Different Strategies to Inspire Struggling Readers

1. Different Strategies to Inspire Struggling Readers Faculty Mentor: Dr. Hui-Yin Hsu Jacqueline Maddalena, Kimberly Rengifo, Joseph Droge, and Lacresha Cooke

2. Problem Statement: • Teaching students to read can become problematic; as a result, that task of teaching a struggling reader to read becomes even more of a challenge. The teacher must then be aware of other methods or approaches of engaging and inspiring their students. This can be done through the integration of various forms of texts and learning resources.

3. It is known, that each student has their own way of learning, and it is the teachers job to differentiate that material to the students learning styles. There are various different strategies that can be implemented into teaching the students to read at, or above grade level. Some of these approaches include graphic organizers, family involvement, life long learning, age appropriate trade books, technology, and different forms of the arts.

4. There are five research-based language arts strategies that teachers use to successfully teach content area information. • Previewing vocabulary content. • Developing questions as guides. • Using realia which are concrete objects or manipulatives. • Retelling and summarizing. • Creating visual representations.

5. Creating a language intensive program that focuses on developing skills of reading, writing, listening and speaking. • Scaffolding • Modeling • Needs-Based Instruction • Book-Rich Environment • Cross-Age Reading • Home/School Connection • Motivation

6. Promote Lifelong Learning Teachers can develop lifelong learning traits in students: • By “bridging the gap between what students already know and can do and what they need to accomplish”. • By modeling to students that reading is more than simply saying words correctly. • By providing struggling readers with an environment that encourages them to read and write without feeling intimidated. • By finding out what kinds of print are familiar to children and build on them. • By building a cumulative literacy culture in the classroom that draws on each child's home experiences with print while simultaneously expanding the two worlds. • By creating centers within the class that are enriched with examples of genres appropriate in the settings (e.g., coupons, recipes, phonebook, calendar, and [play] money in the kitchen) as well as blank papers (e.g., a notepad in the kitchen, message pads in the office). • By building on literacy strengths and genre knowledge children bring from home…genre has proven to be one important means of bridging the known to the new.