WEBVTT

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[Music]

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I'm Don Deshler.

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I'm at the University of Kansas.

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I'm Director of the Center for Research on Learning;

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I'm a professor in the Department of Special Eduction.

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Our center has just finished its thirtieth year of operation and the entire focus of our work

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since inception has been on struggling adolescent learners.

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Adolescents who struggle in reading do so for a variety of reasons.

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At the top of the list is the fact

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that for many years they've failed, and they're aware of this fact.

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And when they encounter increasingly difficult academic demands in high school,

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that just plays down on them, and everyday they're reminded of the fact

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that they're not being successful.

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When we try to understand what is at the root of poor reading performance,

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we need to consider the broad array of factors that are embodied within the act of reading.

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That is, what's involved in being a proficient reader at the high school level?

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And those skills vary from being able to decode words and read fluently to being able

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to detect various organizational structures of text and nuanced meanings that authors give.

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One of the most significant challenges we face as we try to address the needs

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of struggling adolescent readers at the secondary level is a shortage of time.

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Given that fact, as we're making decisions about those students with whom we will work

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and those students with whom we won't-because there is always a shortage of resources-we need

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to have in place some screening practices,

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screening instruments that will give us some good data,

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that will give us an indication of those students who are struggling

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and in what areas they are struggling.

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And if we're not getting an accurate read on the screening that we do,

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we can end up misplacing some students.

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And once placed in a class, for example in your first semester of your ninth-grade year,

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changes aren't made until the end of that semester.

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That's a significant chunk of time.

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Because we are so short of instructional time for adolescent learners,

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we need to have our instruction being very targeted, focused, and intense.

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One of the ways that secondary staffs have dealt with this is to recognize that everyone

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on a secondary faculty doesn't play the same role.

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Teachers bring different levels of expertise to the table,

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and we should leverage those varying levels of expertise to meet the needs of students.

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And we can organize the work the teachers do within a tiered model of instructional delivery.

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The work that we have done in our center,

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we've called this framework the content literacy continuum as an example,

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but there are others out there, and in a nutshell it is this:

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We specify some instructional practices for content teachers to use within their classrooms.

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They are facing certain instructional dynamics, sometimes as many as 30 or more students.

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And so, in light of that, they are taught some specific things that they can do

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to make the language demands and the reading demands more understandable

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and more approachable for students.

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And for many students who are struggling, that will be sufficient.

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But for some students, the things that a content teacher can do won't be enough.

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They will need more opportunities to practice and more explicit instruction.

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And hence, if students receive some more intensive instruction,

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perhaps in a supplemental reading class, the preparation of that teacher is different

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because the expertise that they are going to bring to the table will be different,

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and so they may be spending more time giving more explicit instruction

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on the targeted strategies, more opportunities to practice and to provide feedback.

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One of the things that characterizes a learning experience

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for secondary students is fragmentation.

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Think of it.

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They have five or six different teachers throughout the school day.

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The likelihood of what happens in period two being coordinated with what is happening

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in period one at the school day is quite remote.

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And that's something that-by teachers really deciding to find ways to cooperate one with another

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and for the classroom subject matter teacher who is focusing on a certain type of instruction

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and wanting students to acquire certain things in his or her class,

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if they make those demands of his or her class, make the supplemental reading teacher

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or specialist aware of them, the supplemental reading teacher can then design their intensive

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instruction on skills and strategies in light of what is transpiring

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in the general education classroom.

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After intensive, explicit, direct instruction is provided within the supplemental class

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by that specialist, it's important to close the loop by going back

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to the subject matter teachers and sharing with them,

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"Here are the strategies that I have been working on with the students in your class.

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If it would be possible for you to prompt the students to use them,

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that would make a world of difference."

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So basically, it is a dynamic going back and forth among teachers,

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and to the degree that we're not successful in overcoming

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that barrier-and, frankly, it is a barrier.

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It's a challenge because secondary schools often aren't set up for this to happen,

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but when teachers make that happen and administrators support that happening,

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remarkable things happen on behalf of students who are struggling.

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[Music]