Web Watch:
Internet Resources to Assist Teachers with Struggling Readers

Denise Johnson

Every day, a wide range of children come together in classrooms to learn. They represent rich cultural, linguistic, racial, ethnic, and economic diversity. Some have special needs resulting from sources such as speech, visual, or hearing impairments, emotional disturbances, autism, developmental delays, or giftedness. For some of these children, reading acquisition will be easy, and for others it will be difficult. The unique individuals within each classroom together create a unique learning community. It is the needs of all children in the community that influence the teaching and learning of literacy in the classroom. The role of the teacher is critical in ensuring that all children are successful readers. How do teachers design instruction to meet the needs of all students? First and most important, teachers must believe that all children can learn to read. Because our attitudes and expectations permeate instruction, believing that all children can become readers is the first step in creating an effective literacy program and developing a community that respects the unique qualities of each child. Communicating high expectations to all children will enhance their potential for success.

Related Posting from the Archives Two Sites for Teachers Working with Struggling or Reluctant Readers by Dana Cammack

Teachers must also be knowledgeable about effective instructional practices that meet the diverse needs of students and that take into account the prior knowledge, experiences, and home languages each child brings to the classroom. We must create learning environments that support cognitive, language, and social development through authentic learning activities relevant to children’s lives. Yet, even if we create an optimal classroom environment, some of our students will experience great difficulty with accurate, fluent, thoughtful reading. What would really make a difference for these students? What really matters for struggling readers?

Lots of Reading with “Just Right” Books

In his aptly-titled What Really Matters for Struggling Readers: Designing Research-Based Programs, Richard Allington (2001) states,

In learning to read it is true that reading practice -- just reading -- is a powerful contributor to the development of accurate, fluent, high comprehension reading. In fact, if I were required to select a single aspect of the instructional environment to change, my first choice would be creating a schedule that supported dramatically increased quantities of reading during the school day. (p. 24)

Allington recommends a minimum of 90 minutes of in-school reading per day. At first, this may seem impossible to realize -- there’s already not enough time to teach everything! But take a careful look at how much of the school day is spent on noninstructional activity -- opening and ending procedures, intercom announcements, and paperwork. With some improvements in organizational efficiency, it may be possible to find 30 to 50 minutes for reading every day.

Allington (2001) goes on to state that once the volume of reading has increased, it is important to make sure children are reading books that are “just right.” In many school districts, it is common for teachers to be provided with a single basal, textbook, or trade book for reading instruction, regardless of her students’ diverse reading levels and interests. This practice increases the likelihood of many children reading material that is too difficult and that consequently fails to promote reading development and positive attitudes toward reading. In order to optimize learning, we must provide children with texts that are just right -- in other words, books that match students’ reading levels and interests.

Of course, this is no small task. Providing children with lots of books at the appropriate levels can be overwhelming. How does a teacher determine each child’s appropriate reading level? How does he know the reading level of individual books? And, finally, how does he ensure that children have access to enough books?

Let’s take a look at each of these questions in turn, and see what help the Internet has to offer.

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Determining a Child’s Reading Level

One simple way to ascertain how well a child is reading is through observation. As Allington (2001) suggests,

Look around the classroom during a silent reading period. Are there children whose bodies, faces, or even fingers provide signs of frustration? Are there kids who seem to be “wandering” -- mentally or physically -- when they should be reading? Do some kids have the book close to their face, brow furrowed, and finger-stabbing at the words? Do some kids turn the page much less often than others -- or at all? If this is a 3-6 classroom, can you hear subvocalizing? Observe much lip movement and finger following of the text? (p. 52)

Another way is to listen to individual children read and record their difficulties with a technique such as running records. While the child reads aloud, the teacher places a check mark over each word read correctly; when the child makes an error, he jots down what the child actually said above the words on the printed page. Dividing the number of words in the text by the number of miscues yields an accuracy percentage. The text is considered easy for the child if she read with 95 to 100 percent accuracy, instructional if read with 90 to 94 percent accuracy, and hard if read with 80 to 89 percent accuracy.

An accuracy percentage can also be determined with the Assessment Calculator at the ReadWriteSite. With this unique online resource, the teacher simply enters the number of running words in the text, the number of errors made by the child, and the number of self-corrections. With a click of a button, the error rate, accuracy rate, and self-correction rate are instantly calculated. There is also a place to enter the child’s name, grade level, title of the story, assessor’s name, and comments, all of which can be printed along with the calculated information for documentation.

The ReadWriteSite also hosts the Level Estimator. With this tool, the assessor selects the child’s grade level from a pull-down menu (e.g., first grade early [Sept.-Dec.]; fourth grade mid [Jan.-Mar]; seventh grade late [April-June]) which results in display of a short passage with a picture for the child to read. Messages advise the assessor to print the page so that errors can be marked as the child reads from the screen; a scale for determination of the child’s level of comprehension is also provided. After the child has finished reading, the assessor enters the number of errors and an accuracy percentage is calculated, along with information as to what the rate means. If the rate is 95 percent or above and the comprehension level is good, it is recommended that the child read a more difficult passage. If it is within an instructional range, then, with a click of a button, a list of level-appropriate books is displayed. If the accuracy rate is below 90 percent, the assessor is advised to have the child read a less difficult passage.

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Determining the Reading Level of Books

There are several popular systems available to “level” books -- that is, to determine their reading level. Reading Recovery, an early intervention program for at-risk first-grade children developed by Marie Clay, has leveled thousands of books using a numbering system (which does not correlate to grade levels or readability formulas). A text’s difficulty is determined according to a number of factors that support the development of the reading process. The Reading Recovery Book List 2000 can be purchased online from the Reading Recovery Council of North America in either English or Spanish. Or, go to www.Leveledbooks.com, a searchable Web site that features more than 1,000 titles leveled according to Reading Recovery criteria. (Note that the site is operated by The Learning Collection, a company that sells the books listed.)

In Matching Books to Readers, Fountas and Pinnell (1999) describe their leveling system, which is similar to that of Reading Recovery but uses letters rather than numbers to designate difficulty. Their listing includes higher grades and thousands more books than does the Reading Recovery publication.

Readability formulas are also commonly used to determine text difficulty based on word and sentence complexity. Unlike leveling systems, however, they do not take into consideration important information such as how well the text is written, whether its layout, design, and organization are appropriate, and whether it makes sense or is interesting, has picture support, relates to the student’s prior knowledge of the topic, and includes charts or graphs. There are many readability formulas currently available, including the Fry readability graph, available at Kathy Schrock’s Guide for Educators (housed at Discoveryschool.com), the Gunning Fog Index, and the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level score and Flesch Reading Ease score (both of which can be accessed from current versions of Microsoft Word).

Several companies have developed computerized K-12 reading management systems that level books. The Accelerated Reader from Advantage Learning Systems (Topping, 1999 [online document]; Labbo, 1999 [online document]) currently has 35,000 titles, and Scholastic’s Reading Counts! has 25,000. Both systems use readability formulas to determine reading levels of books and online assessment to determine the level a child should begin reading. Once a child has read a book, he takes a computerized multiple-choice comprehension quiz and is awarded points based on the number of correct answers. The number of points possible is determined by the book’s reading level and number of words. Though both programs are quite expensive, they are widely used and have been touted for their ability to motivate children to read.

Book Adventure is a free online version of a reading management system developed by the Sylvan Learning Foundation (and whose educational advisory board members include the International Reading Association, publisher of this e-journal). With the help of cartoon character Baily Bookmark, children respond to a series of questions in order to find a book that is “just right” for them. Children enter their grade level, what level they would like to read (by grade level, easier books, books that are a challenge, or any level), what genre they prefer (fiction or nonfiction), and their areas of interest. The computer then generates a list of up to 100 books that meet the specified criteria from a database of approximately 10,000 titles. The students take multiple-choice quizzes on the books they’ve read offline and earn points and prizes (restaurant gift certificates, balloons, etc., donated by sponsors) for their literary successes. There are also printable activity pages, bookmarks, badges, and certificates.

Other online sources that provide lists of books by grade level include the following:

• The ReadWriteSite’s Book Browser provides booklists for preschool through grade 6. Titles listed for first and second grades, for example, are described as “‘All by myself books’...that have been reviewed by a literacy specialist and have been determined as such that a child should be able to read without much help from an adult.”



• The reading room at Women.com offers the “Children’s Book Finder.” Visitors enter a child’s subject of interest and reading level, and a listing of several book titles with summaries is provided. A further link provides a picture of the book and a review.



• The Cooperative Children’s Book Center based at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has compiled a list of recommended books for beginning readers, organized in five major categories: rhythm and rhyme, repetition, picture clues, sight vocabulary, and clear context and sight vocabulary.



• The Bookhive, hosted by the Public Library of Charlotte-Mecklenburg County in North Carolina, has hundreds of searchable reviews written by librarians of books on many topics and for different reading levels. You can also add your own comments and read what children have to say about particular titles.



• The Hennepin County Library in Minnetonka, Minnesota, has several lists of recommended books divided into beginning, middle, upper, and teen readers. This site also lists multicultural books and winners of the Newbery, Caldecott, and other awards.



• GT-World offers titles for gifted students categorized by picture books, young chapter books, medium-length chapter books, longer chapter books, preteen, and young adult books.



• The Barahona Center at California State University, San Marcos, provides information about recommended books in Spanish for children and adolescents. More than 6,000 books are in the center’s database, selected because of their quality of art and writing, presentation of material, and appeal to the intended audience.

Denise Johnson is an assistant professor of reading education at the College of William & Mary, Williamsburg, Virigina, USA. She received her Ed.D. in reading from the University of Memphis, Tennessee. She has worked as an elementary classroom teacher, a middle school reading specialist, and a Reading Recovery teacher. She now teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in literacy education and conducts research on the integration of technology into preservice and inservice education courses and within elementary classrooms. Her articles on literacy and technology have been published in a variety of journals and she is active in several professional organizations. She enjoys traveling with her family and reading to her son, Derek. Contact her by e-mail at cdjohn@wm.edu.

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Citation: Johnson, D. (2001, April). Web watch: Internet resources to assist teachers with struggling readers. Reading Online, 4(9). Available: http://www.readingonline.org/electronic/elec_index.asp?HREF=/electronic/webwatch/struggling/index.html

Reading Online, www.readingonline.org
Posted April 2001
© 2001 International Reading Association, Inc.   ISSN 1096-1232