c k

a n t s c k t n a s k c s t a

(example from Swigert, 2003)

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Language factors…

• Vocabulary level - children with limited vocabularies will have difficulties with printed word identification even if their phonological skills are secure

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Reading and the Brain

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Structure of the Brain• Two identical

hemispheres, left and right

• Left responsible for language, logic, abstract thought; memory stored in verbal format

• Right responsible for holistic thought, creativity, art & music; memory stored in visual, spatial formats

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Lobes of the brain

• Anterior is front of brain

• Posterior is back of brain

• Four main lobes: frontal; temporal; parietal; occipital

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Functions of lobes

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Language areas of the brain

• Main language areas located in frontal and temporal lobes in left hemisphere

• These areas in right hemisphere mainly process environmental noises

• Thus the human brain, unlike most mammals, uses two different hemispheres differently

• Although animals communicate in many ways, they don’t have language areas

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Parts of brain related to language skills

• Wernicke’s area responsible for receptive language

• Broca’s area responsible for expressive language or articulation

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Role of language in the reading process

• At birth, neural circuitry to develop language exists

• Helps distinguish speech from other sounds

• An infant’s brain can perceive all 150 phonemes, and infant can produce them, but gradually loses those not heard

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The Phonological Module or “language factory”

• Phonological module discriminates speech from non-speech sounds

• Processes phonemes, the distinctive sounds of language

• Where words are put together and broken down

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Advantages of phonemes

• Gives language great variability

• Capacity to combine infinite number of words and sentences

• Far greater than syllabic language

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Disadvantages of phonemes

• Phonemes can be combined very quickly; 10-15/sec

• Individuals cannot acoustically process this without “coarticulation”: the ability to compress and overlap phonemes while maintaining the identity of each

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Advantages of coarticulation

• Allows information to be delivered to listener’s acoustic system at accessible rate and in comprehensible form

• Listener hears one pulse of sound e.g. /bag/ not /b/ /a/ /g/

• Gaps disappear; message is smooth

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Problems with coarticulation

• It disguises the segmental nature of speech

• Child must first perceive speech as a series of separate sounds in order to relate those sounds to letters

• Coarticulation makes the internal structure of words hard to perceive

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fMRI - functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging

• fMRI measures blood supply to different parts of brain

• When neurons are firing, more oxygenated blood flows to that area

• Iron in blood produces stronger magnetic signal which can be detected

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Sally and Bennett Shaywitz’ fMRI research

• Identified three areas of neural activity in left hemisphere when reading is occurring

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Fluent vs Impaired reader

• Left FMRI shows fluent reader: occipito-temporal region is activated, responsible for visual processing

• Right fMRI shows dyslexic reader: more sounding out in Broca’s area in frontal lobe

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Differences in brain functions

• Fluent readers use left brain systems

• Poor readers rely more on right brain systems

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Non-word rhyming tasks

• Ordinary readers use the left temporal area for sounding out words.

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Non-word rhyming tasks

• Poor readers do not use the left temporal area to find the sounds of words.

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Non-word rhyming tasks

• Capable dyslexic readers rely more on right brain areas.

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Differences in learning contexts

• Some children do not learn to read because their learning context does not meet their needs

• Much research evidence that some children need much more systematic and explicit instruction than their peers

• They also require accelerated achievement to catch up

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Characteristics of effective teaching of struggling

readers• Explicit teaching and

practice of targeted skills

• Connected reading in every lesson (not necessarily long passages)

• Use “mastery” learning approach; provide many opportunities for practice of targeted skills

• Present material in easy to hard sequences

• Base all programming decisions on evidence

• Monitor closely and provide feedback

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Characteristics of effective teaching of struggling

readers…• Engage in high energy

teaching• Have high expectations

of student progress and express confidence in student’s ability

• Provide visible signs of progress

• Provide high levels of positive reinforcement

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Effects of instruction

• Instruction can change the way the brain operates

• The brain can be rewired

• Primary systems for fluent reading, as opposed to compensatory systems can be developed

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Importance of early identification

• Failure in such an important life skill has significant long-term effects

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The “Matthew Effect”

• “For unto everyone that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from he that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath” (Matthew 25:29)

• The rich get richer and the poor get poorer

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Matthew Effects

• If foundation skills exist, reading across all areas improves

• If foundation skills do not exist, reading across all areas fails

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Negative Matthew Effect

• Secondary effects such as little motivation, lowered self-esteem and acting out behaviour can occur