Regardless of the problem...
Parents can help
their children learn to read!
Volunteers can help at-risk pupils and reading challenged adults!
Teachers can gain new insights in helping at-risk readers and training parents
and volunteers!
A note concerning the background color of the pages: The Home Page and associated pages that describe Tailored Reading have a background color of light blue. Those that are involved in imparting the actual tutoring information have a background of light yellow. Pages that contain items specifically designed to be printed for use with a pupil have a white background (although, of course, any part of the web site may be printed for non-commercial use).
* To skip the preliminaries and jump right into Tailored
Reading click on
Outline of Procedures
There is now a great deal you, as a concerned individual, can do for your own child, or for an at-risk reader of any age whom you would like to help. Through the use of Tailored Reading concepts, you will have the skills to provide the key to unlock the door that enables learners to make sense of written English. You might even begin to experience the joy Annie Sullivan, Helen Keller’s tutor, must have felt as the youngster uttered her first word, "water."
Prior to Tailored Reading, similar sophisticated learner-centered individualization has been facilitated tutorally almost solely by reading specialists, the high cost of which, unfortunately, has precluded its availability to the vast majority of at-risk readers.
As professional educators begin to understand how cost-effective and efficient Tailored Reading actually is, aside from encouraging parents and volunteers to become tutors, they may become involved in supervisory and tutor training capacities as well as promoting the use of the ideas in regular classrooms.
In the near future this website will be transferred to Study Wire, an umbrella of many exciting educational sites on the World Wide Web. The new, permanent location will be the vehicle to share Tailored Reading ideas, materials, and methods, without charge, to benefit all who are in need of this kind of help.
What is Tailored Reading? Tailored Reading is an extraordinarily personalized, primarily one-on-one system of instruction, based on each pupil's specific reading needs rather than a predetermined curriculum. Not intended to be comprehensive, the program complements all other methods, and works especially well for pupils who have difficulty "just getting off the ground." The spontaneous nature of Tailored Reading empowers a tutor to cut through the red tape and help an at-risk reader as soon as a meeting can be arranged. Within the first session, the tutor gains enough insight into the learner's reading abilities to immediately guide her towards successful application of this knowledge through meaningful activities appropriate to her strengths and weaknesses. Fundamental to the system is for the learner to feel good about her current abilities, after which new concepts are introduced and reinforced in ways that promote continued success, heightened self-esteem, and motivation towards further learning.
The system involves a highly efficient, common sense approach that empowers the tutor to immediately initiate instruction based upon the pupil's current knowledge of the most fundamental concepts involved in understanding the printed word. This immediacy enables the most needy pupils to receive help as soon as their deficiencies are recognized by the teacher rather than having to wait months before an appropriate placement is able to be scheduled. The program is also valuable for parents of young children (and preschool teachers) who would like to give them a jump start in reading. Tailored Reading, then, not only supports classroom instruction, but also promotes the more effective use of volunteers (including peer- and cross-age tutors), and assists teachers to encourage parents to help their children.
Tailored Reading can be implemented to the degree that the tutor feels comfortable. The materials and procedures are simple, and the primary focus is on the "building blocks" of written language. Stressing letters and words (phonics, sightwords and vocabulary), the system remains flexible, complementing practically all other curricula. The high degree of personalization, geared to the specific needs of each at-risk reader, works especially well for those having difficulty using other approaches.
Similar to the creativity possible through the use of bricks as compared to prefabricated kits to build houses, the fundamental nature of Tailored Reading often motivates the tutor to think of innovative ways to use the materials as well as to generate ideas for the development of new ones. Many successful tutors will undoubtedly devise creative spin-offs that work so well with their pupils that they would like to share them with other tutors (which might be done through this web site).
It is important to first get a feel for the system as a whole, after which the
specifics can be related and more easily understood. Towards this end, the Outline of Procedures page should be first read in its entirety
without clicking on the links. The basic understanding of this information will hopefully
facilitate learning about the rest of the system in greater detail. Since there are many
specifics (which are valuable when one is ready for this information), when
"surfing" for major concepts it is better to skip anything that interrupts the
flow with too many particulars.
A brief message from Jeff Reiter, the developer of Tailored Reading
For longer than twenty-five years, as the system has been evolving, I have been using Tailored Reading ideas successfully in classroom situations as well as in private tutoring. While this work has been extremely rewarding, it has also been very frustrating, knowing that there are many thousands more who would also benefit from these ideas as well.
Putting this vast array of very interrelated information in writing is not a simple task. However, I find that forcing myself to do so helps me clarify my thoughts and even discover new possibilities. I have tried to capture some key ideas in a brief personal account which you can access by clicking here.
When I was approached by the Study Wire people to disseminate this information over the Internet, I felt this was an opportunity not to be missed. Tailored Reading brings a new perspective to the educational scene, especially considering the enormous scale the World Wide Web makes possible. Where computers are not available, or for prospective tutors who are better equipped to learn via other ways, proficient tutors (who were able to learn from the web pages) will hopefully share the ideas. Through this mechanism, concerned individuals everywhere (whether at a personal or more general level) can truly be empowered to become part of the solution to the problem of illiteracy.
I look forward to some very exciting possibilities arising out of all this.
Thanks for being concerned.
Jeff Reiter
M. Ed. (Learning Disabilities, 1972)
Why is there a need for Tailored Reading? Reading instruction research indicates that at-risk readers (who, from a Tailored Reading perspective, have unmet needs causing them to develop ever-widening knowledge gaps as soon as they begin to learn to read) rarely catch up. Moreover, the consequences of poor reading skills accumulate exponentially over time. Unmet needs are often the key to why many children fail, drop out, and become a drain on themselves and on society. While the best solution lies in early identification and prevention, if left unchecked, intensive one-on-one remediation becomes necessary. Unfortunately, a great many children do not receive the most appropriate intervention in either category, and it is well known that social service, legal and other organizations are overburdened with the results.
A significant part of the reason that so many pupils have difficulties learning to read involves a basic problem concerning the English language itself. The problem arises from English having evolved with influences from numerous other tongues, the legacy of which involves a considerable number of spelling inconsistencies, causing enormous difficulties in learning to read for a significant segment of the population. Also, in the "old days" there wasn't the pressure of attempting "universal literacy;" pupils had comparatively little distraction, longer attention spans, and better discipline (internal and external), all of which generally made learning to read a more successful experience for those who attempted it.
Vast differences between remediation programs While most tutorial help is generally valuable, even if only for the increased self-esteem obtained through positive interpersonal interaction, the most effective growth depends upon the instruction truly meeting each child’s specific learning needs, which may vary considerably. In this light, the vast differences between tutoring programs become obvious.
Curriculum driven vs. learner centered programs. Traditional literacy programs are predominantly "curriculum driven," in which the subject matter is predetermined, with little or no mechanism for filling gaps. They lack the high degree of flexibility and individualization of instruction needed to maximize the learning potentials of at-risk readers. On the other hand, Tailored Reading as a "learner-centered" approach specifically empowers tutors to tailor instruction by finding and filling the pupil's unique gaps that preclude achievement. A trained tutor who uses learner-centered methods operates as a powerful "trouble-shooter," constantly searching for difficulties that prevent learning.
At-risk readers usually have poor memories for information they don't understand and that must be learned by rote. However, by first enabling them to initially master a core of meaningful knowledge, to which additional information is easily related, instruction facilitates connecting the "parts" with the "whole," bringing instant meaning and greater efficiency to the learning situation. With the tutor constantly striving to relate new information to what the learner already knows, success is "engineered."
The much traveled alternative to this intensely personalized kind of instruction follows a series of prepared lessons based upon relatively arbitrary information. The lesson usually centers on a story containing curriculum-specific targeted words and phonic elements, but has little or no mechanisms to focus upon an individual pupil’s current abilities and needs.
How do Tailored Reading concepts agree with current research concerning the instruction of at-risk readers? In March, 1998, a report on the effectiveness of interventions for at-risk readers was published by the Committee on the Prevention of Reading Difficulties in Young Children, of the National Academy of Sciences. The Committee has placed on the Internet the Executive Summary of their report, "Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children," edited by Catherine E. Snow, M. Susan Burns & Peg Griffin. By clicking here the report can be directly accessed. While the entire paper is very valuable, the most relevant section, "Literacy Instruction in First Through Third Grade" (the primary focus of Tailored Reading) can be visited by either scrolling down the page or by typing in "literacy instruction" in the "find in page" section of the "edit" button. (To return to this page, click on the "back" button.)
Similarly, in May, 1998 the International Reading Association and the National Association for the Education of Young Children issued a joint position statement towards improved educational practices involving reading. This can be found at:
http://www.naeyc.org/public_affairs/pubaff_index.htm,
and clicking on "Position Statements" in the left column, scrolling down and clicking on "Improving Practices with Children," then scrolling down and clicking on "Learning to Read and Write (1998)." After a brief introduction, parts 1 - 4 can be linked to:
Part 1: Statement of the issues and review of the research
Part 2: Statement of the position and recommendations for teaching practices and policies
Part 3: References
Part 4: Continuum of children's development in early reading and writing
These very valuable reports present comprehensive discourses concerning the best of current literacy instruction. While these esteemed organizations were not aware of the existence of Tailored Reading, among other topics their statements obviously have high regard for the ideas that form the basis of the Tailored Reading system: phonemic awareness, phonics (reading and spelling), word recognition, vocabulary, the benefits of pupils reading selections within their abilities, and the need to provide regular assessment, followed up by appropriate instruction. The many other topics discussed in the reports accentuate the fact that Tailored Reading is highly specialized in its scope. In fact, it is precisely due to this high degree of focus that tutors are empowered to zero in on the most fundamental need of at-risk readers: to increase their knowledge of words.
While the position papers include the wide range of important considerations in regard to reading instruction in general, they lack the prioritization necessary to better enable teachers to truly meet the most pressing problems of their most needy pupils. The reports do indicate that instructional strategies should be adapted to children’s needs, but there are no specific guidelines as to how this might be done. Also, there is no mention of the importance of finding and filling gaps in each pupils knowledge of sightwords, phonics and vocabulary.
This is where the value of Tailored Reading reveals itself as an exciting, innovative way to help learners who are having significant difficulties. Tutors, who might either be under the supervision of teachers, or who have mastered the system sufficiently to work on their own, are able to immediately benefit at-risk readers increase their word knowledge by finding and filling gaps in their understanding of sightwords, phonics, and vocabulary. The years of action research, upon which these procedures have been based, have narrowed the instructional priorities for at-risk readers to that of dealing mainly with these very basic aspects of reading instruction, after which the other components of reading can be more effectively taught. But it is the mastery of these building blocks that have been found to be key to getting a jump start to understanding written language. Since even at-risk readers can generally comprehend simple selections composed of words they know, by directly elevating word knowledge, comprehension inevitably increases. Therefore, a great deal of improvement can be achieved solely by systematically raising reading vocabularies, and this can be done fairly easily by concerned individuals with relatively little training.
Obviously the joint report of the International Reading Association and the National Association for the Education of Young Children and that of the National Academy of Sciences have very significant implications for literacy instruction. Application of all this research should result in noticeable improvements in educational practices and in literacy learning, potentially minimizing the number of at-risk readers. However, since no two children have identical "knowledge capitals" or learn identically from each lesson, unless there is a great deal of genuine individualization for those who need it, even with the best instruction some pupils will continue to "fall through the cracks." Teachers who maintain their "curriculum-driven" modes of operation (with the instructional content taking precedence) having little or no mechanism to pursue the real problems of at-risk readers, will continue to fail some of their pupils. Truly meeting individual requirements needs to be done to a greater degree even by most one-on-one tutoring programs. For example, the typical practices that America Reads (President Clinton's initiative to enable all children to read well by the end of third grade) tutors follow conform to a planned curriculum rather than becoming involved with the more fundamental difficulties of each pupil.
However long it takes to truly transform literacy instruction, there is still an immediate need to address this problem for children who are currently being failed by their schools. At this very moment a great many at-risk readers are "falling through the cracks" of the educational system. At this very moment there are teachers who have all but given up on such pupils. It is not totally uncommon for a teacher, as soon as she refers a child for testing, to feel that the situation is out of her hands, effectively letting the pupil almost vegetate in the classroom. Unfortunately, with things as they are, it might take many months for these children to be placed in more appropriate settings (which hopefully will be taught by those who do actually provide for individual needs); and what happens if the child doesn't qualify for an alternative placement?
By involving Tailored Reading, with which at-risk readers can obtain immediate assistance as soon as trained tutors become available (with possible additional help from parents and others), these problems can be addressed much more efficiently and cost-effectively. As this website unfolds, the specifics of the system will become more clearly defined.
Your comments, which may be sent to rainbowreading@yahoo.com will be greatly appreciated.