What Struggling Readers Need

http://blogs.longwood.edu/cdelgiorno/page/2/

"Why can't some kids read? It's because they have teachers who 

are not effective reading teachers."

                                   -Dick Allington

I was at the Struggling Readers summit in Portland this last weekend and had the privilege of hearing Dick Allington speak. This was not my first time, and certainly won't be my last. There's something very refreshing about sitting in an audience of educational professionals and having Allington tell you you're an idiot. It's strangely motivating. 

He and other experts provided us with great research. Here are some of the items that most stood out to me:

Dr. Anne Cunningham

What helps children (0-5 years) develop the skills and abilities that are linked to the children's later reading, writing and spelling? What do we need kinders to be able to do?

1. knowing the names of printed letters; being able to label them correctly and connect to letter sound
2. Being able to manipulate the sounds
3. Being able to rapidly name a sequence of letters, numbers, objects or colors
4. Being able to write one's own name or even isolated letters
5. Being able to remember the content of spoken language for a short time: simple multi-step instructions; working memory
6. Phonological STM (short term memory)

Early readers need Dialogic reading. Student who received a shared-reading intervention scored almost a 0.7 of a standard deviation higher than children who did not.

Dr. Janet Mort 

"The most important things of all for students is for them to believe that they can read."

Vulnerable readers need: 

Explicit literacy instruction in kindergarten and before, interventions immediately to close the experiential gap 

Dr. Richard Allington

Much evidence indicates that some teachers literally teach every child to read while others are less successful.

It's not the school that's effective, it's the teachers. Some teachers can get all their students to meet grade level. Some can't. Effective Teachers are the most powerful reading intervention strategy.

Minutes spent on literate conversations with other students is 3x's more powerful than minutes spent on reading comprehension programs. 

Core and Title programs should not look different. Often times we put our most vulnerable students in an incoherent intervention program. 

The average 3rd grader only reads 12-18 minutes a day.

The kids who spend the most time actually reading in school are the kids who 

become readers.

**there was a lot more and if you'd like a copy of my notes, they're HERE They're messy, you've been warned.