UNDERPREDICTIVE READERS Case Study 2-Pick either Jason or Linda EXAMPLE: JASON I was a reading resource teacher when Jason was sent to me in the middle of his grade three year. He was very quiet, reserved and tense. He didn't look at me. When I asked him to read one of the more recent stories he had read in class he chose "The Three Billy Goats Gruff" from his reader. Without glancing at the illustrations, he began reading immediately. "Ay [long a]... long... time... ay... ag... ay'go... three ... bill... bill... y... goat... live [long i]... lived [still long ...in... ay...v...V...V... awl... vawl..." Here Jason came to a halt. He tried a few more times to get valley, without success, and then proceeded to stare at the word, holding his finger under it in the book. I waited for about two minutes. He didn't budge. "What are you having trouble with?" I asked. "I can't get that word." "Would you like to keep going for now?" Almost zombie-like, his finger moved under the next word. "They...aaa [short a]... teee... gr... grrrr... aa... ss . grass. . . all... day...1... lone." Enough, of course. I suggested some other stories. But even when I gave him material at a primer level his approach remained the same: he read word by word, and the only strategy remained the same: he read word by word, and the only strategy he would allow himself to use for dealing with unknown words was blending. Comprehension was limited to latching on to a few words or phrases, with no idea of what a story was all about. EXAMPLE: LINDA In the spring my own 20 first-graders are joined for a morning by the new candidates for fall entrance into grade two, so the school and the children can become better acquainted. One of my tasks is to assess their reading achievements. The best I can do is listen to each visitor read for three or four minutes, often while I'm doing something else. Linda was such a visitor. "Tell me a bit about your reading," I started, trying to leave the query as open-ended as possible. "Well, I can read some books," she said. She looked a bit anxious as she said this, as though she hoped I wouldn't pin her down. "What are some stories you've read?" I asked. Her eye traveled around the room and focused on my en- larged-print version of The Gingerbread Man sitting on the read- ing board. "Oh! That's The Gingerbread Man! I've read that! But ours was different than that one," she added hastily. "That's a favorite here just now. Do you like the story?" "Yup." "Great!" I said. "I have that story in this book here. Why don't you sit on that chair and read to me for a few minutes while I pin up these pictures?" I handed her a book that contained a different version of the story than the one on the rack, simply written but not con- trived. Suddenly she looked very nervous. "Oh," she said, "but this isn't the one I know. I haven't had this one. I might not know how to read this." The anxiety level indicator was on red. it." "Well, you know what happens in the story, right?" Tentatively, "Yeah..." "How about just giving it a try and I'll help you if you need "Ummm, well, O.K." Still tentative, but somewhat reassured. I made myself very busy and didn't go near Linda or look in her direction, though I observed peripherally in passing. She perched herself tensely on a stool and studied the page intent- ly. Her shoulders were hunched, her arms tight against her body. She had her finger under the first word and I could hear her making sounds. "Ohhhh... ohhh... ennnn... ohh... ennn... kkkk. Aw ...aw... awnnnkkeee." This went on for a while, then silence. I said, "How are you doing?" as I continued putting up a bulletin board. "I can't get this word," she said. "I haven't had this one before." "Oh. Well, how about reading me the ones you do know then?" She looked slightly alarmed. "You mean skip this one?" "Try it," I said. She stared at me for a moment, then looked down at the page. Her finger moved on to the next word. "Uh... up... up!!... up... on. Up... on? Up on? Upon! Upon?" She looked up at me expectantly after this last query. I glanced over my shoulder, smiled and said, "Keep going!" Relief flooded her face. "Upon... a... time. Upon a ti... Oh! Once upon a time!" She rushed the words out in a blast of triumph. Then concern swept over her and she looked up at me again. "Is that right?" she asked. "Do you think a story might start out that way?" I asked in return. "Does it make sense?" "Yeeeesss," she said carefully, with just an edge of defensive- "Yeeeesss," she said carefully, with just an edge of defensive- ness. "Well then?" She looked a bit surprised, a bit confused. "Shall I read some more?" "Sure," I said, with my back turned. Linda continued reading one word at a time, sounding out each word she didn't know automatically and seeking my ap- proval. After a while she got used to the fact that I wasn't going to approve or disapprove her choices and the questioning tone disappeared when she made predictions. Although she con- tinued to use the blending procedure as her choice in confront- ing new words, she strangled each word less and less as I en- couraged her to "keep going." Her reading was ponderously slow and patchy, but the potential for improvement began to show by the time she was halfway through the story. DISCUSSION Jason and Linda are both underpredictive readers. Under- predictive readers don't use what they already know about lan- guage, the story, the pictures, or life in general to help them predict. They consider only the text itself at its most superficial, visual level. They believe that reading is a difficult and exacting task, that they must read every word precisely as it is on the page and that they must decode a word from left to right, letter by letter. Above all, they don't see themselves as initiators or con- trollers of the reading process who may proceed without ap- proval. They believe it's wrong to guess. They are always checking over their shoulder with the nearby adult to see if they are "doing it right." And they don't consider the task complete until they've been told by someone else that they are finished. They are dependent and may end up as total non-readers out- side of school. Jason was a high-risk candidate for becoming a functional- ly illiterate adult. He was so teacher-dependent that when I of- fered a solution to him he responded like an automaton. There was no sense of revelation or surprise, no attempt to construct meaning: the teacher said "Do this" and he did it. Period. He was nearly at a standstill. Linda was much less damaged and would be able to recover Linda was much less damaged and would be able to recover quickly given the right priming and encouragement. She responded with delight at the recognition of a meaningful phrase when she finally put "Once upon a time" together. Cautious as she was, she was willing to try to make meaning and was beginning to see the connection between prediction and reading. The longer I left her alone, the more independent she became.