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Mary/PA - Welcome to this evening's Reading Recovery Meeting here at Teachers.Net.
Mary/PA - Tonight's topic - Getting the Impulsive Child to Slow Down and Monitor
Mary/PA - Are you a Reading Recovery Teacher?
vls - Hi! I'm not a Rdg Rec. Teacher,but I will have an autisic child next year who is very impulsive!!!
Mary/PA - What grade?
vls - second
Mary/PA - Is this child reading and writing?
vls - His first grade teacher is frustrated with his behavior, but yes he is reading and writing
Mary/PA - How close to grade level is he reading and writing?
vls - He is not writing complete thoughts on a regular basis and can read a few words around the building etc
Mary/PA - So he can't read continuous text?
vls - I have a special ed. background(15 yrs) and hold special needs children close to my heart, but I'm concerned about the impact of an impulsive child in the classroom all day everyday
Mary/PA - How many other children will you have in the class?
vls - 20
Mary/PA - Does he have an aide?
vls - yes, unfortunately one who tries to change him. You can't change an autisic child
Mary/PA - Is he a danger to other children? Does he hit or kick...or anything like that?
vls - No! He just gets into everyone's things
vls - It's interesting, the other children don't seem to mind too much!
Mary/PA - Is there a plan in place for what to do when he does this?
Mary/PA - Are the other children afraid of him?
vls - The special needs teacher is willing to take him to her room when she's there, she's inclusionary, so not always in her classroom
Mary/PA - Are you a RRT?
Dar/WY - I have a couple of those right now. It's been tough.
Dar/WY - Yes. I'm in my 6th year.
Mary/PA - There seems to be more and more kids like this
Dar/WY - These children also happen to have a low language background.
Dar/WY - I've tried using a pointer to get them to slow down to monitor visually and that has helped.
Mary/PA - What have you tried to help these kids attend to the details of the print more closly?
Dar/WY - I've also been having them find "parts" in words they know after the rereads.
Dar/WY - What do you suggest?
Mary/PA - Yes, the low language seems to go with their impulsive behaviors
Dar/WY - The most difficult thing for me has been to get them to monitor for meaning and structure.
Mary/PA - I've had them hold a chunk of sentence strip in each hand and frame each word while they read
Dar/WY - Sounds good. I'll try that for the visual.
Mary/PA - It works for a while, but then they get sloppy about the framing and don't wait until they see the whole word before letting something out of their mouth
Dar/WY - Any ideas for getting them to monitor for meaning and structure without doing a lot of prompting?
Mary/PA - Monitoring for structure is tough...their own language structures are so weak or immature, that what they say sownds OK to them.
Dar/WY - I don't have my notes here from a conference I attended, but one of the suggestions was to provide them with an incredibly rich introduction so they could anticipate and predict M and S and free themselves up to attend visually at the same time.
Mary/PA - Monitoring for meaning - I make quick comments while the page is being turned about what is going on in the story...something to get them to predict or ponder...this of course is on the first reading...
Mary/PA - Oh yes, they do need extensive introductions
Dar/WY - Another good suggestion. Something I've probably heard before but will definitely use now that you suggest it.
Mary/PA - I've also been saying, "Big boys and girls say it this way." and then model the structure and have them repeat it
Dar/WY - Is the topic of getting an impulsive child to monitor directed mostly at visual monitoring?? or all types???
Mary/PA - But I have to be careful with this...I don't want them to just try to go by memory
Mary/PA - Any kind on monitoring...anything that will stop their mouths from just saying whatever
Dar/WY - The monitoring I'm really having trouble with is that that takes place "after" an error. It either doesn't make sense with added info or the structure isn't correct....and they don't seem to mind.
Mary/PA - The prompts "Can we say it that way?" or "Does that sound right?" Doesn't work with these kids...they always think it does sound right, they have to look at the print
Dar/WY - Exactly. So what I need to do is get them to attend to the print more initially. Good point.
Mary/PA - The language structures that are proper aren't in their brains. If it was, they wouldn't be talking the way they do
Dar/WY - Hi, ang.
Dar/WY - So these children really do need to rely on the visual information more than those with good M and S.
Mary/PA - I wish that we had the resources to get these kids into language help early...like in kindergarten. But there has been a big cut-back for this kind of thing
Dar/WY - OR...to somehow get more preschool parents to read to and talk with their children.
Mary/PA - Well, that's for sure, Dar!!!
Mary/PA - But I have no control over the parents
Dar/WY - What have you found helpful with these children to get them to attend and use what they know visually?
Mary/PA - Like I said, framing each word does help...they then have no choice but to look at the print. But I have to insist that they don't let anyting out of their mouth until they have seen the entire word
Mary/PA - It's a slow process, not accelerated like we need
Mary/PA - For me, these are the most difficult kids to get up to level
Dar/WY - Sorry, just got distracted for a bit. These are my difficult ones, too.
Mary/PA - Well, I have to do now, it's after 10:00 and I have things to get done for tomorrow. Thanks for the chat. maybe I'll see you in two weeks on the 25th
Dar/WY - How long are you (we) allowed to keep these children?
Dar/WY - Thanks for your ideas. I'll surely use them tomorrow.
Mary/PA - We have to keep them for the full 20 weeks or until they get IEPed...which doesn't happen...the rules for getting a child into resource have become very difficult and these children are not accepted.
