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It's true that students need high-quality instruction all day, every day. This is a lot to ask for from teachers, however, and burnout is a real issue. To help our students, we have to help and take care of ourselves too. It's important to highlight the positivities and things that make this profession amazing. This video, despite that goofy music in the back, connects to this whole  topic in an interesting and relatable way.  (Liv Mullenix)

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How to Stay Motivated As an Educator Even When You Feel Like Quitting

Teacher Burnout is a real issue because the numbers show:

About half a million (15% of) U.S. teachers leave the profession every year.

More than 41% of teachers leave the profession within five years of starting, and teacher attrition has risen significantly over the last two decades

66% of the nation's best teachers continue to leave the profession for careers elsewhere

But...

Why are YOU a Teacher?

Regardless of what others are going through and the national numbers, YOU matter.

What keeps you motivated to empower students?

In this video, Kantis Simmons encourages teachers, educators, and administrators to reevaluate why they chose the teaching profession.

Filmed at a personal development day for new teachers in Los Angeles School District, this question of "Why are you a teacher" becomes real to the 400 + teachers in the room.

5 Ways to Overcome Teacher Burnout
watch on youtube
More About Kantis Simmons

Kantis is a former Rocket Scientist, Academic Guru, Author and Nationally Renowned Motivational Speaker. He's irrationally passionate about academic achievement and school improvement; where he's on a mission to improve overall student and teacher performance in this country.

Schools, colleges, and organizations bring Kantis Simmons in to speak at their school assembly and teacher training events to share his proven strategies on STEM Education, Academic Success and Teacher Motivation.

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How to Stay Motivated As an Educator Even When You Feel Like Quitting

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Teacher Burnout is a real issue because the numbers show: About half a million (15% of) U.S. teachers leave the profession every year. More than 41% of teachers leave the profession within five years of starting, and teacher attrition has risen significantly over the last two decades 66% of the nation's best teachers continue to leave the profession for careers elsewhere But...

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In Reading Intervention in the Middle Grades, Allington talks about how, in older grades, teachers didn't even take the time to really figure out the things that their striving readers were struggling with, and, in turn, these things went unaddressed. These students didn't need lessons in decoding, but rather practice in reading or something. However, what actually happened was that they were told that they were poor readers and shoved into their reading intervention groups: out of sight, out of mind, right? Wrong. This is an example of deficit thinking being a danger to students. Of course students are going to be "bad students" if that's all that they've ever been told about themselves. This video is of Allan Luke explaining an example of deficit thinking and the issues with it. It's an important video, but it's a more important concept for all future teachers to be aware of. (Liv Mullenix)

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Deficit Thinking

When asked to give advice regarding what needed to change to improve indigenous education the majority of educators in the study identified factors in the students' home life.

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Deficit Thinking When asked to give advice regarding what needed to change to improve indigenous education the majority of educators in the study identified factors in the students' home life.

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Every Child Every Day references the teaching of ELLs in regards to striving readers. They talked about how peer conversation is super important to comprehension and overall reading skill development. In a class I took last semester, EDT 323, which was centered around teaching second language learners, we talked extensively about grouping. We talked about when different groups are important: say grouping ELLs with other ELLs or with native English speakers, etc. The book below was our textbook for the class, and, normally, I am bored to death by textbooks, but this one had really interesting and important information that was laid out in an easy to absorb way. This isn't exactly on topic, but I thought about it while reading about all the different types of striving readers and what is good for them. This is a good read because it gives future teachers some insight on how to diversify your instruction well enough for ALL learners. (Liv Mullenix)

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Website of Resources to Help Striving Readers

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Website of Resources to Help Striving Readers

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Although the website refers to students as struggling readers, there are links on this website for parents, students, teachers, and more in order to help readers in multiple ways. There are links about Dyslexia, intervention, reading issues, testing, differentiated instruction, and so much more. This is definitely an important resource and one that teachers could refer to multiple times when learning how to help striving readers in their classes.

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The primary mission of Reading Rockets is to provide resources to help parents and educators support struggling readers. Browse the articles, research briefs, videos, and webcasts to find out more about why learning to read can be difficult and what teachers and parents can do to help.

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Strange Idea of the "Fourth Grade Slump"

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Strange Idea of the "Fourth Grade Slump"

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The name Chall kept coming up in studies and articles about the importance of keeping reading instruction past the third grade. Jeanne Chall famously wrote that students fall behind in literacy skills disproportionately around the fourth grade, citing a longitudinal study she conducted with 30 students. I have heard similar reports from other teachers and Allington certainly advocates for the extension of reading instruction through middle school, but the fact that such a ripple was caused by a study involving only 30 students is inviting of questions. The article comes to some interesting, perhaps wrong, conclusions, but is worth reading.

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The Classic Study on Poor Children’s Fourth-Grade Slump

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Administrations of reading tests by NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress) have since 1971 confirmed what has long been part of the commonsense and intuitive knowledge of both teachers and laypeople: Children from more economically advantaged families score significantly higher than the less advantaged at all ages tested (nine, 13, and 17), and the gaps become greater with increasing age. The questions are: Why do these differences occur? Why are they so enduring and so universal?

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This article explains some of the benefits of book choice and how it can help all readers in the classroom become lifelong readers. Book choice is one of the ways in which the article discussed we can help striving readers thrive in the classroom, and this list of benefits reinforces the benefits we've discussed in class as well.

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What does it mean to honor book choice in your classroom? As students spend time sorting through bins in a classroom library, scrolling through a list of ebooks on their tablet or asking a librarian, teacher or friend for recommendations, students can choose books that pique their interest.

Book choice is essential for today's reader. Students are used to searching for a YouTube video and swiping through a slideshow. They are comfortable picking up a magazine to flip through the pages. As adults, we are often less limited when it comes to choosing a new book or article to read - we're often more in control of the reading material we dive into, with fewer people telling us what to read or making sure we've finished a book "on time."

So how can we make sure that students have the opportunity to choose their own books? Why is book choice essential for today's readers? I've outlined a handful of reasons why book choice is essential in the classroom. If you are preparing for World Read Aloud Day this year, revisiting your reading goals, or simply making a case for the power of independent reading, book choice is essential for readers of print and digital text.
World Read Aloud Day is a special event where people around the world come together to celebrate favorites books. This year World Read Aloud Day takes place on February 1st. You can learn more about this fantastic celebration of reading on LitWorld's website.
Book Choice in the Classroom

Take Ownership

Students can learn to take ownership of their learning when they are given the task of choosing their own books. When you model how you navigate a classroom library or share stories of your favorite books, you can set up students for success as they grow as lifelong readers. The folks at MoxieReader, an excellent tool I've shared before, gives students a space to document their reading throughout the school year.

Logging Read Alouds

When students have the chance to choose their own books they can learn to self-monitor and reflect on their choices. During informal conversations or formal conferences with students, you can check in with them about the decisions they are making as readers. You might encourage them to try out a new genre - not by picking out a specific book for them to read but providing a handful of options for them to explore. As students reflect on their reading experiences, you might ask them to identify new topics they would like to explore as well. As you share books with the class, you can log read alouds with MoxieReader to help students remember what books grabbed their attention as they prepare to choose their own independent reading book.

Dive Deeper

Students who have opportunities to choose their own books can dive deeper into favorite types of stories as well as topics they would like to learn more about this school year. Book choice is essential in classrooms where curiosity is valued. You might encourage students to brainstorm a list of topics they would like to learn more about. This can happen before they head to a classroom or school library.

Sharing Books

As students dive into reading experiences where they choose their own books, they can share their books with friends. In addition to students letting their peers know what books are standouts for them, teachers can also share recommendations with individual students or groups of students in their classroom. Building a community of students who are comfortable talking about their favorite books can help make it easier for them to choose new books.

When students can seeing what other students are reading, they might be inspired by the book choices of their friends and peers. MoxieReader lets students share books with others but also show off to others what books they've read. Students can join in with their peers to read the same book or another favorite from the same author.

Creating opportunities for students to grow as lifelong readers is a best practice for every classroom. As you celebrate World Read Aloud Day or carve out time for daily independent reading, book choice is essential for today's readers. Learn more about MoxieReader and their tool for classrooms by visiting their website!

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5 Reasons Book Choice is Essential for Today's Readers - Class Tech Tips

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What does it mean to honor book choice in your classroom? As students spend time sorting through bins in a classroom library, scrolling through a list of ebooks on their tablet or asking a librarian, teacher or friend for recommendations, students can choose books that pique their interest.

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Longitudinal Study Conducted about "Late Emerging Reading Difficulties"

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Longitudinal Study Conducted about "Late Emerging Reading Difficulties"

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The phenomenon experienced by a student that at one time maintained reading skills at the same level as their peers but later fell behind is sometimes called having "late emerging reading difficulties." This longitudinal study goes into unbelievable depth as to who these students are and what kinds of backgrounds they come from as well as what may be the source of the difficulties. Unsurprisingly, the reasons for the students' trouble with reading seem to be as diverse as the students themselves. These students would have certainly benefitted from choice reading as well as better accommodation (i.e. less focus on decoding instruction and such and more on heightening stamina and vocabulary). Very interesting study.

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Abstract

Some children demonstrate adequate or better reading achievement in early school grades, but fall significantly behind their peers in later grades. These children are often referred to as late-emerging poor readers. In this study, we investigated the prevalence and heterogeneity of these poor readers. We also examined the early language and nonverbal cognitive abilities of late-emerging poor readers. Participants were 493 children who were a subsample from an epidemiological study of language impairments in school-age children. In kindergarten, children were administered a battery of language, early literacy, and nonverbal cognitive measures. Word reading and reading comprehension achievement was assessed in second, fourth, eighth, and tenth grades. Latent transition analysis was used to model changes in reading classification (good vs. poor reader) across grades. Population estimates revealed that 13.4% percent of children could be classified as late-emerging poor readers. These children could be divided into those with problems in comprehension alone (52%), word reading alone (36%), or both (12%). Further results indicated that late-emerging poor readers often had a history of language and/or nonverbal cognitive impairments in kindergarten. Subtypes of poor readers also differed significantly in their profiles of language, early literacy, and nonverbal cognitive abilities in kindergarten. Results are discussed in terms of causal factors and implications for early identification.

Keywords: Late-emerging poor readers, reading disabilities, latent transition analysis, subtypes of poor readers, early identification

Considerable research attention has been devoted to the early identification and prevention of reading disabilities ( Compton, Fuchs, Fuchs, & Bryant, 2006; Jenkins, 2003; Vellutino, Scanlon, Small, & Fanuele, 2006; Wood, Hill, Meyer, & Flowers, 2005). This work has led to the identification of children at risk for reading disabilities (RD) as early as kindergarten or first grade and to the development of effective intervention programs ( Denton & Mathes, 2003; Foorman, Francis, Fletcher, Schatschneider & Mehta, 1998; Simmons, Coyne, Kwok, McDonagh, Harm, & Kame'enui, 2008). Despite progress, at least one group of children is routinely missed in this process. These are children whose reading problems are not apparent until the later school grades. These so-called "late-emerging" poor readers get off to a good start in learning to read but experience significant problems in later grades. Late-emerging poor readers present a significant challenge for early identification and prevention efforts because only limited information is available about the prevalence and nature of their reading difficulties and the factors that underlie these problems.

Chall (1983) was among the first to bring attention to late-emerging poor readers. In her discussion of the so-called "fourth grade slump," she noted that some children show adequate or better progress in beginning reading, but fall behind in the middle elementary school grades. She suggested that some of these children may develop sufficient word reading skills but lack the linguistic and/or conceptual skills and knowledge necessary to understand more demanding texts found in later grades. Alternatively, Chall noted that other children may fail to develop fluency in word reading, which in turn, could disrupt comprehension as texts become more challenging.

Despite the recognition of late-emerging RD more than 25 years ago, there have been relatively few empirical investigations of these reading problems. The most often cited study of late-emerging poor readers was conducted by Leach, Scarborough, and Rescorla (2003). They investigated 161 fourth or fifth grade children, including 65 children with an educational history of RD. All participants were administered a battery of reading, spelling, language, and cognitive measures at the time of the study. Information concerning history of RD was obtained from parental report and confirmed by school records. Using a combination of data from these direct assessments and parental/school records, 31 children were identified as having late-emerging reading disabilities. Further data showed that these children were heterogeneous in terms of the type of reading problems they had. Ten were found to have late-emerging deficits in reading comprehension, 11 in word reading, and 10 in both reading comprehension and word reading. Other analyses also suggested that late-emerging poor readers did not simply have less severe disorders than those with persistent reading disabilities, but rather had similar reading difficulties. Furthermore, retrospective analyses showed that these children indeed had late-emerging problems, not late-identified problems. That is, late-emerging poor readers did not appear to have early reading problems that had been missed as a result of flaws in the identification process (e.g., overlooked due to their high intelligence, good behavior, or compensatory strategies) as had sometimes been assumed.

Whereas Leach et al. (2003) provided an initial examination of the nature of late-emerging RD, more direct evidence of these difficulties can be obtained from longitudinal studies that investigated various reading and reading-related abilities across grades. For example, Badian (1999) conducted a longitudinal study in which a large group of children (N=1,008) were followed from pre-kindergarten through seventh or eighth grades. Each year, the children were administered measures of word reading, listening comprehension, and reading comprehension. The primary purpose of the study was the investigation of the prevalence and stability of RD based on a discrepancy between listening and reading comprehension. However, in secondary analyses, children were divided into those showing RD in Grades 1-4 (early poor readers), Grades 5-8 (late poor readers) or both (consistent poor readers). For these analyses, children were defined as having RD if their mean score in reading comprehension across the four-year grade span (Grade 1-4 or 5-8) was below the 25 th percentile. Results showed that 1.9% of the population were early poor readers, 5.8% were late poor readers, and 6.8% were persistent poor readers. Other findings demonstrated that when compared to early poor readers, late poor readers had significantly higher word reading scores in the early grades and significantly lower listening comprehension scores in the later grades.

The above study only considered poor readers who were identified on the basis of deficits in reading comprehension. As a result, no information was available concerning the prevalence of children with late-emerging word reading deficits. In another longitudinal study, Lipka, Lesaux, and Siegel (2006) examined reading and reading-related abilities of children with poor word-reading skills. From a sample of 1,100 children who had been followed from kindergarten through fourth grade, 22 children were identified with word-reading deficits in fourth grade. Seven of the poor readers had persistent problems across grades, 8 had late-emerging deficits (after 3 rd grade) and 7 had borderline deficits at other grades. Additional results indicated that those with late-emerging word-reading problems had phonological processing deficits, especially after second grade. Such deficits were evident on tests of phonological awareness, phonological decoding, and spelling. The authors suggested that these children may have been able to compensate for their phonological deficits in the early grades, but as words became more complex, they showed reading and spelling difficulties.

In another longitudinal study, Parrila, Aunola, Leskinen, Nurmi, and Kirby (2005) used latent growth curve modeling to examine individual differences in reading growth across grades in samples of English and Finnish speaking children. Data from the Finnish sample, however, were only available for first and second grades, and thus, is less relevant for the present study. The English speaking children, however, were followed from first through fifth grade and administered tests of word identification, word attack, and passage comprehension at each grade. Growth mixture models identified latent classes based on homogeneous reading growth trajectories. Of particular interest was the identification of a class (for both word attack and passage comprehension) that included children who were relatively poor readers at the beginning of school but who had caught up to other good readers by fifth grade (i.e., early poor readers). The growth mixture models did not, however, uncover a class of late-emerging poor readers. The authors suggested that given the relatively small overall sample size (N=198) and the conservative nature of the statistical procedure employed, such a class may have been too small to be identified.

Compton, Fuchs, Fuchs, Elleman, and Gilbert (2008) also used a latent variable approach to examine late-emerging poor readers. They employed latent transition analysis (LTA), which is an extension of latent class analysis, to model movement across latent reading classes (e.g., RD) as a function of grade. Because LTA relies on multiple indicators of a reading class, it is less susceptible to measurement error that can give the appearance of children changing reading categories, when no true change has occurred. Compton and colleagues selected 177 children who showed initial risk for RD (based on teacher judgments) and followed them from first through fourth grade. They identified 5 late-emerging poor readers from the sample but did not disaggregated these children by deficit area (i.e., word reading vs. reading comprehension). Because the sample was not a representative one, no conclusions can be drawn concerning population prevalence. However, the researchers were primarily interested in whether or not late-emerging poor readers could be identified on the basis of their early reading or language abilities. Results showed that late-emerging poor readers had poorer listening comprehension and more limited word-reading growth than did typical children. However, these indices did not reliably distinguish children with late-emerging RD from typical readers, because of the high rate of false positives.

The present investigation was undertaken to examine late-emerging poor readers by estimating the prevalence of RD subtypes in the population of developing readers and exploring potentially important differences across subtypes that might be used in the early identification and treatment of late-emerging poor readers. Specifically, we examined the following questions: (1) What is the population prevalence of late-emerging poor readers? (2) What portion of this population show late-emerging word reading deficits, comprehension deficits, or combined deficits? (3) Do late-emerging poor reader subtypes display different profiles of kindergarten language and nonverbal cognitive abilities/disabilities when compared to each other and typical readers? To address these questions, we utilized latent transition analysis to examine data from a longitudinal study of the language and reading abilities of children followed from kindergarten through tenth grade. Our sample was a subsample of children who participated in an epidemiologic investigation of language impairments in children ( Tomblin et al., 1997). Whereas our sample was not completely representative of the larger sample, we were able to estimate how it differed from the epidemiologic sample and applied a weighting procedure to better assure its representativeness. An advantageous aspect of our study was the use of local sample-based norms for all measures. This allowed us to compare the prevalence of RD subgroups based on word reading or comprehension deficits without the confound of relying on tests that have different sample- or population-based norms. Also, because we had multiple indicators of reading across a wide grade range (2 nd-10 th grades), we were able to use a latent variable approach. Finally, we had measures of language, pre-literacy, and non-verbal cognitive abilities in kindergarten that could potentially provide insight into factors that preview late-emerging RD.

Method

Participants

This study involved 493 participants who were followed from kindergarten through tenth grade. These participants were initially recruited as part of an epidemiologic study of language impairment in kindergarten, involving a stratified cluster sample of 7,218 children. This sample was stratified by residential setting (i.e. rural, urban, suburban) and cluster sampled by building. (The sample was 33% rural, 37% urban, and 30% suburban; 51% male and 49% female; and 83% White, 12.7% Black, and 4% Other). Following the completion of the epidemiologic study, a subsample of children was recruited to participate in a longitudinal investigation. Because the primary focus of the latter study was developmental language impairments, all children who displayed a language impairment (including some with a nonverbal cognitive deficit) in kindergarten were asked to participate. In addition, a sample of children with a nonverbal cognitive deficit alone and a random sample of children without a language or nonverbal cognitive impairment were also recruited. The initial longitudinal sample included 604 children, but complete data on all reading measures were available for 493 participants through the tenth grade. These participants included 100 children with a specific language impairment (SLI), 72 children with a specific nonverbal cognitive deficit (SCD), 75 children with both a language impairment and a nonverbal cognitive deficit (referred to as having a non-specific language impairment - NLI), and 246 children without a language impairment or a nonverbal cognitive deficit in kindergarten. This sample was comparable to the larger epidemiologic sample in terms of their demographic characteristics (32% rural, 32% urban, and 36.% suburban; 51% male and 49% female; and 86% White, 11% Black, and 3% Other).

Because the sample included more children with a language impairment and/or a nonverbal cognitive deficit than would be expected in the normal population, a weighting procedure was used to provide population estimates for the prevalence of late-emerging poor readers. This weighting procedure took advantage of information from the epidemiologic study and estimated the likelihood that a subject with a given language, nonverbal cognitive, and gender profile would appear in a representative sample, and weighted his or her score accordingly; children with a language and nonverbal cognitive impairment received proportionally less weight in the analyses than children who showed typical language and cognitive development. As a result, the weighting procedure allowed us to provide results that were more representative of those expected from the epidemiologic sample, and by extension, the general population.

Measures

The purpose of this study was to examine late-emerging RD. Previous research suggested that these reading problems could involve difficulties in word recognition and/or reading comprehension. Participants in our sample were assessed on multiple measures of each of these aspects of reading in second, fourth, eighth, and tenth grades. To assess word recognition, the Word Identification and Word Attack subtests of the Woodcock Reading Mastery Test-Revised ( WRMT-R; Woodcock, 1987) were administered across grades. Subjects' performances on these measures were converted to z-scores using local sample-based weighted means and standard deviations. Measure specific z-scores were then combined and converted to a composite z-score again using local sample-based means and standard deviations. The use of local sample-based norms for these and all other measures allowed us to take advantage of our large sample size and to have a common reference across all tests. The latter is particularly important because it helps avoid error that is often introduced by using published norms from different samples. Specifically, the use of different norming samples could lead to apparent profile differences in reading/language subskills (e.g., word reading vs. comprehension) when none are present. Reading comprehension was measured by several instruments. In all grades, the Passage Comprehension subtest from the WRMT-R and the comprehension portion of the Gray Oral Reading Test-3 ( Wiederholt & Bryant, 1994) were administered. In second and fourth grades, the Reading Comprehension subtest from the Diagnostic Achievement Battery-2 (DAB-2; Newcomer, 1990) was also administered. Because this measure was not appropriate for eighth and tenth grade, it was replaced at these grades with the reading comprehension component of the Qualitative Reading Inventory-2 ( Leslie & Caldwell, 1995), which was very similar in format (silent reading of passages followed by open-ended questions) to the DAB-2. In each grade, the three measures of reading comprehension were converted to z-scores using local weighted means and standard deviations. Measure specific z-scores were then combined and converted to a composite z-score for reading comprehension.

Another aim of the study, was the examination of the early language and/or nonverbal cognitive deficits associated with late-emerging RD. To pursue this aim, we examined participants' performances on a battery of tests administered in kindergarten that included measures of vocabulary, grammar, narration, letter knowledge, phonological awareness, and nonverbal IQ. These measures are briefly described in . In each case, scores on these measures were converted to z-scores using local sample-based weighted means and standard deviations. Finally, we had available to us data on participants' classification in terms of whether or not they had a language and/or nonverbal cognitive impairment.

As noted above, it was advantageous for us to use local-based norms for all measures in our analyses. However, to provide more information concerning our sample, we also include in weighted means and standard deviations of selected measures that are based on published norms. These data include prorated standard scores from the Block Design and Picture Completion subtests of the WPPSI-R (kindergarten only) and standard scores from the WRMT-R and GORT-3. Also included were standard scores from the PPVT-R and the full Performance Scale of the WISC-R (Grade 2 only), which were not included in other analyses for the present study. These data show that our sample was very representative of that used for norming the PPVT-R and the WPPSI-R/WISC-III. Our sample did, however, have somewhat lower reading scores at most grades than the samples used to norm the WRMT-R and GORT-3 at most grades.

Procedures

Fourteen examiners participated in the administration of the test battery in kindergarten and another three in the administration of the test batteries in the other grades. Seven of the examiners were certified speech-language pathologists and the remaining had undergraduate degrees in speech and hearing ( n=3) or education ( n=7). All language measures were administered by examiners certified in speech-language pathology. In addition, all examiners received approximately one week of training by the investigators on the administration of the testing protocols. Testing was conducted in specially designed vans parked at the participants' schools or homes.

Data Analysis

In this study, we explore intra-individual change over time in latent variables representing word reading and reading comprehension skill. A useful methodological framework for studying intra-individual change over time is latent growth curve modeling using continuous variables (e.g., Bollen & Curran, 2006; Duncan, Duncan, & Strycker, 2006). In contrast to continuous growth, we focus on the movement of children across RD and normal reader categories defined by the latent variables using a form of latent transition analysis (see Collins, 2006; Lanza, Flaherty, & Collins, 2003; Kaplan, 2008). Latent transition analysis (LTA) addresses questions concerning prevalence of discrete states and incidence of transitions between states (see Collins & Wugalter, 1992; Graham, Collins, Wugalter, Chung, & Hansen, 1991; Martin, Velicer, & Fava, 1996). LTA is well suited to the study of change where there are numerous states, individuals can transition relatively freely among the states, and the states are measured with multiple indicators. Because LTA relies on latent variable analyses, classes are not directly observable, but rather are inferred from a combination of manifest indicators. LTA provides a way of statistically modeling movement between latent states, including estimating the prevalence of each discrete state and the incidence of transitions between states, adjusted for measurement error. In addition, LTA models provide a measure of classification reliability via the estimated posterior probabilities of class membership for each individual ( Muthen, 2000). Reliable classification of an individual into a latent class is indicated by a high posterior probability indicating membership in a single class compared to all other classes.

In order to address the first two research questions about the prevalence and heterogeneity of late-emerging poor readers, we used LTA to identify six different subtypes of readers across time. These were typically developing across grades (TD), early identified (and persistent) RD (EIRD), late emerging RD with deficits in word reading (LERD-W), late-emerging RD with deficits in comprehension (LERD-C), late-emerging RD with deficits in comprehension and word reading (LERD-CW) and late-emerging typical developing (LETD). In some of the analyses, we further delineate the EIRD class into those with deficits in word reading, comprehension, or both. At any given time, the array of latent class membership defines an individual's latent status. The use of latent class models to identify subtype membership helps alleviate problems associated with the use of single indicators to identify subtypes. Single-measure cut-scores allow small changes in scores, often due to measurement error, to move children near the cut-score across category boundaries (e.g., Fergusson et al., 1996; Wright, Field, & Newman, 1996). This causes instability in classification across repeated measures with the magnitude of fluctuation varying across tests and cut-scores (see Francis et al., 2005). Francis et al. argued for the use of a broader set of measures to better infer RD class membership (i.e., latent classes). The use of numerous measures to form latent classes increases the stability of RD classification and the accuracy with which we identify children with various subtypes of RD.

LTA models produce parameter estimates corresponding to the proportion of individuals in each latent class at a point in time, as well as a transition probability matrix, consisting of estimates of the probability of latent class membership at the next time point, contingent on latent class membership at the previous point. In this study we employed mixture LTA (i.e., a mover-stayer model). Mixture LTA modeling takes advantage of the benefits in reliability and validity afforded latent variables and the flexibility of mixture modeling that allows for multiple models within the population. The mover-stayer model is a form of LTA in which a subpopulation exists that does not transition over time and another subpopulation exists that can transition over time. Detailed descriptions of LTA modeling (see Collins & Wugalter, 1992; Graham et al., 1991; Kaplan, 2008; Kaplan & Walpole, 2005; Martin, Velicer, & Fava, 1996) along with statistical coding systems ( Kaplan, 2008) are available in the literature.

To identify the subtypes, we used the five reading outcomes measured at second, fourth, eighth, and tenth grades. Two measures of word-level reading and three measures of reading comprehension were used to form latent classes representing word reading and reading comprehension skill at each grade. We used a cut-score of −1 SD below the weighted sample mean on each measure to indicate RD at each point in time. This cut-score is similar to that used in other studies to identify RD children (e.g., Catts, Adlof, Hogan, & Weismer, 2005; Lambrecht Smith, Roberts, Locke, & Tozer, 2010; McArthur, Hogben, Edwards, Heath, & Mengler, 2000). Accordingly, the score on each measure at each point in time was coded as 1 (above) or 0 (below) for individuals above or below the −1 SD cut-off. This coding system allowed us to represent whether an individual child was performing above or below the RD threshold on the reading measures at each point in time. A child could score below our normalcy threshold on an outcome measure and still not qualify as RD due to performance on the other outcome measure(s). At each point in time we allowed 4 latent classes in the model: normal reader (NR), RD-word reading only, RD-reading comprehension only, and RD-word reading and reading comprehension. Over time, this permits identification of 2 stable classes (TD and EIRD) and 3 transitioning LERD classes (LERD-W, LERD-C, & LERD-CW) and 1 transitioning TD class (LETD). The latter group of children had RD in the early grades but typical reading in the later grades. Models were generated using mixture modeling routines contained in Mplus 5.0 ( Muthén & Muthén, 2007).

Our third research question asked if LERD subtypes differed in kindergarten language and cognitive abilities/disabilities. To answer this question, we carried out three analyses. In the first of these analyses, we compared subtypes in terms of the percentage of children who had been classified as having typical language (TL) or a language and/or nonverbal cognitive deficit in kindergarten (i.e., SLI, NLI, SCD). We expected that both EIRD and LERD subtypes to have a high prevalence of deficits in kindergarten. In a second analysis, we examined profile differences in the LERD subtypes on kindergarten measures of vocabulary (picture vocabulary, oral vocabulary), grammar (grammatical completion, grammatical understanding, sentence imitation), narrative skill (narrative comprehension, narrative recall), phonological awareness, letter identification, and nonverbal IQ. Some of these measures were the same as those used to classify children in language and/or cognitive deficit groups. However, the profile analysis allowed us to examine subtype differences in language and cognitive abilities from another perspective. In the profile analysis, we assessed whether the profiles of LERD subtypes were significantly different from those of TD, LETD, and EIRD subtypes. We hypothesized that the kindergarten profiles of the LERD subtypes would include deficits in language abilities but strengths in phonological awareness and letter identification, whereas EIRD subtypes would have deficits in phonological awareness, letter identification, and perhaps language abilities. Profiles were compared using a 2-way repeated measures ANOVA with the between-subjects factor being subtype and the within-subjects factor being kindergarten measures (see Tabachnick & Fidell, 2007). The ten kindergarten measures were scaled to have means of 0 and standard deviations of 1. The main effect for subtype, referred to as the elevation effect, represents differences between subtypes averaged across the kindergarten measures. The main effect for kindergarten measure, referred to as the flatness effect, represents differences among the dimensions averaged across the subtypes. Within profile analysis, the interaction between subtype and kindergarten measure, referred to the shape effect, represents differences in the shape of the profile across subtypes. Significant elevation, flatness, and shape effects were probed using post-hoc follow-up analyses corrected for multiple comparisons as described by Tabachnick and Fidell (2007).

In the final set of analyses, we sought to determine if membership in reading disability subtypes (i.e., LERD & EIRD) and typical reader group could be accurately predicted on the basis of kindergarten measures. To accomplish this, we collapsed the three LERD subtypes into a single late-emerging group and used the 10 kindergarten measures to predict membership in the LERD and EIRD groups using multinomial logistic regression. This allowed us to not only identify important kindergarten predictors of LERD and EIRD but also examine the classification accuracy of an early identification model of LERD. Multinomial logistic regression allows the dependent measure to have more than two categories, in this case three, and compares each level of the dependent class with a specified reference class. From an early identification standpoint, our primary question was whether the predictors vary across the LERD and EIRD subtypes compared to the TD group. Therefore we designated the TD group as the reference group for comparisons. Our hypothesis was that language measures would predict LERD membership whereas phonological awareness and letter identification measures would predict EIRD membership.

Results

Intercorrelations among word reading and reading comprehension composite scores across the four assessment waves are displayed in . All correlations were statistically significant ( p < .001) and ranged from .46 to .92. Consistent with previous studies ( Hulslander, Olson, Willcutt, & Wadsworth, 2010; Foorman, Francis, Shaywitz, Shaywitz, & Fletcher, 1997; Wagner et al., 1997), rank order of word reading and comprehension performance as a function of time was relatively steady. The magnitudes of correlations within reading skill (i.e., word reading with word reading and reading comprehension with reading comprehension) across time were larger than the correlations between reading skills (i.e., word reading with reading comprehension). Overall, the high correlations between word reading and reading comprehension imply reasonably stable reading scores across time, suggesting that transitions between reading classes as a function of time should be somewhat uncommon.

Table 3

As described in the data analysis section, we used LTA to derive four latent classes (NR, RD-W, RD-C, RD-CW) at each grade. The results of this analysis are shown in . These data indicate relatively high percentages of children with RD across grades, which was expected given our sample included more children with language and/or nonverbal cognitive deficits than would be predicted in a more representative sample. Because of this, in the analyses that follow that concern prevalence estimates, we use a weighting procedure (described in the Methods section) to correct for this overrepresentation. The unweighted data in indicate that in second grade 71% of the sample was classified as NR (i.e., normal readers) and 29% RD. Despite the high correlations between reading skills across time, the percentage of children classified as NR dropped to 54% and RD increased to 46%, indicating the transition of children from the NR class to the various RD classes. Note that the majority of the change took place between second and fourth grades.

The upper portion of provides the unweighted proportions of movers and stayers in the sample. (For this study stayers were defined as children with zero probability of moving classes, whereas movers had at least a small probability of moving classes as a function of time.) Across the sample, only 2% of the children were classified as stayers and these children all occupied the RD-CW class. Even though only 2% of the sample was classified as stayers, the Bayesian information criterion for the mover-stayer model was lower than the estimate for a model assuming a homogeneous population, suggesting that the mover-stayer model better represented the fit of the manifest response frequencies. The movers were initially distributed across NR (71%), RD-W (9%), and RD-CW (20%) classes.

Table 5

The lower portion of provides the transition probabilities of movers across grade boundaries. In terms of transitions from second to fourth grades, 77% of children classified as NR in second grade were predicted to remain NR in fourth grade, 8% were predicted to transition to RD-W, and 15% to RD-C. Children in the RD-W class only transitioned to the RD-CW class, whereas children in the RD-CW class transitioned to NR, RD-W, and RD-C classes. The diagonal of the transition probability matrix represents the stability of each class across the two time points. In general, the stability of classes increased as children progressed to higher grades with diagonal transition probabilities exceeding .90 for all four classes during the eighth to tenth grade transition. The magnitude of transition probabilities between the RD-W and RD-CW classes (in both directions) were relatively large indicating movement between the two classes between second and eighth grades. Model fit was estimated using the likelihood ratio chi-square (χ ²). The likelihood ratio compares the observed response proportions against the response proportions predicted by the model. The degrees of freedom are calculated by subtracting the number of free parameters from the total number of response pattern possible ( Kaplan, 2008). As with most SEM-based models the null hypothesis for chi-square model tests is that the specified model holds for the given population, and therefore accepting the null hypothesis implies that the model is plausible. Overall, the model was found to fit the data (χ ²(1,048,172, N=493) = 726.01, p > .05).

A total of 512 different latent transition cases were possible with the LTA model specified [2 (mover-stayers) × 4 ⁴ (4 possible classes at each of 4 time points)]. provides frequency counts and percentages for the identified latent classes. Also, included are the population estimates based on the weighting procedure derived from the epidemiologic study. Only 26 of the 512 possible classes (5%) were represented in the data, with 2 TD, 2 LERD-W, ,4 LERD-CW, 2 LERD-C, 3 LETD, 5 EIRD-W, 5 EIRD-CW , and 3 EIRD-C classes. The data responded in an orderly fashion with transitions generally followed by stable class membership, meaning that once a child transitioned from say NR to RD-C (i.e., LERD-C), she or he tended to stay in that class. Predicted probabilities, the estimated probability that a child has been assigned to the correct class, for the 26 classes ranged from .623 to .918, with 22 of the classes having probabilities above .80. Population estimates for the classes are as follows: 67.9% TD, 4.8% LERD-W, 1.6% LERD-CW, 7.0% LERD-C, 1.9% LETD, and 16.8% EIRD. These estimates were weighted using procedures described above to better assure their representativeness. Overall, 84.7% of the sample remained in the same class (i.e., stable) across grades 2-10 (67.9% TD; 16.8% EIRD). The remaining 15.3 % of the sample made a class transition across time. Approximately 13% of the population transitioned from the NR to one of the RD classes with comprehension deficits (LERD-C & LERD-CW) making up the largest transitioning group. Further, the LERD population represents nearly 50% of the total sample identified with RD [LERD/(LERD + early identified RD)]. It is noteworthy that 4.8% of the population showed LERD in word reading only, indicating a class of children who develop word reading problems later in school. Our results further showed that about 2% of the population transitioned from early RD to normal readers. The vast majority of transitions took place between grades 2-4, with far fewer occurring between grades 4-8, and a negligible number occurring between grades 8-10. To further clarify subtype performance, displays norm referenced composite z-scores for word reading and reading comprehension by subtype as a function of time. Contrary to the TD and EIRD latent classes who exhibited relatively stable performance as referenced against sample weighted norms, LERD classes continued to lose ground with time in deficit areas, indicating that the deficit areas were becoming more severe as a function of time in the LERD classes.

Table 6

We also examined gender differences among LERD subgroups. Although studies often show a higher male:female ratio among poor readers identified on the basis of word reading ( Shaywitz, Shaywitz, Fletcher, & Escobar, 1990), and the reverse for poor readers identified on the basis of comprehension ( Nation & Snowling, 1998; Yuill & Oakhill, 1991), a weighted frequency analysis indicated no significant difference between males and females in the 3 LERD subtypes (χ ²(2, N=93) = 2.24, p = .326). Ratios were in the expected direction with late emerging comprehension problems occurring more often in females (LERD-C 57%, LERD-CW 75%) and late emerging word reading problems less often (LERD-W 45%), however due to the low power none of the values were found to be significantly different from 50%.

Further analyses were undertaken to explore subgroup differences in kindergarten language and nonverbal cognitive abilities/disabilities. As described in the participant section, the sample for this study was drawn from an epidemiologic investigation of language impairments in children. At the time of kindergarten testing, children were classified into four different groups (TL, SLI, NLI, SCD). presents class counts, percentages, and weighted population estimates for the subtypes as a function of kindergarten language/cognitive classification. As might be expected all of the LERD classes contained many children with SLI, ranging from roughly 13% to 17% of the class compared to only about 3% in the TD class. In addition, LERD classes had a substantial percentage of children from the SCD and NLI categories. The one exception was that the LERD-W class had approximately the same percentage of children from the NLI category as did the TD class. Results also showed that the majority of children with EIRD had a history of language and/or nonverbal cognitive deficits. In addition, children with a history of deficits in both areas (NLI) were most frequently classified as children with EIRD.

To further explore the relationships between kindergarten measures (i.e., vocabulary, grammar, narration, phonological awareness letter identification, and nonverbal IQ) and latent classes membership, a profile analysis was conducted. lists correlation coefficients between word reading and reading comprehension composite scores across the assessment waves and kindergarten measures. All kindergarten measures were significantly correlated ( p < .001) with word reading and reading comprehension skill across the four assessment waves. No univariate or multivariate outliers were identified ( p = .001). Three measures showed some limited skew (picture vocabulary, sentence imitation, and phonological awareness) with none reaching statistical significance. Profile analysis using a 2-way repeated measures ANOVA was performed to explore elevation, flatness, and shape effects on the 10 kindergarten measures across the 6 subtypes (TD, LERD-C, LERD-W, LERD-CW, LETD, EIRD), with profiles displayed in . When performance was averaged across kindergarten measures subtypes differed significantly on elevation, F(5, 487) = 56.07, p < .001, with TD performance > LERD-W = LETD = LERD-C = LERD-CW > EIRD (adjusting α = .008 to control for multiple pairwise comparisons among groups). When performance was aggregated across subtypes, the effect of flatness was found to be nonsignificant, F(9, 479) = 1.72, p = .065. The lack of a flatness effect is likely due to the mirror image-like performance across various groups on the measures. The test of shape, defined by the subtype by kindergarten measures interaction, was significant, F(45, 2415) = 2.37, p < .001, indicating deviation from parallelism across the subtypes on the kindergarten measures. These shape effects indicate the possibilities of unique strengths and weaknesses across the kindergarten measures as a function subtype. Relative strengths and weaknesses may be helpful in considering early predictors of LERD subtypes. To identify relative strengthens and weakness on kindergarten measures in the subtypes, confidence intervals were calculated around the mean of the profile for the six groups combined. Since the kindergarten measures were converted to z-scores prior to analysis, the grand mean for each measure was 0 and the SD was 1. Alpha for each of the 60 comparisons was set at .0008 to achieve an adjusted error rate of 5%. Therefore, 99.92% confidence limits were evaluated for the pooled profile. The horizontal lines at z = .16 and z = −.16 on represent the 99.92% confidence intervals for the combined sample with subtype performance above the upper limit considered a strength and performance below a weakness. Scores within the confidence interval was considered average performance. As evident from , the TD subtype exhibited a relative strength on all kindergarten measures whereas relative weaknesses were present across all LERD subtypes on measures of oral vocabulary, grammatic understanding, sentence imitation, and phonological awareness.

Finally, a multinomial logistic regression analysis was performed to explore the predictive utility of the ten kindergarten measures in distinguishing EIRD and LERD groups from the TD group. The kindergarten measures were entered as a single block with the TD group serving as referent. Comparing the log-likelihood ratios of the base model (null model) to the model with the ten predictors revealed a significant improvement in the final model over the base model Δχ2(20, N = 493) = 275.91, p < .001. Overall the goodness-of-fit statistic was excellent with the deviance statistic p = .993 and Nagelkerke = .50. Despite the fit of the model, the accuracy of classification of the groups was quite poor. As seen in , accuracies ranged from 15.1% to 85.9% and an overall classification accuracy of 67.0%. In general, the model was most accurate in correctly classifying TD, followed by EIRD, and LERD. Over 50% of the LERD group was misclassified as TD using the kindergarten measures, suggesting that while the groups differed on kindergarten measures, these differences were not adequate to accurately distinguish the two groups in kindergarten. Since the profile analysis showed that the LERD-W group had a quite different pattern of strengths and weaknesses than the other LERD subtypes, we reran the multinomial regression analysis with the four groups (TD, EIRD, LERD-W, and LERD-C/CW). Again prediction accuracy was good for TD (87%), and fair for EIRD (70%) and quite poor for LERD-W (0%) and LERD-C/CW (16%).

Discussion

Prevalence of Late-Emerging Poor Readers

Our first research question concerned the prevalence of late-emerging poor readers. To address this question, we used latent transition analysis to identify good and poor readers at second, fourth, eighth, and tenth grades and to subsequently classify these readers into stable or transitioning latent classes across grades. Because our sample included more children with language and/or nonverbal cognitive deficits than would be found in a representative sample, we used weighted scores to estimate the prevalence of latent classes. Whereas the use of weighted scores might be considered a limitation, the fact that these scores were based on the results of an epidemiologic study better assures the representativeness of our results. These results estimated the prevalence of late-emerging poor readers to be 13.4 % of school-aged children. This value and that of the other RD subtypes are influenced, of course, by the criteria we used for designating a poor reader. According to our criteria, a child could potentially be identified as a poor reader if he/she scored 1 SD below the weighted sample mean on a measure of word reading and/or reading comprehension in second, fourth, eighth, or tenth grade. Thus, for a given measure, approximately 16% of our sample (after weighting) would be classified as a poor reader on that measure at each grade. Because a child could be identified as RD on the basis of word reading measures, or comprehension measures, or both at any grade, the expected prevalence of RD in our sample was considerably higher than 16%. In fact, our LTA analysis indicated that 32.1% of the sample could be classified as RD at one or more grades. Late-emerging poor readers, thus, represented about 42% of all those classified as a poor readers across grades (13.4/32.1%). Persistent poor readers constituted about 52% of the poor readers and 6% of poor readers were those with early reading problems only.

Our estimate of the prevalence of late-emerging poor readers can be compared to that of others who have examined this group of poor readers. However, given the variability in the criteria used to identify poor readers across studies (e.g., cut-scores of 16 th vs. 25 th percentile and the use of population vs. sample-based norms), comparisons are best made not in terms of the overall prevalence of late-emerging poor readers in a sample but rather in terms of the proportion of poor readers who are late-emerging. In this regard, the results of our epidemiological-based study are quite similar to those obtained in several of the other investigations. As reported above, we found that 42% of children who were RD at any of the grades we examined were late-emerging poor readers. Leach et al. (2003) found 47% of fourth or fifth graders with RD could be classified as late-emerging whereas Badian (1999) showed that 46% of poor readers in grades 5-8 did not have a RD in grades 1-4. Finally, Lipka et al. (2006) reported a lower prevalence of late-emerging deficits (36%) within fourth grade poor readers. However, in their study, RD was defined on the basis of word reading problems only. Taken together, these results indicate that while many children may experience difficulties in beginning reading, a sizable percentage of poor readers may not manifest their difficulties until fourth grade or later.

Heterogeneity of Late-Emerging Poor Readers

Previous research has demonstrated that late-emerging poor readers represent a heterogeneous group ( Leach et al., 2003; Lipka et al., 2006). This work suggests that some children in this group have problems in reading comprehension alone, while other have difficulties in word reading alone or in combination with those in comprehension. Our results also showed heterogeneity among late-emerging poor readers. Approximately half (52%) of the late-emerging poor readers in our sample had problems in reading comprehension alone. Such a finding is not surprising given what is known about reading development and the changing nature of reading curricula. In the initial phases of reading development, children must learn to decode and recognize printed words ( Adams, 1990). As a result, most reading curricula place limited demands on comprehension processes and focus primarily on helping children become fluent readers. However, as children progress through the school grades, reading texts (and reading assessments) change to include a greater percentage of informational passages or more complex narratives that place higher demands on the language and cognitive processing needed for comprehension. As a result, some children who have had no problems in the initial phases of reading development may begin to encounter difficulties. Our data suggest that most of these children will start to show reading problems by fourth grade. However, in a few cases, students may encounter these difficulties between fourth and eighth grades. As discussed in a later section, these problems may result from deficits in language and/or other aspects of cognitive processing.

A cautionary note is necessary in the interpretation of the results of late emerging comprehension deficits. Because one of the reading comprehension tests (i.e., DAB-2) administered in second and fourth grades was not appropriate for older children, another similar measure (i.e., QRI-2) was substituted for it in eighth and tenth grades. Although this measure represented only one of the three assessments in the comprehension composite and was scaled on the same sample, it could be argued that this change in reading tests contributed to transitions in latent classes. However, such a contribution is likely to be small at best since the majority of transitions involving children with late-emerging comprehension deficits took place between second and fourth grades and not between fourth and eighth grades where the switch in reading tests could have impacted results.

Our results also showed that a portion of late-emerging poor readers had problems in word reading alone (36%) or in combination with problems in reading comprehension (12%). In almost all cases these difficulties were first documented in the fourth grade. Leach et al. (2003) and Lipka et al. (2006) also observed late-emerging poor readers who had problems specific to word reading. Consistent with our findings, Leach et al. (2003) reported about a third of late-emerging poor readers demonstrated this profile. These problems may arise as a result of the changes in the nature of the words encountered in the middle elementary school grades. At these grades, children begin to encounter more complex multisyllabic words that require advanced skills in phonological decoding, orthographic processing, and deviational morphology. Thus, children who have gotten off to a good start in word reading may begin to show difficulties if they have deficiencies in these skills ( Leach et al. 2003). Alternatively, these children may fall behind not because of inherent limitations but because of a lack of experience and/or practice with reading. Children with limited experience/practice might get off to a good start but may not have sufficient learning opportunities to develop the orthographic knowledge needed to be successful word readers at later elementary grades. Finally, Juel (1991) has also suggested that some children may rely heavily on memorization of words and appear to be successful in beginning word reading, but struggle when such memorization becomes inefficient in the later grades.

History of Language and/or Nonverbal Cognitive Deficits

Previous research on late-emerging poor readers or children with related problems (e.g., poor comprehenders) suggests that deficits in language and/or other cognitive abilities may underlie their reading difficulties ( Catts, Adlof, & Weismer, 2006; Compton et al., 2008; Locascio, Mahone, Eason, & Cutting, 2010; Nation et al., 2004). Our data allowed us to examine factors that might underlie late-emerging RD in several ways. First, our participants had been classified in kindergarten as having a specific language impairment (SLI), a specific nonverbal cognitive deficit (SCD), a combined language and cognitive deficit (NLI) or typical language abilities (TL). This allowed us to examine the prevalence of children with a history of each of these classifications among each of the poor reader subtypes. Our results showed that after sample adjusted weighting, all poor reader subtypes contained a significant proportion of children with a history of language and/or nonverbal cognitive deficits. Children with a history of language impairments (i.e., SLI, NLI) were quite prevalent among those with persistent reading problems (EIRD) and late-emerging comprehension difficulties (i.e., LERD-C, LERD-CW). Furthermore, all subtypes had a sizable proportion of children with a history of a specific nonverbal cognitive deficit. In fact, when this proportion was combined with that involving children with a history of both a nonverbal cognitive deficit and a language impairment (i.e., NLI), our findings showed that all late-emerging subtypes had a higher proportion of children with a nonverbal cognitive deficit than with those with a language impairment (SLI and NLI combined).

In another set of analyses, we examined profile differences between reader subtypes on kindergarten measures. These measures included the language and nonverbal cognitive measures that were used in the kindergarten classification discussed above as well as measures of phonological awareness and letter identification. Our results revealed that subtypes differed significantly in their patterns of strengths and weaknesses on these measures. Most children in the TD subtype performed well across all assessments, whereas those in the EIRD subtype had weaknesses on all measures. Both groups of late-emerging poor readers with comprehension problems (i.e., LERD-C, LERD-CW) demonstrated deficiencies in oral language. This result and the findings above that these groups had a high proportion of children with a history of a language impairment is consistent with previous research showing a relationship between oral language and reading comprehension ( Kendeou, van den Broek, White, & Lynch, 2009; Storch & Whitehurst, 2002). These results further suggest that developmental language problems may underlie, in part, late-emerging comprehension problems. Deficits in vocabulary, grammar, and/or narrative abilities likely contribute to the difficulties that at least some of these children experience when faced with the linguistically more demanding text encountered in middle elementary school.

The factors that underlie late-emerging comprehension problems appear to go beyond oral language deficits. We also found that these children had weaknesses in nonverbal IQ and were frequently classified as having a nonverbal cognitive deficit in kindergarten. The role of IQ (especially nonverbal IQ) in reading development has been played down for some time ( Siegel, 1989; Stanovich, 1991). This has resulted for the most part from a focus on the development of word reading skills that have been shown to be relatively independent of IQ ( Stuebing, Fletcher, LeDoux, Lyon, Shaywitz & Shaywitz, 2002; Vellutino, Scanlon, & Lyon, 2000). However, few would question the impact of IQ on reading comprehension. Clearly verbal IQ, which is often assessed by subtests measuring vocabulary or other aspects of oral language, impacts the ability to understand written text. Measures of nonverbal IQ would also seem to be related to comprehension in that these measures assess children's ability to plan, organize, and critically analyze stimuli. In fact, recent research has shown that children with specific reading comprehension problems may have deficits in strategic planning and organizing ( Cutting, Materek, Cole, Levine, & Mahone, 2009; Locascio et al., 2010). Thus, it may be that problems in the latter areas contributed to some of our participants' difficulties on nonverbal cognitive measures (e.g., Block Design) and reading comprehension assessments.

The finding that children in the LERD-C and LERD-CW also had deficits in phonological awareness is somewhat surprising in light of the results from studies of poor comprehenders. Poor comprehenders, who have a specific deficit in reading comprehension, often overlap with late-emerging poor readers. Research has typically found that poor comprehenders have poor oral language abilities but good phonological awareness skills ( Cain, Oakhill, & Bryant, 2000; Nation et al, 2004). One possible explanation for the inconsistencies in the results may be the time at which phonological awareness abilities have been measured. Studies of poor comprehenders have typically examined phonological awareness in well after children have learned to read. It may be that many poor comprehenders (and children with LERD-CW or LERD-C) have deficits in phonological awareness during preschool/kindergarten which improve as the result of their developing orthographic knowledge. Bishop McDonald, Bird, and Hayiou-Thomas (2009) have offered a similar account to explain why children with SLI but good word reading (i.e., a group that should overlap with poor comprehenders and LERD) had deficits in phonological awareness in preschool but not in the primary grades.

It is also important to note that children with late-emerging comprehension problems did show some relative strengths in their kindergarten abilities. Both the LERD-C and LERD-CW subtypes performed in the average or above range in letter identification in kindergarten. It is unclear from our data whether this performance was influenced by early literacy experiences or from some inherent cognitive ability. Regardless, their early alphabetic knowledge may have served as a protective factor during the initial phases of learning to read words.

Late-emerging poor readers with word reading problems alone (i.e., LERD-W) demonstrated both strengths and weaknesses in kindergarten measures. Specifically, these children typically scored above average in receptive vocabulary, narrative skills, and letter knowledge. They showed below average performance in expressive vocabulary, some measures of grammar, and phonological awareness. However, the latter deficits were generally rather mild and don't seem sufficient, by themselves, to account for the problems these children experienced in later word reading. Some of children in the LERD-W subtype did have a history of a specific language or nonverbal cognitive impairment. However, it is unclear how such problems might cause specific word reading difficulties in some children and specific comprehension deficits in others. Further research is needed to better understand the factors that cause children to have late-emerging RD both in word reading and comprehension. This work should also go beyond the examination of factors intrinsic to children and consider other variables known to influence reading performance. One of the limitations of this investigation was that we were unable to consider the impact of variables such as reading instruction, experience, and/or motivation on reading outcomes.

The need to explore both intrinsic and extrinsic causal factors in children with LERD is further highlighted by our results concerning the difficulties predicting these reading problems based on kindergarten measures. Multinomial regression analysis indicated that kindergarten measures could accurately identify children with TD, and to a lesser extent, those with EIRD. However, children with LERD were seldom identified accurately. Many were misclassified as children with EIRD but even more were misidentified as children with TD. Thus, despite the fact that children with LERD often have language and/or nonverbal cognitive deficits, these deficits alone (or at least the way we measured them) were not sufficient to distinguish them from children with TD or EIRD. Enough children with TD also had a history of deficits in language and/or cognitive abilities (or at least mild problems in these areas), which made it difficult to distinguish them from children with LERD. As predicted, language and/or cognitive deficits were also quite prevalent in children with EIRD; in fact, the vast majority of these children had deficits in one or both of these areas. We had predicted that children with LERD would perform well in phonological awareness and letter identification and that this performance might distinguish them from children with EIRD. However, whereas many children with LERD had strengths in letter identification, most had at least mild deficits in phonological awareness. The resultant pattern of performance was not sufficiently different to distinguish them from children with EIRD.

Late-Emerging versus Late-Identified

In this paper, we have referred to the children of primary interest as late-emerging poor readers. However, given that most of these children were shown to have a history of language and/or nonverbal cognitive impairments, is it a misnomer to refer to them in this way? Presumably, many of these children evidenced difficulties in language and/or nonverbal cognitive abilities prior to beginning school. Thus, in this sense, their problems might be considered early rather than late to emerge. Nevertheless, in the current paper and other related papers ( Leach et al., 2003; Lipka et al., 2006), the term late-emerging is used specifically to refer to reading difficulties. Our results indicate that these children do not have reading problems in the early school grades that are somehow missed and only identified in the latter grades. As a group, these children score well within the normal range in reading in the early grades and only fall behind in fourth grade and beyond. The early to emerge language and cognitive deficits may partly explain these reading difficulties but are not the defining characteristics of this group. In fact, as noted above, both children with TD and EIRD may have "early emerging" language and nonverbal cognitive deficits as well. Perhaps with further investigation we will find early emerging developmental difficulties that distinguish children with LERD from those with TD and EIRD. When and if such a profile is uncovered, the term late-emerging could be revised to better reflect the developmental nature of the disorder.

Footnotes

¹ Children were identified as having a language impairment if they performed at least 1.25 SDs below the mean on 2 of 5 language composite scores derived from the TOLD-2:P and the Narrative Skills task described in . This criterion is approximately equal to having an overall language composite score which is at least 1.14 SD below the mean. Children were identified has having a nonverbal cognitive deficit if they performed at least 1 SD below the mean on a composite measure that included the Block Design and Picture Completion subtests from the WPPSI-R.

² For example, the epidemiologic study found that boys with a specific language impairment (who also failed an earlier language screen) composed 2.8% of the general population. In our sample, however, these children composed 9.3%. To ensure that the children from this group did not contribute disproportionately to our results, their scores were adjusted by weighting them by a constant that was equal to the expected prevalence of these children (2.8%) divided by their actual prevalence (9.3%; constant = .30).

Contributor Information

Hugh W. Catts, University of Kansas.

Donald Compton, Vanderbilt University.

J. Bruce Tomblin, University of Iowa.

Mindy Sittner Bridges, University of Kansas.

References

Jenkins JR. Candidate measures for screening at-risk students.. Paper presented at the National Research Center on Learning Disabilities Responsiveness-to-Intervention symposium; Kansas City, MO. Dec, 2003. [Google Scholar]

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Prevalence and Nature of Late-Emerging Poor Readers

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Some children demonstrate adequate or better reading achievement in early school grades, but fall significantly behind their peers in later grades. These children are often referred to as late-emerging poor readers. In this study, we investigated the prevalence and heterogeneity of these poor readers.

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Here is a news report about a community book fair event that happened in Alabama. It was created by high schoolers who are a part of a nonprofit that aimed to bring the community together through circulating books. This is really important as a reinforcement of Allington's articles because reading for pleasure became a talking point of the larger community rather than remaining in K-5 classrooms. Readers were able to pick books that matched their reading and interest levels rather than being forced into a homogenized reading environment.

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From the West Alabama Newsroom-

A Uniontown non-profit organization hosts a community book fair for area youth - in an effort to promote a love of reading.

CHOICE is a non-profit organization based in Uniontown - that connects people in the community with needed resources.

The CHOICE Community Book Fair is a part of a Character Development Day activity - organized by the CHOICE Youth Advisory Committee.

"Which is a group of 9th thru 12th graders. And they get a budget every year and part of their budget is they have to use $500 dollars to create a community event," said CHOICE Founder Emefa Butler.

"So, they came up with a book fair because we had so many books donated to us. And we wanted to get them out in the community."

The book fair was also filled with all kinds of food - like popcorn and cotton candy.

Along with hot dogs and burgers sponsored by Cowboy Church of the Prairie in Uniontown.

And everything at the event was given away free of charge.

"So you get to come out and get free books, free popcorn, free food, free cotton candy and free fun," said Butler.

District Attorney Michael Jackson and Short the Squirrel were featured guests at the event.

"Yeah, it's just a really great event for kids. I love the idea of promoting literacy for kids and young adults. For CHOICE to get with Short the Squirrel, that program, it's just a great day," said Jackson.

"Our kids need to read. It opens up a whole new world to them."

For more information about CHOICE - call (334) 231-7019.

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Community Book Fair in Uniontown Promotes Lifelong Learning - Alabama News

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From the West Alabama Newsroom- A Uniontown non-profit organization hosts a community book fair for area youth - in an effort to promote a love of reading. CHOICE is a non-profit organization based in Uniontown - that connects people in the community with needed resources.

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How To Make Students into Better Readers

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How To Make Students into Better Readers

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Here is a really simple article that talks about general ways to improve a students reading capabilities! I really like this, because it encompasses techniques that potentially be taken advantage of by any student, parent or teacher. One of the suggestions that I really liked, and I feel like could have helped me when I was learning how to read, was that you should personalize the content. I rarely got to choose the books I read, and I hated it! I feel like if I chose the type of genres and literature I read, I would have felt more encouraged to read and develop my skills. I understand why it is important to expand your horizons in reading, but allowing for literally no personalization seems ineffective.

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8 Tips to Help Students Build Better Reading Skills | Waterford.org

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Need new ways to teach your students literacy skills? These eight tips will help your students build stronger reading skills.

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Phonics Textbook I Used Every Day in Third Grade

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Phonics Textbook I Used Every Day in Third Grade

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Allington points out that phonics exercises and worksheets are virtually useless in the classroom despite being frequently used as the core of early English and reading programs until recently. I was inspired to find my old phonics textbook and though I cannot see the inside pages, I remember what they looked like. I did eventually grow up to be a reader, but I suspect the hundreds of hours I wasted doing exercises out of this book in third grade had little or nothing to do with it.

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Teaching Resource to Promote Thriving Readers

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Teaching Resource to Promote Thriving Readers

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This book is one resource I found when looking up the concept of striving readers. Based on the description, it includes strategies for teachers to implement that will open up reading accessibility to all students and promote lifelong reading. The cover includes a plant to show that readers shouldn't remain stationary in their progress. Like the growth of a plant, teachers should be guiding students to eventually become thriving readers rather than abandoning them in their progress as striving readers.

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from striving to thriving: how to grow confident

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sell from striving to thriving: how to grow confident

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from striving to thriving: how to grow confident

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buy from striving to thriving: how to grow confident

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From Striving to Thriving: How to Grow Confident, Capable Readers

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Sell, buy or rent From Striving to Thriving: How to Grow Confident, Capable Readers 9781338051964 1338051962, we buy used or new for best buyback price with FREE shipping and offer great deals for buyers.

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This is a link to a 2020 grant provided to Ohio by the U.S. Department of Education to promote lifelong literacy for students that carries all the way through grade 12. Like the Allington article discusses, literacy will be promoted through all grades with an emphasis on "students living in poverty, students with disabilities, English learners and students identified as having a reading disability."

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2020 Literacy Academy

The Ohio Department of Education held its third annual Literacy Academy on February 19 th and 20 th for districts, schools, and early childhood education programs working toward raising literacy achievement. The Literacy Academy provides professional learning to support the use of evidence-based language and literacy practices.

Resources and presentations from the academy are available on the 2020 Literacy Academy webpage and video recordings of select sessions will be available soon.

To build on ongoing work to improve the language and literacy development of our state's children, Ohio was awarded a $35 million Striving Readers Comprehensive Literacy Grant from the U.S. Department of Education.

Approximately 95 percent of the $35 million award will be distributed directly to local schools or early childhood providers to improve literacy outcomes for children from birth through grade 12. The three-year grant will focus on serving the greatest numbers of students living in poverty, students with disabilities, English learners and students identified as having a reading disability.

2018 Ohio's Striving Readers Comprehensive Literacy Grant Awards

State Literacy Plan

Subgrant Application

Local Literacy Plan

Resources

General Resources

Evidence-Based Resources

Send questions to StrivingReaders@education.ohio.gov

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Ohio's Striving Readers Comprehensive Literacy Grant

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The Ohio Department of Education held its third annual Literacy Academy on February 19 th and 20 th for districts, schools, and early childhood education programs working toward raising literacy achievement. The Literacy Academy provides professional learning to support the use of evidence-based language and literacy practices.

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Inspiring All Children to be Lifelong Readers

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Inspiring All Children to be Lifelong Readers

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This TED Talk is really great, and excellently highlights the point oof this weeks reading and Padlet prompt. It considers it from how the educators can be better, which is a different way I look at it, because I often critique the system of educating that teachers are forced into. For example, we need to be more culturally educated. Of course, I have known this, but this video really stressed it and made me think about it. Most Black boys in the 4th grade are not proficient in reading. They obviously are not different from other students biologically, so what are we doing as a society to allow this? That is what this video talks about, and Irby suggests that if we fix this, all children will have the desire to be readers for life.

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How to inspire every child to be a lifelong reader | Alvin Irby

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Article that Outlines Statistics on Sheer Time Wasted Taking Tests

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Article that Outlines Statistics on Sheer Time Wasted Taking Tests

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I genuinely do not know which of the two statistics measured in this study done by George Washington University is scarier - time wasted taking tests (which, spoiler, was an average of 19 days per year between state and federal tests) or time spent preparing for them (26 days per year). Time spent in the classroom is invaluable and it is unbelievable that so much of it should be spent preparing for and taking evaluative tests rather than learning anything new or working on any kind of a formative assessment. Allington sums it up well: "I believe we can create middle schools where
struggling readers can thrive rather than struggle, but I am not even modestly optimistic that we will." Not at this rate.

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It's not hard to find a teacher willing to bend your ear about the volume of standardized testing in schools today, and the pressure for "test prep." But how widespread are such concerns among educators? And what's the on-the-ground reality they experience?

New survey data suggest these impressions about over-testing and test prep are more than just anecdotal: They are the norm for the majority of public school teachers.

Eighty-one percent believe their students spend too much time taking tests mandated by their state or district, according to the study by the Center on Education Policy, based at George Washington University.

How much time is too much? On average, students spend 10 days taking district-mandated tests during the school year and nine days taking state-mandated tests, the teachers estimate. But underneath these averages are wide variations, from less than a week (the most popular response in both cases) to more than a month, the survey finds.

When it comes to test prep, 62 percent of teachers say they spend too much time readying students for state-mandated exams. And 51 percent feel that way about district-mandated tests, according to the nationally representative survey conducted in late 2015.

On average, teachers estimate spending 14 days preparing students for state-mandated exams, and 12 days for district-mandated exams.

Of course, not all test prep is created equal. It can mean many things, some good, some not so good. The CEP report defines it as "drilling students on specific content and skills covered on the tests, using practice tests, and/or teaching test-taking skills like time-management and pacing."

Test prep is especially prevalent in high-poverty and medium-poverty schools, according to the survey. Thirty-six percent of teachers spend at least a month on test prep for state-mandated exams, for example. By contrast, the figure is 23 percent in low-poverty schools.

Taxing Teachers' Good Will?

These are just a few of the findings from the Center on Education Policy report, conducted with financial support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. It's based on a survey of more than 3,000 teachers. The data, issued last month, offer fresh insights into the views of classroom educators on testing, standards, Common Core implementation and more.

Others have reported on important findings regarding declining teacher morale, including USA Today and Education Week. The short version is that many teachers are losing a commitment to their field amid multiple frustrations, including pressures around testing.

"While the teaching profession in the U.S. may not be in full blown crisis, ... forces outside of teachers' control may be taxing their good will and dedication," the report says. "The most notable stressors revealed by the survey are the time devoted to testing, changing demands from outside the classroom, and teachers' perceptions that they lack a voice in major decisions."

Maria Ferguson, the Center on Education Policy's executive director, offered a sneak preview of some of the study's findings during a presentation at an Education Writers Association seminar earlier this year in Los Angeles, titled Teaching and Testing in the Common Core Era.

Among the challenges she cited for teachers was the "constantly changing slate of demands on teachers." Ferguson said it's worth further exploring the extent to which such circumstances impede effective teaching.

Certainly, recent changes in state testing systems have been a major adjustment for educators. Indeed, many states that had planned to use Common Core assessments developed by two major testing consortia have recently shifted gears and gone their own way.

In any case, whatever assessments teachers encounter, the CEP data indicate that the time spent on testing is too much for most teachers. Only 16 percent report that time for state- and district-mandated tests was about right, and a scant 1 percent say it is not enough.

The amount of time teachers reported for such assessments varies widely:

The responses likely reflect multiple types of exams, such as diagnostic tests, high school end-of-course exams, and spring statewide assessments in math, English language arts, and other subjects, according to CEP deputy director Diane Stark Rentner.

The survey comes as concerns about time for testing have mounted, and even gotten the attention of the White House, which urged states and districts last fall to rein it in. (Of course, many analysts are quick to point out that federal testing requirements have contributed to the problem.)

Another study, by the Council of the Great City Schools, closely examined testing in large urban districts. Its detailed "testing inventory" report found that students in big-city districts spend, on average, 20 to 25 hours each year taking mandatory standardized tests.

Despite the concerns among teachers about over-testing, a clear majority of those surveyed by CEP are not ready to throw out state-mandated and district-mandated assessments altogether. They just want to reduce their frequency or length.

"While teachers strongly agree that test prep and testing take up too much time, they generally do not support the wholesale scrapping of mandated tests," the CEP report says. The center argues that "teachers should be included in local and state discussions about which tests can be eliminated and which should be maintained."

Although not the focus of this survey, many educators also have voiced deep concerns about the use of standardized test scores to evaluate students, teachers, and schools.

Regarding test prep, the survey details the wide variation in time spent on these activities, from less than a week to more than a month.

The report cautions that its line of questioning was not meant to imply that "all test prep activities are an ineffective use of time - if the activities are helping students master the knowledge and skills in the standards they can be useful."

A Typology of Test Prep

Meanwhile, this spring the teacher-advocacy group Teach Plus issued a report on test prep, drawing on survey data from educators in the Teach Plus network. It even created a "typology" of 17 common test-prep activities, based on information gathered through focus groups with teachers. Some activities are valued by educators, some not, according to the report.

Among the "highly valued" activities:

developing students' computer skills;

workshops to improve students' writing with evidence; and

helping them use dictionaries, calculators, and other tools on assessments.

Activities not finding favor included test-taking strategies, taking students to motivational pep rallies, and administering predictive tests.

As with the CEP report, the Teach Plus survey finds an overall negative tilt toward the amount of time for test prep. Fifty-seven percent of teachers surveyed say they spend "too much" time on test prep, compared with 43 percent who say it is "about right" or "too little." (The survey is not nationally representative of educators.)

But it also finds that the attitude of teachers is influenced by the conditions they face. For example, teachers are more favorable toward test prep when they have leeway to select the kinds of activities they believe would be most "appropriate and valuable," and when the tests align with the curriculum.

"Most people think of test prep as one monolithic iceberg of time, not valued by teachers and detrimental to instruction," the report says. "But teachers use 'test prep' to refer to lots of different things."

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Testing and Test Prep: How Much Is Too Much? - Education Writers Association

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It's not hard to find a teacher willing to bend your ear about the volume of standardized testing in schools today, and the pressure for "test prep." But how widespread are such concerns among educators? And what's the on-the-ground reality they experience?

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Controversial Guide to Reading More Quickly

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Controversial Guide to Reading More Quickly

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I'm a pretty slow reader, but my comprehension is quite high because I don't particularly follow the tips in this article. I always remember my parents or teachers telling me that the best way to boost your reading speed is by reading more. This was on the list, but it was quite low. This article emphasizes reading for only speed--which would probably be used if you needed to cram a couple of articles before a class. But in any other situation, I don't recommend using these tips because you will get so little out of it. Every Child Every Day emphasized the importance of reading and rereading  in order to grow your literacy skills and help striving readers. I love this because it highlights that you can try again and the most important thing is that you are reading, not word-chunking or throwing away your inner-dialogue. (Liv Mullenix)

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Do you have a lot of paperwork to get through with a deadline that continues to stalk you around every corner? Do you have a lot of reading to do? Do you simply just want to read at a faster rate, whether it be for your own personal reasons, or for work?

So, how to read faster? Here are 10 proven ways to help increase your reading speed.

1. Stop the Inner Monologue

One's inner monologue, also known as subvocalization, is an extremely common trait among readers. It is the process of speaking the words in your head as you read, and it is the biggest obstacle that gets in the way of you being able to increase your reading speed.

If you're hearing voices in your head when you're reading, don't fret. As long as it is your own voice, reading along with you, you're fine. In fact, this is how teachers teach kids to read - say the words silently in your head as you read.

Do you recall the instructions, "Read in your head, as I read the passage aloud", that were said fairly often in the classrooms? That is one of the ways in which this habit of having an inner monologue was ingrained into you as a young reader.

When you were initially taught to read, you were taught to sound out everything and read aloud. Once you were proficient enough at that, your teacher had you start saying the words in your head. This is how the habit originated, and most people continue reading this way. It does not adversely affect them in any way, until they start wanting to read at a faster pace. If you are seeking to increase your reading speed, this is the first thing you must learn to overcome.

Why does this slow you down? The average reading speed is pretty much the same as the average talking speed. According to Forbes, the average adult reading speed is 300 words per minute.
The average talking speed is the same.

Since most people are in the habit of saying the words aloud in their head as they read, they tend to read around the same pace as they talk. This means, your reading speed will only increase so much if you continue to keep up that inner monologue. If you want to continue to increase your reading speed, you need to eliminate it.

To do this, you need to understand one thing: It's unnecessary. You do not need to say every word in your head in order to understand the material you are reading. It was when you are younger, but now you are able to input the meaning from just seeing the words. Your brain still processes the information.

For example, when you see a "YIELD" sign, do you actually stop to speak the word in your head? Of course not. You just look at it and process it automatically. This is what you need to be doing when you read your print material, such as books or paperwork.

If you have a hard time attempting this, try reading with instrumental music playing in headphones or chew on some gum. A distraction will keep your brain less focused on subvocalization, though you will still look at the words and process them.

2. Word-Chunking

Word-chunking closely parallels with the idea of eliminating the inner monologue. This is the act of reading multiple words at once, and is the key to reading faster. All of these reading tips tie together, yet word-chunking is probably the most active tool to use when you work to increase your reading speed.

A person can take in several words at a time, even though we are trained - as mentioned with the inner monologue - to read each word at a time and not miss a single article. Using your peripheral vision is one way to make this step easier, but we will get to that in the next section.

For now, focus on trying to read three words with one glance. Continue on down the page like that, taking note of how much faster you complete the entire page of text. You are still able to process and comprehend what you read, but spend far less time doing it.

Now, take that concept one step further. Take a pencil and lightly draw two vertical, parallel lines down your page, separating the text into three sections. Start at the top left of the page as usual, and cover up everything below that line with your hand or a piece of paper.

Focus on reading the text in each section as one thing. Chunk the words together, and read them at a glance as you would a road sign. Keep doing this down the page, moving the paper accordingly. You will notice that your speed was faster than before.

Continue with this method until you feel comfortable enough to challenge yourself a bit more.

3. Do Not Reread the Words on the Page

Before we move on to the peripheral vision part - that's the real kicker - you're going to want to make sure you break the habit of rereading the words on the page.

If you watch the average person's eyes as they read, you will notice they jump and flit about. They do not just flow evenly back and forth, as they should. This is because the average person - you do this, too - tends to backtrack over words they have already read. This is one thing that prevents you from being able to increase your reading speed.

You most likely do this without even realizing that you are doing it, which makes it a bit of a tricky habit to break out of. The easiest way, even though you may feel a bit childish, is to use your finger or bookmark to guide you along.

Keep your finger running back and forth across the page, without stopping or going back. Keep tracking the words as your finger continues to make its way down the text. When you get to the end, think about what you read. You did not go back over a single word (I hope!), and yet you still recall what you have read.

4. Use Peripheral Vision

Congratulations! You've made it to the key step that really ties everything together. While this may not be the final step, it's certainly a critical one.

Use the techniques from everything above to view and comprehend several words at one time. Instead of chunking in smaller groups of words, try reading one line at a time. This involves looking at the center of the line, and using your peripheral vision to read the rest of it. Scan the page in this manner and, when you reach the bottom, you will find that you still understood what you read, but you did it in record time.

5. Use a Timer

Speaking of 'record time', now is your chance to test yourself and work on how to increase your reading speed each time you read. Set a timer for one minute, reading normally as the time dwindles down. When the timer goes off, note how many pages you have read.

The website, WordstoPages, will help you to figure out how many words you have read. Now, combine everything you have learned and repeat the test. Jot down that number, too.

Keep doing this, continuing to beat your previous count each time. Set a daily or weekly goal, and treat yourself when you reach it. Continue with this little game, and you'll be able to increase your reading speed in no time!

6. Set a Goal

Holding yourself accountable will better ensure you stick with your reading and your timer tests. Give yourself a goal of a certain number of pages to read each day/week/etc., and stick to it. When you reach it, treat yourself. Incentive never hurt anyone!

7. Read MORE

The old adage, "Practice makes perfect," is actually pretty darn accurate. Any professional, artist, musician, etc. practices their work regularly.

A reader should be doing the same thing. The more you read, the more you will be better at it. The better you are at reading, the more you will increase your reading speed.

Theodore Roosevelt read one book before breakfast, and then three or four more in the evening. He also read papers and other such pamphlet-style reading material. I'm not sure how long these books were, but I am going to assume they were of average length. Use his obsession as fuel for your own goal.

8. Use a Marker

Do you find your vision slipping and sliding through the page as you read? Not a problem. Simply place an index card below each line, and slip it down as you read. This will ensure you stay at reading one line at a time, rather than flitting your eyes about and taking nothing in.

9. Work on Improving Your Vocabulary

Think about it: You're reading along, and then you run into a word you don't know. Do you skip it? Do you try to figure it out by context? Do you stop to look it up? Whichever course of action you take, you are slowing your time significantly, if not stopping it all together to go and look up the retarding word.

If you work on improving your vocabulary, you will know more words. The more words you add to your repertoire, the faster you read. The faster you read, the more you can read. It may be self-evident, but it's important.

10. Skim the Main Points FIRST

Finally, when you're in a real time-crunch and need to get something read by yesterday, take a deep breath and calm down. Open the book, and take some time reading over all the main points. Read the table of contents. Read the subtitles. Read the captions under the diagrams. Get an overall feel for the chapter/section/etc..

Next, read the first paragraph of each main section. Read the last. Read the middle. Think this over in your head, and piece it together.

Then, start reading everything else while employing the techniques we have just discussed. You'll retain your information better, as well as your get your reading done faster.

In summation, the next time you need to read something quickly, simply tell yourself to "Shut up and look at the page!"

More Tips for Learning Faster

Featured photo credit: Blaz Photo via unsplash.com

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How to Read Faster: 10 Ways to Increase Your Reading Speed

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Do you have a lot of paperwork to get through with a deadline that continues to stalk you around every corner? Do you have a lot of reading to do? Do you simply just want to read at a faster rate, whether it be for your own personal reasons, or for work?

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As society continues to develop, our reliance on technology grows exponentially. I am apart of a generation that never used books in schools for sources, I only used the internet. This article highlights how we can take advantage of this, instead of resenting the internet as teachers. One of the examples I really liked was how they utilize YouTube. YouTube has some really amazing creators and educators who just publish information for free. I have personally learned so much from it (CGPGrey). An assignment could have a prompt of having students find an educational video, watch the video, and summarize how it connects with the prompt, and create something they can use and look back on.

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The video she made about her next bookclub list with UK booksellers WH Smith had 1.3 million views and sold a heck of a lot of books. There are a great number of young people who take to YouTube to share their love of books and reading, and post unboxing videos (where they open boxes of books they have been sent and show the contents), and it's hugely popular with kids. This unboxing video from Jesy Elysie has been viewed more than 38,000 times! I think your students are much more likely to give a book a go if it is recommended by a YouTuber of a similar age rather than a teacher or librarian.

Other videos

Publishers and authors have realised the power videos have too, and many of them produce book trailer videos for new releases that can advertise the book pre-publication in the same way that film trailers have always whetted our appetite for new films.

If your school has a YouTube account, you can follow publishers' channels and be notified if they add new content. Showcasing trailers can pique teens' interest and can even help break them out of their self-imposed genre boundaries - the student that will only read vampire books, for example.

There are a great many unofficial trailers on YouTube, created by readers such as this one about Frozen Charlotte by Alex Bell. Encouraging your students to create their own trailers, using sites like Animoto or Powtoon, is a great way of getting some peer recommendations going.

Social media

Social media is very important to young (and more mature) people, and sites like Twitter and Instagram have immense potential for encouraging reading. Instagram, especially, is well suited to sharing pictures of great books with a short review, using the hashtag #60secreview. The #bookstagram community is a great bunch of people to interact with, many of its members being young, keen readers. Many authors are approachable on social media, and are often happy to respond to tweets or posts about their books. It can be very exciting for a student when the author of a book they have commented on replies to them personally via a class or library Twitter account.

School librarians and teachers are sharing books on Instagram too. Glenthorne High School's account is a particularly good example of how you can do this to best effect. Something I enjoy taking part in are book challenges, where you take a different photo on a daily bookish theme, like this recent one set by @CILIPSLG ( https://www.instagram.com/p/Bw5Qfdbn_oF/).

I have often been asked if I think that paper books will ever be replaced by ebooks, and the very idea of this happening sends a cold shiver down my spine. But, to be honest, I don't really care how my students access books as long as they are reading! It's very satisfying when you can marry a love for technology with a passion for reading, however, and digital media is a powerful weapon in our fight to enthuse reluctant readers.

Image credits

Photo sourced from Unsplash

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Bev Humphrey, founder of Write Path International Collaborative Writing Project, examines how digital media can help students discover the excitement of opening a new book.

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Awesome Interview with Stephen Krashen about Comprehensible Input

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Awesome Interview with Stephen Krashen about Comprehensible Input

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Allington cites Krashen in both articles, and for good reason - here he goes into some elements of language acquisition that parallel the strategies that Allington outlines to help striving readers. This interview has the fantastic line (with reference to acquiring second &c. languages) "with children, the idea of teaching grammar is absurd." Very interesting interview and very relevant to the topic at hand as many if not all language skills apply to all languages spoken including the first, and naturally literacy is one of them.

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I remember learning, in Elementary school, about the hebbian theory of your mind wandering while you are physically reading a text. I retained the lesson on this subject to this day, while countless other lessons from that time in my life are lost completely, because it really resonated with me. My attention span has always worked quite quickly, and now with so much technology to keep us entertained constantly, I find myself getting more easily distracted while I am doing one task. This article shed light on this very common dilemma that is never talked about! Every Child Every Day talked about children reading accurately, and it made me think about this concept. (Liv Mullenix)

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You might be reading something for a high school assignment, a novel or a technical in-depth summary of the current economic situation of the country, when suddenly, you realize that you're just reading the words, but not really absorbing anything. In other words, you're not comprehending the content in front of you!

You have likely experienced this countless times yourself, but have you ever thought about why it happens?

Before we start, it's important to note that the answer to this question, and most other questions related to the mind and the central nervous system (especially cognition), is not well understood by researchers. The underlying physiological processes responsible for these functions cannot be explained by one solid answer backed by concerted scientific (experimental) evidence.

Here's a fun fact: you may have certain beliefs that sound fairly intuitive, which may make you think that you know why your brain acts the way it does. However, in reality, it's just one of the known flaws in human reasoning (this is called introspection illusion).

Simply put, all of this means that we don't really know why we end up 'reading on auto-pilot' without comprehending any of what we read. Thus, the following, in essence, is just logical speculation that attempts to answer the question.

Hebbian theory - Reading on autopilot

The "keep reading but the mind wanders off" effect is very common, or at least more common that you might think. If you think that you are one of the few who suffer from this, and that most well-read people don't, then I have only one thing to tell you...

When you read something, your brain is connecting the contents of your memory either in a new, or at least less-frequently used way.

There is a theory in neuroscience - the Hebbian theory - that proposes an explanation for the adaptation of neurons in the brain when one is learning something. It specifies a learning rule stating that the connection between two neurons might be strengthened if the neurons fire simultaneously ( Source).

In order for this to happen, it's imperative that you be focused on the topic that you're reading about. You should 'do something' with whatever it is you are reading and think about it, like visualizing a scene in your head, making a mental summary etc. These are the processes that are associated with working memory and can assist in the aforementioned forming of connections.

Working memory and reading

Now, when you're thinking about something other than what you are reading, then your working memory is occupied/overloaded with other thoughts (e.g., when you are daydreaming). Consequently, you're not able to make connections within your knowledge base, because you're thinking about something else. So, you might have read a complete page, but your brain is unable to process it in any meaningful way.

Think of your attention as a spotlight on a stage, which directs and grabs your attention. You (mostly) only focus on what's under the spotlight, although there is a lot of stuff going on outside the spotlight too. However, that doesn't mean you have completely shut out everything else that's happening outside the spotlight. They're there too; it's just that you aren't 'involved' with them to that degree.

Similarly, when you're reading, but your mind is not completely engaged with the book, then you fail to completely understand what you just read, as your spotlight is focused elsewhere.

The brain's attentional system

The brain is constantly bombarded with so much information from the outside world that it's a surprise that more people don't have killer headaches from the information overload. Fortunately, the human attentional system of the brain ensures that you only pay attention to the things you really need to.

According to Daniel J. Levitin, a scientist and the author of "The Organized Mind", the human attentional system is divided into 4 parts: central executive mode, mind-wandering mode, attentional filter and attentional switch.
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The more time you spend reading, the longer it remains a part of your environment. Consequently, the attentional filter gradually blocks out the book. This, in turn, means that your focus will need to be kept entirely by the central executive mind. This takes a significant amount of effort.

That's why you feel exhausted after sitting through a 3-hour examination; just like other parts of your body, your brain needs glucose to function. Concentrating on something makes the brain work extra hard, however, which leads to you feeling tired.

Your brain is designed in a way that tries to minimize effort. Thus, it assigns the task of reading to the mind-wandering mode in a bid to minimize effort. The benefit of this is that you can still read with minimal effort while simultaneously thinking about something unrelated.

The down side, however, is that the mind-wandering mode is not very good at processing information (that isn't random). As a result, you end up reading on autopilot without really interpreting most of it.

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How Can We Sometimes Keep Reading, But Understand Nothing?

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You might be reading something for a high school assignment, a novel or a technical in-depth summary of the current economic situation of the country, when suddenly, you realize that you're just reading the words, but not really absorbing anything. In other words, you're not comprehending the content in front of you!

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A New Education Movement: Empowering Students in the Classroom

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A New Education Movement: Empowering Students in the Classroom

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This video created by John Spencer is similar to the articles by Richard Allington and Rachael Gabriel because it mentions a great way to engage students in the classroom. A way to engage students is to create an empowering classroom where students feel comfortable enough to speak on what they need to succeed in the classroom. An empowering classroom will enable striving readers to feel engaged with the texts presented. I thought this video was a fantastic multi-modal source, so that’s a major reason why I included it on this Padlet post.

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The Shift from Engaging Students to Empowering Learners

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Fantastic Infographic for Young Striving Readers

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Fantastic Infographic for Young Striving Readers

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This infographic relates to the articles by Allington and Gabriel because it is a visual way to engage students to read critically. I thought this was a fantastic addition to this Padlet because students could even color this infographic as part of a lesson about reading comprehension. The teacher could even hang infographics colored by students in their classroom to engage students to read critically. As a student, I was fond of coloring in the classroom, so this could be a phenomenal lesson for visual learners or striving readers.

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As teachers have learned, being an online educator isn't easy, because this isn't something you are really prepared or taught how to do. The pandemic really shook everyone up, and this is a learning experience for all of us. Reading, in particular, has been challenging. It is hard to monitor, communicate about, and form complex ideas. All of the ideas from this article relate to asking students what THEY need, which I can really get behind. Educating is for them, not you. You need to know what they... need, so you can help them. For example, you can take a survey online of what people are struggling with in a book, and use that data to form a lesson plan and an effective conversation starter in the classroom.

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Many teachers find it difficult to gauge how well students understand a lesson in an online classroom. A technique common among award-winning online instructors should help.

In the early 1900s, scientists were baffled by a horse that could seemingly perform arithmetic. Using his hoof, Clever Hans would tap out answers to simple math problems, and could even tell time and keep track of the days in a calendar. Having ruled out fraud-Clever Hans could answer questions even if his trainer was out of sight-a reporter from The New York Times declared Hans an "expert in numbers" whose abilities were verified by "eminent scientific and military authorities."

It wasn't until several years later that a scientist, after conducting several experiments, realized that the animal was able to read nonverbal cues from the audience: facial expressions, eye contact, posture, even the release of a held breath. When a question was asked, Clever Hans was able to tell who in the audience knew the correct answer, and by tapping on the floor, what the correct answer was based on subtle changes in body language. He couldn't do math-but what he could do was still pretty amazing.

What happened to Clever Hans remains a mystery: He was largely forgotten for decades, until scientists began to study the richness of nonverbal communication.

Clever Hans possessed a skill that's unusual in a horse but fairly common in a teacher. Whether they see a confused look on a student's face or a furtive glance that confesses, "I don't know what we're doing right now," teachers effectively read the room to gauge how well their students are following a lesson. A sea of blank stares is a clear signal that the teacher needs to explain a concept further.

"Some people read books. I read people," writes Vicki Davis, a teacher and IT director in Albany, Georgia. "I read the thousand tiny microexpressions that reveal the little things that make a big difference in our bondedness of being teacher and student."

Reading the Virtual Room

In a virtual classroom, much of this information is lost. Does a student look confused because they don't understand the material or because they can't figure out how to unmute themselves in Zoom? Is eye contact meaningful when there's no way to tell if the student is watching funny videos instead? If a student can't hear the teacher, a simple, "speak up" won't solve anything unless a few seconds are spent determining the source of the problem.

There are additional limitations to online environments. Teachers can't pace around the room to glance at student work and check progress. If a student is experiencing network or video lag, they may not feel comfortable asking the teacher to pause while they resolve their technical issues. And there's little that a teacher can do if students are distracted by their siblings or a TV playing in the background.

Teachers are typically familiar with using student feedback to improve instruction-commonly known as formative assessment. But they tend to focus on how well students understand the material, not how well they can access the material. The distinction is important, according to the authors of a 2019 study, who interviewed eight award-winning instructors of online courses and found that they frequently gathered data on how well their courses were administered "to identify what was working or not."

"An important element in the development of an award-winning course was the way in which instructors had collected data on the course or engaged with existing evaluation data, reflected on how to improve the course, and made improvements," explain the authors of the study.

Teachers of high-performing online classes, in other words, read the virtual room and collect feedback not just to gauge how well students understand the subject matter but also to identify any obstacles that may be preventing them from being able to fully participate.

Importantly, the researchers noted that the instructors they interviewed "emphasized their use of data for continuous improvement" as well as their use of surveys as a "helpful feedback tool, and the usefulness of such data for immediate and remedial action, unlike the end-of-semester data." The researchers cite a 2019 study, among others, to highlight the importance of using ongoing feedback to improve teaching.

The Making Caring Common Project at Harvard University has a 5-question Covid-19 Check-in Survey focused on student wellness.

EduCause, a technology-focused nonprofit, developed a longer survey on the transition to remote learning. It's geared toward higher ed but can be adapted for K-12 schools.

In May, the Hawaii Department of Education administered a 29-question survey-and published survey results that provide insight into what supports students need.

The Center on Reinventing Public Education at the University of Washington, Bothell, analyzed seven national K-12 student surveys and identified key areas that teachers should be aware of, from students feeling concerned about falling behind to "distractions, lack of motivation, and lack of social connections" as major challenges to online learning.

You don't have to build a student survey from scratch to gather this kind of data. Here are a few examples that cover technology access, student participation, and ways to support students during the pandemic:

How comfortable do you feel using technology for our virtual classroom? (You can use a Likert scale here, with a score of 1 being "not at all comfortable" and a 5 being "very comfortable.")

Have you encountered any technical issues, such as not being able to connect to the internet or not being able to hear me or other students talking?

Are assignments clear? Are you able to access them?

Are you having any trouble finding assignments, links to articles, or other documents online? Is the virtual space well organized?

Do you feel like your voice is heard?

Do you feel like you belong in our virtual classroom?

What can I do to improve our online classroom?

Reviewing these surveys, I've identified a set of questions that are commonly asked:

It may help to clearly identify that the purpose of the survey is to collect feedback on how well students are able to participate in online learning so that they understand that they won't be graded or suffer consequences if they point out any problems. Questions around technology access should be asked regularly, to ensure that any issues are quickly addressed. Ask the broader questions, such as those around voice and participation, early enough in the school year-within the first month or two-to be able to help any students who may be falling through the cracks.

Survey Tools

For real-time feedback while on a video conference (like Zoom), you can do a quick check-in to see if students have any questions or problems. A handy feature is nonverbal feedback. When enabled, it lets participants display an icon-such as "raise hand" or "thumbs up"-next to their name. Before you launch into a lesson, you can ask your students to give a thumbs up if they're ready to start, letting you quickly gauge if they need more time to get their audio set up or log into the learning management system (LMS), for example.

Turning to formative assessment of content, Laura Thomas, who directs the Antioch University New England Center for School Renewal, suggests using tools like Padlet or Google Forms to create exit slips to quickly collect student feedback at the end of class. A low-stakes approach keeps the workload manageable for teachers while giving concise, actionable feedback that can identify which students need extra support.

If you're working within an LMS, Sarah Schroeder, an instructional designer and professor at the University of Cincinnati, recommends using built-in tools like discussion boards to field questions. Apps like Edpuzzle, Pear Deck, and Seesaw can integrate seamlessly into most LMSs, making it easier to collect feedback within a lesson-a key consideration that puts students' learning experiences front-and-center. "Empathy in design is crucial. Put yourself in the shoes of your learners and you will put them first in your design," writes Shroeder.

"Flipgrid is a fantastic oral communication application that is easy to use," writes high school English teacher Kyleen Gray. The popular video-sharing platform lets teachers pose a prompt that students can respond to through a short video-making it a valuable tool to collect feedback in an informal, interactive way. Research suggests that Flipgrid can boost students' feelings of connectedness in an online classroom, increasing their willingness to ask for help.

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Reading the Virtual Classroom Is Hard, but It Can Be Done

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Many teachers find it difficult to gauge how well students understand a lesson in an online classroom. A technique common among award-winning online instructors should help.

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Challenge Students to get Involved in Reading by Creating Classroom Libraries

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Challenge Students to get Involved in Reading by Creating Classroom Libraries

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This article connects to the articles by Allington and Gabriel because it discusses how to build a fantastic classroom library. An engaging classroom library can lead students to want to read. I desire to have a classroom library with a cozy set up, so reading is encouraged in my English classroom. A major part of so many students testing below the basic proficiency is because they are not interested in the texts they are reading. A classroom library where students are able to pick the books they want to read is a great way to engage students in reading. I thought this visuals in this article were phenomenal, so it did a great job of blending visual and print literacy.

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How do you create a classroom library that is both organized and enticing to young readers? Here a teacher illustrates how she set up her classroom library. She provides tips on acquiring books and materials, organizing the shelves, creating labels, and making it cozy.

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The infographic below relates directly to the readings, because it focuses on encouraging young girls to invest in their education and advance things such as reading skills! For reasons we all already know, it is technically harder to succeed in society if you are a woman. You are discouraged from any level of independence and entrepreneurship. A lot of girls are told they should just be housewives. Of course, this is not even nearly as common now with our modern waves of Feminism, but bigotry still exists. Most of the children not in schools are girls. We need to encourage young girls to read more, write more, and make it culturally relevant to them! Investing in women's education is investing in a more progressive and better tomorrow.

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This article relates to the articles by Allington and Gabriel because it mentions ways to help striving readers and readers with ADHD and learning disabilities. So many students test below the basic proficiency level because teachers are not teaching in a style that works for striving readers like students with ADHD and learning disabilities. One of the ways to build stronger relationships between reading and striving readers is for parents/educators to show interest in what students are reading about. As a child I would feel extremely discouraged in my reading if someone put it down, so for educators and parents to encourage students to continue to read what interests them is crucial. I specifically chose this article because I was a striving reader as a child because of my ADHD, but as I’ve learned what novels interest me; I can’t stop reading. I hope to encourage students with ADHD and learning disabilities to not turn away from reading, but to find topics to read about that interest them.

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Children with ADHD and learning disabilities often struggle to become confident readers with strong comprehension skills. Here's how easy-to-follow tips - like forming a book group or encouraging note-taking - can help your little reader.

Mother helping daughter with ADHD read in living room

In first and second grade, most children learn to read. Beginning in third grade, they're expected to read to learn. They may be assigned to find facts on the Internet for a project on aquatic mammals, for instance, or asked to identify plot points in a work of fiction. The ability to extract meaning from written sources - to learn independently - becomes increasingly important with each new grade.

Reading comprehension depends on the ability to quickly sound out and recognize words, which can be hard for students with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder ( ADHD) or learning disabilities like dyslexia.

Even after the mechanics of reading have been mastered, many children with ADHD have trouble understanding the text, making connections within the story, and relating what they're reading to what they already know.

Fortunately, reading comprehension skills and strategies can be learned. Children who are taught multiple strategies, and guided in their use, eventually choose some to use on their own. Here's how to increase reading comprehension in students with ADHD.

1. Read to your child.

Even if your child can read on his own, there is value in reading aloud to him. A child's listening skills are usually stronger than his reading skills, so your child can comprehend more if he reads along silently as you read the book out loud.
[Take This Test: Could Your Child Have a Learning Disability?]
Begin with short passages, and extend the time if your child maintains focus. Books on tape, with accompanying texts, provide another way to pair reading and listening.

2. Engage the imagination.

While your child reads or listens, encourage her to visualize the events in the story, creating a picture or movie in her mind. After a few pages, ask her to describe it.

3. Show how books are organized.

Textbooks are often structured in a way that highlights and summarizes important material. Show your child how paying attention to captions, charts, section headings, and sample study questions can organize his thinking and provide valuable facts.

When your child reads fiction, train him to look for the five W's: Who are the main characters, where and when does the story take place, what conflicts do the characters face, and why do they act as they do.
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Although newspaper and magazine articles don't always contain a narrative, information about the five W's typically appears in the first paragraph or two.

4. Ask for predictions.

When reading a book with your child, stop occasionally to ask what she thinks might happen next. This requires her to integrate what she has learned so far about the characters and storyline - and about the way stories are typically organized - to anticipate the rest of the plot.

If she's reading a Harry Potter novel, for example, asks what she thinks will happen the next time Harry and Draco Malfoy face each other in a Quidditch match. Or get her opinion on what she thinks author J.K. Rowling will write about in her next book.

It doesn't matter if her hunches are correct: Asking for predictions encourages her to pay very close attention to what she reads. What's more, it helps you gauge just how much she's comprehending.

5. Show interest in what your child is reading.

Ask her to tell you about the book or chapter she just finished. What was the main idea? Who was her favorite character? Why did she like or dislike the book? Did it remind her of other stories she's read or of experiences she has had?

If it was a textbook chapter, what did she learn, and how does it apply to what she's learning in school? Having to verbalize what she has read requires her to make sense of it.

If your child is unable to provide a coherent summary, read the book yourself. Engage her in a discussion of your favorite parts and characters, and talk about how you connected parts of the story so that it all came together.

6. Encourage note-taking.

Have your child keep a notepad or index cards nearby to jot down important information as he reads. Note-taking pushes a reader to make sense of the material, and the cards become terrific tools when studying for a test later on.

If a book belongs to your child, permit her to mark relevant details with a pencil or highlighter. Do this together the first few times - it's an opportunity to demonstrate how to pick out important facts.

Does your child learn best visually? Help him create a chart with boxes for the story's setting, characters' names, and major themes and events. Or show her how to make a mind map - a diagram that uses key words, colors, and symbols to represent ideas and information.

7. Increase word power.

The stronger your child's vocabulary, the better his comprehension - and the less frequently he'll put down a book to ask about a word.

If you know that a passage contains unfamiliar words, define them - or have him look them up in a dictionary - before he begins to read.

8. Translate figures of speech.

A child with a language-based learning disorder can be overly literal: Reading that a character "took the bull by the horns" or "looked like he'd seen a ghost" can stop him cold.

Help your child understand that a phrase that seems out of context may be a figure of speech. Together, compile a list of expressions and what they mean.

9. Teach your child to read between the lines.

Point out sentences in which information is implied, and ask her to fill in what's missing. She should understand that the statement, "George was excited about winning top prize at his school's science fair for the second time," means that George has won the science award once before.

10. Build on background knowledge.

It's easier to understand subject matter that you know something about. Help your child select reading materials that reflect his interests, and encourage him to bring his own experiences to his understanding of a book.

11. Form a book group.

If your child has friends who enjoy similar books, get them together to discuss what they've read or to collaborate on a project, such as a mural or a skit about the story.

Once you've introduced your child to this array of reading comprehension strategies, have him write each of his favorites on a separate bookmark. He can use these in schoolbooks - choosing the strategy best-suited to each text - and have a handy reminder to hold his place.
[Read This Next: 8 Perfect Books for Reluctant Readers (Even Yours!)]
Updated on March 17, 2020

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11 Every-Night Ways to Build Stronger Reading Skills

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Children with ADHD and learning disabilities often struggle to become confident readers with strong comprehension skills. Here's how easy-to-follow tips - like forming a book group or encouraging note-taking - can help your little reader. In first and second grade, most children learn to read. Beginning in third grade, they're expected to read to learn.

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Keeping Students Engaged in Online Learning 

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Keeping Students Engaged in Online Learning 

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This video by Edutopia (fantastic education website) connects to the articles by Allington and Gabriel because it discusses how to keep students engage in a virtual setting. This video struck me because we are currently in a pandemic and nearly every class has been online for the past year, so teachers have had to get creative with engaging students. Keeping the curriculum interesting and engaging is a key part mentioned in both articles and the video. Connecting with students and creating a safe environment to speak is a crucial part in a student’s success.

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Keeping Students Engaged in Digital Learning