Teachers focus on struggling readers

Teacher Cindy Grange sat on the floor next to her first-grade student and listened.

Danielle Ratute, 6, was reading “Bedtime for Nick,” about a boy who didn’t want to go to sleep without his dog.

As Danielle read aloud, Grange took notes and offered encouragement.

“That’s what a smart reader does,” she said as Danielle sounded out an unfamiliar word.

This type of one-on-one work, which Grange does with her 19 students at Patriot Elementary in Papillion, is happening more often in elementary schools in Nebraska, western Iowa and beyond.

Personal attention helps teachers assess early on which children are struggling to read, then target lessons to help them.

The reading ability of Nebraska students was highlighted recently with the release of results from the first statewide reading test.

The test gives educators their first consistent snapshot of students’ reading skills. The scores show that most districts have a bigger hill to climb than had been suggested previously.

The new test uses different methodology than the old district-developed tests and is based on the state’s year-old language arts standards.

Several local school officials said the scores were lower than they anticipated but will serve as a baseline for improvement.

Districts already employ a number of strategies to help struggling readers.

Elementary schools place a major focus on small-group reading lessons for all students, regardless of skill level. Groups of three to five students work with a teacher for 25 to 45 minutes, as often as five times a week, depending on the district.

The sessions target specific skills. For example, students who have good reading comprehension but need work on vocabulary could be paired. Students could be in a different group for the next day’s lesson on reading fluency.

The dedicated time is enough for many struggling students to catch up to successfully reading peers.

A new reading program in the Ralston district, for example, builds in time for small-group lessons. In the first year, 25 percent more kindergartners ended the year on track, said Kristi Gibbs, the district’s assistant superintendent for curriculum. In Westside, most kindergarten, first- or second-grade students who receive extra help need it only for a semester or two before they begin to read at grade level, the district reports.

Intervening early is crucial, said Carol Lloyd Rozansky, an education professor at the University of Nebraska at Omaha.

“The sooner you can help them become a more proficient reader, the more they can participate,” she said.

Feeling good about reading can foster the desire to read, she and others said, and more reading makes better readers.

If reading problems aren’t addressed in the early grades, some research suggests that students may become more likely to skip school, fail courses and eventually drop out.

In the Omaha district, an intensive intervention program targets students who are three or more grade levels behind in reading. The privately funded program is being piloted at Norris and Monroe Middle Schools and South and Central High Schools.

The program, called Read Right, splits students into small groups to work with a specially trained teacher or a teacher’s aide on reading fluency, comprehension, vocabulary and critical thinking skills. Read Right is in addition to students’ regular English or literature classes.

Last spring, a national research group studied the program’s effectiveness in OPS. Participating students began reading more on their own time. And among African-American students, reading achievement improved significantly.

The district is considering whether to expand the program.

The state reading test showed that, overall, 52 percent of OPS students met or exceeded the state standards, compared with 69 percent statewide.

OPS students “certainly didn’t do as well as we thought they would,” said Janelle Mullen, assistant superintendent for curriculum. “We’ll continue to use extended learning opportunities, vocabulary building” and other specific strategies to improve results.

Superintendent George Conrad at Douglas County West said several factors contributed to scores well above the state average in his district.

The district has daily small-group reading lessons, focused teacher training and a commitment to classes of 20 or fewer students. Conrad said all-day kindergarten, which started in 1997, also is contributing.

At the district’s high school, where one in four students is from a low-income family, students scored among the best in the metro area.

Nonetheless, Conrad pointed out that one in four students was not “proficient” on the state test. That means the district’s work can’t stop, Conrad said.

“We think reading is the foundation,” he said. “We’ll continue to focus on that foundation.”

That’s the attitude in the Ralston, Westside, Lincoln and Omaha districts, too. Each had some schools perform better than others, and some types of students — including those learning English for the first time — who will need more attention before the next reading test.

Students in every Nebraska public school in grades three through eight and 11 take the new, annual test.

Pat Roschewski, director of statewide assessment for the Nebraska Department of Education, said she expects schools to evaluate the test results and begin to focus on areas where students need the most help.

Roschewski expects that districts will decide how well their curriculum matches up with the state’s expectations. A key question will be: “How are we teaching those things and how are the kids doing?”

Roschewski said she expects scores to improve over time.

Educators said parents also have a role to play.

Mellanee Kvasnicka, who teaches honors English at Papillion-La Vista South High, said her students typically were avid readers in elementary school. Parents can help foster that by reading to and with their children, visiting the library, even having their children read street signs when they ride in the car.

“You should be reading a lot,” she said “That’s probably as important as what you’re reading.”

Contact the writer:

444-1037, michaela.saunders@owh.com

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