Kelly's Curriculum Corner

Last week I summarized Kylene Beers research on the continuum of readers . At the end I asked some questions regarding instruction on each type of reader. Turns out Dr. Beers followed with another article detailing tips and techniques to working with aliterate students. “We must realize that whatever motivates an avid or dormant reader probably won’t motivate an uncommitted or unmotivated student. Motivating Readers (p. 112) reveals the same activities that encourage readers in fact discourages nonreaders, intimidating them and confirming negative feelings. The activities that uncommitted or unmotivated readers preferred were limited, but specific” (Beers, 1996, p.111). 1. Personal Choice – They want to choose their own books from a limited selection. They were wary of being overwhelmed with a large library. 2. Nonfiction – Many reluctant readers prefer nonfiction over fiction. 3. Illustrations – Pictures and illustrations were very important to these students. Time agai...

  Kylene Beers, as part of a research study, observed two 7th grade classrooms for one year. Through discussions regarding attitudes and habits as readers, she developed a typology of a reader. “It was easy to identify readers at both ends of the spectrum; they readily fit the academic and social descriptions others have provided. It was more difficult to classify the aliterate readers. In fact, I found grouping them under one term – aliterate – was inaccurate because because they gave different reasons for not reading. Understanding these reasons eventually led me to three distinct types of aliterate readers: Dormant, Uncommitted, and Unmotivated” (Beers, 1996, p. 31). I have been pondering this information for awhile. It makes me wonder who the students are in remedial classes. Are they illiterate or aliterate? How would we know or are we focuses exclusively on test scores? Are instructional strategies the same for each type of reader? Are there a disproportionate num...