Literacy-Based Intervention Examples: Strategy Focused

Presented by Geraldine Wallach

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Professionals working with older students with language/ literacy-based disorders often use the term “strategy” (or “strategies”) to define what they do with their students. One often hears remarks like: “My clinical strategy is to…” or “The strategies I use to motivate students include...” Indeed, there is an understanding among professionals that there is an organized “method” to how they approach students in their care. But beyond intuition and good intentions, what are the research-based components to “strategic language intervention" and how are they operationalized? For course three, we will review the distinctions among language knowledge, skills, and strategies from chapters one and two with examples of the interactions that occur. We will provide an in-depth look at three research-based strategy categories: (1) Goal-directed strategies, (2) Monitor and repair strategies, and (3) Packaging strategies. Throughout the discussion, the role of strategic abilities will be discussed within the context of spoken and written comprehension and the disciplinary literacies of academic subjects. Examples of specific techniques will be provided in each area (mentioned above) with a focus on helping students become independent learners. The role of self-talk, and the importance of language competence in this process of becoming an independent learner, will be explored. We will highlight ways of helping students utilize and apply strategies learned to different situations (or content-area subjects). The overriding importance of metacognitive ability, introduced in the previous chapter, will be addressed.

Meet your instructor

Geraldine Wallach

Geraldine P. Wallach, Ph.D. (Dr. Gerry Wallach) is a Professor and Thesis Coordinator in the Department of Speech-Language Pathology at California State University, Long Beach, Long Beach, California. She teaches courses in childhood and school-age language disorders, assessment, phonology, and language development. She also…

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Chapters & learning objectives

Facilitating Independent Learners

1. Facilitating Independent Learners

This chapter will be a continuation of course two. It will provide additional details about “what it takes” to help our adolescent students become independent learners. Participants will learn what it means when we say that language intervention for adolescents must be “strategic.” Goal-directed strategies, monitoring and repair strategies, and packaging strategies will be outlined. Concepts from course two will be reviewed as they relate to knowledge and skills that underlie success in operationalizing strategies for learning.

Goal-Directed Strategies

2. Goal-Directed Strategies

This chapter will outline the way various goal-directed strategies facilitate the ability of students to find the meaning in texts. Several concepts introduced in the previous chapter are explored further in this chapter. Among the goal-directed strategies outlined are: learning how to analyze cues in text; learning how to approach different text genres; applying taught linguistic knowledge and skill (like using known words to comprehend unfamiliar words) to get to meaning; and discriminating between text independent (more familiar topic, less decoding needed) and text dependent (less familiar topic, more decoding required) material (Jan Keenan’s work), a concept introduced in course two. We will take a close look at ways to help students apply strategies differentially based upon the situation.

Monitoring and Repair Strategies and Packaging Strategies

3. Monitoring and Repair Strategies and Packaging Strategies

Chapter three will provide specific examples of (1) Monitor and repair strategies and (2) Packaging strategies. The monitor and repair strategies covered include: Going back and re-checking your work; rereading with specific scaffolds to make the rereading more effective; “listening” to yourself; self-question while you are reading and/or writing and/or studying. Packaging strategies that “pull it all together” are presented last to integrate previous strategy targets. The packaging strategies discussed include: ways to plan, organize, and review information. Packaging strategies are sometimes called “higher level” strategies because they require metacognitive and metalinguistic abilities that integrate prior learning. Evidence-based activities that are highlighted will help course participants to develop language literacy goals and objectives that are strategic.

Q&A

4. Q&A

This is a Q&A session with Stephanie Peterson, who is a Speech Language Pathologist about middle school children and literacy.