Reinforcing Reading with Discussion for Special Education Students

Classroom Examples of Reinforcing Reading with Discussion for Special Education Students

An important component of vocabulary development is social interactions and interventions in the classroom. Peterson & Eeds suggest that grand conversations about shared readings should include rich discussions about new words and their meanings. Students can find it motivating to work collaboratively to define new words using creative means, such as context clues or drama, and traditional methods, such as a dictionary or other media sources.

From Grand conversations: Literature groups in action. By R. Peterson & M. Eeds. New York: Scholastic. 1990

Collaborative strategic reading
This strategy was designed for students with learning disabilities and students who are at risk of reading failure. It combines the essential reading comprehension strategies that have been demonstrated to be effective in improving students’ understanding of text with cooperative learning groups or paired learning. CSR procedures are designed to maximize students’ engagement and help all students to be successful in heterogeneous or mixed learning level classrooms.

[Research Base Underlying Collaborative Reading Strategy. By D.P. Bryant, S. Vaughn, N. Linan-Thompson, N. Ugel, & A. Hammf. Iowa Department of Education Content Network. (2000).]
www.iowa.gov/educate/prodev/reading/research_col-strat-rdg.doc

Teaching Strategies for Students with Special Needs
http://www.readingrockets.org/article/c82/?sort=date&startnum=51&summaries=no

Concept-task-application
Wang and Au (1985) suggest asking focused pre-reading discussion questions about important parts of the text, will enhance students’ background knowledge of the subject.
• Concept –The teacher asks the students what they already know about the topic and what they would still like to learn. They are then asked to make goals for their reading.
• Task – The teacher asks cueing questions to focus students’ attention on important parts of the text and directs them to formulate answers to their questions. If a student’s answers are incorrect, the teacher has the opportunity to assist in re-reading, to “fix” their comprehension.
• Application –A summarization process in which the teacher repeats the initial questions and the student summarizes all the information that has been discussed throughout the lesson.

Struggling Adolescent Readers: A Collection of Teaching Strategies (Paperback) by David W. Moore (ed.), Donna E. Alvermann (ed.), & Kathleen A. Hinchman (ed.) 2000. International Reading Association. Pg. 142.

Literature circles and book clubs
Circles and Clubs can be highly effective ways to encourage students to connect with their reading and with other readers. Students learn from one another and start to understand the impact of what they are reading can have on their life and the lives of others. One goal in using this strategy is to have students discover how their own attitudes influence their responses to literature. Students will eventually begin to recognize similarities between themselves and the characters in the stories they read.

For strategies on how to use literature circles in new and interesting ways, see:
http://www.literaturecircles.com
http://www.planetbookclub.com

For book club ideas, see:
http://www.presumich.edu