I organised PD for the volunteer tutors in the week that our students were camping on the school grounds in the latter part of term one.
We discussed what we noticed about our readers; some characteristics of dyslexic readers (taken from Laughton King's book "Dyslexia Dismantled" - used by permission); and what we were already doing that seemed to be making a difference.
Most of the tutors came to these sessions, and some shared about dyslexic family members, giving further insight into the struggles that students who find it hard to learn to read face.
Since then, I have noticed that the conversations I have with tutors about individual students have been more focused on what appears to be happening and what we can try to do about it.
Some things we are working on.
1. Noticing and adjusting our approach with individual students. It's not 'one-size-fits-all'.
2. Revisiting vocabulary for both word recognition and understanding of meaning.
3. Choosing stories with the students that will be engaging.
4. Not assuming they will remember words they have seen before (some students need hundreds of exposures to a word before it becomes instantly recognisable)
5. Keeping on being patient and celebrating the small improvements in accuracy, fluency and most importantly, comprehension.
It's a work in progress!
