Week 11: Supporting Struggling Adolescents

Summary

Fisher and Frey:

This article is about the use of the gradual release model with struggling writers in an urban school. It began with a “language experience approach” to help the writers understand the connection between speech and written language. The teacher also used interactive writing to foster “teachable moments” (400). Additionally, students worked with writing models to give them a starting point for their writing. One strategy that effectively utilized the gradual release model was generative sentences, to help students focus on word- and sentence-level writing. To develop fluency, students regularly practiced power writing sessions. Toward the end of the class, students began doing more independent writing. By the end of the semester, most students made significant strides in their reading and writing skills.

Hinchman & Sheridan-Thomas Chapter 5:

This chapter focuses on students who struggle with understanding how knowledge is explored and created within various disciplines. One issue that the chapter suggests teachers address is students’ literate identities, and it posits that having a literate identity of a “struggling reader” is one of the major hold-ups for students who struggle with academic literacies. To help these students, teachers should get to know them as readers, and then they should tailor instruction to those students’ goals. Also, teachers should be treating struggles as learning opportunities to be celebrated and “tackled head-on” (89). By addressing reading difficulties this way, teachers are creating a supportive environment in which students are better equipped to deal with the struggles they have with academic literacies.

Hinchman & Sheridan-Thomas Chapter 15:

This chapter provides specific strategies for helping readers who struggle with textbook comprehension. First, if possible, teachers should consider the features listed in figure 15.2 on page 271 if they have a say in choosing textbooks. Teachers should also engage students in pre-reading activities to increase their motivation and interest. Teachers can also use “text sets” or focus on critical literacy to build engagement with textbooks. Comprehension instruction should be embedded in lessons that focus on learning the actual content of the books. Also, strategies should be taught explicitly so as to increase the range of strategies that students are using regularly. For instance, teachers should explicitly instruct students how to use specific text features to explore the information on which they are focused. Teachers can also create interactive guides such as QARs to enhance students’ comprehension, since the ultimate goal is content area knowledge. Additionally, it is beneficial for teachers to use a gradual release of responsibility model with consistent strategy reinforcement when supporting students’ comprehension of textbooks.

Hinchman and Sheridan-Thomas Chapter 18:

Differentiated instruction is defined as the “pedagogical responses teachers make to learner differences that they ‘encounter day by day and moment by moment’” (331). Teachers can modify one or more of four different areas to differentiate instruction: content, process, product, and assessment. Differentiated instruction is crucial to achieving success with the CCSS. The multiple intelligences model for differentiating instruction focuses on students’ strengths and modifying instruction to cater to those strengths. The universal design for learning model integrates technology to make students’ learning experiences customizable, but there is also a focus on high expectations for all students. The sheltered instructional observation protocol  involves explicit instruction and scaffolding to provide linguistic support for understanding. Within any or all of these models, there are various approaches teachers can take to differentiate instruction. They can help make texts relevant to individual students by linking texts to their interests and/or needs. Teachers can also create lessons that are multimodal to help students with various intelligences. Teachers should also activate students’ prior knowledge to help them make knowledge connections. In terms of grouping, teachers should be deliberate and vary the groups at various points within each unit. Teachers should set up lessons so that students can support one another with their own strengths.

Responses

I thought it was interesting that the teacher in the Fisher & Frey article used interactive writing with adolescents, but I’m excited about the prospect! While we’ve worked on writing as a whole class before, I’ve never used interactive writing the way that it was described in the article. I love the way it opens up different teachable moments and helps students examine language. I like the idea of having everyone writing on white boards together to keep them focused on the language. I would love to try this with my smaller literacy for life class; I think that they would benefit from it a lot.

I wish that I had had teachers who focused on reading strategies with textbooks. I feel like I did a lot of things intuitively when I made myself engage with the reading, but a lot of times I was just hunting for the answers to rote-level questions my teachers gave me. I love the idea of having a particular focus or question and reading the textbook to try to deduce information related to that. That’s a great opportunity to teach students strategies that they can use to dissect such a text, and having pre-reading activities in addition to a topical focus or questioning task would have really helped me engage with textbooks more as an adolescent.

I thought the chapter on differentiated instruction was really useful, especially in terms of discussing the different aspects of the learning situation that teachers can modify. Differentiation of instruction really is something that needs to happen on-the-fly, so I like the idea of having this list in my mind: content, process, product, and assessment. That way, I can mentally go through the list and figure out what I can modify to best help students who are struggling at any point in a lesson or unit. I think we as teachers also need to realize that differentiated instruction isn’t just for students on IEPs—a lot of teachers I know seem to have this impression. It should be an integral part of all good teaching.

Questions

- Have you used any of the strategies in the Fisher & Frey article? How do they work for you?

- What sorts of pre-reading strategies and activities do you have your students do with nonfiction texts like textbooks?

- What are some ways that you usually differentiate instruction?

Apparently this only saved as a draft at first? Oops, sorry about that!