Youth Readers

1. Thomas McMullen M. Ed.
Founder and CEO
tmcmullen@youthreaders.com
www.youthreaders.com

2. Our schools are filled with students who struggle with
reading.
Some estimate the percentage may be as high as 20-
25 percent of all students, and even higher—from 60-
70 percent—for African American, Hispanic, ELL, and
students with low SES.
Baer, Kutner, & Sabatini, 2009

3. Yet compelling evidence of current reading research
indicates that somewhere between 90-95 percent of
ALL students can achieve literacy skills at or
approaching grade level.
Al Otailba, Connor, Foorman, Schatschneider, Greulich, & Sidler, 2009; Moats,
2011, Rashotte, MacPhee, & Torgeson, 2001

4. Aliteracy
• Aliteracy (sometimes spelled alliteracy) is the state
of being able to read but being uninterested in doing
so. This phenomenon has been reported on as a
problem occurring separately from illiteracy, which is
more common in the developing world, while
aliteracy is primarily a problem in the developed
world.

5. Aliteracy
• Aliterate students can read, but they tend to avoid the activity.
Aliteracy seems to reinforce itself. Students who do not read do not
develop their reading skills. Students, like most of us, dislike doing
things they do poorly, so they tend to read less and less. This
reinforcement is especially true in the classroom, where the
student who does not read sits with skilled readers and continues
to feel more inept about reading.
.
Aliteracy is potentially as alarming as illiteracy. Educators need to
look at factors such as their attitude toward students, the way
students learn, and the curriculum. These factors may have an
enormous impact on creating lifelong positive attitudes about
reading.

6. Promising Practices for Struggling Readers
(Low SES, ELL, & SPED )
Students learn to read best when teachers provide
• Technology as often as possible
• A high level of independence
• Active engagement with text
• Activities that are fully self-checking
• Increasing challenges with text

7. Promising Practices for Struggling Readers
Students learn to read best when teachers provide
• Ongoing assessment
• Appropriate leveled materials
• Means for tracking and learning from data
• A positive learning environment

8. Creating a positive learning environment
• The computer is an excellent resource for giving students
the chance to practice English skills without worrying
about the response of other classmates or even the
teacher.
• As Butler-Pascoe (1997) explains, “The untiring, non-
judgmental nature of the computer makes it an ideal
tool to help second language learners feel sufficiently
secure to make and correct their own errors without
embarrassment or anxiety.”

9. IS
 a motivational software
 the Antidote to Aliteracy
 the MOST promising practice for teaching struggling
readers to better comprehend text.
 aligned to the Common Core State Standards

10. COMMON CORE: STATE STANDARDS INITIATIVE
College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards for Reading
Read closely to
determine what the text
says explicitly and to
make logical inferences.
Reading Determine central ideas or
themes of a text and analyze
Comprehension their development (Summarize).
Analyze how and why individuals,
events, and ideas develop and
interact in text.
Read and comprehend complex literary
and informational texts independently
and proficiently.

11. Live Demo:
Contact: Thomas McMullen M. Ed.
562-356-5409
www.youthreaders.com (Contact Us)
tmcmullen@youthreaders.com