Topic: Recommendations from a struggling Male Reader

10-second review: Five recommendations from the struggling student’s point of view as retold by his teacher.

Title: “How to Maintain School Reading Success: Five Recommendations from a Struggling Male reader.” S Jenkins. Reading Teacher (October 2009), 159 -163.

Recommendation #1: Adult teamwork. Quote: “Above all else, Derek’s suggestions reveal the importance of teachers, after-school staff, reading specialists , tutors, students and parents working together as a team…a united front….”

Recommendation #2: Build on the student’s past successes.

Recommendation #3: Connect book reading to my world.

Recommendation #4: Allow me to help select books, topics and activities.

Recommendation #5: Provide me with a variety of texts on a single topic.

Comment: I think the most significant recommendation is the first. But if you haven’ tried the other four, try them.

The Directed Reading Activity (DRA) should be especially valuable for Recommendation #3: 1. Build background information (prior knowledge); the more you know about a topic the better you will comprehend it. 2. Pre-teach unfamiliar vocabulary. 3. Survey by reading title, headings, pictures, diagrams, tables; read the first paragraph, first sentence of each paragraph and the last paragraph. 4. Set purpose by raising questions you will read to answer. 5. Discuss answers to the question raised by the students. 6. Apply what you have learned in some way—use the Internet to find related information. RayS.