Beginning reading for special ed. unior high student

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Beginning reading for special ed. unior high student

by Shirley Holloway

Feb 11, 2010

I am a LIPS/Wilson tutor. I am a retired classroom teacher. I have a new student. He is a junior high student who can not read at all. He knows most consonant sounds, struggles with most vowel sounds, digraphs are impossible. I have been working with him for three weeks and things are real slow. I need some very short motivating easy things to read besides words. I am using both Wilson and LIPS materials and anything I can find. Any ideas? We have so many cob webs to untangle and years of faking it. Thanks for any ideas. Shirley

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Anna On 2/11/10, Shirley Holloway wrote: > I am a LIPS/Wilson tutor. I am a retired classroom teacher. > I have a new student. He is a junior high student who can > not read at all. He knows most consonant sounds, struggles > with most vowel sounds, digraphs are impossible. I have > been working with him for three weeks and things are rea...See More

Feb 13, 2010

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arachgold I am also an Orton-Gillingham tutor. I have found that it's difficult to find motivating materials for students who are at the short vowel level because so many short vowel reading materials contain sight words that I haven't yet introduced. epsbooks.com has many decodable materials such as Spire and Let's Read. "Spire" is a resource that I used to...See MoreI am also an Orton-Gillingham tutor. I have found that it's difficult to find motivating materials for students who are at the short vowel level because so many short vowel reading materials contain sight words that I haven't yet introduced. epsbooks.com has many decodable materials such as Spire and Let's Read. "Spire" is a resource that I used to supplement the program I use. The "Let's Read" series moves very slowly so you may find some supplementary material in there. The reason I like these materials is because like Wilson there aren't pictures so the student doesn't feel that he/she reading babyish materials. The problem with using other materials is that the sequence different than the one I'm using so I sometimes need to customize the page. I use Post It tape to change some of the words. [link removed].

I have found that the best way to motivate older students during a lesson is to play games along with the reading of words/sentences and stories. Games can be saved and completed during another session. Many of my older students enjoy playing: cards games (slap jack, war, Uno), Connect Four, Jenga, Othello, dominoes, checkers, Mancala, pick up sticks, darts, Yahtzee,12 Minute Games (Fowl Play) [link removed].

It's also fun to have the student teach you a card game. To start, we both take a free turn without doing any work. From then on, they read a few lines in Wilson or spell a few words before taking a turn in the game. I don't have them do any work before my taking a turn in the game.

To make the spelling interesting I give my students interesting writing utensils/paper. The best place to find writing utensils is Walmart. They have scented markers, markers that write on black paper, window markers, Magic Paper product by Rose Art (paper changes colors when written on with the special pen), multitipped colored pencils, Scratch paper, etc. I also have the student write on a Magna Doodle, plexiglass wipe-off board, etc. Students also enjoy the over the door basketball hoop or playing homemade games such as: -Memory -Trashcan/shoe box toss - read a word/sentence written on a small piece of paper, crumble the paper and toss it into a trashcan or several shoe boxes labeled with points. -I also have a small air dart gun ($6.00 at a small specialty toy store). I write words on a large wipe off board and the student shoots at the words/sentences before reading them. Sometimes I draw a dart target on the board with point values and before taking a turn the student reads/spells. -Dots game - Print dot paper

Feb 13, 2010

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Rod Everson Hi Shirley,

First of all, he probably either has, or had, a vision problem that hindered his ability to learn to read. It's possible that the vision issue has resolved by now, but his parents should be made aware that a visit to a developmental optometrist might be very helpful. (No doubt his regular OD has told the parents that his visio...See MoreHi Shirley,

First of all, he probably either has, or had, a vision problem that hindered his ability to learn to read. It's possible that the vision issue has resolved by now, but his parents should be made aware that a visit to a developmental optometrist might be very helpful. (No doubt his regular OD has told the parents that his vision is fine, but that doesn't mean that his vision skills are fine, usually just his visual acuity.)

If he knows his consonant sounds and struggles with vowels and digraphs, you might consider running him through my advanced code workbook since that's exactly where it starts. I've used it with nearly 200 kids of all ages over the past decade so it will be suitable for him.

In the workbook he'll get a quick exposure to the common consonant digraphs such as sh, ch, th, ng, etc., and some practice with the short vowel sounds, but then it moves quickly into the spellings of the /oe/ and /ow/ sounds. After the /oe/ sound is covered, there'll be a very short story composed mostly of words he just learned and then a longer story also composed mostly of words with /oe/ sounds, plus words containing only basic code.

The workbook progresses like this throughout the vowel sounds. The vowel sounds are organized in logical groupings so that he will learn that various spellings have more than one possible pronunciation, e.g., the "ow" in "how" and "grow."

It's a no-nonsense exposure to the way English is structured and includes most of the consonant spellings as well, such as the /j/ spellings for instance (baDGE, Jet, Gym, larGE, buDGet.) If he gets through the workbook successfully, he'll know most of the English code.

Also, the multi-syllable method described in the instructions, and supported by word lists in the workbook, will give him a structured method for approaching and decoding longer words without guessing, a real problem to overcome for most older students.

What I would suggest, if you're at all curious about the workbook, is that you download the PDF of the instructions (free) from the page on my website linked below and go through them. They're about 40 pages long and describe in complete detail just how I use the workbook. If they make sense to you, consider purchasing a workbook from lulu.com and trying it out. Just pay close attention to the instructions to get the full benefit of the program, especially when you get to the multi-syllable work.

If he just plain "doesn't get it" however, he probably has a vision problem that needs attending to before spending a lot of time on phonics instruction. At least that's been my experience. Before I finally figured that out, I was spending a lot of time inventing games, etc., to get through to kids. Now I make sure their vision is okay and then run them through the workbook regardless how old they are. Generally, that improves their situation considerably.

I'd be happy to answer any questions either in here, or by email.

Rod Everson

Feb 13, 2010

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BarbaraB On 2/13/10, Anna wrote: > On 2/11/10, Shirley Holloway wrote: >> I am a LIPS/Wilson tutor. I am a retired classroom teacher. >> I have a new student. He is a junior high student who can >> not read at all. He knows most consonant sounds, struggles >> with most vowel sounds, digraphs are impossible. I have >> been wo...See More

Feb 13, 2010

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Jenn Hi Shirley ~ I am a special ed. teacher, and use a combination of materials. Right now I'm using ABeCeDarian as my "lead" ([link removed])

Good luck!

Jenn

Feb 15, 2010

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