Running head: READING FLUENCY Reading Fluency Strategies: Helping Students with Learning Disabilities Marcia C. Richardson EDSP 410 Date: August 13, 2012 Reading Fluency Strategies: Helping Students with Learning Disabilities One of the most prevalent problems among students in school across the nation today is their ability to read with fluency. Fluency is a vital skill for all students; students with learning disabilities are most at risk for presenting difficulties in fluency. In actuality, obstacles with reading are one of the major reasons students are referred for special education services (Welch, 2006, p.180). However, in most cases when reading difficulties is mention reading comprehension and word reading skills are often depicted and not fluency. Nevertheless, students with LD can be accommodated to conquer not being able to read with fluency through a mixture of strategies.
It is important to expose students to more than just concrete identification words like ‘chair’ or ‘horse’ but broaden their base of word knowledge to include abstract words as well. Children speak the words they have heard and later recognize those words within the context of literature. When a student has heard a word within a context, verbally used the word to express thinking and can identify and associate meaning to the word with in a text, they will be likely to use the word in written communication as well. Academically speaking, the same rules apply. Students need to hear academic language used within a
So I feel teachers need to know and be aware of the one-to-one, extended, cognitively challenging conversations and how to engage in such communication, even with students that are reluctant talkers. Teachers need to know how the lexicon is acquired and what instructional practices support vocabulary acquisition. They also need to know how to conduct story reading and other early literacy experiences that promote phonological awareness and prepare children for later success in reading (Snow, Burns, & Griffin, 1998). Most early childhood teachers do not have sufficient training in how to support early literacy learning. They need to know how much phonics children need to know, how to know which children need more or less explicit phonics instruction, and when to stop teaching phonics to which children.
In order for a student to master fluency they must be able to master the five components of reading as well. All of these concepts work hand-in-hand to master the skill of reading and comprehension. Fluency is related to trade books because they students unlimited access to trade books in the classroom this can help students develop reading fluency. For a student to have developed reading fluency, means that they have overall broke the surface and now is able to comprehend what is in the text. By incorporating trade books in the classroom it helps teachers to better assist their students on advancing
“The disconnect between text and reader is especially noticeable in content areas where readers must interact with highly specialized and technical language” (Vacca & Vacca, 2008, p. 348). For students to find success in a content area classroom, educators need to engage students in reading with the use of instructional strategies (Vacca & Vacca, 2008). Strategies used in content area classrooms vary with purpose. “What a teacher does before reading, during reading, and after reading (B-D-A) is crucial to active and purposeful reading” (Vacca & Vacca, 2008, p. 346). Before reading activities help students get ready to read by motivating the readers, activating prior knowledge, and introducing key vocabulary.
By asking students to construct meaning from books and other selections that are designed for use at various grade levels, a student's level of development can be assessed. Teachers are encouraged to set standards or expectations in order to then determine a student's developmental level in relation to those standards (Lamme & Hysmith, 1991). Variety of Materials Portfolios can consist of a wide variety of materials: teacher notes, teacher-completed checklists, student self-
Schema Activation Activities Students who are unfamiliar with reading content based texts are often unwilling to complete reading assignments, and frequently feel at a loss for successfully analyzing and retaining the material they have read (Vacca, 2002). Successful teachers engage students in pre-reading activities which will assist in activating their prior knowledge of a subject before the reading assignment. These pre-reading activities are designed to not only engage a student’s prior knowledge, but build their schema as well. It is vital for teachers to implement pre-reading activities and develop effective relevant lessons which will incorporate the diverse backgrounds and cultures seen in today’s classrooms. Anticipation Guides The following activities are designed to increase the reader’s expectations of what they will encounter in their reading (Vacca, 2002).
This is a good indication of how a student will progress in learning during the early years of school. Language delays have an impact on the reading capabilities of a child, thus making the role of the SLP critical during the early learning years. The specific course work we are learning in Language 310 that correlate with this information is the topic of phonetics and child acquisition of sounds. There is research that the knowledge of phonetics helps a person learn to read. It is imperative that a person learns to read in order to improve their quality of life and their contribution to society.
At the classroom level, for example, teachers collect information about a student's learning, make corresponding adjustments in their instruction, and continue to collect information. Formative assessment can result in significant learning gains but only when the assessment results are used to inform the instructional and learning process (Black & William, 1998). This condition requires the collection, analysis of, and response to information about student progress. The most common procedures of formative assessment include the following. Feedback.
Students are no longer looking to a teacher for all of the information. Most of what I hear about education in my community is negative. We start children in school at a very young age due to fears that they may “fall behind” or “not be on target” in relation to their peers. We require them to site in a classroom that follows the same format as a classroom from the 1800’s. This includes, 4 walls, desks, a teacher facilitating the lesson, and little ears and eyes tuning in and out.