72438_Denton_CH05_037_046.indd
Section II
Effective Instruction for
Struggling Readers
Excerpted from Effective Instruction for Middle School Students with Reading Difficulties: The Reading Teacher's Sourcebook by Carolyn A. Denton, Ph.D., Sharon Vaughn, Ph.D., Jade Wexler, Ph.D., Deanna Bryan, & Deborah Reed, Ph.D.
Chapter 5
Components of Effective Instruction
After conducting assessments, Ms. Lopez should be aware of her students' needs in the following areas:
- Comprehension
- Vocabulary
- Fluency
- Word recognition
By this point, Ms. Lopez has designed a flexible grouping system that will allow her to work with homogenous, small groups when necessary. She feels that she has a grasp on what her students need to learn but is overwhelmed by the challenge of giving them the help they need. She is not sure how to structure her lessons to meet her students' needs. This chapter discusses how to organize and plan effective instruction. Researchers have identified key lesson components that make instruction more effective for struggling readers (Mastropieri & Scruggs, 2002; Swanson & Deshler, 2003). The components, explained in more detail later in this chapter, are as follows:
- Statement of objective or purpose
- Daily review
- Explicit modeling and teaching
- Guided practice
- Independent practice
- Teaching for generalization
- Monitoring student learning
- Periodic review (multiple opportunities for practice)
TERMS TO KNOW
- automaticity: Automatic processing; implementing a skill, strategy, or process with little or no conscious attention to it
- corrective feedback: Specific clarification provided by the teacher to give students information about their errors
- distributed practice: Providing many opportunities to practice a skill or apply a strategy distributed across time
- generalization: The application of a rule or behavior to a new context or setting
- objective: The aim or goal of the lesson; what the teacher wants the students to learn
- overlearning: Learning to the point of mastery, or automaticity
- positive feedback: Specific praise provided by the teacher to reinforce students’ correct responses
- prior knowledge: Background knowledge or knowledge that students already have from previous experience
- scaffolding: Adjusting or extending instruction so that students are able to be successful with challenging tasks
- think-aloud: A type of modeling in which the teacher verbalizes what he or she is thinking to make the thought process apparent to students
STATEMENT OF OBJECTIVE OR PURPOSE
The objective of the lesson must be clear to the teacher before it can be clear to the students. Be aware of what you want your students to learn and teach with that goal in mind. Provide students with a step-by-step presentation of information. Present only a few ideas at once, and connect new material to prior knowledge...
DAILY REVIEW
A daily review is more than just checking to see whether homework assignments are complete. A review of material covered the day before gives the teacher the opportunity to see whether her students have mastered the material and provides students with an opportunity to overlearn...
During the daily review, do the following:
- Review quickly the material taught in the previous lesson.
- Review previous learning with specific consideration for whether students have retained key concepts.
- Present information visually and explicitly.
EXPLICIT MODELING AND TEACHING
Model the strategy or demonstrate the skill clearly. Show students what you want them to do. Strategies can be modeled through a think-aloud process... During the modeling phase of instruction, try to ensure that ELLs and others with limited oral vocabularies are directly observing the teacher...
GUIDED PRACTICE
Guided practice gives students the opportunity to demonstrate what they have learned with guidance from the teacher. It is important that the teacher provides guidance while students work on their assignments...
Teacher : Where did Abraham Lincoln?
Student: give his speech?
Through supported application of skills and strategies, a student will be able to reach the goal of mastery.
TEACHING FOR GENERALIZATION
Generalization occurs when students apply strategies and skills they have learned in the reading class whenever they read in other contexts or settings...
MONITORING STUDENT LEARNING
Monitoring student learning refers to the process of gathering information regularly through student assessments. The information gathered should be directly connected to a student's instructional focus...
PERIODIC REVIEW AND/OR MULTIPLE OPPORTUNITIES FOR PRACTICE
A teacher who wants students to have long-term retention of the material they have learned must plan and provide for daily, weekly, and monthly review of strategies and skills...
Components of Effective Instruction
| ADAPTATION CATEGORY | DEFINITION | EXAMPLES |
|---|---|---|
| Instructional Content | Skills and concepts that are the focus of teaching and learning | Determining main ideas, Reading words with closed syllable patterns, Summarization |
| Instructional Activity | The actual lessons used to teach and reinforce skills and concepts | Semantic mapping, Main idea strategy lesson, Teaching the multisyllable word reading strategy |
| Delivery of Instruction | The procedures and routines used to teach instructional activities | Grouping—whole class, small group, or partners, Modeling and thinking aloud, Connecting to background knowledge, Multiple opportunities for practice |
| Instructional Materials | Supplemental aids that are used to teach and reinforce skills and concepts | Narrative or expository text, Manipulatives, Charts, Flashcards, Recorded text |
Note: Excerpts from Effective Instruction for Middle School Students with Reading Difficulties: The Reading Teacher's Sourcebook are used throughout.