Teaching Reading to Teens with Learning Disabilities - Page 2

Two Successful Models That Have Incorporated These Four Features Are Described Below:

Collaborative Strategic Reading (CSR)

This model was designed specifically for students with learning disabilities and students who are at risk of reading failure. It calls for the teacher to introduce a set of four distinct strategies to the class and to introduce and review any new vocabulary that students will encounter that they might not be able to figure out during group activities and instruction. Once the teacher introduces the material to be read to the entire class, the students take charge and the teacher provides assistance and support as needed, and then oversees a brief wrap-up activity at the end of each lesson.

 

The strategies used in the CSR model are:

• Preview (students brainstorm about the topic and predict what will be learned before starting to read)
• Click and Clunk (students identify parts of a passage that are hard to understand, and use four "fix-up" strategies)
• Get the Gist (students identify the most important information in a passage)
• Wrap Up (students ask and answer questions that demonstrate understanding as a way to review what was learned)

In this model, students are assigned different cooperative group roles such as Leader, Clunk Expert, (the one who reminds the group of the necessary steps and strategies), Gist Expert, Announcer (the one who asks group members to carry out different activities); and Encourager.
 

Strategic Instruction Model (SIM)

The SIM model was developed for students who already have basic decoding and word recognition skills. That said, even students who struggle with these early reading skills need to "learn how to learn" and could benefit from classroom routines and strategies that help ensure that that they are learning critical content (the course material students need to meet standards) in ways that prepare them for class promotion, high school graduation, and a success after school.

The focus of SIM therefore is to promote effective teaching and learning of critical content in schools. SIM strives to help teachers make decisions about what is of greatest importance, what strategies can be taught to students to help them to learn, and what classroom-based strategies are effective in helping them learn. It also introduces the types of skills and strategies that will help students to be successful in post-secondary settings including college and the workplace.

SIM consists of a menu of components for use by students with learning disabilities as well as instructional tools for use by teachers. Specific strategies used in this model related to reading are:

 

• paraphrasing (students express main idea and details in their own words)
• self questioning (students develop questions concerning reading passages and read to find answers)
• visual imagery (students visualize scenes in detail)
• word identification (students decode unfamiliar words by using context clues and word analysis).

 

The SIM model also offers a number of Content Enhancement Routines to help teachers manage and present the content of their classes in ways that help all students learn. Some of these routines focus on:

 

• organization (helps students understand how information is organized)
• understanding (helps students identify the main idea and concepts in reading)
• recall (which help students remember key information)
• application (which helps students apply what has been learned)

There is good evidence to suggest that when students are taught these strategies in a systematic, intentional, and intensive fashion, they demonstrate gains that enable them to perform at or near grade level.