REPORT ON ACTION RESEARCH: -

READING DIFFICULTY
NAME OF THE SCHOOL: SD PUBLIC SCHOOL
PEDAGOGY: ENGLISH
VENUE: SCHOOL (Observed particularly in classes 7th, 8th, 9th)

INTRODUCTION:

Learning English is an essential device for acquiring information because of its significance in
many fields as it has arisen as the world's most widely used language. English is
progressively turning into the language of global cooperations and interactions. It has
turned into the focal language of communication in business, legislative issues, organisation,
science and innovation as well as the scholarly world. Being considered as the predominant
language of globalised advertising as well as the language of primary preference in the
world, it is, accordingly, vital to be learned. It is by means of the way of obtaining the
language, which guides us to comprehend and speak with the world well.

When we learn a language, there are four skills that we need for complete communication.
When we learn our native language, we usually learn to listen first, then to speak, then to
read, and finally to write. These are called the four "language skills":

• Skill 1: Listening
• Skill 2: Speaking
• Skill 3: Reading
• Skill 4: Writing

The oral mode's receptive skill is listening to

comprehension. When we talk about hearing, what we
truly mean is listening to what is being said and
comprehending it.

In the oral method, speaking is one of the useful abilities. It is

more difficult than it initially appears to be and entails more than just
word pronunciation, just like the other skills.
The receptive skill in the written mode is reading. Reading can assist students develop a
vocabulary that is especially helpful for later levels of listening comprehension.
The productive ability in written mode is writing. Even for native speakers of a language, it
frequently appears to be the most difficult of the talents since it entails not only the graphic
depiction of speech but also the formulation and orderly presentation of thoughts.

IMPORTANCE OF DEVELOPING READING SKILLS

American journalist and critic Margaret Fuller was born in 1810 in the United States.
"Today a reader, tomorrow a leader,” she famously stated, earning her instant fame. At the
young age of 30, Fuller was regarded as the most well-read person in New England, the
United States. Fuller was a woman who led by example.
We can learn a tremendous amount and acquire insight into a wide variety of worlds,
behaviours, and motivations by reading. The advantages of beginning to read at a young age
are numerous some of them being:

1. Regardless of the academic subject, whether it be language, arts or even math,

reading is crucial and acts as a fundamental building block for learning. It is an
essential life ability, as seen by the necessity to read items like street signs and
medications in daily life.

2. Reading makes the brain stronger and enhances memory. Additionally, reading
creates new and strengthened neural connections.

3. Reading helps us pay Attention. Reading is a focus-demanding activity, so when

students engage in it frequently, they learn to sit still and be silent for progressively
longer amounts of time.

4. Reading help students develop their vocabulary and language abilities. Children learn
new words as they read. As they take in these new terms, they can define them
according to the context of the information. Reading can also teach them sentence
structure, which can help them write better.

5. Reading helps us develop our Analytical Skills. Books frequently have plots that pose
a problem or issue and then provide a resolution. Reading these kinds of books (such
as mysteries) gives student the ability to recognise and sort through the details
provided in order to arrive to a conclusion or solve the problem on their own, while
also honing their analytical skills.
 6. Reading Exposes students to the World Outside Their Front Doors. When exposed to
material that can teach them about many cultures and communities as well as
people, places, and events outside of their own experiences, children have the
chance to develop a bank of background information.

7. Reading promotes independence and self-assurance. Children who read frequently

become proficient readers and have good literacy skills. A child with strong literacy
abilities will likely be more independent and self-assured.

8. Reading Offers Relaxation and Decreases Stress. Reading is an opportunity to escape

from the stresses of everyday life. It also provides a break from the computer or
television's distracting noise and flashing lights. It is an activity that can be done in
silence and at a child's own pace.

9. Reading is enjoyable and fun. Everybody's tastes can be satisfied because there are
so many different writing genres. Since the reader can use his or her imagination to
create his or her own mental images from the words in a book rather than being
limited to what is shown on a movie screen, a good book can be even more
interesting than a good movie.

10. Reading Aids a Child's Development as a Reader. Reading builds mental strength in
the same way that regular exercise does for the body. Reading frequently will not
only aid in a child's continued development of this crucial ability, but it will also
enable the child to enjoy more fully from all that this ability has to offer.

THEORETICAL BACKGROUND:

Patterns of reading difficulties offer a valuable framework for thinking about various reading
issues, whether they are primarily experiential (like those experienced by English language
learners) or linked to disability (e.g., those typical of children with dyslexia).

As displayed in Figure below, the three common patterns of poor reading involve specific
word-reading difficulties (SWRD), specific reading comprehension difficulties (SCD), and
mixed reading difficulties (MRD).
 Students of class 7th especially were observed with SWRD having issues with reading words
specifically, not with essential comprehension skills like vocabulary or prior information.
Although they have at least average word-reading abilities.

Understanding these patterns was helpful in taking into consideration planning for assisting
students with a variety of reading issues, including those that are more experiential in
nature, such as those that occasionally affect those from low socioeconomic status
backgrounds.

CONSTRUCTION OF ACTION RESEARCH PLAN:

• It was observed that the students especially of class 7, need intensive, systematic
phonics assistance and intervention. Especially for a few students who struggle with
phonemic awareness, phonemic awareness intervention had to be combined with
phonics instruction. This way, students can be made to learn phonemic awareness
techniques like phoneme blending and segmentation while decoding and spelling
words from particular phonics categories.

• Also, with instructor coaching and feedback, struggling decoders will also be able to use
their evolving decoding abilities in oral reading of text that reasonably matches their word-
reading abilities.

• In lieu of the same there can be few strategies which can be taken up not just to rectify
major reading inabilities amongst students but can also be helpful in identifying more
Reading issues which could have been left ignored. The construction of the following
research plan could be taken into consideration for identifying the weak nerves when it
comes to Reading alongside proposing the prospective solutions to the same as well.

❖ Explicit and systematic phonics interventions will be beneficial for students with
word reading issues.

❖ Interventions that support vocabulary and oral language development will prove to
be helpful as well in developing their active vocabulary, thus, helping them when it
comes to reading.

❖ Explicitly teaching and adopting model text comprehension strategies will be taken
up as they can prove to be quite beneficial for students with comprehension issues.

❖ For struggling readers in school, interventions will be given which can be specifically
targeted for their inadequacies in word identification (systematic phonemic
awareness and phonics instruction) or comprehension (intervention in
comprehension strategies such as questioning and summarization).

The intervention groups are expected to considerably perform better afterwards after
having received undifferentiated help in resource rooms in their struggle with reading.

Key components of reading will can be considered while assessing the struggling readers:
• Oral text reading accuracy
• Oral text reading fluency

(1) SPECIFIC WORD READING DIFFICULTIES (SWRD)

PATTERN DESCRIPTION STRENGTHS INTERVENTION

NEEDS
Decoding (and sometimes PA) below Good ability to learn orally Explicit, systematic, phonics
average. (e.g., through class intervention.
SPECIFIC WORD discussions and teacher
READING Spelling below average reading aloud) Ample opportunities to
DIFFICULTIES apply decoding skills in oral
(SWRD) Oral vocabulary and listening Reading comprehension text reading with teacher
comprehension at least average. strong when children read feedback.
text, they can decode.
Fluency often below average due to
decoding problems
Reading comprehension of and below
average due to decoding problems
 (2) SPECIFIC READING COMPREHENSION DIFFICULTIES (SRCD)

PATTERN DESCRIPTION STRENGTHS INTERVENTION

NEEDS
Decoding at least average. Good foundational reading Explicit, systematic,
skills intervention targeting
SPECIFIC Reading comprehension below average specific comprehension
READING Spelling often strong weakness (eg. Vocabulary,
COMPREHENSION Oral vocabulary and listening inferenching)
DIFFICULTIES comprehension maybe weak.
(SRCD) Include oral vocabulary and
Fluency maybe weak due to language language in intervention.
limitations
Reading comprehension of and below
average due to decoding problems

(3) MIXED READING DIFFICULTIES (SWRD)

PATTERN DESCRIPTION STRENGTHS INTERVENTION

NEEDS
Decoding below average. Combinations of
Individual children usually intervention need for first
Reading comprehension below average, has strength in specific two patterns.
MIXED READING even in texts children can decode. areas of language or
DIFFICULTIES reading. (Example their Multicomponent
(MRD) Reading Fluency often weak due to knowledge base about interventions may be
limitations in both decoding and specific interests.) especially useful.
language.

PROCEDURE:

During the initial days of the classes, the technique of making the students read was
adopted.While few students on one hand could read correctly, there were students who
were not able to read even the simplest of the sentences, words or phrases. A rough note
was prepared with names of students falling under the categories of having issues in reading
words or issues with comprehension as they seemed to be incapable of understanding while
reading the material or the ones who were poor with their fluency. On the basis of the
needs of the students, in the following classes, several steps or strategies or techniques
were employed and is being continues till date.
Since the problem was observed and identified not just in a particular class, but at least in all
the classes taken up by us, from, 7th to 9th and also since there was a mixture of these
problems existing, thus the amalgamation of steps was employed, such as:

• Since these students have trouble understanding text structure and summarising
texts, thus, they were given examples of how to find the main ideas in a text and
create a summary.

• Both in the context of individual's reading and in the context of oral activities like
read-alouds and class discussions, they were taught these abilities.

• Opportunities to use decoding abilities while reading material, and explicit

instruction that addresses their particular comprehension difficulties were and will
be taken up in the class.

• Students especially of class 8 were observed to have trouble understanding because

of their vocabulary. Direct teaching of target academic words and methods for
determining word meanings from context, as well as focus on the meanings of root
words and affixes proved to be quite useful for children with deficiencies in this area.

• Both oral activities like teacher read-alouds and student reading were used to
enhance vocabulary especially when the poetry section was taken up for example
while the reading of the poem " The Legend of Northland " and "No men are foreign"
was taken up in the classes.

• The students can be encouraged to read newspapers, magazines, books, articles or

any such reading material. A separate time slot such as during assembly or even
extracting out 10 minutes towards the end of the class were arranged for the same.

• Reading goals were set. It was ensured that the students had the purpose set before,
during and after they were done with their reading. For example, if the goal was to
learn new vocabulary words, it was to be informed prior and after the students are
done with the portion of their reading, a class discussion had also taken place in a
few classes.
SUPPORT MATERIAL:

Certain video could be employed and shared with the students for further practice:

https://youtu.be/jYdmXuh6gTI?si=AL3IH9OdcWZDYbyG

The students were given a practice of reading in class as well. It was made sure that all the
students were getting a chance to read. Thus, for majority of the classes, calling the
students roll number wise was also adopted. Many poems and comprehension passages
were given as a reading material to be read at home and in class as well so that on-the-spot
rectifications could have been made.
SAMPLES:
EVIDENCE:

For class 7th, when the poem "Chivvy", the chapters - "Quality", "Golu grows a nose" etc
were taken up, the students were called on random basis with explicit focus on students
such as Imran, Mohd. Mosin, Kritika who required an explicit attention.

It was observed that when the poem "A mystery of talking fan" was taught in the class and
students were asked to read and enact the script, they could now do it with more
confidence as and when compared to the last time.

For class 9th also, group activity was done wherein the students read the portions of the
chapters in group.
REFLECTIONS:

Early emerging problems of reading difficulties may emerge relatively early in schooling, or
relatively later. The issues that these students were experiencing can be all be categorised
as early emerging when it comes to class 7th. Usually, these issues arise when decoding
words with more than one syllable or words that are complicated or multisyllabic. Most of
the students had minor phonological skill deficiencies which did not significantly impede
their ability to decode easy words but was observed to become more problematic as
observed in classes 8th and 9th and came across more difficult terms.

Few students who had minor vocabulary or background knowledge deficiencies were
observed to initially make improvement in reading comprehension, but as the difficulty level
rose, they experienced greater difficulty.

Thus, according to me these existing reading problems and phonological issues should be
treated as early as possible to assist prevent future reading difficulties. Reading habits
should be promoted not just within the educational spectrum or within the school
environment but outside the school also.

The patterns of reading difficulties can be due to a learning impairment like dyslexia or due
to insufficient phonics training. Children can have vocabulary deficiencies due to language
challenges or simply because they were not introduced to the vocabulary words. However,
more than trying to scrap the underlying causes for the same, children who struggle with
vocabulary or decoding should be given attention in those areas more.

SUGGESTIONS FOR IMPROVING READING SKILLS: -

The foundation of reading comprehension is vocabulary knowledge. Students that use

effective vocabulary tactics comprehend the meaning of words and have the underlying
knowledge necessary to comprehend a particular material.

If children lack a strong vocabulary or the capacity to pick up new words, the reading
comprehension process ends before it ever starts. When students engage with a text, they
are better able to comprehend what is being said and what they should take away from it.

Students with strong text comprehension abilities may summarise passages, make
connections across texts, and respond to queries about what the author is saying, but for
the students who are unable to do so, certain strategies could be adopted like:
In other words, it enables individuals to think abstractly and critically as opposed to literally.

Some of the most effective reading comprehension strategies include:

1. Build on existing knowledge.
If we are reading a text about astronomy, for example, if we ask students to record or
explain what they already know about the solar system. For easy insights, have students
answer quick questions or fill out a KWL (Know, Want to Know, Learned) chart and share the
results.

2. As teachers when we model the practice, we can teach students how to:
• Separate facts from opinions
• Find key ideas amid extra information
• Identify important words and phrases
• Look up vocabulary they don't understand

3. Use online resources

4. Use visual aids

We can start by reading aloud and asking students to try and picture what's happening in
their minds. After, use writing prompts like:
• What colors did you see the most?
• What do you think the setting looked like?
• How would you describe the main character?
• What sounds do you think you would hear in the world of the story?

5. Develop vocabulary skills

Understanding a text requires vocabulary, which is essential for reading fluency and with
ease. Teaching strategies for vocabulary can assist students in developing the skills
necessary to comprehend new terms on their own.

We as teachers can try these to aid in word learning and retention for students:
• Putting together a word wall in our classroom.
• Relating new expressions to activities
• Making graphic organisers that assist in connecting well-known and unfamiliar terms

We can teach pupils how to learn new words by using read-aloud techniques. Have them
create a vocabulary list of all the new words they already know or want to learn and
demonstrate how to use context clues to deduce meaning.

6. Employ thinking techniques

• We can encourage our students to analyse a text by posing questions about:
• Where bias in the source material can be detected
• Why a certain genre or style was chosen by the author
• What they believe occurred before to or following the story
These inquiries prompt students to consider a text's underlying meaning as they search for
essential ideas and encourage them to employ critical thinking abilities. We can encourage
pupils to create mind maps to connect ideas and prior knowledge or ask clarifying questions
when they don't understand what the text is saying. Students can view the material with
fresh eyes and develop new interpretations by being questioned about various aspects of it.

7. Create question and answer scenarios

We can ask students questions to assist to make sense of the text, better comprehend the
characters, forecast what will happen next, or appreciate the author's intentions as they
respond to the text in their own words.

8. Utilise summarising strategies

Summarising approaches teach pupils how to identify and connect significant ideas. It
teaches readers of all levels how to naturally synthesise information as they read. We can
encourage pupils to write a summary of a text when they first read it and to edit it until it
only contains the most important details. A teacher can ask clarifying queries to help them
write, such as:
• What message does this passage try to convey?
• What specifics help the story's main idea?
• What details did the author offer that weren't necessary?
This demonstrates the value of giving textual support to one's argument and summary and
enables students to see how many elements of a tale are connected.

These questions, whether answered in a group or individually, will encourage students to

ask questions and exercise critical thinking. After all, when children begin to think outside of
the page, only then will the magic actually happen.