Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
Teaching Students with Reading Difficulties and Disabilities: A Guide for Educators (2004, Ministry of Education)
On-Line Document
Purpose
To assist educators in teaching students who are experiencing significant reading difficulties. To assist educators in teaching students who have a disability in reading and writing expression. To understand the framework for assessment and program planning. To gain a repertoire of strategies to help students develop reading skills.
If students are not competent readers, they are at risk for academic, behavioral, social, and emotional difficulties.
Some of these students may be identified as learning disabled.
Language processing Phonological processing Visual spatial processing Processing speed Memory and attention Executive function
Range in severity
of:
Unexpected academic underachievement or achievement which is maintained only by unusually high levels of effort and support.
Not due primarily to hearing and or vision problems, socioeconomic factors, cultural or linguistic differences, lack of motivation or ineffective teaching.
Learning Disabilities
Written Reading Disability Expression Disorder Handwriting Disability Math Disability Nonverbal Learning Disability
Reading Difficulties
Writing Difficulties
Spelling Difficulties
Motor Difficulties
Math Difficulties
Learning Disability
Visual Processing
Metacognitive
Development of phonemic awareness Understanding of letter-sound correspondence Fluency based on automatic recognition of lettersound relationships Automatic recognition of sight words Rich vocabulary Because of a solid foundation in reading skills, proficient readers have more cognitive resources to focus on comprehension.
Moats (1998)
A FRAMEWORK FOR ASSESSMENT AND PROGRAM PLANNING FOR STUDENTS WHO EXPERIENCE SIGNIFICANT DIFFICULTIES IN READING
Classroom based assessment will help to determine how teachers will teach students with reading difficulties or learning disabilities. Students with reading difficulties or learning disabilities require explicit and intensive instruction that is on-going, monitored, and evaluated.
Step 1:
Classroom Assessment and Intervention Establishing the team and the Referral Process Formal Assessment Program Planning
Step 2:
Step 3:
Collect/Review Information. If insufficient information, move to Step 2. Develop Classroom Intervention Plan.
Student experiences success with Classroom Intervention Plan. Continue with interventions Monitor, Evaluate See Step 2
Student experiences success with Expanded Intervention Plan. Continue with interventions Monitor, Evaluate
See Step 3
Student experiences success with PPP. Continue with interventions (PPP). Monitor, Evaluate.
Systematic and explicit approaches to instruction are consistently more effective than approaches that depend on student discovery and inference. The need for explicit instruction extends beyond phonics. We need to teach fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension strategies this way, too.
Oral Language
Vocabulary Development
These elements are taught through an integrated, balanced approach, and not in isolation.
Oral Language
Oral language is the foundation for reading and written language. The sounds of oral language are mapped onto letters, which are used to represent spoken words. Since the ultimate goal of reading is comprehension, students must understand the meaning of the words they are expected to read. Receptive language refers to the oral language that we hear and understand. Expressive language refers to the language that we use to express ourselves in words.
When providing information, use visuals such as pictures, charts, time lines, graphic organizers, webs, calendars, demonstrations, examples. Keep instructions concise & emphasize key information. Pre-teach new vocabulary. Link new content to prior knowledge.
When child makes a grammatical error, restate information using correct structures.
Use higher order thinking questions (explain, describe, evaluate, compare). Engage in story telling. Make scrapbooks of events, favorite things, or collections (discuss with child).
Phonological Awareness
is a general understanding that spoken words are made up of sounds. is based on processing the sounds of spoken language.
Children become aware that sentences are made up of words and words are made up of different parts.
Many children develop phonological and phonemic awareness through listening to stories, rhyming, and other word games.
Children struggling to learn how to read need direct, explicit instruction to develop phonological and phonemic awareness.
This sentence has 5 words: The cat ran after me. These words rhyme: cat - bat. These words dont rhyme: ran - bed. This word has 2 syllables: af-ter. These words start with the same sound: me - milk.
Phonemic Awareness
The specific understanding that spoken words are made up of individual phonemes.
Blending phonemes into words. Segmenting words into phonemes. Deleting a phoneme from a word. Say sat without the /s/. Adding a phoneme to a word. Add /m/ to the beginning of at. Manipulating phonemes in words. Say bat. Now change the /b/ to /k/.
Phonemic awareness abilities in kindergarten (or in that age range) appear to be the best single predictor of successful reading acquisition.
(A Position Statement from the Board of Directors of the International Reading Association, 1998)
Phonics
Phonics is a way of teaching reading that conveys an understanding that there are correspondences between phonemes (the sounds of spoken language) and graphemes (the letters and spellings that represent those sounds in written language).
Reithaug (2002)
Phonics is the means to accurate and automatic decoding. It is an essential feature of an effective reading program. Phonics instruction needs to be linked to literature rather than as a stand-alone element of a reading program. Proficient readers read every word, see all of the letters, and process this information very quickly, based on their knowledge of phonics.
Reithaug, (2002)
Teach patterns using onsets and rimes, also known as word families.
e.g. -ack; -ice; -ock, etc.
Teach chunking longer words into more manageable chunks. Teach prefixes, suffixes, and root words. Keep instruction in context.
Beers (2003)
Vocabulary Development
Part of the semantic cueing system (word meaning). Cannot be taken for granted that students understand all the words they read. Oral vocabulary supports the understanding of reading vocabulary. Reading vocabulary involves more than understanding individual words. It also depends on the sentence a word is in (its spelling, content, and pragmatics).
Once a student has decoded a written word, it is available to the student in speech form. If the word is in the students vocabulary, it will be understood. If not, the student will not understand the word even though the student can read (decode) it. The aim of reading is comprehension. A person must understand the vocabulary words he/she is reading in order to understand the text.
Comprehension
The goal of reading is to comprehend. Proficient readers: use a variety of strategies, use strategies before, during and after reading, use different strategies for different texts at different places along the reading development continuum, interact with the text in order to construct meaning.
Relate the content of the text to personal experience and activate prior knowledge:
predict, develop questions before & during reading, clarify, summarize, visualize, monitor understanding, connect ideas to construct meaning, inference.
Preview
the reading Read key paragraphs Express ideas in writing Prepare study cards
Hock, Deshler, & Schumaker (2000)
Reading Fluency
Reading fluency is the ability to read text quickly and accurately with appropriate expression. Fluent readers do not have to sound out each word. Automaticity allows readers to focus on comprehension. Proficient readers are fluent readers. (But fluent readers may not be proficient.)
References
For a complete list of references related to this presentation, please consult the following document. Saskatchewan Learning (2004). Teaching students with reading difficulties and disabilities: A guide for educators.