return to home page Digital Cameras in Education eBooks in Education Technology Enhanced Literature Circles Effective Distance Education Assistive Technology in Education Teaching Science with Dinosaur Footprints Science Education Resources Other Technology Applications and Fun Stuff
Quick menu - click on the above images

  return to homepage
more about us
courses we teach
educational resources
some of our books and other publications
workshops that we will present
some of our recent presentations
search the DrsCavanaugh site
contact us by email
Home
Up

Reading Difficulty and Reading Education

Reading difficulties can make educators, schools, parents and students frustrated.  It is estimated, from a national study, that more than seventeen percent of young children will encounter a problem learning to read (NCITE 1996).  Additionally a National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) report of 1994 indicated that all schools in the US have a number of children who are failing the task of learning to read.  In the report it was found that  42% of fourth-graders, 31% of eighth-graders and 30% of twelfth-graders were reading at a "below basic" level (NAEP 1998). To help students with reading fluency, teachers need to provide and monitor oral reading. To achieve this goal for reading, teachers can assist students by increasing practice though audiotapes and other technologies (NIFL 2002), of which eBooks would be an excellent application. It has also been found that availability of books is a key factor in reading achievement. Higher scoring countries, for reading, have students who have greater access to books (Elley 1992).  There is additional data that supports indicates this need for book access by students, Krashen (1995) found a positive correlation between reading comprehension scores and number of books per student in school libraries. 

Reading Strategies

Global Reading Strategies (Mokhtari & Sheorey) 

bullet

Read with a purpose in mind

bullet

Think about what I know to help me understand what I read (pre-information)

bullet

Over all view of the text to see what it’s about before reading

bullet

Decide whether the content of the text fits the reading purpose

bullet

Review the text first by noting characteristics including length and organization

bullet

When reading decide what to read closely and what to ignore.

bullet

Use tables, figures, and pictures in the text to increase understanding

bullet

Use context clues to help better understand the reading

bullet

Use typographical features like bold face and italics to identify key features

bullet

Critically analyze and evaluate the information presented in the text

bullet

Check understanding when coming across new information

bullet

Guess what the content of the text is about when reading

bullet

Check to see if guesses about the text are correct

Problem Solving Strategies

bullet

Read slowly and carefully to make sure I understand what I’m reading

bullet

Try to get back on track when distracted or lose concentration

bullet

Adjust reading speed according to the reading material

bullet

When text becomes difficult, pay closer attention to the material

bullet

Stop from time to time and think about the reading

bullet

Try to picture or visualize information to assist in remembering

bullet

When text becomes difficult, re-read to increase understanding

bullet

When reading, guess the meaning of unknown words or phrases

Support Reading Strategies
The terms in [brackets] indicate an eBook support format

bullet Take notes while reading to assist in understanding [Note/text box]  
bullet When text becomes difficult, read aloud to assist in understanding  [Text-to-Speech]
bullet Underline or mark-up information in the text  to assist in remembering  [Highlighting]
bullet Use reference materials (dictionaries, etc.)   [Interactive dictionaries/Hyperlinks]
bullet Paraphrase/restate to better understand
bullet Go back and forth in the text to find relationships among ideas  [Bookmark]
bullet Ask self questions to find answers in the text

Additional Reading Supports for digital text and eBooks

bullet

Copy and paste out notes

bullet

Have text read aloud to you

bullet

 Interactive dictionary for just-in-time word look-up

bullet

Hypertext to web sites for additional information

bullet

Adjusting size of text for readability

bullet

 Auto summarize text

bullet

Printing of marked selections

bullet

Auto indexing

bullet

Searching within a document for specific text (find-find next)

 eBooks in Education

Site Search

Drs.Cavanaugh

 

Send mail to cavanaugh@drscavanaugh.org with questions or comments about this web site.
Copyright © 2006 Drs.Cavanaugh  Last modified: March 06, 2008