HOW ABOUT STUDENTS WHO CANNOT READ COMPLEX TEXT? Keith Pruitt, Ed.S Words of Wisdom Educational Consulting www.woweducationalconsulting.com
HOW ABOUT STUDENTS WHO CANNOT READ
COMPLEX TEXT?Keith Pruitt, Ed.S
Words of Wisdom Educational Consulting
www.woweducationalconsulting.com
Brain Gym You have one minute to make as many
words as possible from the following word.
Collaboration
One Size Fits All?
All of You Are Getting A New Pair of Shoes!!!!!
But I only have size 12s
One of the hidden dangers of 21st Century Standards is the mandate of putting students in rigorous text.
Text complexity works only when there are multiple scaffolds in place to enable students access to its message.
Without scaffolding, it is
merely throwing
students in books they
cannot read.
And isn’t that what we have done for the
past 100 years?
Two boys look up at a mountain. One says I can’t. The other says I will.
Keith Pruitt- Why I Didn’t Drop Out
We must learn to instill in our students a love for books, a zeal to know more, and an understanding of how to go deeper into a text.
What Three Scaffolds Can I Use in the
Classroom for those students who cannot read complex text?1. Lay the foundation!
2. Hearing Text!3. Read, Read, Read
One Would Never Dream of Building a House Without First Laying the FoundationLay The
Foundation
Lesson Framework
• Phonemic Awareness• Sound/Symbol
Relationships• Blending Sounds• Spelling Words• Sight Words• Decodable Text
The New Dynamic of Phonics Instruction
• Phonological Awareness should come early
• Lessons Should be Short• Auditory Experience is brief
• Tactile experience is paramount to the instruction
• Connection should be made to print quickly
C A T-- A T-- A T-- A TP R T B M K D
Programs that use successful pedagogy
• Spire (EPS)• Wilson• Words their Way (Pearson)• Fountas and Pinnell Phonics
(Heinemann)• Elements of Reading Phonics
(HMH)
Students Need To Hear Text
By itself, auditory experiences only met the needs of about 10% of the students in your room.
70% of students are visual learners.
But when you combine the print graphonic with the auditory—you are working with all the effectiveness of both.
Ways Students Can Hear Text
1. Teacher recorded text using products like
2. Using on-line tools like http://www.benchmarkuniverse.com/
3. Have students read to each other
Read!Read!Read!
The Greatest Condition to Guarantee Student Success………
Lots and Lots of PracticeOutliers, study by
Malcolm Gladwell (2008) of conditions to lead to
extraordinary success the unifying factor between
piano players, NBA players, programmers, etc.
was HOURS OF PRACTICE
10,000 hours of Practice
How much time will theaverage student
themselves spend reading in the classroom in one
year?
640 MinutesLess than 10 out of
800 hours in school
That means the average child in an American school will spend less time engaged in reading in a year than the
average High School football team will spend practicing in one week!
Some Realities About Independent Reading
1.Students Need Choice!2.Students Need to Read
Lots of Text at their Independent Reading Level
3.Students Need High Interest Text
Just 20 minutes per
day!• Increases
vocabulary by up to 600 words/year• Increases
Comprehension
We want to read about spiders,
snakes, race cars and football players!
I like to read about rodeos and
horses.
The new standards are
about Text
Not textbooks!
It is hoped that in implementing these three fundamental steps
in your program, you can have a tremendous impact in student
outcomes.
Remember,We Teach Students!
Thank You
Keith PruittWords of Wisdom
Educational Consultingwww.woweducationalconsulting.com