Running head: FINAL PAPER FROM FUSION READING - MCGRAW HILL 1

Final Paper from Fusion Reading - McGraw Hill

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Final Paper from Fusion Reading - McGraw Hill

Fusion reading is a program that is specifically designed to assist struggling adolescents,

especially those with disabilities, in their learning process and improve their grades (Hock &

Deshler, 2012). Fusion reading program is taught in classes of 12-15 students who are reading

two or more years below grade level. The program is designed to teach high-leverage learning

strategies and increase students' engagement, motivation, and reading achievement in the

learning process. The program has a curriculum that comprises of seven units that each are

taught using explicit instructions according to the program procedure. The program has major

components, namely; assessment, word-level instruction, motivation, and comprehension (KU

Centre for Research on Learning). Word level instruction is the first reading unit that involves

word identification, phonics, and decoding f words. Comprehension component involves the

understanding of a text, summarizing it, and drawing predictions and references from a text. The

motivation component involves encouraging students for success through goal setting and

possible performance tracking. Lastly, the assessment component involves the documenting of

students' progress throughout the learning process to assess the student’s performance progress.

As a result, fusion reading is a program designed to assist and improve the grades of struggling

adolescents in their learning process.

The program has significantly worked out on many groups of struggling adolescents

resulting in an improvement in their grades and overall performances. However, according to

research conducted responding to the needs of students with severe reading disabilities, the

program has also failed in other aspects, and some groups of adolescent students continue to

perform poorly. The research involved various studies conducted on different adolescents

groups, especially those with severe reading disabilities (Hock & Deshler, 2014). The research
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was conducted in various schools, especially those in urban districts. The participants in the

research were special education teachers and students. The research findings indicated that

despite the implementation of the program to assist struggling adolescents, some group of

adolescents’ students continues to perform poorly. As a result, there is a need to make some

changes in the program to assist those students who are still lagging behind and performing

poorly. However, the program does not need a complete overhaul but requires some little

changes and improvements to make it effective for all adolescents.

Firstly, research has shown that a group of grade 8 adolescent students with disabilities

continues to perform poorly. The research has also shown that 63% of students with disabilities

read below the basic level compared to the non-disabled in the NAEP assessment (Hock &

Deshler, 2014). As a result, this effect poses a serious challenge to those students, and therefore

effective solution needs to be identified and implemented. Comprehensive research, therefore,

needs to be conducted to understand the problem facing students with disabilities. Adolescent

students are mostly in their cognitive transition stage of life, where they are more advanced and

complex in thinking and actions (Fischer & Lamborn, 1989). As a result, adolescent students

may be experiencing challenges due to their cognitive transition stage. Therefore, a complex

study needs to be conducted to identify these challenges that might be causing poor performance

on students with disabilities, and after that, the development of solutions to deal with the

problem.

Secondly, If possible, the effectiveness of other developed or advanced learning

programs may also be tested to verify the point of improvement in the Fusion Reading. This

means that multiple learning strategies may be applied together with Fusion Reading. This would

help to help to identify the weakness of the Fusion Reading program by assessing the impact of
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other programs on the adolescent students (KU Centre for Research on Learning). The cause of

poor performance on the students with disabilities may be identified in the process, and

necessary improvement may be implemented on the program. As a result, the challenges facing

poor-performing adolescent students with disabilities may be identified, and possible solutions to

help them would be developed.

Lastly, in order to improve the Fusion Reading program, comprehensive research needs

to be done to understand the social transitions of adolescent students. For example, African-

American and Latino students perform poorly than the whites’ students of the same age. This is,

as a result, of difference in the social transitions of the adolescent students. Students live in

different societies, and therefore their social transitions are also different (Fischer & Lamborn,

(1989). This influences their behaviors, which may impact their academic performance.

Therefore, for Fusion Reading to become more effective and comprehensively cover all students

from different societies, an appropriate study needs to be done to understand their different social

transitions. This will help to understand the various challenges that struggling students encounter

from different societies. In the process, multiple challenges that result in poor performances can

be identified, and possible solutions can be developed to help struggling students cope up with

the challenges and improve their grades. As a result, the fusion reading program would be

improved and would result in more positive results.

In conclusion, the fusion reading program needs comprehensive research to identify the

challenges struggling adolescent students encounter in their daily lives. The research should

focus on cognitive and social transitions of struggling adolescent students, and the associated

challenges that affect their academic performances. Identification of the challenges will enable

the development of possible solutions to cope up with these problems and, in the process,
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improve the academic performance of struggling adolescent students. As a result, the Fusion

Reading program would be made more effective for struggling adolescents in their learning

process.
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References

Fischer, K. W., & Lamborn, S. D. (1989). Developmental levels: cognitive and emotional

transitions during adolescence. Transition mechanisms in child development: The

longitudinal perspective, 2, 33.

Hock, M. F., Brasseur-Hock, I. F., & Deshler, D. D. (2014) Responding to the Reading

Comprehension needs of adolescents with severe reading disabilities. New England

Reading Association Journal, 49(2), 9.

Hock, M. F., Brasseur-Hock, I. F., & amp; Deshler, D. D. (2012). Technical report: Fusion

Reading Program. Lawrence, KS: The University of Kansas Center for Research on

Learning.

KU Centre for Research on Learning. The University of Kansas. Retrieved from

https://kucrl.ku.edu/fusion