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By Lucinda M. O'Neill
(Reprinted by Permission of Exceptional Parent, 1-800-372-7368; http://www.eparent.com)
Two middle school students reading a popular young adult novel stopped their reading to tell the teacher, "They should turn this book into a movie!" Another student reading a different novel for teen-aged readers commented, "I feel like I'm in the story. Like I'm the characters." When asked if she would recommend the novel to others, a third student wrote, "It is a very good book because it is all about friendship, and that's what kids need in life."
Perhaps these comments would not be remarkable if enthusiastic, skilled readers had made them. But these students are struggling readers for whom books are often a source of frustration and something to be avoided. That is, until they became participants in a new research study at CAST about the Thinking Reader, a computer-supported reading environment that integrates well-researched reading comprehension strategies into digitized versions of appealing, age-appropriate novels (Dalton, Pisha, Coyne, Eagleton, & Deysher, 2001).
The Thinking Reader employs key principles of Universal Design for Learning (Rose & Meyer, 2000), supporting students' word recognition, strategy use, and engagement. Universal Design for Learning uses the flexibility of computer technology to help make the curriculum accessible and appropriate for students with different backgrounds, learning styles, abilities, and disabilities. The Thinking Reader also draws on the Reciprocal Teaching Method (RTM), an instructional approach developed in the mid-1980's by renowned educator Annemarie Sullivan Palincsar to help students learn to read strategically-i.e., for meaning. A dialogue between teacher and students is central to RTM, with teacher and students taking turns leading the dialogue as they use four key strategies to enhance reading comprehension: summarizing, asking questions, clarifying, and predicting.
Despite a wealth of research over the last 25 years demonstrating the positive impact of reading strategy instruction on students' comprehension, very little strategy instruction takes place in today's classrooms. Strategy instruction is not an easy task for teachers, who need time and practice to become proficient at it. Nor is learning how to be a strategic reader an easy task for students. With funding from the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Special Education Programs, the CAST study investigates how a software program with embedded strategy supports can extend the teacher's capacity to meet the varied, changing needs of each student in the class.
According to CAST's Dr. Maya Eagleton, struggling readers are typically taught to read using books that are written for much younger readers. Because the subject matter is not appropriate to the students' age level, they get can get bored and remain unengaged in reading. The Thinking Reader differs from other approaches by providing students with access to grade-level novels-in accessible digital format-that they might not be able to read otherwise.
On a recent day at a middle school north of Boston, 16 students with learning disabilities sit down at their computers in the resource room and don headphones to read the assigned novel. Using the text-to-speech feature, which highlights each word as it reads it aloud, each student moves quickly through a chapter of a critically acclaimed adventure novel. Giving students with word decoding problems the option of listening to the novel allows them to focus on the meaning of the story. This is not to say these students do not get help with decoding; they do. But their teacher provides that instruction separately, using reading materials at the right instructional level.
The seventh-graders' interest in the story and their motivation to read it successfully are apparent. Some students with learning disabilities are now reading for 30 minutes at a stretch. As one student put it, "Usually when I read, I get bored after two or three pages. But this keeps me interested."
Classroom observations of students reading with and without the computer supports suggest students using the computers have the edge when it comes to staying focused on reading. "Students in the technology-based classes tend to be more on task and engaged in the learning. They are enjoying the fact that they are able to be successful in this environment," says CAST's Dr. Bridget Dalton, who is directing the study. "For many of these students, it is the first time they are able to read the same books their classmates are enjoying."
Although data on student achievement will not be available until the project's completion, teacher and student responses have been positive. One resource room teacher observes a new sense of pride and independence among the students using the Thinking Reader software. "Everyone is part of the same activity, even the students who are reading at a slower pace than others in the group," she says. Using the software, the students can see their own progress toward the goal of becoming independent readers.
The students' comments in their work logs show they are bringing their own emotions and experiences to the novels they are reading. In response to the trials faced by the main character in the adventure novel, a boy who survives on his own for many days in the Canadian wilderness, one student wrote: "If I was (the boy) I would look for food all night long. I would not starve myself. . . If I had a house in the woods I would let (the boy) come in if I knew him." Another student wrote, "I feel bad for (the boy) because I would feel lonely."
Teachers report that their students are feeling more confident in their reading and that more students are participating in class discussions. "Two boys asked me if I had any more books by (the author of the adventure novel)," noted one teacher. Another boy asked when he could buy the software so that he could use it to read books at home. One special education teacher now includes the Thinking Reader in his Individualized Education Program (IEP) for his students with learning disabilities.
Students can learn to be better readers. Students at all levels can take charge of their own learning. Through the use of age-appropriate, appealing literature, variable levels of support and challenge, and student control over access to help, students can be more successful. With the Thinking Reader, CAST hopes to demonstrate that innovative software, providing both access and key instructional supports, can play an important role in developing readers who are strategic, engaged, and self-aware learners.
Dalton, B., Pisha, B., Coyne, P., Eagleton, M., & Deysher, S. (2001). Engaging the text: computer supported strategy instruction for students with learning disabilities. Project funded by the U.S. Office of Special Education Programs.
Palincsar, A.S. & Brown, A.L. (1984). Reciprocal teaching of comprehension-fostering and comprehension-monitoring activities. Cognition and Instruction, 1, 117-175.
Rose, D. & Meyer, A. (2000). Universal design for individual differences. Educational Leadership, 58 (3), 39-43.
The Thinking Reader project, formally titled Engaging the Text: Reciprocal Teaching and Questioning Strategies in a Scaffolded Learning Environment, is supported by the Office of Special Education Programs, U.S. Department of Education, Award No. H324D980051. Bart Pisha, Ed.D., is Principal Investigator for the project. Opinions expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the position of the U.S. Department of Education.
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