Most of the American adolescents find it hard to read their grade-level text due to their low proficiency level in literacy skills. Moreover, the in existence traditional approaches to cater for the wanting literacy skills such as tracking, course retention and enrollment in courses with few or no literacy demands have not yielded any fruits.It has not catered for the divergent physical, emotional and academic requirements of the adolescents who are struggling with reading. Besides, they should receive special additional reading and literacy instructions from proficient professionals such as reading specialists.
As a seasoned school teacher and in my perspective of instructions delivery to the below level adolescent readers, I believe there is a remedy for these adolescent’s literacy insufficiencies.I have seen it work through giving superfluous support to them in form of direct, unequivocal and orderly fluency, vocabulary and various comprehension instructions. Furthermore, to boost motivation and achieve improvements in reading outcomes among the adolescents, it is my urge to the stakeholders to use the preferred reading materials and instruction modes. I have discussed some of these methodologies and strategies as under.My implementation of a one-to-one tutoring strategy which had not been fully utilized in the past using the aforementioned adolescent readers’ research-based instructional approaches has verified promising outcomes. This model has also been a strong pillar for middle and high school students.
The three components of one-to-one tutoring approach include assigning a coordinator, a structured tutoring plan and training opportunities for the trainers (Houge, Peyton, & Geier, 2008). The assigned coordinator should be fully knowledgeable in reading and reading instructions, willing to offer a fundamental understanding of the reading process and give a comprehensive feedback on individual coaching sessions.Moreover, he/she should take charge of how tutors conduct their lessons and at times extend a helping hand in lesson plan developments. This supervision helps in monitoring and evaluating the quality of the instructions.The structured tutoring plan is aimed at the unswerving implementation of instructional strategies such as providing vocabulary directives that comprise word analysis and letter-sound relationships activities, teaching in advance the irregularly misspelled words and providing the tutee with new reading materials.My efficient implementation and allotment of ample time on task to these instructional strategies have successfully advanced the literacy skills of the adolescent students in my classes.
Since the tutors are the determinants of success of the learners, in my view, reading, writing, and proper training activities should be carried out to the tutors.This will play a pivotal role in ensuring that the tutees display higher level reading and writing behaviors. For instance, proficient tutors have assisted in improving the adolescent students’ precision, automaticity and prosody in reading.To enhance one-to-one tutoring, distant technological advancements have equally given a hand. I have urged the adolescents’ parents and other stakeholders to install web-cams in their homes which are connected to various reading clinics.
This has enabled the adolescents to log into the internet protocol address that provide one-to-one literacy instructions that are devoid of community typecasts that hold back adolescents from being on the lookout for for remedies of their deficient literacy skills (Pitcher, 2007). The responses that I have already received from parents and guardians indicate that this technology offers appropriate reading with scripted lesson plans and direction by a reading specialist.In a research that I carried out as an experienced teacher, I have heard many adolescent scholars refer to reading and literacy activities as unrewarding, unworthy for their effort since they are secondary to their welfare and wishes and too intricate and this has led to many becoming nonreaders.It has also come into my realization that a number of factors affect the reading and literacy attitudes among the adolescents. A few of these include the presence of multiliteracies, family and friends who by a big degree influences what the adolescents read and write, teachers and instructional schemes and choice (IRA, 2008).My prescription to rescue them from this cocoon is us, teachers and teacher educators, to channel our efforts in motivating them to embrace reading and literacy.
Reviving their motivation is essential since they are meaning-makers in multiple out-of-school contexts meeting their competency needs and also targeted by schools that have devalued literacy activities.Such schools include electronic games and messaging, visual production and media text. In motivating the adolescents to actively engage in reading and literacy activities, their diversities in geography, gender and ethnicity must be put into consideration.Motivation to read especially among the adolescents is a complex construct owing to the above mentioned inhibiting factors. However, in order to overcome this and win their willingness to reading, I would campaign for the espousal of the two reading instruments that were introduced by Motivation Reading Profile (MRP).
These consist of carrying out a reading survey and conducting an open-ended and semi-structured conversational interview to the adolescents. The reading survey is purposed to ensure that the adolescents will be at ease in the reading and literacy language.On the other hand, the conversational interview is used as a complement to the survey. It aims at not only encouraging free response but also assessment of informational reading, narrative reading and general reading. Moreover, it enhances deeper understanding of the adolescent’s reading attitudes, experiences, and inspirations.
In my teaching experience, I have learnt to determine the appropriate ways of motivating adolescents to hold close literacy and reading activities. This varies from class to class, grade to grade and from school to school. Either individual or small-group interviews can assist in selecting the appropriateness of the motivational strategy.This is because the adolescent students have differing self-concepts and values of reading. Some even do not regard themselves as readers or writers since they define a reader and reading in an academic context only which excludes reading and writing outside the classroom (Houge, et al, 2008). To them, their out-of-school reading and writing is invalid.
In conclusion, learning institutions ought to hire teachers with expertise and competence in reading and literacy activities so as to improve the literacy level among the adolescents. Concisely, the one-to-one literacy instruction approach that has emerged is an effective and efficient accelerator for acquiring literacy skills.Direct and explicit instructional practices needed to accelerate these literacy skills must be included in the reading programs. Moreover, reading specialists and tutors should undergo a sound training and form inclusive formal lesson plans.Since the mismatch between typical reading assignments and student preferences have resulted to the declined reading motivation, corrective measures have to be instituted. So as to incorporate the instructional strategies in classrooms arenas with ease, the teachers and other educators can employ the use of resource rooms in form of small-group instructions.
ReferencesHouge, T, Peyton, D. & Geier, C. (2008). Targeting Adolescents’ Literacy Skills Using One-to-One Instruction with Research-Based Practises.
International Reading Association. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40012401IRA. (2000).
Teaching All Children To Read: The Roles of the Reading Specialist. International Reading AssociationPitcher, S. M. et al.
(2007). Assessing Adolescents’ Motivation to Read. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy. Vol. 40.
No. 5 p. 378-396
