KU-CRL Adapts Proven Model to Classroom Settings

By Julie Tollefson, Project Coordinator, CRL

Begin with a good story, mix in some reading strategies, add a dash of hope.

Two reading programs based on the University of Kansas Center for Research on Learning’s Strategic Instruction Model are testing SIM in novel ways.

Though the basic SIM ingredients have been successful for nearly 30 years in small-group instruction, KU-CRL now is adapting the recipe to extend instruction to larger groups of students.

The two programs, Fusion Reading and Xtreme Reading, engage students in motivation and goal-setting activities and build on a solid foundation of reading materials geared toward capturing students’ interest.

Fusion Reading, headed by KU-CRL associate director Mike Hock, is a two-year intensive class offered during a student’s freshman and sophomore years in high school. The program is beginning its third year in two Kansas City, Kan., high schools. Other members of the Fusion Reading team are Irma Brasseur, project coordinator, and Jean Stribling, Kadie Lintner, Caroline Mark, and Kari Wolverton.

Xtreme Reading is similar to Fusion Reading in that it is an intensive reading class, but instruction is compressed into half the time. The year-long course aggressively teaches all of the current SIM reading strategies in slightly modified forms plus several Content Enhancement Routines and a motivation strategy. It is being tested in 17 schools across the country. The Xtreme Reading team consists of KU-CRL director Don Deshler, Hock, KU-CRL associate director Jean Schumaker, Jan Bulgren, and Susan Bulgren.

Student motivation is a key component of both Xtreme Reading and Fusion Reading. “We’re learning that if you don’t have the students engaged, if you don’t have them in their seats in work attitude, you can have the greatest strategies in the world but nothing will happen,” Deshler says.

One of the challenges the projects face is adapting SIM interventions for large-group instruction. Fusion Reading strategies, for example, clearly are different in design from traditional SIM reading strategies, but they build upon the strong research base associated with SIM. "There is little question that traditional SIM strategies are well-designed and effective with certain students and when taught under certain conditions,” says Hock. “Fusion Reading strategies reflect a desire to continue that tradition of success and to learn and grow."

When SIM began to take shape 30 years ago, students with learning disabilities were pulled out of general education classes to receive individual or small-group instruction in a resource room. SIM strategies were designed to be taught in that setting and were intentionally separate from general education course content.

Today, many students with learning disabilities are served in the general education classroom, requiring KU-CRL to adapt while remaining true to the instructional practices it has proven are effective. One of the biggest adaptations has been to integrate strategies and course content. It has been a gargantuan task, requiring KU-CRL to re-think strategy instruction and redesign supporting materials. “We’re providing all the materials for teachers, day-to-day lesson plans for teachers, program vocabulary words, the whole bit,” Deshler says.

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