Reader Response

Organizing Instruction for Struggling Readers in Tutorial Settings


The authors of the article suggest that many teachers struggle with organizing assessment and instruction in their classroom. This according to them, originates from  struggling readers difficulty"related to the types of text read (print or online), the tasks or activities readers engage in and the sociocultural contexts of reading." When the students needs are kept in mind, the struggling reader can be taught to read if their plan is thoughtfully organized.

They use a case study "Alyssa" who is in third grade and at frustration level, a struggling reader, as a case study. She had scored poorly on the Iowa's reading State test and the teacher felt it necessary to continue further assessment to get to the bottom of her reading troubles. She struggles with vocabulary, decoding and greatly with comprehension.

The authors share three "practical guidelines" of how the teacher was able to put together a plan to help Alyssa.

1. "Use multiple assessment data to help design and guide instruction". In other words, as a teacher who may need to create a plan similar to this for a struggling student, one must use various forms of assessment to test fluency,  word recognition etc and use those finding to inform the lessons. If the student has fluency problems, modeling fluency and prosody would be helpful.

2. "Implement an instructional framework for organizing and managing instruction." When a teacher is in a tutorial setting with a student, time is limited. It is important to use a prearranged studied plan. The authors' use an adaption of Rollers framework: use easy books, read new books, writing activity, a mini-lesson, and an introduction of a new more challenging book. Also reaffirm that the student should spend at minimum 5 minutes a day out side of school reading, involve the parents if necessary.

3."Monitor student's response to instruction." Observing the student, and seeing how prepared, how engaged and how responsive the student is to the intervention methods is key.

I thought there were some very good aspects to this article, and ones I would practice in my classroom. However what strikes me is the amount of time the teacher needs to spend with "Alyssa". This would not be possible in a class of 20+ students. Of course, some individual time is necessary and an intervention is a must, but I feel like the full tutoring plan would be impossible for e to completely implement and it makes me a bit nervous, thinking I may have to do so.