Remedial Reading Classes Research Articles

Challenges of EFL Course Retaking: Toward a Model for Remedial Reading

Course retaking brings pivotal challenges for learning institutions all over the world. This urges many academicians to investigate the reasons why students retake courses. Therefore, this article identifies the micro and macro challenges associated with retaking a reading course. It also generates a remedial reading model for English as foreign language (EFL) contexts. Data was collected from reading course specifications, course report, and focused group discussions with six experienced language instructors at the preparatory year program of a Saudi university. Using grounded theory, the qualitative data was analyzed through thematic analysis. The findings revealed a complex web of challenges associated with different stakeholders: the course retakers, language instructors, administration, and retakers’ families; all of them share the challenge of time constraints, especially after the shift from two to three semesters. At the micro level, course retakers struggle with poor foundational skills and demotivation, focusing on passing exams. They also lack exposure to English and seldom invest office hours for help. Language instructors struggle with learning materials, demotivation, and assessment. At the macro level, students’ families contribute to maximize these challenges. A gap exists between the intended learning outcomes and student levels and admission criteria. These challenges collectively hinder course retakers’ reading skills. The study generates a five-pillar bridging model that integrates learning outcomes, exam-oriented teaching strategies, simplified reading materials, technology-assisted reading, and motivational strategies to foster EFL remedial reading. The study recommends some pedagogical implications for remedial reading classes.

Literacy as a Race, Students as Machines: Conflicting Metaphors in a Remedial Reading Class

Literacy learning is an ideological proposition, one that privileges certain forms of language and those who speak them above others. This qualitative study utilizes critical metaphor analysis () to examine the literacy ideologies at work in a secondary remedial reading class. By analyzing the speech of Mr. Baker, a seasoned remedial reading teacher, and his ninth-grade student Angelica, three dominant metaphors in the corpus are explored: READING CLASS IS A RACE, LEARNING TO READ is a journey, and STUDENTS ARE MACHINES. Findings suggest both the limitations of the metaphors employed by participants as well as the utility of critical metaphor analysis in uncovering the ideological underpinnings of school-based literacy practices.

Submitting, resisting, and getting by: literacy and ideology in a remedial reading program

Our current political moment has raised critical questions surrounding the efficacy of public education to deliver on its promise of social uplift. This ethnographic case study utilizes Louis Althusser’s conception of ideology--which insists that the way to dismantle systemic injustice is first to recognize its imprint on our everyday actions--to examine the material practices of two high school remedial reading classes. Findings indicate the negative impact of an ‘autonomous model’ (Street, 1984) of literacy on students’ own literate activities, as well as their multiple methods of engaging with this literacy ideology. Ultimately, this analysis urges more consideration of the (literacy) ideologies at work in public education today, and suggests that efforts at the curricular level to equalize educational outcomes may be prone to fail if larger ideological questions remain unexplored.

Mobile-based Interactive Media in Remedial Reading Instruction

This study investigated if there would be a significant effect of using mobile-based interactive media on the word recognition and comprehension of Grade-7 students who underwent remedial reading classes because they were identified as non-readers or belonging to the frustration level of reading comprehension. It employed a standardized reading test in administering the pre-test and post-test among the students before and after utilizing the said interactive media, respectively. The test included word recognition (oral) and comprehension (written) tests to determine the reading ability of the students. The findings revealed that there was a significant difference between the pre-test and post-test scores of the students both for word recognition and comprehension. The use of mobile-based interactive media was found effective in enhancing the reading skills of students, even for those students who were already in Grade-7 and those who belonged to the Frustration Level of reading comprehension. The study recommended that a longer period of time could be allotted for remedial reading instructions while using mobile-based interactive media and that interviews could be used as a follow-up strategy in ascertaining the improvement of students’ reading skills.

Reading in “Purgatory”: Tactical Literacies in a Remedial Reading Class

AbstractI detail findings from an ethnographic study of a high school remedial reading class, with a particular focus on students’ perceptions of what it means to be literate and how their mandatory enrollment in the course impacted their identities. Compounding students’ experiences was the existence of a high‐stakes reading examination that all students in the district must pass to graduate high school. Findings describe the contrast between school literacies that students learn in class and their own literate practices, which neither youth nor their teacher recognized as literacies, as well as the functioning of the remedial reading class as a sort of “purgatory” that holds and segregates students, the majority of whom are students of color and/or from marginalized socioeconomic backgrounds, for semesters on end. Still, students employed tactical literacies to subvert the teacher’s directives and reclaim their time. These findings suggest that common approaches to remediation may be a cause of youth disinterest in reading and that youth literacies may be leveraged in service of broader literacy goals, although the school must first acknowledge them.

Behavioral Engagement among Adolescents with Reading Difficulties: The Role of Active Involvement in a Universally Designed Digital Literacy Platform

We use the affordances of a supplemental digital literacy platform to study the dynamics of behavioral engagement and reading comprehension among middle-school students in remedial reading classes. All participating students (n = 315) were identified by their schools as needing additional reading support; 56% received special education services. They used the digital literacy platform designed using the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework for approximately 1 hr per week for an academic year. Embedded indicators of activity in the digital platform captured whether and how students engaged with available text-related activities. Higher levels of behavioral engagement were not associated with improved reading comprehension in the sample overall. An interaction effect indicated that students who started the year with lower reading comprehension skills were likely to benefit more from higher reading-related behaviors and more use of text-to-speech than those starting with relatively higher comprehension skills.

On being a pathologist: a pathway to pathology practice; the added value of supplemental vocational training and mentoring in college and medical school

Traditionally, vocational training and liberal arts (and premedical) curricula have been separate education tracks. This personal profile describes a program that evolved from the partial fusion of vocational training and a premedical education track. My personal health issue, visual impairment, which presumably resulted as a complication of congenital toxoplasmosis, hampered my ability to read in grammar school and necessitated my placement in remedial reading classes until eighth grade. My father created an independent home-based vocational training program that ran in parallel to my traditional school education all the way through college. In this case study, I provide an overview of this hybrid education program, which we refer to as the Vocational Training/Medical College Curriculum of the Future (VTMC). This term implies that the education of a student from K-12 school through medical college is a continuum. I find it useful to conceptualize a single education continuum beginning with vocational training and ending with medical education, with a large overlap area in the middle. In this paper, I describe a set of my work experiences that leveraged and reinforced my didactic education experiences. Mentors who supported aspects of the VTMC program have included a college president, a US Congressman, a Nobel Laureate, and a Massachusetts General Hospital leader in academic pathology. Elements of this innovative VTMC program have been used in K-12 public schools and in nonmedical graduate school programs.

Effects of a positive youth development approach to literacy through young adult literature in the secondary remedial reading class: an action research study

The purpose of this action research study was to determine if a bibliotological approach to literacy with at-risk students met the educational expectations of a remedial reading course while simultaneously accelerating literacy practices and promoting positive youth development. Twenty-four tenth grade students enrolled in a remedial reading course in the southwestern USA participated in a nine-week instructional design that utilized young adult literature as a medium through which to practice literacy skills and strategies while exploring positive youth development simultaneously. Measurement protocols included diagnostic assessments of reading, surveys, Likert-scale inventories, and journals as a way of eliciting students’ voices. Data was analyzed through paired t-tests, Bonferroni Correlation, and typological and inductive coding. Through this approach, all students experienced an increase in self-efficacy, which led to positive youth development and growth in literacy proficiency and practices. Suggestions for future research include the study of this approach in multiple remedial contexts, with multiple young adult texts, and for greater lengths of time. Additionally, a follow-up inquiry to determine potential lasting impact is warranted.

Effects of Planning and Goal Setting on Reducing Latency to Task Engagement for Struggling Readers in Middle School

The current study examined the effect of a planning and goal-setting intervention in reducing latency to task engagement. This study used a multiple baseline design across participants for two seventh-grade and two eighth-grade students in a remedial reading class. The behavioral intervention was administered in small groups at the start of each class period. Latency for transitions was mea- sured from the conclusion of teacher directions to the initiation of assigned aca- demic tasks. Results showed the implementation of the intervention was closely associated with immediate decreases in latency to task engagement. The interven- tion reduced the mean latency to task engagement for all participants and reduced the variability over baseline. Visual analysis indicate a functional relation between the intervention and changes in latency. Implications for results and suggestions for future research are discussed.

A Group Contingency Plus Self-Management Intervention Targeting At-Risk Secondary Students' Class-Work and Active Engagement.

The purpose of the present study is to show that an independent group contingency (GC) combined with self-management strategies and randomized-reinforcer components can increase the amount of written work and active classroom responding in high school students. Three remedial reading classes and a total of 15 students participated in this study. Students used self-management strategies during independent reading time to increase the amount of writing in their reading logs. They used self-monitoring strategies to record whether or not they performed expected behaviors in class. A token economy using points and tickets was included in the GC to provide positive reinforcement for target responses. The results were analyzed through visual inspection of graphs and effect size computations and showed that the intervention increased the total amount of written words in the students' reading logs and overall classroom and individual student academic engagement.

Academic Outcomes Among a Sample of Learning Support Community College Students

This research examined the relationship between placement in a learning support college program and subsequent academic outcomes. The sample consisted of 275 entering freshmen students who were enrolled in the Learning Support reading courses in the fall of 2005. Data were collected from the Gordon College Office of Institutional Research. The data showed that of the 275 students who enrolled in a Learning Support reading course in the fall 2005 semester, 189 returned for the spring 2006 semester. Data also showed that 58% of the 275 students enrolled in Learning Support reading during fall 2005 successfully completed a basic reading intensive course upon completion of their remedial reading class. One hundred eighty seven students who had previously completed Learning Support reading enrolled (spring 2006 or later) in Introductory English 101 and 121 passed. Fifty-five students who had completed Learning Support reading enrolled (spring 2006 or later) in History 1121, Western Civilization, and 20 students passed. Six of the 205 students who completed Learning Support reading graduated Gordon College within a three-year period. The results of the present study indicate that the Learning Support Reading Program in place at Gordon College has proven to be a beneficial tool for at-risk college students. It is assumed that programs such as the Learning Support Program described here may help students build a foundation that will aid them throughout their college career.

Benefits of computer‐assisted instruction for struggling readers in middle school

This study investigated the benefits of computer‐assisted instruction (CAI) for middle‐school students attending remedial reading classes. As a supplement to a strong language‐based reading curriculum, a CAI programme that works on strengthening phonics word identification skills was provided to students in the treatment group. These students were compared with control students taught by the same teacher but without CAI support. Students in the treatment group showed greater reading gains than control students. Group differences in gain scores were significant in the area of decoding skills. These results show that a skills‐based CAI programme can boost decoding for struggling readers in middle school.

An investigation of extensive reading with remedial students in a Philippines secondary school

This chapter reports a 6-month study that used a matched-pairs pre-test, post-test control group design to evaluate the effectiveness of extensive reading with remedial reading students in a Philippines secondary school ( n=60). Ninety percent of students at the school come from low-income homes where reading materials tend to be scarce. The dependent variable, reading proficiency, was assessed using the Informal Reading Inventory and the Gray Standardized Oral Reading Test. Each day, both groups received the same 40 min of English instruction, plus a remedial class. In their remedial class, the control group studied via a traditional approach, emphasizing intensive reading and phonics. For the extensive reading group, the remedial reading class involved reading self-selected materials and doing a variety of post-reading activities. Results suggest that extensive reading led to greater gains than traditional reading instruction. Details on how extensive reading was implemented and a rationale for extensive reading are provided.

Reading for Meaning: The Efficacy of Reciprocal Teaching in Fostering Reading Comprehension in High School Students in Remedial Reading Classes

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of strategy instruction on reading comprehension. The main objective of strategy instruction is to foster comprehension monitoring. The study examined whether reciprocal teaching methods (strategy instruction) were superior to traditional methods of remedial reading (skill acquisition) in large intact high school remedial classes. This setting was chosen because it is a more natural setting for the implementation of reciprocal teaching than settings used in previous studies. With a methodology similar to that used in the pioneering work of Palincsar and Brown (1984) , 53 students in five intact reading classes who received strategy instruction were compared to 22 students in three control-group classes. The results indicated that in this challenging setting strategy instruction was superior to traditional reading methods in fostering reading comprehension as measured by experimenter-designed reading tests. Consistent with previous research, no differences were found between the groups on two standardized measures of reading.

Reading for Meaning: The Efficacy of Reciprocal Teaching in Fostering Reading Comprehension in High School Students in Remedial Reading Classes

Reading for Meaning: The Efficacy of Reciprocal Teaching in Fostering Reading Comprehension in High School Students in Remedial Reading Classes

USING WHOLE LANGUAGE WITH CHILDREN WE HAVE FAILED TO TEACH TO READ

Children who have difficulty learning to read often find themselves in remedial reading classes as a result of the type of instruction they have received. Some past and current programs have had little success in remediating these students and returning them to their regular classrooms. After citing iatrogenic reasons for remedial reading classes, we delineate how whole‐language instruction offers a set of beliefs and practices that addresses the needs of remedial readers. Four whole‐language programs that have successfully remediated students and returned them to regular classrooms are discussed, and principles are offered to guide teachers in setting up such a program. In addition, alternative assessment measures that are in keeping with whole‐language instruction are suggested.

COOPERATIVE LEARNING IN A SILENT CLASSROOM

ABSTRACT In the present study, grounded theory methodology and the techniques of participant observation, key‐informant interviewing and document analyses were used to develop substantive theory about what happens when secondary remedial reading students work together in cooperative groups for one academic school year Participants in the study were forty‐eight, ninth through eleventh grade students from four different ethnic backgrounds, who were enrolled in a remedial reading class in a large high school in a southwestern city. Classroom activities consisted of silent reading, reading‐related activities, such as worksheets and games, and writing activities, such as projects and journals. Student relations were determined with respect to their effects on these classroom activities The results of the study showed that when students were seated in groups, cooperative student relations developed over the course of the school year, even though they did not receive instruction with cooperative learning procedures. Students learned to work together, help each other and support each other verbally, when they were allowed to talk, and nonverbally, when they were not allowed to talk. Emotional support and acceptance evolved within groups. Students’ self‐esteem was enhanced. Low emotional involvement with the subject matter was evidenced, however. Affective rather than cognitive cooperative learning developed in this classroom The findings also revealed that students’ daily writing conveyed information about themselves to their group members. Common themes emerged throughout each student's writing. These themes revolved around the students’ perceptions of themselves, their goals, their interests, their families and what they thought was important. Group comments about the writing reinforced the students’ identities and enhanced their self‐esteem Grounded theory methodology, using the techniques of participant observation, key informant interviewing and document analyses, was used in this study to determine what happens in a secondary remedial reading class when teachers employ cooperative learning procedures for the first time. The students were placed in cooperative groups for reading‐related activities, such as silent reading, worksheets, games and tests, and writing activities, such as journaLs and projects. Student attitudes, performances and relations during these activities were studied in order to develop substantive theory about what happens when students work in groups. It is hoped that such a theory will both guide and improve the practice of cooperative learning with remedial reading students at the secondary level

Effectiveness of Guided Practice during Remedial Reading Instruction: An Application of Computer-Managed Instruction

This study investigated the effectiveness of the use of guided practice in teaching reading comprehension to middle-school students in remedial reading class. Teachers used a low-cost computer networking system to immediately assess and tabulate student performance to determine which segments of the curriculum required additional remediation. The reading curriculum consisted of two strands-QAR2 (a metacognitive strategy based on the work of Raphael) and rule-based inferences (a strategy for drawing inferences from material implicit in the text). Results indicated a significant effect for rule-based inferences, but not for QAR2. The effect was maintained over a 2-week period. Results indicated that immediate feedback was more useful in teaching the abstract and demanding rule-based inference curriculum than the easier, more familiar QAR2 curriculum. Students responded positively to the immediate feedback and the group accountability involved in the guided practice.

The Comprehension Strategies of Second Language Readers

Think-aloud protocols, a version of verbal report in which participants state their thoughts and behaviors, have become increasingly popular as a means of studying the comprehension processes of native English speakers. The study reported in this article used think-alouds to examine the comprehension strategies used by college-level students-both native speakers of English and nonnative speakers--enrolled in remedial reading classes as they read material from a college textbook. Poor readers (those who had failed the college's reading proficiency test) were chosen for study because they are the ones at whom college remedial reading programs are aimed. Furthermore, their use of comprehension strategies has not attained the degree of automaticity found in fluent readers. Thus, they may be more aware of how they solve the problems they encounter as they read. Some of the strategies used by the ESL and native-speaking readers in the study are described. Strategy use is related to measures of memory and comprehension and to academic performance, and implications for teaching are discussed. The thoughts that wander or rush through the minds of readers, the searches and struggles for meaning, the reflections and associations, are hidden from the outside observer. Yet this struggle and search for control are the core of reading comprehension. For teachers, knowledge of the components and management of this internal process is extremely important. Without it, educators must resort to designing reading programs based on intuitions and guesses about students' problems. Without it, classroom teachers are left commiserating with Eskey (1973), who described the maddening experience of having a student who appears to understand every sentence and yet cannot answer the simplest question about a passage as a whole (p. 177). Knowledge about the process, not just the product of reading, is needed if we are to move

The Influence of Background Knowledge on Memory for Reading Passages by Native and Nonnative Readers

M Schema theory research has provided evidence of the importance of background knowledge in reading comprehension. Specifically, content are previously established patterns of background knowledge existing in the mind of a reader and are used to create meaning from text. During the reading process, selected new information from the text is related to old information acquired from the reader's previous world knowledge (Kintsch & van Dijk, 1978). Through membership in a culture, an individual has privileged information which is represented in a rich system of schemata (Steffensen & Colker, 1982, p. 2). However, when the cultural backgrounds of the author and reader of a text differ, the reader may inappropriately instantiate (Adams & Bruce, 1982). The needed for reading comprehension in a second language (L2) are often nonexistent or contain information inaccurate for the L2 setting. That is, there is a mismatch between the background knowledge presupposed by the text and the background knowledge possessed by the reader (Carrell & Eisterhold, 1983). Since the mid-1970s, a number of empirical studies on cross-cultural comprehension have been based on schema theory (e.g., Connor, 1984; Johnson, 1982; Lipson, 1983; Steffensen & Colker, 1982; Steffensen, JoagDev, & Anderson, 1979). In general, these studies have found that subjects read passages with native themes more rapidly than passages with nonnative themes. Subjects recall a greater amount of information from native reading and listening passages, produce more culturally appropriate elaborations of the native passages, and generate more culturally biased distortions of the foreign passages. When portions of a foreign passage are familiar, there is significantly greater recall of the familiar portions than of the unfamiliar parts. The study reported here was designed to investigate whether the potential mismatch in background knowledge between text and reader might affect the placement of ESL students into remedial reading classes.