Reading for Slow Learners

A Curriculum Guide

W. K. Brennan

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9780429942594
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Bildung
• Subtopic: Bildung Allgemein

First published in 1978. Reading for Slow Learners is a practical guide for teachers, defining the objectives of the reading curriculum, identifying important aspects of teaching method and suggesting various approaches. This title will also be of interest to parents of children with learning difficulties.

Part 1

The reading curriculum

I. Introduction

The importance of the ability to read with accuracy and understanding is unchallenged among teachers, parents and others interested in education. There can be few primary schools in which the acquisition of reading skill is not a major curriculum objective. In secondary schools, work with slow learners also retains reading as an important objective, though sometimes its importance tends to decline as pupils pass through the school.

Reading can be successfully taught to pupils with an intelligence quotient as low as 50–60 – and indeed some pupils with IQs below 50 have established reading skills, though usually later than their more able peers. For pupils with IQs over 50, therefore, a low level of tested intelligence cannot be advanced as the sole cause of reading failure. More pertinent factors are breakdowns or weaknesses in the neurological or psychological processes which sustain the skill of reading. These process weaknesses, although often associated with low intelligence-test scores, may be present in some pupils within or above the normal range of intelligence (IQs 85–115). There is also some overlap between such process failures and those resulting from an impoverished environment which denies the pupil opportunity for the learning and practice of sub-skills. Nevertheless, there are many pupils whose environmental disadvantages do not prevent them from acquiring an adequate level of reading skill. Clearly, reading failure is the result of complex factors whose effect varies between individuals, and it is therefore a problem to be treated in terms of individual pupils and their specific needs.

However, some generalizations can be made from weaknesses observed in the project schools which point to contributory causes of reading failure.

Teaching skill

Though there are many individual exceptions, much more could be done to improve teachers’ knowledge of and skill in the teaching of reading. The general level of teaching skill meets the needs of those pupils who learn to read without difficulty, but it does not resolve the problems presented by slow learners and pupils with specific reading difficulties. This is especially evident in secondary schools.

Published reading schemes meet the needs of the majority of pupils when properly organized and presented, but they are inadequate for slow learners and pupils with specific reading difficulties. Most schemes have vocabularies and situations which are not related to the vocabularies and experiences of socially disadvantaged slow learners. They introduce new words too rapidly and provide insufficient repetition and reinforcement. More serious, the extent and variety of activities and content at the pre-reading stage are, in those reading schemes which offer them, inadequate in assisting slow learners to establish the necessary sub-skills.

The use of published schemes

Most of the schools observed did little to supplement or extend the activities of the chosen published scheme or schemes. In about half the schools, the schemes and their content constituted the only reading curriculum. In about a quarter, the chosen scheme was supplemented by curriculum papers outlining methods of using the scheme and suggesting supplementary exercises for slow learners. One school in three had organized supplementary books to fit in with the stages of the basic scheme, and in about half of these cases the curriculum had evidently been devised first and the reading materials chosen to match it closely. The teaching in this last group of schools tended to be more effective.

Lack of a reading curriculum

In a further quarter of the observed schools there was no basic reading curriculum or organized means of guiding the work of individual teachers, though there may have been incidental discussion. Often this was not an accidental omission but expressed a distinct philosophy of education which left each teacher free to develop her own work in her own way, discussion being left to individual initiative.

Curriculum weaknesses

The curricula examined showed good analysis of the reading process and competent organization of stages, but organization was rarely based on behavioural objectives. Usually the organizational stages were set out in terms of material to be learned by the pupil. Even in the good curricula, well-executed in efficient schools, there tended to be undue stress on the early, mechanical stages of reading skill with comparative neglect of comprehension, reading speed, and the ‘higher’ functional skills of reading.

Record-keeping and continuity

The general level of recording and charting of individual progress was unsatisfactory for the needs of slow learners or pupils with specific reading difficulties. This was less marked in primary and special schools, though even here the standard of recording was often less than adequate. A universal failure, damaging in the extreme to slow learners, was in passing information about teaching methods and individual pupils’ progress from one school to another, whether between the stages of education or within the same stage. Even in the best examples, the information passed on tended to show only the pupils’ level of achievement, such as a word-recognition or comprehension test score. Very occasionally the reading series used might be indicated, but rarely was any information passed on about teaching methods or about the patterns of specific difficulty experienced by slow-learning pupils. As a result of these weaknesses, some pupils making satisfactory general progress had gaps in knowledge and skill which created difficulty for them; while slow learners’ general backwardness in reading was compounded by specific difficulties created within the school itself by the lack of continuity.

Initial reading vocabulary

Almost all teachers stressed the importance of relating the first steps in formal reading to the actual language used by the pupil. But in practice many based their introduction of reading on the arbitrary vocabulary of the first book in the chosen reading scheme.

At first sight, these inadequacies may seem depressing; but it must be remembered that about 80 per cent of pupils are making adequate progress in reading, and that in many schools weaknesses of curricula and method are overcome by the concern and teaching skill of individual teachers. With more rigorous attention to the reading curriculum, many weaknesses could be eradicated and general standards could be raised.

It is not intended here to lay down the detail of what schools should teach; this responsibility must remain within the schools. The intention here is to indicate the knowledge and skills to be considered in developing the reading curriculum, to identify important aspects of teaching method and to suggest approaches which may be of value.

It is impossible to discuss adequately the needs of slow-learning pupils without reference to the general reading curriculum. Part 1, therefore, begins with an analysis of the general reading curriculum and its learning objectives, with special reference to slow learners. The general stages in reading development are then outlined, and this is followed by a detailed consideration of the kind of recording necessary if there is to be continuity of teaching and learning. The special needs of slow learners are then considered. The rationale for the major modifications of the general curriculum is discussed, and modified programmes for adaptive-developmental, corrective and remedial needs are identified. Part 2 presents teaching information brought together from the experience of the project, from discussions and teaching notes, and from guidance issued by the advisory services.

II. The general reading curriculum

For our purpose, reading is defined as the meaningful interpretation of visual–verbal symbols presented in printed or written English. The significance of this definition rests in its identification of the process of reading with the spoken English language, and its emphasis on the close and continuing relationship between the spoken and written forms.

The definition has special implications for teaching method, particularly with slow learners. First, it directs attention to the task which faces the pupil when he first encounters written words. At this stage, written words have no meaning except that brought to them by the spoken forms, and the meaning and/or concepts attached to these in the pupil’s mind. If these are absent, then there is nothing with which the forms may be associated. This is why the first formal attack on reading by the slow learner must make use of the printed forms of words which are clearly established, with meaning, in his own spoken language. True, his language may be limited and require enrichment. That is a task for the language programme which, based upon real experience, should precede the reading programme and prepare the way for it. Secondly, writing helps to establish accurate, permanent recognition of the visual forms of words through the kinaesthetic experience of tracing or copying them, while also introducing the conventions of the left-right and top-bottom arrangements of written English language. These aspects of method, of little importance with normal learners, assume considerable significance with slow learners and pupils with specific reading difficulties.

There are three main classes of reading to be considered in any reading curriculum: basic reading which includes the mechanics of word recognition and associated comprehension of the written word; functional reading which includes ability to locate material, judgement of its relevance and organization of its use; and recreational reading which is concerned with the use of reading for enjoyment, entertainment and personal enrichment.

These classes of reading should not be confused with stages of reading instruction or reading skill. From the very beginning, the learner should be engaged in the comprehension of the words he learns to recognize; he should be using them also in composing answers to questions or simple messages, either in writing or with word cards; and he should be enjoying them as he follows the printed forms of stories read to him, reads them himself or reads them to others. As his reading vocabulary grows, uses of reading should expand to keep pace with it. This is of primary importance. For example, a pupil with a reading age of only 7 to 8 years may be required to read a number of simple sentences in order to complete a task. Some of the sentences may have no connexion with the task. The pupil must read and comprehend the sentences in order to use the instructions to complete his task. But the teacher is observing another skill: she notes whether or not the pupil identifies the irrelevant sentences and ignores them in completing his task. If the pupil does this efficiently, then he is using the same skills as the 16-year-old who skips irrelevant parts of a textbook in preparing an O-level geography essay – except that the skill is being applied at a less sophisticated level. It is this ability to construct learning situations in which different kinds of reading skill are appropriately exercised, from simple to complex levels, which marks out the skilled teacher of reading. The detail of such learning situations can only emerge in the classroom, and cannot be spelt out in the curriculum. But the curriculum should analyse the different kinds of reading skill and suggest objectives within them in order to assist teachers with their task of devising and presenting to pupils the learning situations which will enable them to attain their behavioural objectives.

A. BASIC READING

Basic reading has three elements: reading readiness, word-recognition skills and comprehension skills.

Reading readiness

Reading readiness is not a static concept. It is not identified by age, either chronological or mental; it is a state of maximum preparation and aspiration preceding the establishment of a new skill. The growth and maturation of the child both contribute to readiness but it must also be nurtured by the teacher in every possible way.

The reading-readiness programme prepares the pupil for the process of reading and establishes the sub-skills required if he is to experience early success in basic reading. The main pupil behavioural objectives to be achieved are listed below. In each case, teachers must be alert for signs of physical defects – for example, of sight, hearing, speech or movement – which might hinder the achievement of these objectives, so that specialist advice may be sought.

OBJECTIVES OF READINESS LEARNING

Auditory-linguistic

1 The pupil should be able to follow and understand sequences of at least three or four simple, spoken sentences on topics which interest him.

2 Within these limits, the pupil should be able to carry out simple, spoken instructious.

3 The pupil should be able to repeat from memory simple sentences or jingles spoken by the teacher.

4 There should be general interest in the sounds of words and in differences in sounds, and the pupil should be able to detect initial, middle and terminal sounds.

5 The pupil should be able to identify words which rhyme when these are spoken by the teacher; and, given a cue word, produce words which rhyme with it from within his own spoken voca...