This document provides an overview of Learning Module 6 which includes activities and readings related to inference, reading interventions for adolescents, and a writer's workshop. It discusses inference and the importance of students making inferences when reading. It also examines reasons for persistent reading difficulties in adolescents and essential components of effective reading intervention programs. Specific strategies are outlined, including working with small groups, engaging students with meaningful texts, and ongoing assessment. A sample reading intervention lesson is also described. The module concludes with instructions for a writer's workshop where students will provide feedback on narrative profile essays.

1. EDLL 5341/EDLL 5344
LEARNING MODULE 6

2. OVERVIEW:
•Inference Activity and Notes from Chapter Six in Mosaic of
Thought
•Reading Interventions for Adolescents from Chapter Four in
Creating Literacy-Rich Schools for Adolescents
•Writer’s Workshop over Narrative Profiles

3. INFERENCE ACTIVITY
(CHAPTER SIX IN MOSAIC OF
THOUGHT)
•
Read “Celebration of the Human Voice”
–Eduardo Galeano, The Book of Embraces
•
Write a response to this piece and post it to your
discussion group.
•
Compare the differences in types of inferences you made.

4. INFERENCE
•
“Inferring is the process of creating a personal and unique meaning
from text. It involves a mental process that combines information
gleaned from the text and relevant prior knowledge (schema). The
reader’s unique interpretation of text is the product of this blending”
(p. 166)
•
“Inference is part rational, part mystical, part definable, and part
beyond definition” (p. 145).

5. INFERENCE CONTINUED
•
“When we read, we can choose to limit our interpretations to
the literal words of the text, but by doing so we greatly limit
understanding. It’s like calling paint-by-numbers kits. . .art.
They don’t expand, but contract, our creativity” (p. 145).
•
“Inferring gives the reader an opportunity to sense a meaning
not explicit in the text, but which derives or flows from it.
Knowing this about my own reading leads me to wonder if we
create adequate opportunities for children to infer and,
therefore, better learn the lessons of their lives” (p. 145).
•
“When I visit classrooms and observe teachers who ask
children to recall endless literal detail from what they’ve read,
I wonder what the consequence is when children read or
listen only for the literal meaning or ‘just the facts’”(p. 146)

6. INFERENCE CONTINUED
When they infer, proficient readers:
• Draw conclusions from text
• Make reasonable predictions as they read, then test and
revise those predictions as they read further
• Create dynamic interpretations of text that they adapt both
while they read and after they read
• Use the combination of background knowledge and explicit
information from the text to answer questions they have as
they read
• Make connections between conclusions they draw and other
beliefs or knowledge, and use the inferences to extend and
adapt existing knowledge
• Arrive at insight after struggling to understand complex
concepts
• Make critical or analytical judgments about what they read
(p. 167)

7. REASONS FOR PERSISTENT AND
WIDESPREAD READING DIFFICULTIES
(CHAPTER 4 IN CREATING LITERACYRICH SCHOOLS FOR ADOLESCENTS)
Why do adolescents struggle with reading?
What can I do to help them?
“First, many of the students who come to middle and high school
as struggling readers were assigned as younger students to
remedial reading programs that are known to focus on
decontextualized skills, literal recall, and skills worksheets at the
expense of purposeful, strategic silent reading experiences. This
kind of instruction has been tied to slowing rather than
accelerating reading progress. Thus, struggling readers fall
further and further behind their peers” (p. 70).

8. CONTINUED
“Second, students who do not read well read less and
consequently do not get any better at reading. Related to
this situation, students who experience failure at reading and
writing year after year lose motivation and feel helpless to
improve. Many of these students come to believe that
reading and writing are unattainable goals” (p. 71).

9. CONTINUED
“Third, school reading alone may limit the reading
experiences of all students, and this is especially detrimental
to the most inexperienced readers. Secondary schools rely
mainly on common textbooks and anthologies for the whole
class, despite their inappropriateness for meeting individual
needs” (p. 71).

10. CONTINUED
“Fourth, to make progress, many students just need continued
instruction in reading beyond the elementary grades.
Unfortunately, although the range and complexity of texts
students must negotiate increase as they progress into middle
and high school, the amount of instruction and support for
reading and writing actually decreases” (p. 71).
Struggling Readers Need…
Specific Reading Encouragement
Texts They Can Read
Texts They WANT to Read
Uninterrupted Blocks of Time to Read (and Re-read)
To Learn to Read with Fluency
To Develop “Thoughtful Literacy”
To be Supported Before Reading
To be Exposed to Different Kinds of Texts, (i.e., multiple genres and modalities of
text)

11. PROFILES OF STRUGGLING
READERS
Consider the three examples of Allison, Eduard, and
Michael who are struggling readers on pages 67 and 68
(and attached to this module).
Consider the following questions:
(1)Why do these students struggle with reading?
(2)What reading interventions do they need?

12. IVEY AND FISHER’S ESSENTIAL
COMPONENTS FOR AN EFFECTIVE
READING INTERVENTION
PROGRAM FOR ADOLESCENTS
1. Teachers work with individual or small groups of
students (p. 74).
2. Teachers should “run alongside” of a reader or engage
in “responsive teaching” (p. 74).
3. Phonics and phonemic awareness should “not play a
major role in secondary interventions” (p. 76).
4. “Students should always read and write meaningful texts
from the onset of instruction while working on necessary
skills and strategies within those experiences” (p. 77).
5. Select engaging texts for students to read (p. 80).

13. CONTINUED
1. The intervention includes ongoing “useful” assessment (p. 82).
•
•
•
•
Informal Reading Inventory
Developmental Spelling Inventory
Writing Sample
Literacy Survey or Questionnaire
1. Match students with texts they can and want to read (p. 83).
2. Engage students in authentic reading and writing tasks.

14. SAMPLE READING
INTERVENTION LESSON
•
Examine the Sample Tutoring session on page 86.
•
Consider this format for a small group tutorial and a whole
class lesson.
•
How does this lesson reflect the reading methods that
have been highlighted in this class?

15. WRITER’S WORKSHOP
OVER NARRATIVE
PROFILES
Remember to post rough drafts of your narrative profile
essays by February 21st.
Please provide feedback to at least three other students in
the class on their essays.