THE GROWTH OF ONLINE DATA-DRIVEN READING PLATFORMS
The steady growth in the use of data-driven platforms to differentiate instruction and provide real time progress monitoring for an entire classroom offers many benefits for both students and teachers. Originally designed to support and supplement teacher-led reading instruction and track student progress in the critical reading domains, an unexpected outcome may be an over-reliance on the system and less direct instruction and monitoring by the teacher.
Even with the detailed reports these platforms generate for the teacher about student performance, they can conceal some reading proficiency issues. For example, many of these programs rely on
silent reading followed by the student's response to multiple choice comprehension questions on what was read. With less teacher involvement, students can advance in reading levels with "good guessing" on the comprehension questions. Dyslexia-related reading behaviors and other reading issues are often missed in this environment. All students need immediate feedback on their oral reading and careful monitoring of their comprehension. It is so important for teachers to continuously listen to their students read aloud for authentic progress monitoring. This may be a bigger contributing factor to the Nation's Report Card scores than we are willing to admit. •
| READ ON : RESOURCES AND RECOMMENDATIONS | |
|---|---|
| Advocate for early dyslexia screening for your child or students — as early as PreK if possible. This is very important, especially if there is any family history of reading problems or a history of early language delay for the child. For children identified to be at risk, the screening should be immediately followed by a dyslexia-specific intervention that includes a special focus on fluency (handwriting fluency and reading fluency). Phonological skills are not sufficient to produce fluent reading. | |
| Advocate for explicit phonics instruction in your child or students’ reading program to prevent reading failure. | |
| Advocate for fluency training to be included in your child or students’ reading instruction and/or intervention. It is a key predictor of school outcomes, and is often neglected in both reading instruction and intervention. Add timed handwriting tasks to daily assignments. | |
| Spend as much time as possible with your child or student listening to them read aloud. Look for any unusual reading behaviors. Download our resource What Dyslexia Looks Like by Grade Level. These are not the same errors made by beginning readers. www.earlyliteracysolutions.com | |
| After listening to your child or student read, ask a few comprehension questions about what they have read and ask them for a retell. They need to start with the main idea if it is an information article, rather than a detail. For a story, they need to give you the big picture before launching into any details. It must be retold in the proper order, not starting in the middle of the article or story. This activity also prepares them for the writing process, which is so difficult for struggling readers. | |
| Make sure that there is not an overdependence on online data-driven platforms for instruction and progress monitoring. Use these programs to supplement/support the explicit instruction received. | |
References
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- Horowitz-Kraus, T., & Holland, S.K. (2015). Greater functional connectivity between reading and error detection regions following training with the reading acceleration program in children with reading difficulties. Annals of Dyslexia, 65(1), 1-23.
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- Majerus, S., & Cowan, N. (2016). The nature of verbal short-term impairment in dyslexia: The importance of serial order. Frontiers in Psychology, 7:1522.
- National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. (NICHD)(2000). Report of the National Reading Panel. Teaching Children to Read: An Evidence-based Assessment of the Scientific Research Literature on Reading and its Implications for Reading Instruction: Reports of the Subgroups (NIH Publication No. 00-4754). Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office.
- Perrachione, T.K., Del Tufo, S.N., Winter, R., Murtagh, J. , Chang, P., Halverson, K., Ghosh, S.S., Christodoulou, J.A., & Gabrieli, J.D.E. (2016). Dysfunction of rapid neural adaptation in dyslexia. Neuron, 92(6), 1383-1397.
- Ring, J., & Black, J.L. (2018). The multiple deficit model of dyslexia: What does it mean for identification? Annals of Dyslexia. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11881-018-0157-y
- Romeo, R.R., Christodoulou, J.A., Halverson, K.K., Murtagh, J., Cyr, A.B., Schimmel, C., Chang, P., Hook, P.E., & Gabrieli, J.D.E. (2017). Socioeconomic status and reading disability: Neuroanatomy and plasticity in response to intervention. Cerebral Cortex, DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhx131
- Romeo, R.R., Perrachione, T.K., Olson, H.A., Halverson, K.K., Gabrielli, J.D.E., Christodoulou. (2022). Socioeconomic dissociations in the neural and cognitive bases of reading disorders. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 58, 101175
- Stanovich, Keith E. (1986). Matthew effects in reading: Some consequences of individual differences in the acquisition of literacy. Reading Research Quarterly, 22, 360-407.
- The Nation’s Report Card: Reading. (2022). https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/reading/?grade=4 van Setten, E.R.H., Hakvoort, B.E., van der Leij, A., Maurits, N.M., & Maassen, B.A. M. (2018). Predictors for grade 6 reading in children at familial risk of dyslexia. Annals of Dyslexia https://doi.org/10.1007/s11881-018-0162-1
- Will, M. (2019). Will the science of reading catch on in teacher prep? Education Week. https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/will-the-science-of-reading-catch-on-in-teacherprep/2019/12
- Young, R.A., Rose, R.V., & Nelson, R. (2015). Teaching fluent handwriting remediates many reading-related disabilities. Creative Education, 6, 1752-1759.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Georgie Normand, M.A. holds a Master's degree in Reading Education and has spent many years working with students with dyslexia. She is the founder of Early Literacy Solutions and the author of the OrtonGillingham based Fluency Builders Dyslexia Program (earlyliteracysolutions.com). Designed for parents, tutors, and teachers, the Fluency Builders program utilizes the latest neuroscience in dyslexia. These new studies found that dyslexia is not a one-size-fits-all learning disability. Georgie has also developed the Certified Dyslexia Practitioner Program, a professional learning program that trains teachers and tutors to identify and succeed with multiple dyslexia profiles. Contact her at georgienormand@earlyliteracysolutions.com