Matching Interventions to Sources of Literacy Problems with
Older Students*
Dr. Barbara J. Ehren Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders University of Central Florida Email: [email protected] SCSHA -­‐‑ February, 2017 Advance Organizer
The Challenge: Collaborating with other educators in a way that provides an effective “package” of intervention for students who struggle with literacy in grades 4-­‐‑
12. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. The Solution: Selecting and implementing evidence-­‐‑
based practices appropriate to underlying problems with students in Grades 4-­‐‑12. Outcomes: Enhanced Learning for Monday Morning • Evaluate evidence-­‐‑based interventions appropriate for specific sources of literacy problems. • Describe techniques at the word, sentence and discourse levels. • Explore partnerships with teachers in implementing interventions. • Apply workshop learning to your setting. Organization Problems in the SLP’s Purview Language Complexity Evidence-­‐‑Based Practice Case Studies – What Would You Do? Action Planning What I want to be sure to learn about matching interventions to sources of literacy problems: *Permission has been given to conference organizers to post this material for a finite time on their
website for use by conference participants. It may not be posted in whole or in part on other websites
and it must be removed from the conference website.within a week after the conference ends .
© Ehren, 2017
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Problems in the SLP’s Purview
Problem SLP Other
Lack of word automaticity. Ö
Decoding difficulties. • Phoneme/grapheme correspondence Ö Ö
Decoding difficulties. • Phonemic awareness Ö Ö
Decoding difficulties. • Morphemic awareness Ö Ö
Lack of self-­‐‑efficacy in the face of ongoing failure. Ö
Not quite automatic word recognition. Ö
Word finding difficulties. Ö
Ö
Don’t recognize phrase boundaries Ö
Ö
Learned bad habits of pointing at words. Ö
Lack of background knowledge (schemata) Ö
Lack of word knowledge (vocabulary) Ö
Ö
Inability to process and produce complex sentences Ö
Ö
Working memory difficulties Ö
Ö
Discourse level processing difficulties • Lack of understanding of cohesion rules. Ö
Ö
Discourse level processing difficulties • Lack of basic comprehension skills • main idea, inferencing, prediction Ö
Ö
Discourse level processing and production difficulties • Unfamiliarity with discourse structures Ö
Ö
Does not use strategies before, during or after reading. Ö
Ö
Lack of word production • spelling Ö
Ö
Does not use strategies before, during and after writing. Ö
Ö
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Language Complexity
Linguistic Underpinnings
Content
(Se mantics)
P
r
o
c
e
s
s
i
n
g
P
r
o
d
u
c
t
i
o
n
Use
Form
(Phonology,
Morp hology, Syntax)
(Pragmatics)
Word
Phrase
Senten ce
Discourse/
Text
Word
Phrase
Senten ce
Discourse/
Text
Related Cognitive Underpinnings
Meta Underpinnings
Meta linguistic
Meta cognitive
Ehr en
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Evidence-Based Practices
The Word Level Component Increase student motivation and engagement in literacy learning (Kamil, et al., 2008). Motivation and engagement for understanding and learning from text. (Torgesen, et al., 2007). Motivation and self directed learning (Biancarosa & Snow, 2006). Older students with reading difficulties benefit from interventions focused
at both the word and the text level (Scammacca, et al, 2007). Vocabulary, or the breadth and depth of knowledge about the meaning of
words (Torgesen, et al., 2007) Provide explicit vocabulary instruction (Kamil, et al., 2008). Older students with reading difficulties benefit from improved knowledge of
word meanings and concepts (Scammacca, et al, 2007). the word level (Scammacca, et al, 2007). Direct, explicit comprehension instruction (Biancarosa & Snow, 2006). Higher level reasoning and thinking skills (Torgesen, et al., 2007) Provide opportunities for extended discussion of text meaning and
interpretation (Kamil, et al., 2008). Ongoing formative assessment of students (Biancarosa & Snow, 2006) Approaches Teach vocabulary directly. Attend to Tier 2 words student may not know. Teach morphological variations. Provide practice listening to words used correctly, saying words correctly (including changes in phonology), reading them and writing them. Move to vocabulary acquisition strategies. Question the author’s use of words. Why did s/he chose that word? What word might you have used? Why? Evaluate non examples Techniques Select Words -­‐‑-­‐‑ -­‐‑Beck, McKeown and Kucan (2002) Word Tiers • Tier One: Most basic words ~ rarely require instructional attention to their meanings in school (clock, baby, happy, walk). • Tier Two: High frequency words that are found across a variety of domains ~ instruction toward tier two words is most productive (coincidence, absurd, industrious, fortunate). © Ehren, 2017
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• Tier Three: Words whose frequency use is quite low and often limited to specific domains ~ probably best learned when needed in content area (isotope, lathe, peninsula, and refiner) Target Levels of Word Knowledge Knowing a word is not an all or nothing proposition. There are different depths or levels of knowledge. You may know a word cursorily and have some idea of its meaning in a specific context when you come across it, or you may know a word really well and be able to use it appropriately in many contexts. And there are degrees in between. Verbal association knowledge -­‐‑-­‐‑ -­‐‑ a person can link a new word with a specific definition or single context. Partial concept knowledge -­‐‑-­‐‑ -­‐‑ allows a person to use a word in a limited number of ways, but he will have difficulty discriminating a word’s meaning from meanings of other similar words. Full concept knowledge -­‐‑-­‐‑ -­‐‑ the individual demonstrates a broad understand of a word and can use this knowledge to manipulate meaning as in finding an antonym, or comparing and contrasting similar words. Decide What Words to Teach Important words –linchpins to understanding concepts Recurring words – those seen in many situations and contexts Difficult words – abstract -­‐‑-­‐‑ -­‐‑ freedom multiple meaning word idiomatic expressions -­‐‑-­‐‑ -­‐‑ hard hearted, get the picture Multiple-­‐‑-­‐‑ -­‐‑meaning words that can be difficult for students: Words that are spelled the same but are pronounced differently Words that are spelled and pronounced the same, but have different meanings © Ehren, 2017
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Examples sow (a female pig); sow (to plant seeds) bow (a knot with loops); bow (the front of a ship) mail (letters, cards, and packages); mail 5
Consider Kinds of Word Learning Explanation Type of word Learning Learning a new The student has the word in her oral or reading vocabulary, but she meaning for a is learning a new meaning for it. For example, the student knows known word what a branch is,and is learning in social studies about both branches of rivers and branches of government. Learning the The student is familiar with the concept but he does not know the meaning for a particular word for that concept. For example, the student has had a new word lot of experience with baseballs and globes, but does not know that representing a they are examples of spheres. known concept Learning the The student is not familiar with either the concept or the word that meaning of a represents that concept, and she must learn both. For example, the new word student may not be familiar with either the process or the word representing an photosynthesis. unknown concept Clarifying and The student is learning finer, more subtle distinctions, or enriching the connotations, in the meaning and usage of words. For example, he is meaning of a learning the differences between running, jogging, trotting, known word dashing, and sprinting. Employ Techniques that Include: 1. Richness of Semantic Information 2. Word Memory, Storage and Retrieval 3. Multiple Encounters with Words
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An Example: Vocabulary Scenario Technique (Ehren, 2008) Basic Teaching Procedure 1. Present scenario orally and in writing. The detectives were called out on a case. They went to investigate a crime.
They searched for evidence and talked with witnesses.
2. 3. Ask students for meaning predictions. Elicit and write synonym for target word. investigate = check out
4. Re-­‐‑-­‐‑ -­‐‑present scenario with synonym. The detectives were called out on a case. They went to check out a crime.
They searched for evidence and talked with witnesses.
5. 6. 7. Have students read the original scenario. Guide students to construct other scenarios with the word. (Group activity) Restructure the original scenario with other word forms, After the detectives were called out on a case, they investigated the
crime. They searched for evidence and talked with witnesses.
8. Have the student(s) make a word card with the word and its variations on the front (as described above) and a scenario on the back (preferably an original by the student). If you opt for a student original the back of the card, be sure to check it before allowing him to use it as an exemplar. You can pair students for partner work. Have the criteria for a good scenario posted. Instructor partners to check each other’s scenarios against the criteria. 9. Plan activities using word cards. Have students quiz each other on their word cards. When a student can explain the meaning of a word and use it in a sentence the card is punched with a decorative type hole punch that only the teacher uses. © Ehren, 2017
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Criteria for Constructing Scenarios 1. The scenario is no longer than 5 sentences. 2. The meaning is clear and contained within the scenario. 3. The scenario does not contain other words students do not know, 4. The content of the scenarios is within the experiences of students. 5. For students: I have to be able to show this to your mother. Examples meticulous Tiffany took great pains to look gorgeous from head to toe. Not a hair was out of place and her make-­‐‑-­‐‑ -­‐‑up was perfect. Her clothes were clean, pressed and coordinated. We wondered how long it took her in the morning to be so meticulous. economy Jack would love for his mom to be home when he gets home from school. However, his family’s economy depends on her working. They would not have enough money to pay all the bills and do all the things they wanted to do if she didn’t work. tactics
Amanda t really likes Sandra’s boyfriend, Leroy. Amanda keeps saying things to Leroy about Sandra a that are not true. Sandra is angry with Amanda for using such tactics. Approaches involving c lying are wrong. Extension Activity -­‐‑-­‐‑ -­‐‑ Portable Word Walls Students make 3x5 word cards for each word. On the card they write various forms of the word. investigate
investigation
investigates
investigator
investigating
investigatory
investigated
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When the student has demonstrated that he knows the word (i.e., He can explain the meaning and use it in a sentence.) the teacher uses a decorative hole punch that only she accesses to punch a hole in the top of the card. Hole punches help teachers and students to keep track of vocabulary mastery. These cards are used for a variety of activities. For example, 1. 2. Students exchange word cards to see if they know other students’ vocabulary. If a student can explain the meaning of another student’s word and use it in a sentence, then she puts the word on a card and the teacher hole punches it. Students can sort through their word cards to identify words that are related in some way and construct a word map. Students can keep all the cards on a ring, in an expandable portfolio or in a card file box. Placing each card in the correct place provides alphabetization practice. Teach Vocabulary Acquisition Strategies 1. Foster word consciousness – awareness and interest in words and their power. 2. Analyze words into roots, suffixes and prefixes. 3. Teach that some words require a deeper understanding than others. 4. Teach students to analyze word meanings in the context of surrounding information. 5. Create graphic organizers to understand the relationships between words and concepts. 6. Monitor comprehension of words. 7. Note the importance of word meanings in comprehension. 8. Use tools such as dictionaries and glossaries. © Ehren, 2017
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Level
Needed
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Vocabulary Comprehension Monitoring
No Idea SortOfWORD
Not
Sure
Context
Work
Word Analysis Work Prefix Root (Stem) Suffix The Sentence Level Component Increase student motivation and engagement in literacy learning Kamil, et al., 2008. Motivation and self directed learning (Biancarosa & Snow, 2006). Older students with reading difficulties benefit from interventions focused at both the word and the text level (Scammacca, et al, 2007). Increased reading rate and accuracy did not always result in improved
comprehension (Edmonds, et al., 2009). Explicit instruction in comprehension benefits students with reading difficulties and disabilities (Edmonds, et al., 2009). Vocabulary, or the breadth and depth of knowledge about the meaning of
words (Torgesen, et al., 2007) Direct, explicit comprehension instruction (Biancarosa & Snow, 2006). Ongoing formative assessment of students (Biancarosa & Snow, 2006). Collaborative Writing, which uses instructional arrangements in which
adolescents work together to plan, draft, revise, and edit their
compositions (Graham, S. & Perin, D., 2007). Specific Product Goals, which assigns students specific, reachable goals for
the writing they are to complete (Graham, S. & Perin, D., 2007). Word Processing, which uses computers and word processors as
instructional supports for writing assignments (Graham, S. & Perin, D., 2007). Approaches Work with the use of morphological variations of words in sentences. Teach how to unpack complex sentences. Model and practice paraphrasing, including sentence combining orally and in writing Techniques Play with morphological variations. Pollination is the process by which pollen is transferred from the anther to the stigma of a plant. © Ehren, 2017
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Bees are important pollinators. Once plants have been pollinated they can produce fruits, seeds or nuts. Unpack sentences using meaning based language analysis. Drawing on Functional Language Analysis-­‐‑-­‐‑ -­‐‑FLA (Fang & Schleppegrell, 2010) A meaning based metalanguage approach o Learn through language and about language simultaneously. Based on Halliday’s Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) o How meaning is constructed in particular language choices Not your grandma’s approach to grammar! Grammar: systems of the English language that are resources for meaning making. “There is a lot of evidence showing the importance of grammar in reading comprehension. Studies over the years have shown a clear relationship between syntactic or grammatical sophistication and reading comprehension; that is, as
students learn to employ more complex sentences in their oral and written language, their ability to make sense of what they read increases, too”. Shanahan, 2013. Thinking of authors as communicators who are trying to get across a message. Looking at writing conventions as cues to meaning. Identifying the information that words and word strings provide. o What questions do they answer? Recognizing different kinds of word strings and the information they provide. o Sentences – complete thoughts o Clauses – sometimes complete and sometimes incomplete thoughts that need to be attached to something else to make good sense o Phrases – Nouns and their describing words (What kind, which, how many?) Verbs and their describing words (when, where, why, how?) Looking for signal words. o Joining words (conjunctions), prepositions. Finding the meaning and purpose of word strings. Ask and answer important questions about the words. o What are the doing, saying, sensing, and being words? o What is the main action or state of being the author is communicating? o Who or what is doing the action, or who or what is sensing or being? o Who or what is receiving the action © Ehren, 2017
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or is related to the being described? o Are there word strings that give additional information? What information? About what? o Did the author leave out any information or write anything that was confusing? Did s/he make any mistakes? Manipulate syntactic structures Practice putting the ideas of the author in your own words. Identify synonyms. Reword information. Try combining ideas in different ways that make sense. A Paramecium has several food vacuoles that form at the end of the gullet and are used to hold ingested bacteria. More than two food vacuoles are found in a paramecium at the end of the gullet. Their purpose is to hold bacteria the paramecium takes in. Start with an Identification Task Given the target sentence from an expository text, select the sentence that is an accurate paraphrase; that is, means the same thing. Ask the student to select from a group of statements the one that is an accurate paraphrase of the targeted statement. For example, Target: The President during the Civil War gave the slaves their freedom. Choices: (a) Abraham Lincoln was President during the Civil War. (b) Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves. Teach them steps for finding a paraphrase: Identify key ideas.
Make sure your choice includes the key ideas.
Discuss with them why (b) is the correct answer and why (a) although related to the information in the target sentence is not an accurate paraphrase of it. Do Replacement Tasks (at three levels: word, phrase, sentence) Given the word or words in brackets[ ] replace those words with other words that are an accurate paraphrase; that is, mean the same thing. © Ehren, 2017
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Write a sentence on the board, chart or paper and work with the students to cross out words and put in other words in their place. For example, Abraham Lincoln The [16
th President] wrote (or came out with) [ issued] an important paper (or an historical document) [the Emancipation Proclamation] gave slaves freedom which [freed the slaves] in 1863 [during the Civil War.] Teach them steps for saying or writing a paraphrase: Consider changing
words
phrases
whole sentences.
Make changes.
Check that key ideas stayed the same.
Have students practice various versions of the sentence. Use a variety of activities involving sentence combining. o Coordinate, add, or embed clauses. Coordinating Friction can slow down movement or stop objects in motion. Adding/Expanding A moving object changes its motion only when a force acts on it. Embedding The person who applies the force to the bicycle will change its motion. © Ehren, 2017
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The Discourse Level Component Increase student motivation and engagement in literacy learning Kamil, et al., 2008. Motivation and engagement for understanding and learning from text. (Torgesen, et al., 2007). Motivation and self directed learning (Biancarosa & Snow, 2006). Older students with reading difficulties benefit from interventions focused at both the word and the text level (Scammacca, et al, 2007). Increased reading rate and accuracy did not always result in improved comprehension (Edmonds, et al., 2009). Direct, explicit comprehension instruction (Biancarosa & Snow, 2006). Explicit instruction in comprehension benefits students with reading difficulties and disabilities (Edmonds, et al., 2009). Higher level reasoning and thinking skills (Torgesen, et al., 2007). Provide opportunities for extended discussion of text meaning and interpretation (Kamil, et al., 2008). Active and flexible use of reading strategies to enhance comprehension (Torgesen, et al., 2007) Teaching comprehension strategies to older students with reading difficulties is beneficial (Scammacca, et al, 2007). Provide direct and explicit comprehension strategy instruction (Kamil, et al., 2008). Older struggling readers benefit from explicit comprehension strategy instruction modeling and thinking aloud how to self-­‐‑-­‐‑ -­‐‑question and reflect during and after reading engaging students to become actively involved in monitoring their understanding and processing text meaning (Edmonds, et al., 2009). Ongoing formative assessment of students (Biancarosa & Snow, 2006). Intensive writing (Biancarosa & Snow, 2006). Prewriting, which engages students in activities designed to help them generate or organize ideas for their composition (Graham, S. & Perin, D., 2007). Inquiry Activities, which engages students in analyzing immediate, concrete data to help them develop ideas and content for a particular writing task (Graham, S.& Perin, D., 2007). Process Writing Approach, which interweaves a number of writing instructional activities in a workshop environment that stresses extended writing opportunities, writing for authentic audiences, personalized instruction, and cycles of writing (Graham, S. & Perin, D., 2007). Study of Models, which provides students with opportunities to read, analyze, and emulate models of good writing (Graham, S. & Perin, D., 2007). Writing for Content Learning, which uses writing as a tool for learning content material (Graham, S. & Perin, D., 2007). © Ehren, 2017
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Writing Strategies, which involves teaching students strategies for planning, revising, and editing their compositions (Graham, S. & Perin, D., 2007)
Summarization, which involves explicitly and systematically teaching students
how to summarize texts (Graham, S. & Perin, D., 2007).. Collaborative Writing, which uses instructional arrangements in which
adolescents work together to plan, draft, revise, and edit their compositions
(Graham, S. & Perin, D., 2007). Specific Product Goals, which assigns students specific, reachable goals for the
writing they are to complete (Graham, S. & Perin, D., 2007). Word Processing, which uses computers and word processors as instructional supports for writing assignments (Graham, S. & Perin, D., 2007). Sentence Combining, which involves teaching students to construct more
complex,sophisticated sentences (Graham, S. & Perin, D., 2007). Approaches . © Ehren, 2017
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Teach how to comprehend text at a knowledge and skill level. Teach writing and reading of particular macrostructures. Model ways to extend discussion of text meaning Structure interactive dialogue (i.e., listening and speaking) around content knowledge in small groups around a text. Model and practice paraphrasing, orally and in writing Teach before, during and after reading strategies. Teach knowledge and skills with regard to composing disciplinary text. Teach strategies for composing text. Co-­‐‑-­‐‑ -­‐‑construct graphic organizers explicating meaning whenever feasible. What is this passage about?
This passage is about
.
Bessie Smith
What does this passage
tell me about Bessie
Smith?
because
She was the highest
paid African American
entertainer at the time
It tells me
that_
.
Bessie Smith was a great blues
because
She was called
“Empress of the Blues”
because
Her music deeply
touched people
Inspiration or Kidspiration http://www.inspiration.com © Ehren, 2017
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Case Studies – What Would You Do?
Anna – 9th Grade Anna has severe word recognition problems. She doesn’t have the phoneme-­‐‑grapheme correspondence she needs to decode fluently. Her reading is labored as she struggles to sound out each letter. She has trouble paying attention to meaning as she works so hard to figure out the words. When she was younger, Anna had good underlying language skills. Her listening comprehension used to be a strength. If you read her the same selection she tried to read, she would have no trouble discussing the meaning. But now she doesn’t have the higher level language structures or processes students typically learn from reading. For Anna what started out as a reading decoding problem has become a language comprehension problem as well. Al – 5th Grade Al presents an unusual pattern, but one which is sometimes observed. He can pick up almost any material and “read” it; that is he can identify the words fluently. Teachers marvel at the pieces he can “read.” However, Al doesn’t understand what he is reading. Students like Al usually baffle their teachers. It’s hard to fathom that a student can be so adept at decoding and have so much difficulty understanding what is read. What we want to know about Al is the level at which he can answer some basic WH questions about a selection. We also want to know what vocabulary he understands and if he can use context to uncover word meaning. Al has been receiving services from a speech-­‐‑language pathologist. Mario – 7th Grade Reading has always been a struggle for Mario. His decoding now is at about the third grade level, but even at that level he has difficulty comprehending text beyond the answering of literal comprehension questions. He struggles with synthesizing information, so that it is difficult for him to identify the main idea or summarize what he has read. Higher level processing like predicting and inferencing are very difficult. Mario has been diagnosed with language disorders and is receiving language services from a speech-­‐‑language pathologist. Tom – 10 th Grade Tom is decoding at about a fourth grade level but has a great deal of difficulty understanding what he is reading at that level. He has underlying language deficits that adversely affect his reading comprehension. His knowledge of the world is inferior to that of his peers and his vocabulary is severely deficient. Neither does he have command of the complex grammatical structures that are used in higher level materials. Because reading is a major way older students learn information, new vocabulary and complex sentence structure, Tom has not encountered these things at his grade level. Therefore he will not have learned what his peers know about the world, the meaning of the vocabulary contained in higher level print materials nor the complex syntax of written language. To compound the problem he has word retrieval problems that interfere with processing text. When Tom reads he tends to over-­‐‑rely on his background information, the ideas familiar to him, rather than process what is in the text he is reading. © Ehren, 2017
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Action Planning
What I will do after this conference to match interventions to sources of literacy problems in older
students:
References
Beck, I. L., McKeown, M. G., & Kucan, L. (2002). Bringing words to life: Robust vocabulary instruction. New York: Guilford. Biancarosa, G. & Snow, C. (2006). Reading next—A vision for action and research in middle and high school literacy. Washington, DC: Alliance for Excellent Education. Edmonds, M, Vaughn, S., Wexler, J., Reutebuch, C., Cable, A., Tackett, K., Schnakenberg, J. (2009). A synthesis of reading interventions and effects on reading comprehension outcomes for older struggling readers. Review of Educational Research, 79 (1), 262–300. Ehren, B. J. (2008). STRUCTURE Your Reading. Winter Springs, FL: Student Success Initiatives, Inc. Fang, Z, & Schleppegrell, M. J. (2010). Disciplinary literacies across content areas: Supporting secondary reading through functional language analysis. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 53(7), 587-­‐‑597. doi:10.1598/JAAL.53.7.6 Graham, S., & Perin, D. (2007). Writing next: Effective strategies to improve writing of adolescents in middle and high schools – A report to Carnegie Corporation of New York Washington, DC:Alliance for Excellent Education. Kamil, M. L., Borman, G. D., Dole, J., Kral, C. C., Salinger, T., and Torgesen, J. (2008). Improving adolescent literacy: Effective classroom and intervention practices: A Practice Guide (NCEE #2008-­‐‑4027). Washington, DC: National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education. Retrieved from http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc Scammacca, N., Roberts, G., Vaughn. S., Edmonds, M., Wexler, J., Reutebuch, C. K., & Torgesen, J. K. (2007), Interventions for adolescent struggling readers: A meta-­‐‑analysis with implications for practice. Portsmouth, NH: RMC Research Corporation, Center on Instruction. Torgesen, J. K., Houston, D. D., Rissman, L. M., Decker, S. M., Roberts, G., Vaughn, S., Wexler, J., Francis, D. J., Rivera, M. O., & Lesaux, N. (2007). Academic literacy instruction for adolescents: A guidance document from the Center on Instruction. Portsmouth, NH: RMC Research Corporation, Center on Instruction © Ehren, 2017
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