How do we help the “striving” reader? Those who struggle to read are not fully analyzing words. They often guess them. They grab at the first letter sound. Instead of using phonics, poor readers have often just tried to memorize the shape of the word or have used the illustrations in a story to guess. Poor readers need explicit PHONICS instruction, planned decodable text reading practice and practice with dictation.
Begin with assessment. There are so many different assessments. Going on what is known from teacher observation, chose an appropriate assessment to find where the specific struggles are.
The CORE Phonological Segmentation Test assesses a new reader’s ability to understand the concept of what letters are and that words are made up of sounds.
The CORE Phonics Surveys assesses a new reader’s ability to decode words accurately.
The Qualitative Reading Inventory-7 (QRI) assesses word identification, and at what reading level there is fluency and adequate comprehension of narrative and expository text.
The MASI-R Oral Reading Fluency Measures assesses a student’s reading proficiency, which is a “strong predictor of success in reading comprehension” (CORE Assessing Reading Multiple Measures). This is a quicker test (5 to 15 minutes) that can help determine how far a student is from the grade level norm as well as if growth is occurring after they’ve been given personalized reading instruction. Student’s who aren’t fluent readers often need explicit instruction in certain missed phonics concepts. This test will give a little insight into what some of those phonics concepts might be. The CORE Phonics Survey is the next assessment you’d want to give if a student scores below grade level on this assessment.
The CORE Vocabulary Screening Test helps identify if a student is struggling with reading comprehension due to lack of a grade level vocabulary.
The CORE Reading Maze Comprehension Test is probably one of the quickest ways to measure reading proficiency and comprehension. It takes about 3 minutes. If a student scores below grade level, continue assessments on fluency, vocabulary and possibly phonics.
Here are some activities and strategies to help striving readers:
FOR PHONOLOGICAL AWARENESS DEVELOPMENT:
lots of extra practice hearing, writing and saying the letter sounds
Use tactile letters to make letters with: masking tape, colored paper bits, glue and cloth pieces or dried foods like pasta, rice and beans
Use Elkonin Boxes to teach counting sounds, naming letter sounds and then blending them
FOR PHONEME DEVELOPMENT:
Show them that words follow patterns. Have them sort words that follow similar patterns like: cat, bat, mat etc. from words that follow a different pattern.
Practice rhyming with them till the grasp the concept of the ending sounds sounding the same.
FOR FLUENCY DEVELOPMENT:
Use assessment results from phonics testing to determine what phonics skills need explicit instruction.
Rereading of test with a peer, a group, a teacher, a digital reader, or alone
FOR VOCABULARY DEVELOPEMENT:
read grade-level or higher texts to them
pair them with another reader when there is grade level text to be read
give them choice of independent reading texts and talk with them about their reading
FOR GROWTH OF COMPRENSION OF READING LEVEL TEXT:
practice retelling of text through modeling it aloud
filling out graphic organizers of the parts of the passage (setting, characters, plot or main idea and 3 details)
asking questions every page or every paragraph to help the student focus on what is important
FOR READING DEVELOPMENT OF A DYSLEXIC STUDENT:
Assess using the RAN (Rapid Automatized Naming Test) to find out if your student has trouble rapidly naming colors, numbers, letters and objects. Difficulty on this test can point toward one form of dyslexia. Practicing recall of items with flashcards or with word retrieval games like Pictionary or Scattergories, as well as, practicing eye-tracking when reading, can be helpful.
For letter orientation issues, create a visual to help them remember such as “b” is made of a bat and a ball, a line and a circle. Repeat over and over as they write “b”. The letter “d” is made of a dog and his tail, a circle body and a line. Repeat.
Cut an index card so that there is a wide window inside. Have them use the index card to help them focus on just one or two words at a time as they read.
For older students who struggle, use sets of themed books that have texts with repetitive high use words. The textproject has free text sets available. Encourage silent reading of these texts.
Some excellent links to reading strategies for striving readers:
Linda Ferrell’s Word Attack Skills
Teaching how to read multi-syllable word
Linda Ferrell’s Reading Fluency
Teaching how to read with accuracy as well as an appropriate speed.
Linda Ferrell’s Reading Fluency
Teaching how to read words with silent e correctly.
Linda Ferrell’s Reading Words with Short Vowels
Teaching a hands-on approach to “seeing” and hearing the short vowel sounds.