The Workshop Model, Technology and Authentic Literature to Remediate Adolescent Readers

Abstract

Providing effective remediation for at risk students can be a challenge for teachers of adolescents. All too often teachers rely on an approach to instruction that supports the acquisition of skills on a low level of cognitive engagement. Focusing on the application of strategies that promote depth of understanding and the transfer of skills to authentic settings has the potential to optimize the impact of the instruction. Meeting the needs of this population of students requires a teacher to be reflective, resourceful and innovative in their pedagogical practice. Incorporating the use of quality literature, technology tools to support learning and a focus on providing explicit instruction of the cognitive strategies that support comprehension, are methods teachers can include for supporting the progress of at risk readers. This paper describes the experiences of two teachers of adolescent readers while they engaged in reflective practice, acquired new instructional strategies and supported developmental readers with comprehension processes. The results of this qualitative investigation are reported in the form of a case study that describes the project and participants experiences with the workshop model, technology integration and the use of children's literature to support reading comprehension in students.