Stacey Rhoney
Final Exam
RE5100
Essay Question 2
This is a topic that I feel I know something about because most of the students I teach in first grade are low students. As I have mentioned before, I have nineteen children and seventeen of them are Title I students. Therefore, I work closely with the Title I teacher at my school to be sure my students are getting what they need to learn to read.
There are several different strategies that I use in my classroom and that the Title I teacher uses to help these low readers develop into strong first grade readers. I use systematic direct phonics instruction everyday as a whole group in my classroom. I also use small ability reading groups. The Title I teacher uses most of the same strategies with the children in her small group settings. As it gets toward the middle of the year and the students have been tested on their middle of the year literacy assessment, I try to develop small groups for phonics for the slower children to receive more one on one instruction, and we do the lessons at a slower pace.
Some other strategies that are beneficial for these students are repeated readings and taped readings. Repeated readings are used as a supplement to a developed reading program and are especially beneficial to slow learners. At the beginning of the year especially, but also through the year I use repeated readings with my low readers to help them work on word recognition and to increase reading speed. When students do repeated readings, which is text that they are familiar with and have read several times, they feel more confident about their reading because they are able to read without many mistakes and their speed increases. Therefore, they are more motivated to do it the next time. Taped readings are used for the students to hear a taped voice and follow along with the story by finger pointing to the text. This allows them to read the words silently, while hearing the words from the story. After this is repeated several times the student can read the story without help. They also enjoy hearing their voice and it is beneficial for them to see the mistakes they are making and to practice re-taping each time to get a little faster or more accurate the next time. Comprehension also increases every time the passage is reread. Echo reading is also useful when teaching low readers to read.
Another strategy that helps with low readers is hands on activities. Orton Gillingham is a great program that uses kinesthetic activities with students to work on different things like the alphabet, tapping out sounds, and word sorting.
One of the key strategies for not only low readers, but for all readers is simply to practice. My students are provided with many different kinds of books and reading material to help them practice reading and become familiar with print. I have big books, books with tapes, all different levels of readers, picture and word flash cards and games, and small books that the students can make and put together. Storytime is useful so the students will learn how to imitate reading. I also send supplemental reading material home every night for the added practice. A developed sight word program or list is also helpful when dealing with low readers. I use several lists and it allows the students to move at their own pace in learning the words. When they learn one list they get to move on to the next. Sight word lists are very important for low readers because it takes thousands of times seeing a sight word for “normal” readers to recognize them.