This Doesn't Make Sense

Description of Learner:
Anton is a 33-year old African American male. He scored at 2.6 grade level in reading on the TABE (Tests of Adult Basic Education: CTB/McGraw-Hill). Anton is friendly, cooperative, and eager to learn. He wants to improve his reading and math, and ultimately successfully complete his General Educational Development (GED) tests. Anton is incarcerated and wants to use his time for self-improvement.

Challenge Faced:
Anton has been working on improving his math and reading. In math he has found flash cards very helpful. He uses them for drill and practice. He is quite proud of his improvement. In reading though he continues to find himself struggling over unknown words and mispronouncing them. For example, if a word begins with a letter of a word he knows, he guesses instead of considering whether the word fits the context of the sentence. At other times, another student in the class pronounces the word for him. His reading comprehension is poor. Many times he'll say, "What did I just read? This doesn't make sense!" or "I don't get it." At times he gets frustrated when he can't get it; he hangs his head, his shoulders droop, his voice gets very soft. Yet, he willingly volunteers to read aloud when I ask if anyone would like to read for the day. Anton's spoken communication is characterized by jerky and choppy word fluency.

What We Did:
I gave Anton a variety of different short passages to read aloud to himself, his roommate, his classroom buddy, or the classroom tutor. This provides opportunities to practice. When reading aloud to the class, I ensure that other students don't embarrass him or put him down. He and I also focus on pre-reading strategies. When he finds a word that is a struggle for him, he writes it on a 3x5 card. I say it aloud to him, and he repeats it. Then he writes it 3 times, saying it aloud each time he writes it. He then copies the sentence where the word appears, and reads the entire sentence to me or his classroom buddy or tutor. We also read the questions ahead of time. Then as we read the entire passage, I ask him to pause after each paragraph and retell what he had just read.

Analysis:
Anton needs to approach reading in 'bite-sized' pieces. He loves verbal reinforcement: "Good Job!" "You really seem to understand that part", "Look at what you've accomplished!" He likes to show me what he has accomplished, so I make sure I find a few minutes to let him "show me" what he has learned. He also finds that by reading the questions before reading the selection, he understands each paragraph at a higher level, and he achieves better results when answering questions. I continually stress to Anton that learning takes time and patience. I ask him, "How do you eat an elephant?" Of course, the answer is "One bite at a time." That's how we approach the reading task and overcoming his challenge.

What I Learned:
Anton has to see positive results quickly, however small. Verbal reinforcements help build his confidence so he can be a successful reader. Also, he needs to involve multiple modalities (hearing, seeing, doing) to help him reach his goal.

Anton, Group Discussion:

How did you know to try different learning approaches with Anton?
I've been teaching a long time. When one approach doesn't work I try something else.
I ask myself what is another way to present the material. I observe the student and see how he learns most effectively, that is; I look for signs of improvement with each approach implemented and analyze what seemed to produce the gains.

What were you trying to accomplish by asking Anton to read the questions ahead of time?
I knew Anton needed reinforcement and by looking at the questions ahead of time, he could prime his mental pump for the content. That way, he could think about what he was going to read before he read it, and then he had a better chance of comprehending what he was reading. Reading the questions up front helps lay the groundwork for the upcoming reading by giving the reader an idea of what will be read and what the key points are.

Summary:

Director's Comments:

Since Anton scored at the 2.6 grade level on the TABE, it would be helpful to analyze his errors and develop a list of phonics skills he failed to demonstrate. Teaching phonics skills in association to words that give him trouble during reading could keep the level of instruction at the adult level while addressing basic areas of weakness he now demonstrates.

After reading the questions prior to reading the text, how do you use the questions to build comprehension? I see that the questions prime his mental pump and help him focus on finding the answers to specific questions; do they also help him understand what he is reading or do they just help him find the answers to specific questions? Reading the questions before reading is an excellent strategy that generally activates stored memories about the topic and sets the stage for comprehension. You may wish to follow the reading with discussions that take the reader to greater depths that encourage him to create inferences and speculate at the author's purpose, etc.

When does Anton create the 3 X 5 word cards-- as he reads and finds unknown words, before he reads from words you have identified, or after reading? Experimenting with the timing of when word cards are constructed could shed light on which works best for Anton.