Reluctant Readers: A Large Solution For Struggling and Reluctant Readers

Forty-thousand third-graders recently failed reading in the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test - a frightening and astonishing fact. With reading failure in the United States reaching epidemic proportions and school districts faced with increasing performance expectations as a result of the federal No Child Left Behind Act, teachers and administrators are pressured to turn struggling and reluctant readers into independent readers.

In the past, this persistent and detrimental problem has had few viable solutions, yet many consequences. According to the National Center for Learning Disabilities and the National Assessment of Educational Progress, the ramifications of reading failure are immense:
A student who finishes the second grade without being able to read has only a 1 in 4 chance of reading at grade level by the end of elementary school. 35% of children with reading disabilities drop out of school, a rate twice that of their classmates.

Approximately one in four students in the 12th grade are still reading at "below basic" levels 25% of adults in the U.S. lack the basic literacy skills required for a typical job.
Though the current statistics are dismal, the answer to this enormous problem may lie in a print format that's been around for years, but has usually been associated with senior adults rather than K-12 students - large-print books. According to Elizabeth Lowe, independent literacy and neuroscience researcher, and Carolyn Holman, assistant professor in Language Arts and the Writing Process at St. Joseph's College in Maine, reading programs for struggling and reluctant readers that have incorporated large-print titles showed students making significant sustained improvement in word recognition/accuracy, and comprehension and fluency - the three forms of disabilities in reading. Holman wanted to determine to what extent large-print helped struggling and reluctant readers. After identifying a group of special education teachers in Maine who were using large-print books in their class from December 2002 through March 2003, Holman surveyed them. On the whole, teachers felt students' skills improved and using the large-print books boosted the students' confidence in their reading abilities. One of the most important findings from Holman's study was when reading difficulty and anxiety is decreased, student desire to read is increased, which resulted in greater vocabulary, fluency and comprehension.

In other words, students were on their way to becoming independent readers, which is key to lifelong learning. According to Holman's and Lowe's research, large-print is a highly effective tool, much more so than regular print, that helps students build skills that enable them to recognize words accurately, comprehend what they are reading and read fluently.

Acquiring these skills through the use of large-print books helps people become independent readers much faster than by using regular print. Additionally, once the reader has these skills, and is confident in their reading ability, making the switch to regular print does not create any setbacks.

According to Lowe, large-print books combined do the following:

• Reduce anxiety for the struggling reader
• Eliminate common mistakes made by the reader
• Increase accurate and fast tracking of print
• Bring alive the "voice" of the print - the ear can hear what the eye sees. Turn on the visual images of imagination so the reader can "see" the story as well as hear it.
• Allow the reader to choose higher-level books

As Lowe stated, "Taking the words on a page, which comprises 17% of communications, and attempting to add the other 83% by creating it in our heads is what reading comprehension is all about. Reading is listening to someone speak to you through symbols - hearing the voice in your head while making a movie to go with the sounds. For those who can't make the symbols flow like speech, who can't comprehend, the only sounds they hear are that of silence."

Thorndike Press, an imprint of Gale, publishes large-print books for students in grades 3-12. Professionally produced and discreetly labeled, these publications include Accelerated Reader titles, Newbery Honor books, national bestsellers and outstanding nonfiction.

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Teachers who use large-print as a key component in varied, time-honored reading programs for struggling and reluctant readers report that students show significant improvement in word recognition/accuracy, comprehension and fluency.
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