Improving Reading for Young Adolescents with Disabilities

1
Improving Reading for Young Adolescents with
Disabilities

• Elizabeth G. Sturtevant
• George Mason University
• October 11, 2004

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Who Are Adolescents?

• 40,747,962 individuals between the ages of 10 and
  19 in the United States (U.S. Census, 2000).
• Diverse communities, families, schools
• Individual and cultural differences

3
Achievement Trends

• 2002 NAEP results (released June 19, 2003)
  indicate that 8th grade reading scores increased
  between 1992 and 2002, although 12th grade scores
  decreased (NCES, 2003).

4

• Reading scores for White, Black, and Hispanic 8th
  graders all increased between 1992 and 2002
  (NCES, 2003).

5
Why worry about adolescent literacy?

• Workplace demands in our information age are
  rising (Alvermann, 2002).
• Adolescents must become sophisticated readers
  of many types of texts (IRA/NMSA, 2002).
• School demands increase starting at Grade 4.
• Students with disabilities need extra support.

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Leaving School Early

• In 2000, 10.9 of the 16-24 year old population
  had dropped out of high school.
• Of these,
• 6.9 were White
• 13.1 were Black
• 27.8 were Hispanic
• (NCES, 2003)

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Principled Practices for Adolescent Literacy

• Developed to guide educators and policy makers.
• Based on the research across disciplines.
• Focus on what is seen in successful classrooms.

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Author Team

• Donna Alvermann (University of Georgia)
• Fenice Boyd (University of Buffalo)
• William Brozo (George Mason University)
• Kathleen Hinchman (Syracuse University)
• David Moore (Arizona State UniversityWest)
• Elizabeth Sturtevant (George Mason University)

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Consultants

• Patricia Anders (University of Arizona)
• Thomas Bean (University of Nevada)
• Judith Irvin (Florida State)
• Gay Ivey (James Madison)
• Elizabeth Moje (University Michigan)
• Richard Vacca (Kent State University)
• George Hruby (University of Georgia)
• Support provided by the Carnegie Corporation of
  New York and all universities.

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Eight Principles

• Adolescents need
• Active learning environments that offer clear and
  facilitative literacy instruction.
• Respectful environments characterized by high
  expectations, trust, and care.
• Opportunities to engage with print and nonprint
  texts for a variety of purposes.
• Opportunities to generate and express rich
  understandings of ideas and concepts.

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Eight Principles (p. 2)

• Opportunities to demonstrate enthusiasm for
  reading and learning
• Opportunities to assess their own reading and
  learning in order to direct their future growth.
• Opportunities to connect reading with their life
  and their learning inside and outside of school.
  
• Opportunities to develop critical perspectives
  toward what they read, view and hear.

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Adolescents need positive learning environments

• Active learning environments that offer clear and
  facilitative literacy instruction.
• Respectful environments characterized by high
  expectations, trust, and care.

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School Example 1

• Middle school 7th grade project in which students
  participated in an assembly line that made toys
  for disadvantaged children.
• Teachers in science, mathematics, English, and
  social studies, special education and ESOL
  collaborated.

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Features of the project

• Students could make choices
• Many served as leaders supervisors
• Students used text in various ways
• Writing was included
• Linked to the community
• All students participated

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Opportunities
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Adolescents need opportunities

• 3. To engage with print and nonprint texts for a
  variety of purposes.
• 4. To generate and express rich understandings of
  ideas and concepts.
• 5. To demonstrate enthusiasm for reading and
  learning.

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What About Strategies?
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Rand Report

• Students need to learn a repertoire of
  strategies imbedded in subject area instruction
  (Snow et al., 2002)

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Four Important Strategies

• Self questioning readers ask themselves
  questions while reading.
• Creating graphic organizers readers create
  visuals to help themselves understand and
  remember.
• Summarizing readers create summaries from one
  or more texts.
• Identifying text structures readers learn to
  approach different texts differently.

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School Example 2

• Summer program serving 6th graders with serious
  difficulties in reading and writing.
• 90 identified as learning disabled.
• University-school partnership.
• Tutors asked students to select projects.
• Taught strategies/skills within the project.

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Additional Basics
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Adolescents need opportunities to

• 6. Assess their own reading and learning in order
  to direct their future growth.
• 7. Connect reading with their life and their
  learning inside and outside of school.
• 8. Develop critical perspectives toward what they
  read, view and hear.

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School Example 3

• Students in Grade 8 studied volunteerism as a
  theme in social studies and English.
• Interviewed community members about their
  volunteerism.
• A local historian taught historical research
  methods.

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Some aspects of the project

• Students participated in the assessment of their
  project and group work.
• Students read from textbooks, library materials,
  and the Internet.
• Students conducted and shared the project in
  their community.
• Students wrote critical reflections on the
  value and difficulties of volunteering (Why
  volunteer? Why not?)

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Seven Final Notes

• Adolescents with disabilities are like other
  adolescents.
• These students need extra support and
  instruction.
• All students need to learn to read and use
  multiple types of texts for multiple purposes.
• Students who struggle with reading need support
  for reading difficult texts, AND they need texts
  they can read easily.

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Seven Final Notes

• Teachers of all subjects need to explicitly teach
  reading strategies within their content.
• Engagement and motivational issues must be taken
  seriously.
• Literacy improves when used for real purposes in
  the school, home, and community.