Strategies to Improve Reading Skills Essay Example
Being able to read is an inherent necessity for many reasons. While most would agree that reading can lead to a robust future, it is also an essential tool to function in the general-public when carrying out life’s most basic tasks, such as applying for employment, not being able to complete web searches, or decipher instructions. In fact, one of the most important skills a student can develop to expand their lives is reading. Educators can help students improve their reading deficits by practicing reading strategies. Because, words, whether spoken or written, are the part-and-parcel of life. There are various strategies that can be used to improve reading skills. Tools like graphic organizers, story maps, peer-assisted learning strategy, and decoding strategies are just a few that have been administered as useful tools to enhance students’ understanding of written content.
To start, graphic organizers are practical teaching tools that make learning more meaningful and efficient. Teachers and students alike find graphic organizers beneficial. Graphic organizers provide visual models that can be used to organize, classify, and rearrange important textual information in a remarkably effortless way. (Dye, 2000; Kim et at., 2004; Liliana, 2009; Muniz, 2015). Graphic organization can be done through the “use of varying components, such as lines, arrows, and spatial arrangements that describes text content, structure, and key conceptual relationship” (Darch & Eaves, 1986, p. 310). According to research, graphic organizers provide students with disabilities multiple benefits. They have been shown to help students remember and apply the information they have gathered in class. For example, the use of graphic aid help students recalls information quickly and clearly, construct content, hold onto information, as well as organize supporting details around the main idea of a text.
Second, there is adapting the text strategy. To help struggling readers comprehend a piece of text, teachers may have to adapt the text to a level that can be understood. An example of adapting the text is when a teacher simplifies sentences and vocabulary. Another method of adapting the text, is offering the same text on a different reading level. There are websites, such as NEWSELA, which offer texts of different reading levels (McCormick & Segal, 2016). Furthermore, texts can seem less daunting to struggling readers when text is grouped into sections (chunking). By grouping the text into sections with lines or boxes, students will be able to focus better. Similarly, inserting guiding questions in each section helps students focus better than a on large set of questions placed at the end of the reading” (McCormick & Segal, 2016).
Likewise, decoding strategies are a proven foundational prerequisite for effective reading. Some students need direct and explicit instruction to enhance their decoding skills. This is especially true for children who exhibit learning deficits in reading. This is especially true for students who are dyslexic. Their ability to decode with competency is affected due to weaknesses in phonological skills. Often, they can understand passages perfectly when read to; however, meaning is lost when they attempt to read the passages independently. Language Arts Standards for Foundational Skills in Reading state that students in kindergarten through fifth grade must know and apply grade level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words (National Governors Association Center for Best Practices [NGA Center] & Council of Chief State School Officers [CCSSO], 2010). One way to assist struggling readers is to provide explicit, systematic instruction in phonological awareness and word decoding (Torgesen, 2000). Explicit instructions in decoding that are included in many researched based programs are sounding out letters and clusters of letters, learning families that have similar roots, learning to predict words by using context clues, and learning high-frequency words by sight. Students become fluent readers when they can automatically recognize individual words that leads to fluent reading of a string of words.
Notably, the Peer-Assisted Learning Strategies (PALS) approach is deemed as the best research intervention in reading at the elementary level. The U.S. Department of Education’s Program Effectiveness Panel established PEER-Assisted Learning Strategy as an effective instructional method. PALS peer tutoring Method pairs students to provide one on one instructional peer activity. Strategically paired groups include a higher performing student and an underperforming student. Each group will have an opportunity to exchange the roles while working together on the reading activity. PALS enhance students’ reading comprehension by allowing them to engage in several cognitive strategies, such as prediction, confirmation of the prediction, questioning, summarizing, and identification of main ideas (Fuchs, Fuchs, & Thomas et al., 2001; Fuchs et al., 1997; Hughes & Frederick, 2006; Palinscar and Brown, 1984).
Without a doubt, teaching students with learning disabilities in reading is especially urgent. During the 2011-2012 school year, students with learning disabilities made up 13% of the public-school population (Children and Youth with Disabilities, 2014). Most of the students were found to have a learning disability in reading). Thus, the critical role that reading plays in students learning beyond third grade emphasizes the importance of identifying students with learning disabilities early. Research-based strategies have been proven effective with the population of learning-disabled students. Students have different needs and require different instruction. Teachers should modify instructions based on the needs of each student because one size does not fit all. Each individual student has his/her abilities and needs, which needs to be considered. Graphic organizers, story maps, peer-assisted learning strategy, and decoding strategies are examples of scientifically validated instructional practices.
