Supporting+Poor+Readers

On this page I will include information to support teachers of students in the Year 9 and Year 10 learning support classes. Please email me to request further information. aitkene@freyberg.ac.nz

STANINES The students in the support classes will have been selected based on low literacy stanine levels, among other things. A stanine ("standard nine") level is simply a representation of the level of ability an individual has in comparison with his or her year level group based on " a -point scale used for normalized testscores, with 1-3 below average, 4-6 average,and 7-9 above average; one of the steps in a nine-point scale of standard scores" (From []). [For greater detail of the stanine scale in relation to standard deviations and percentages you might like to follow this [|link].]

STANINES 1-3: "BELOW AVERAGE" READERS Essentially, the students we will be teaching will not have the reading and writing skills that enable them to access secondary level texts. Each student will have a unique range of reading and writing skills. This is because the process of learning about written language is not entirely linear.

The Simple View of Reading The Simple View of Reading (SVR) is that Reading Comprehension (understanding what is read) depends on two components: the ability to decode (read the words) and the ability to understand language (vocabulary/ syntax/ grammar/ inference, etc). This view helps conceptualize the three categories of reading disability.

Normally Developing Readers: Good Word Recognition and Good Language Comprehension Specific Reading Comprehension Difficulties: Good Word Recognition and Poor Language Comprehension Dyslexic Readers: Poor Word Recognition and Good Language Comprehension Mixed Reading Disability: Poor Word Recognition and Poor Language Comprehension

KNOW THE LEARNER: It is really important that we know each student's area(s) of difficulty so we can help them develop the skills that are lacking.

How do we help? __Students with SRCD need__:
 * to be taught reading comprehension strategies
 * to be taught how to utilise the features of different text types
 * to be encouraged to develop their subject-specific and general knowledge and vocabulary
 * listening skills
 * language skills - grammar, syntax

__Students with Dyslexia need: __ Note: Because dyslexic readers need to concentrate hard on the letters within unfamiliar words, the cognitive over-load means that they find it difficult to hold what they read in memory long enough to think about what the sentence or paragraph means as a whole. It is essential that you allow enough time for these students to identify unfamiliar words, decode them, read them in context, and consider the understanding of the extract as a whole.
 * to be taught letter/sound correspondences, syllables, regular and irregular spelling patterns, morphemes
 * to be directed, __first and foremost__, to the letters in an unfamiliar word
 * to use contextual information to confirm predictions about unfamiliar words
 * <span style="color: #800080; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; line-height: 23px;">to read information repetitively to improve sight-word memory, to become more fluent, to improve reading rate (speed)

__<span style="color: #800080; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; line-height: 23px;">Students with Mixed RD need all of the above. __

<span style="color: #800080; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="color: #800000; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 160%; line-height: 23px;">Why <span style="color: #800000; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 160%; line-height: 0px;"> have these students not learned to read already? <span style="color: #800080; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The process of learning to read can be likened to following a road on which skills must be gained before progressing. Along the way, readers who fail to learn a reading skill fall by the wayside. These readers begin on a different path which is much harder and from which it is very difficult to return to the main path. While off the path, students developing coping strategies which __hinder__ their progress to proficient reading. <span style="color: #800080; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">For example, if a reader failed in the early stages of reading to learn to decode effectively (s)he will develop an increasing number of negative associated behaviours and attributes. (S)he will develop: frustration with reading, poor motivation, lower self-concept and lower self-esteem, and poor reading strategies like guessing and referring to pictures and context for help. Such students will read less and less, experience less and less opportunity to read and learn reading skills, and encounter thousand fewer words than proficient readers. The longer a poor reader remains stuck off the path to proficient reading the harder and less likely it is for them to return. <span style="color: #800080; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">20-25% of all readers need to be taught EXPLICITLY skills essential to reading - such as phonemic awareness, alphabet, sound-symbol relationships, regular and irregular spelling patterns. The New Zealand primary school system (despite research by Bill Tunmer, Kieth Greaney and colleagues over the last two decades) still fails to cater adequately to this need.

From [], retrieved January, 2012.

Want to know more about reading? Follow this [|LINK].



<span style="color: #008080; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">FURTHER READING: <span style="color: #008080; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">Aaron, P. G. (1997). The Impending Demise of the Discrepancy Formula. //Review of Educational Literature//, 67(4), 461-502. <span style="color: #008080; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">Catts, H. W., & Kamhi, A. G. (2005). //Language and Reading Disabilities// (2 ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson. <span style="color: #008080; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">Frith, U. (1985). Beneath the surface of developmental dyslexia. In K. Patterson, J. Marshall, & M. Colheart (Eds.), //Surface dyslexia// (pp. 301-330). London: Erlbaum. <span style="color: #008080; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">Fuchs, D., & Fuchs, L. S. (2006). Introduction to Response to Intervention: What, why, and how valid is it? //Reading Research Quarterly//, 41, 93-99. <span style="color: #008080; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">Gough, P. B., & Tunmer, W. E. (1986). Decoding, reading, and reading disability. //Remedial and Special Education//, 7, 6-10. <span style="color: #008080; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">Hoover, W. A., & Tunmer, W. E. (1993). The components of reading. In G. B. Thompson, W. E. Tunmer, & T. Nicholson (Eds.), //Reading acquisition processes// (pp. 1-19). Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters. <span style="color: #008080; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">Juel, C. (1988). Learning to read and write: A longitudinal study of 54 children from first through fourth grades. //Journal of Educational Psychology//, 80, 437-447. <span style="color: #008080; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">MoE, N. Z. (2010). //Teaching as inquiry//. Retrieved May 2011, from The New Zealand Curriculum Online: http://nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz/Curriculum-stories/Case-studies/Inquiry/Teaching-as-inquiry <span style="color: #008080; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">Nation, K. (2005). Children's reading comprehension difficulties. In M. J. Snowling, & C. Hulme (Eds.), //The science of reading: A Handbook// (pp. 248-265). Oxford: Blackwell. <span style="color: #008080; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">Papanicolaou, A. C., Simos, P. G., Fletcher, J. M., Francis, D. J., Foorman, B., Castillo, E. M., et al. (2003). Development and plasticity of neurophysiological processes involved in reading. In B. Foorman (Ed.), //Preventing and remediating reading difficulties: Bringing science to scale// (pp. 3-21). Timonium, MD: York Press. <span style="color: #008080; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">Pressley, M. (2002). //Reading instruction that works: The case for balanced teaching.// New York: Guildford Press. <span style="color: #008080; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">Prochnow, J. E., Tunmer, W. E., Chapman, J. W., & Greaney, K. T. (2001). A longitudinal study of early literacy achievement and gender. //New Zealand Journal of Educational Studies//, 36, 221-236. <span style="color: #008080; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">Share, D. L. (1999). Phonological Recoding and Orthographic Learning: A Direct Test of the Self-Teaching Hypothesis. //Journal of Experimental Child Psychology//, 72, 95-129. <span style="color: #008080; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">Shaywitz, S. (2003). //Overcoming dyslexia: A new and complete science-based program for reading problems at any level.// New York: Alfred A. Knopf. <span style="color: #008080; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">Spear-Swerling, L., & Sternberg, R. L. (1996). Roads to reading disability. In //Off track: When poor readers become "learning disabled"// (pp. 113-152). Boulder, CO: Westview Press. <span style="color: #008080; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">Stanovich, K. E. (1986). Matthew effects in reading: Some consequences of individual differences in the acquisition of literacy. //Reading Research Quarterly//, 21, 360-406. <span style="color: #008080; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">Stanovich, K. E. (1991). Discrepancy definitions of reading disability: Has intelligence led us astray? //Reading Research Quarterly//, 26, 7-29. <span style="color: #008080; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">Tunmer, W. E., & Chapman, J. W. (1996). A developmental model of dyslexia: Can the construct be saved? //Dyslexia//, 2, 179-189. <span style="color: #008080; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">Tunmer, W. E., & Chapman, J. W. (2007). Language-related differences between discrepancy-defined and non-discrepancy-defined poor readers: A longitudinal study of dyslexia in New Zealand. //Dyslexia//, 13, 42-66. <span style="color: #008080; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">Tunmer, W. E., & Greaney, K. (2010). Defining Dyslexia. //Journal of Learning Disabilities//, 43(3), 229-243. <span style="color: #008080; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">Vellutino, F., Scanlon, D., Sipay, E., Small, S., Pratt, A., Chen, R., et al. (1996). Cognitive profiles of difficult-to-remediate and readily remediated poor readers: Early intervention as a vehicle for distingushing between cognitive and experiential deficits as basic casues of specific reading disability. //Journal of Educational Psychology//, 88, 601-638.