Intervention programmes are designed and formulated to help students who are at the most risk of failing to read and write appropriate to their age. One intervention programme that is well-documented to be successful in helping struggling readers the United States is "Reading Recovery". The focus of this programme is early intervention, once a problem with reading is detected. Students need to feel successful as early as possible before feelings of frustration and discouragement toward reading step in. Within this programme, daily thirty-minute sessions are conducted between the teacher and the student on a one on one basis. The students read, write and are involved in a variety of decoding strategies to assist them in comprehension and retention of the reading material. Most reading programmes are focussed on early intervention for students who are having trouble with reading comprehension. The federally mandated No Child Left Behind act was designed by the department of education to meet the goal of having all children as successful readers by the end of third grade.
What is the Ministry of education's goal for our children? Why are so many of our struggling readers in the secondary schools? Effective programmes stress that students be provided with reading materials that are appropriate to their individual grade level. If students feel pushed to a level above what they comprehend, they become frustrated and discouraged by not understanding the material they are forced to study. My view is early intervention strategies involving the use of ICT in the elementary schools would decrease the prevalence of struggling readers at the secondary level. The idea has been expressed that the technology used can be very motivating.
The use of books which are leveled for the instructional needs of the students is important. Rebecca Barr (2006) recommends that we find out the various reading levels of your students to ascertain their frustration, independent and instructional levels. Tomkins (2010) also recommends that teachers use ‘grouping for instruction’ where students are placed in groups of their varying levels of literacy competencies and instruction is matched to the groups’ levels.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that we should ensure that your students are not frustrated with the reading materials we use in the classroom. This will not help our literacy issues. We should also consider their learning styles and validate their individuality by selecting appropriate web 2.0 tools in the classroom.
Reference:
Barr, Rebecca , (2007) Reading Diagnosis for Teachers; An Instructional Approach. (5th ed) Boston: Pearson
Tompkins Gail, E., (2010) Literacy Research for the 21st Century: A Balanced Approach. (5th ed) Boston: Allyn & Bacon.