Adjusting a reading that is just too high

Submitted by Cynthia Zafft on Tue, 08/18/2015 - 17:22
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Dear PS Completion and Reading/Writing groups:

First of all, thank you to both groups for helping me out here.  I am interested in using an article by Laura Tropp, A World Without Time and Money, with students who will be working in a blended learning environment.  Many are English speakers of other languages but in this context are part of a group of adult learners (both ESOL and native speakers) transitioning to health career programs at their local community college.  This article is approximately at the 9+ GLE.  Most of the students are reading at the 6-8 GLE.  The students will write a short summary of the article and add a reflection that considers if our digital world discourages skills that we need.  What do you suggest?

Cynthia

Comments

What a great article to use. So timely and thought-provoking. It's not clear if this article will be used in a class situation or online. There is some vocabulary that, although important, might be unknown to many students (broaching, obsolete, perspective, transaction). Maybe you can highlight these words in the text and give the meaning or a synonym. There are also some complex sentences and maybe you could have an alternate version of the text that is edited for those students reading at a lower level. Breaking compound or complex sentences into shorter sentences could bring it down a grade-level or two.  If it will be used in a class situation there are some interesting idioms to discuss (stealing a glance, change-making skills, no uncertain terms) that are probably new for ESOL students and maybe for native speakers as well.

There is a great tool on the website Achieve the Core called Academic Word Finder that allows you to enter a text and it will highlight Tier 2 words (academic words) at a specific grade level that might help to identify which words might be most problematic for your students. . http://achievethecore.org/academic-word-finder/#

Aileen

Dear Aileen:

Thank you so much for the suggestions.  Students would most likely go to the text online, initially, so I think creating an alternate version would be good -- to see how they compare and test drive with students.  I can include synonyms in little rollover pop-up boxes. The idioms are so interesting, it would be nice to do something with them for both ESOL and native speakers (I'll have to go back to the recent discussion on idioms in the AELL group for ideas).

The Achieve the Core website was so easy to use!  You do need to register (it's free) and it's best to do that at the start before you load your text. Then, when you're done, you can have the results emailed to you or someone else. I scanned the text for grade 7.  Only one academic word came up as above grade level from the Tier 2 word list ("reliance"); another 19 came in as new academic terms for grade 7 and 6 academic terms for below grade 7.  I thought there would be several more considered above grade level (have to think about what that implies...).  I'll go back and scan it again for grade 5 and 6.

Thanks again,

Cynthia

Hi Cyn,

A couple of ideas off the top of my head. One is to use the site Rewordify http://rewordify.com/ to simplify the language. You can copy and paste the article and Rewordify changes some of the words to lower the reading level.

The other is to use the article as is and provide the kind of scaffolding that students would need to learn to read complex texts: preteach some vocabulary, chunk the text into shorter sections and tackle them one at a time. Discuss the article so confusions can be cleared up. Tim Shanahan's blog http://www.shanahanonliteracy.com/  has lots of good ideas. 

You might also find some helpful ideas in the Reading Apprenticeship discussion that was held a while back, or in the book if you have a copy or can get hold of one. 

Hope this helps.

di

Hi Di:

Wow, another easy to use application!  Rewordify.com picked up several of the words that Aileen mentioned and had good ideas for several more.  For example, "see money as a finite thing" became "see money as limited."  I like the idea of doing more scaffolding so that the students learn to read more complex text.  So, I will take a look at Tim Shanahan's blog (the entry on the homepage looks promising already), and (true confessions time) I do have Reading Apprenticeship but mostly followed the LINCS discussion for the main points.

Like the students, I've got more reading to do.  Thanks,

"Cyn" (my nickname) Zafft

Cyn, the challenge you presented here is one faced by so many adult ed programs! The ideas that Aileen and Di provided are wonderful, and I will share them with programs in my area as well.

Another suggestion that I've made among teachers in this region is to have more advanced students simplify/rewrite the content as an exercise for them and a wonderful benefit to others. We learn what we teach!

As for vocabulary building, my very, very favorite tool is https://quizlet.com/. Students look up or discuss terms with others, after which they go to quizzlet and create flashcards. The beauty of the site is that once the cards are created and, often, illustrated, students can click on different options to review the terms, play games with the terms, and test themselves. Cards are easy to create and then become available for everyone to see. Some of the teachers here are introducing medical terms that way, sometimes creating the cards for students and then having them practice them in quizzlet.

Below are links to a couple of quizlets that one of "my" developers has created lab modules for a STEM project we are implementing. When they open, look at the top menu for all of the options to practice the terms!

Leecy