What's Happening?

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!

     

A New Year - A New Inquiry!

Four days a week, for most of the year, volunteers from the community come into our school to support children in Years 5 & 6 whose reading age doesn't match their chronological age. I am the co-ordinator for this programme which is known as Reading Support. Most of the tutors come once a week, some twice, and they spend 15 minutes with each of 4 students. The time is mainly spent reading - that is, the student reading to the adult from texts that have been graded at the appropriate level. However, the conversation between the adult and child is also very important.
This programme has proved effective in raising student achievement in reading over the 20+ years it has been in operation. I feel it could be even more effective if the tutors were given specific training in helping students with learning difficulties. 
While most of the students on Reading Support have not been formally diagnosed with specific learning difficulties, there are clear indicators that this is the case for many of them. I would like to become a more skilled 'reading teacher' myself and to be able to teach the volunteers skills and strategies to become more effective. 

So this is what I am inquiring into this year.
How to recognise whether a child has a specific learning diifficulty, what it is, and what to do about it!

The End of the Journey?

My group finished at the end of term 3 as I have a role with whole school testing in term 4. But I have good news to share - all the students made progress during the year!

Some points to note:
Our group time was in addition to instructional reading with the class teacher.
AE had made no progress in reading for more than 2 years prior to this year.

Reasons for Success
* Less distractions - our group met in a smallish room which we had all to ourselves
* 100% teacher focus - there were no other students for the teacher to 'manage' at the same time
* Time spent building a culture where the students felt safe to show their weaknesses meant that they could ask questions without fear of 'put downs'
* Texts were carefully selected and introduced
* Choral reading gave the students confidence and modelling
* Collaborative follow-up tasks provided support and success
* ???

I will almost certainly be working again next year with some of the same students and I am confident that continuing with, and further refining these strategies, is the way to go!

Term 3 Update

Update

In term 3 I looked for texts that were related to our school-wide inquiry ‘Trade and Enterprise’. We also read some texts about leisure activities such as caving. Mostly we started with School Journals then moved on to online texts, newspaper articles and videos.

I found that the students had little prior knowledge to draw on so I did lots of gifting of language and filling in the gaps. However, one student had some ‘lightbulb’ moments when he realised that he had seen something on Discovery Channel about the topic and was able to relate it to the group. 

The students have started to use their imagination after having this modelled for them from the beginning!

There were some excellent clips online relating to some of our texts and the students were very engaged when watching them. They generated comments and discussion. Sometimes they wanted to watch these repeatedly - it’s easier to watch and listen than to read!

I realised that while earlier in the year the students were inclined to waste time when they used their devices, but by term 3 they were much more likely to stay on task. 

We have mostly continued to read texts aloud together. At times students have spontaneously read captions or snippets of information out loud for others, especially when looking online, or from newspaper articles that I have found relating to our topic.

I have presented students with purpose-made follow-up activities more often in term 3. The students have engaged with these and chosen to work collaboratively most of the time. I have included activities involving reorganising information and finding evidence to support statements.

On reflection, there has been a shift in engagement and skill level. I am encouraged!

What I have learnt in term 2

We have been reading about natural (and some man-made) disasters.

Texts have included Learning Media resources, newspaper items, and some internet articles & clips.

1. Orientation is very important for providing a foundation/framework for content learning. 

2. Understanding of vocabulary is crucial

These students don’t just struggle with text specific vocabulary but other vocabulary as well

Glossaries have been very useful but often not extensive enough

We have needed to revisit vocabulary regularly to embed

Making our own glossary has contributed to greater understanding of text content

3. Follow-up activities are best done collaboratively

These students need to practise locating information in specific texts rather than a wide range

Not always necessary for every text (+ time issue)

One student has graduated from the group having made 2 years progress in reading in 6 months!! The rest of the group have made at least six months progress in six months, except 1 student who has made no progress in the past 2 years.

Term 2 Week 6

There is some progress to report!

1. Student attendance has improved both at school and at our group time. Individual points with a prize after every 100 points might be a factor!

2. We have been reading about natural disasters this term (the topic ‘triggered’ by the earthquakes in Nepal) with all the students interested and engaged.

3. All but the shyest student are contributing questions and answers freely.

Vocabulary comprehension presents the biggest challenge to all the students. They are very dependent on me for help with this. We are building up lists of words as we come across them in our reading and talking about what they mean. I know when a word such as ‘debris’ is understood when a student uses it appropriately!

So my next challenge is to help the students to find ways to help themselves.

Term One Inquiry Presentation

When I reflected on how far we had come in term one, the picture was not as rosy as I had hoped for. But I was encouraged to see that for some students our group was providing a safe place to learn ways of accessing the help they need in order to get information from non-fiction texts.