Reading and Writing with Struggling Readers A Vygotskian Approach

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Reading and Writing with Struggling Readers A
Vygotskian Approach

• Isabel Peters
• De Activiteit
• National Center for Developmental Education
• Alkmaar, the Netherlands

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Overview

• Cultural-historical view on learning disabilities
• Setup of the study
• The approach to struggling readers
• Conclusions

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Cultural-historical view on learning disabilities

• Coles (1987) schools can create learning
  disabilities
• Vygotsky (1978) development is socially mediated
• Peters Van Oers (2007) teachers adopt a
  different approach to children they consider to
  be at-risk

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• Vygotsky
• Compensation, the individuals reaction to a
  defect, initiates new, roundabout developmental
  processes - it replaces, rebuilds a new
  structure, and stabilizes psychological
  functions. (1993, p.34)

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Setup of the study

• Research question
• Does the strategy spelling (sounding out
  letters and blending them together) has a
  compensating function for struggling readers?

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• Series of case studies in two classrooms
• (Yin, 1994)
• 2 boys and 2 girls (6, 7 and 8 years old)
• Design experiment (Cobb e.a., 2003)
• cycles of invention and revision

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Phase 1 reading a text

• Teacher prepares children for reading
• Children scan pages at new words
• New words are discussed
• Children read the page
• Reading of the page is discussed

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Phase 2 practicing new words

• Underlined words are read, spelled aloud and
  written down
• Visual analysis
• Other exercises

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Phase 3 writing a text

• Children finish the story
• Teacher helps to fabricate a story
• Teacher assists in the writing activity
• Children make their own book
• Children present their book to other children in
  the classroom

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Conclusions

• Meaningful reading and writing activities
• Observation of reading development
• Action-oriented approach
• Teacher offers those strategies that the child
  needs at a certain moment