Tutoring Program Yields Exceptional Gains in
Reading
By Rhonda Stone
A highly structured and unique reading program is yielding
exceptional results in two Texas school districts.
"The biggest thing you want your child to be able to
do is to read," says Paula Null, parent of Jordan, a
Decatur High School senior with Down’s syndrome. Eight
months after joining Decatur’s Read Right
program, Jordan began reading everything he could get his
hands on—cereal boxes, church bulletins, auto owner’s
manuals, etc. Adds Jordan’s mom: "I’m just thrilled.
His future will be so much better because he can read."
Students with severe reading problems are not the only ones
benefiting from the program.
"Classroom teachers began to notice within four to six
weeks that students who were in Read Right
were completing their homework in a timely manner and were
volunteering to read aloud in regular education classes,"
says Fonda Huneycutt, Ph.D., superintendent of the Forestburg
Independent School District.
The program is based on information about the nature of
procedural learning and reflects constructivist learning
theory.
"Read Right involves a trained
adult working with one to four students," says Melinda
Reeves, a reading specialist and principal of Decatur High
School. "There is time for the tutor to key in to the
student, listen to and know their symptoms, and address them
genuinely—not through drill and practice that may miss the
issue entirely."
Principal Reeves and her staff are scheduled to present the
Decatur Read Right program at the
upcoming TEA Administrators conference in Austin on January
29.
Through the program, students control their progress and
are held accountable to produce excellent reading through a
process designed to enhance the predictability of text. They
are guided to strive for excellence by learning to judge
independently whether their own reading is excellent. To
progress, they must demonstrate excellence to tutors.
The tutor’s role is to identify when a student is
confused about excellence, if he is not using predictability
to support his reading, if he has low intent to read
excellently, or if efficiency is being compromised by problems
with the text. When any of these barriers are identified, the
tutor is trained to take temporary control of the intervention
process by offering specifically-developed guiding remarks or
techniques to remove the barrier.
Over time, students implicitly incorporate a predictive
strategy into their reading, and, because prediction is the
basis of all cognition, this paves the way for the creation by
the student of strategic, sophisticated, and productive
reading tactics
"In this system, the student is always in charge of
his own performance, and yet is also immediately accountable
for that performance," says Dee Tadlock, Ph.D., developer
of the program. "This creates an environment where
the intent to achieve excellent reading must be both
maintained and internalized."
The material each student uses is determined by the nature
of the reading problem—not by the age or grade of the
student.
The same methodology works for every grade level. At
Forestburg, elementary through high school students are
involved in the program that includes special education
students. A check of Forestburg results last October showed
impressive gains. English-language students enrolled in the
program were gaining one grade level per 7.2 hours of
tutoring, says Dr. Huneycutt. English-as-a-Second-Language
students were gaining one grade level per 14.5 hours of
tutoring.
In 1996, Decatur High School was rated as low performing.
Over five years they moved to an "exemplary" rating.
Read Right was one of several
initiatives brought to the school to improve student
performance. Honored with a prestigious National Blue Ribbon
Award last October, Decatur is seeing an average improvement
for English-language and ESL students combined of one grade
level per 13.5 hours of tutoring.
Read Right tutor training occurs over
two years. In the first year, support staff or certified
teachers receive a total of seven weeks intensive, hands-on
training while actively tutoring students. Completion of the
first year program results in tutor certification. Second year
follow-up ensures program quality and continuity and provides
additional training to certify one teacher as a Read Right trainer.
Program materials include a comprehensive library of
enjoyable, progressively more challenging books.
Read Right has projects in 38 states,
Canada, and China. Information on school-based results,
including a four-year longitudinal study, can be obtained
through www.readright.com
or by calling 360-427-9440.
Rhonda Stone is a journalist and author ( The
Light Barrier—A Color Solution to Your Child’s Light-Based
Reading Difficulties, St. Martin’s Press, October 2002).
She also serves as secretary to the Board of Directors of The
Literacy Alliance, an organization devoted to the elimination
of reading problems in children and adults. She also worked
with Dee Tadlock, Ph.D., on her book explaining
"constructivist reading theory" and the procedural
nature of reading development. Dr. Tadlock’s book,
Read Right—Coaching
Your Child to Excellence in Reading, is available
from
Amazon.
THE KEY WAS COURAGE:
Profile of Individual Tutoring Graduate
Ron* could read a little,
but it was a terrible struggle. He hid it well,
though, buying bestsellers and laboring over the
flyleaf with a dictionary so that he could
discuss the book if anyone saw it lying modestly
on his coffee table. At 37 years old he had
become very adept at appearing literate, and his
personal library had grown to encyclopedic
proportions. The only place that his pretense
fell apart was, of course, at work. His
supervisor heard about Read Right’s program and
Ron had a consultation in October 1996. He and
his company agreed to start him in the program
towards the end of that same month. His initial
starting range was Blue (4-5), where he spent
four sessions before whizzing through the Lime
range (6-7) in only two sessions. His Independent Reading (reading done
by the student
outside of the tutoring session) was not
remarkable at this point. During the ten sessions
he spent in the Purple range (8-9), however, his Independent Reading zoomed to 191 hours. Ron had
started really reading his immense library. He
spent fifteen hours in the Yellow range (10-11),
with a phenomenal 314 hours of Independent Reading.
Ron graduated from Read Right on April 22, 1997
after six months and 31 ½ sessions.
Ron also disclosed to me that his family and
close friends have never really been aware of the
extent of his reading problem (he was so good at
hiding it), and that he was not going to
embarrass himself by telling them now. But, he
was very willing to give out information to
people at work and wanted about 25 handouts for
this purpose.
During our exit interview Ron admitted that he
was no longer afraid to read aloud in front of
others. Also, he is not ashamed anymore to ask
what a word means or for help with pronunciation.
Ron managed to graduate from high school and has
even taken some college courses (ones that
required little to no reading or ones in which he
could tape lectures to get by). He is very eager
to start college again, now that he can handle
the reading and writing assignments with ease.
Ron always wanted to be an excellent reader, and
now he knows why. He voiced his deep and abiding
appreciation to Read Right for helping him to overcome his reading
problems.
STEVE’S WORLD*
According to his mother, Steve
(who turned 17 in June), is committed to only one
thing in the world: his Read Right sessions with me over
the phone. Dropping out of high school and
quitting the first job he held, he always seems
to be grasping, never quite reaching or attaining
his goals. Steve’s three "bosom
buddies" are what his mother terms "losers,"
and she fears he’s headed in that direction
as well. Although he has achieved extremely high
marks on math and science examinations, he has no
apparent motivation or purpose. Steve lives with
Mom in Montana, but he tells her he would rather
be with his father in North Dakota —
something his stepmother isn’t willing to
consider. So, it doesn’t work out either
way. His mother feels bad because he believes he
has no "place" to belong. The only
spark of light in her son’s present life,
she feels, is his motivation and commitment to
his reading sessions. She says that he looks
forward to our time together and is always
cheerful afterwards. Also, whenever he forgets a
session (which does happen occasionally) he
becomes upset with himself and apologizes to me
profusely. But this wasn’t always so...
At first, Steve was very resistant to working
with the program. He frequently forgot his
sessions and his father, who pays for the
program, began calling to check after each one.
He was getting in trouble with his dad and his
attitude was rebellious on the phone (although it
was never directed at me). I tried explaining the
program and how it works; and although he claimed
to understand most of it, he gave excuses about
having to look for a job or that school was a
problem—blah, blah, blah—all smoke
screens. So, I decided to challenge him on a
couple of things: first, whether or not he was honestly
willing to admit that he has problems when he
tries to read. He was. Second, I told him that if
he would agree to give Read Right just a little bit of
a chance and stop being so forgetful, he could
make his dad happy and would not waste
anybody’s time or money. He agreed.
I found that once Steve decided to get serious
about the program, he started opening
up—only slightly at first, but enough so
that his individual sense of humor became
apparent. Wit became a valuable tool to assist
him in realizing that he could have fun and
learn at the same time. His resistance vanished,
and working with him became a true joy. We now
make fun of things that happen, making jokes
about the stories or ideas that arise. Levity,
unquestionably, helps when he becomes frustrated
over getting stuck on a paragraph or word. Also,
gentle encouragement and frequent "pats on
the back" are good tools with Steve.
Recently, he told me that, when reading certain
stories (in coached reading) and doing well, he
feels as if he’s a news reporter or is
telling a story about something that happened to
himself. Steve’s tone of voice expressed
tremendous pride. Wholeheartedly, I agreed, and
told him that my own experience with reading is
quite similar—that, sometimes I get into a
story so much, it seems as if I’m actually
"in it" instead of just sitting there
reading it. I told him that, when I was his age,
I would escape from my own teen-aged hell into
the different worlds that books provide. He said
he understood completely and occasionally does
something like that with his car repair and
customizing magazines.
Steve thoroughly understands what is meant by
"Excellence" and knows he is capable of
achieving it in at least this one arena of his
life. He takes pride in his success and works
hard to achieve it. I compliment him for this
tenacity and continually let him know that he is
capable and can think for himself. Steve is
honing the skill of identifying exactly what is
wrong when paragraphs are not excellent: he knows
when something sounds funny or doesn’t make
sense and when there are unnatural pauses or
other cadence symptoms. It has become a rare
occasion when I have to stop him for anything in
coached reading or to disagree with him on
whether or not a paragraph was read excellently.
This new attitude and willingness to work has, of
course, resulted in significant progress. Steve
started in the Blue range (4-5), has already
moved to Lime (6-7) and is doing so well I
believe he will soon be ready for more complex
material. Occasionally he is still forgetful
(especially when his "friends" invite
him to go "malling"); but when he
realizes he’s missed a session, his remorse
is believable and actually quite poignant. Mom
has seen a distinct upswing in his self-esteem
since he has begun working with me in earnest,
she is extremely pleased and she hopes that this
bit of glue in his world will inspire him to find
some kind of purpose for his life. I hope so,
too, and believe Steve’s potential is
unlimited.
* Names and places have been changed to protect
the privacy of our clients.
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