Resouce Pack For Non Readers PDF
Resouce Pack For Non Readers PDF
Resouce Pack For Non Readers PDF
Resource Pack
This resource pack accompanies the
NEPS Good Practice Guide: Effective Interventions for
Struggling Readers
Reading
There are many ways of testing reading, including word reading, sentence
completion and close exercises. Word reading tests, by their nature are
individually administered, while group tests, used at screening, usually
depend on some element of comprehension. Teachers should be aware that
some students can perform well on a reading comprehension task, but still
have significant difficulty with reading accuracy and fluency.
When teachers are using tests to measure progress, it is best to use the same
test before and after intervention. Ideally, tests that have two versions (such
as the WRAT4, Micra-T, Neale Analysis, TOWRE and Group Reading Tests)
should be used as they allow retesting using the same criteria, but eliminate
the risk of practice effects, where the student does better because the test
has become familiar.
In the post-primary years, the importance of measuring progress has
implications for the appropriate selection of tests in first or second year. It is
important that the tests used on entry to post-primary education are age
appropriate and will continue to be appropriate if used for subsequent retesting.
The DES provides a comprehensive list of approved tests for post-primary
schools and this can be accessed on http://www.education.ie/en/SchoolsColleges/Information/Supports-for-Pupils-with-Special-Needs/
Spelling
Standardised tests of spelling skills can be very helpful in identifying those
who have marked difficulty with spelling. Weekly class spelling tests, where
child learn off lists of spellings, can be misleading. This is because some
children can manage to memorise spellings in the short-term, but do not retain
spellings learnt (and often lack fundamental phonological skills to work out
unfamiliar words). Dictation and free writing activities give a better indicator of
a childs spelling ability, than a test of weekly spellings.
The Drumcondra Primary Spelling Test (2003) can be used from first to
sixth class in primary school. There are two forms. It can be group
administered in about 45 minutes.
Also, see WRAT, WIAT and Woodcock Johnson tests listed above, as
they include spelling tests.
Interventions
There is information here about a number of interventions referred to in the
Good Practice Guide, but also information about other, evidence-based
interventions that are currently available in Ireland. However, the selection of
interventions is limited to those for which NEPS psychologists have reviewed
the recent research evidence and/ or the theoretical basis. There are many
other interventions available for which we have not, as yet, reviewed the
evidence and this is not in any way to imply that they are not suitable for use
in Irish schools. For a comprehensive overview of a wide variety of
interventions, see Brooks (2007). See also www.nbss.ie for information on
interventions at post-primary level which have been used successfully in Irish
schools.
Jolly Phonics
While this is now more typically used at the whole class level in the Infant
years, it is nonetheless a useful interventions for children who are struggling
with acquiring early literacy in the senior infants/ first/ second class years, IF
the children have not already had comprehensive teaching using this method.
The basic book, with photocopiable master sheets, is widely available. The
Phonic Handbook (1992) by Sue Lloyd, Published by Jolly Learning
A whole range of supporting materials are available from Jolly Learning,
including a starter kit, www.jollylearning.co.uk
Acceleread Accelewrite is available in Ireland through software providers. It
can also be purchased on line through dyslexic.com. It can be purchased as a
CD, which includes the manual and colour cards. Children of 8 years and up
can make use of this, but basic key board skills are needed and the entry
level presumes the ability to read simple CVC words (fat/ man/ run etc).
Toe by Toe is available in Ireland from a range of educational suppliers. It is
intended to be used for one to one teaching and can be used across the age
range, but is probably better suited to children from third class and up.
Literacy Acceleration
This programme is an intensive literacy programme for use with struggling
readers on entry to post-primary school. The research suggests that some
amount of restructuring of the timetable may be needed to deliver this
programme effectively in first and second year. The Literacy Acceleration
Teachers Pack of Resources can be purchased from:
AWLED Consultancy Ltd
PO Box 33
Newquay
Cornwall, TR71YP
It can be ordered on line through website awled.co.uk
Phono-Graphix
There is emerging evidence that Phono-Graphix may be a highly effective
way of teaching early phonic skills, both at the whole class level and as an
intervention with struggling readers. The book: Reading Reflex the foolproof
Phono-Graphix method for teaching your child to read (1998) Mc Guinness
and Mc Guinness, Penguin, is the central element, but those who wish to use
the approach should have specific training. The website, readamerica.net has
details of training courses. There are on-line certified training courses, as well
as 4 day courses run in venues in England (Bath and Essex).
ARROW
See the website self-voice.com where there is information about research
findings and the training programme. Staff need specialist training and the
school need to invest in the software.
The ARROW centre can be contacted on [email protected] so see
www.self-voice.com
Phone 00 44 1823 324949
2. Teaching Strategy
Following the identification of the target words you then select appropriate
teaching strategies. We have given one example below of a teaching strategy,
which is based on a direct instruction method. This teaching approach can
also be delivered by a parent, peer or a community volunteer under teacher
direction and demonstration.
Step 1
Print the short term target words onto card. (This can be varied for older
students as flashcards may seem a bit childish for them. Perhaps use
PowerPoint to teach new words). Do not use capital letters unless the word
starts with a capital letter.
Try not to use card that is too big as it will be cumbersome to store. Make
sure you use the same colour and size of card and same colour marker so
there is no other way for the pupil to recognise a word. For example a student
may know that the green word is home, as opposed to recognising home as a
sight word. Avoid putting similar looking words together as this can make
learning harder for students e.g. home and house or their and they.
Place each card on the table one at a time and say the name of the word e.g.,
this is the word shop. Ask the learner to put the word into an oral sentence.
If they have difficulty with this, give them an example and get them to repeat
your example or give their own sentence. (Remember if a student doesnt
know or understand a word they shouldnt be learning to read it). Repeat this
process with all the target words.
Step 2
When all the cards are on the table say the following to the pupil, Point to the
word shop. The student must look at the word, putting their finger under
the first letter of the word and say the word at the same time. Then say,
Point to the word home Continue like this for about 10 or 15 times,
moving between the words. Getting the student to place their finger under the
first letter cues them into the starting phoneme of the word and keeps them
focussed on the word.
This is can be done in a fun manner, or as a game. Younger students usually
enjoy being told, Lets see if I can catch you out. This allows the student lots
of practise to name the word without putting an expectation on the student to
recognise the word from his/her own memory.
Step 3
The next step is to pick up the cards and shuffle them. Place the cards down
in a random fashion and ask the student to name the word. Usually students
have no difficulty with this. Repeat this process 3 or 4 times. It may seem
tedious but is the essential learning part of the method.
red squares at the top of the page type one target word. The probe will
automatically place the words randomly across the grid. An example of a
probe sheet with five target words and aim rate is shown below).
For the pupil to achieve sight word recognition at automaticity or fluency levels
they have to read 50 words on the probe within one minute with no more than
two errors. Each day following the teaching, the probe is administered and the
pupils progress is charted on a graph/chart until the pupil achieves the aim
rate (50 words per minute with no more than 2 errors). Charts can be very
motivating for students. To see a sample graph/chart click on
www.eptoolbox.co.uk, then click on Precision Teaching on the left hand side.
When the next page opens up click on Daily Recording Charts and a sample
chart will open up.
If the pupils rate of reading is not improving after 3 days then the number of
words being taught needs to be reduced. If after 8 days the pupil is not at or
very near your selected aim rate then you may consider adapting your
teaching strategy and reviewing your target words.
Over successive days of practice, the data (corrects and errors) plotted on the
chart produce learning pictures. When used effectively these learning pictures
can indicate for each child, whether a task is too difficult, too easy or just right;
whether the child requires further instruction, further practice, or should move
onto to more complex tasks. Most importantly it indicates whether the
teaching methods being adopted are having the desired effects.
When the aim rate is reached a new set of target words is identified and the
process is repeated again and again until the longer term targets can be read
automatically.
Some words that children are learning may have smaller words within
them e.g. they, home, caravan. As an extra piece of work present
words like these to the children one at a time. For example with the
word caravan, cover the last four letters and ask the pupil, What word
do you see now? car, or cover the first four letters and ask the pupil,
What word do you see now? van. It doesnt matter if the child doesnt
recognise the words, tell them or prompt them. This is just an exercise
to develop their visual skills. If you do this every day they will soon start
to see those smaller words.
A more difficult step from the previous one is to then ask the child to
cover letters in the word caravan to show you car or van. Again dont
worry if they cant do this, demonstrate for them each time.
5. Maintenance Check
It is very important to carry out regular maintenance checks of all target
words over a six to eight week period. This involves re-visiting or re-checking
the original long term target list of words. Generally pupils who have achieved
this level of fluency maintain those words; however any words they havent
maintained can be included in the next list of target words.
It is good practice at the beginning of each session to ask the student to read
the words learnt previously.
6. Generalisation
One of the potential difficulties of learning words that are not in context is that
the pupil may not generalise their learning to written passages. Therefore, it is
important to present the student with unseen passages that contain the target
words to see if he/she can read the words fluently. That is the one advantage
of taking the target words from a graded reading scheme. Alternatively
teachers can compose passages of text which include the target words.
References
Chiesa, M., & Robertson, A. (2000). Precision teaching and fluency training:
Making maths easier for pupils and teachers. Educational Psychology in
Practice, 16 (3), 297-310. DfES. (2003)
Desjardins, E. A., & Slocum, T.A. (1993). Integrating Precision Teaching with
Direct Instruction. Journal of Precision Teaching, X (2), 20-24.
Ikin, A.B. (2005). Precision teaching: The Standard Celeration Chart. The
Behaviour Analyst Today, 6(4), 207-213.
Raybould, E. C., & Solity, J. E. (1988). More Questions on Precision
Teaching. British Journal of Special Education, 15(2), 59-61.
Book 1
I
the
he
me
was
to
said
she
we
do
here
are
all
you
your
come
some
there
they
go
by
like
no
so
my
one
have
live
give
shoe
the
three
tricks
two
at
can
did
do
four
glasses
her
his
lollipop
look
on
play
see
you
Book 2
an
apple
banana
beans
blocks
books
box
bread
carrots
cheese
chips
dog
eating
everything
favourite
food
fruit
has
He
lots
meat
milk
no
of
pets
pizza
reads
she
teddy
toast
toys
vegetables
with
yogurt
you
we
the
of
you
the
of
we
said
we
of
you
said
the
you
said
the
of
we
the
we
said
you
of
said
of
the
we
you
of
said
we
you
the
you
the
we
said
of
Date: _____________
Target: ______________________
Date: _____________
Date:
Words:
Tuesday
Wednesday Thursday
Friday
These resources have been developed by NEPS to assist teachers who wish
to check a students knowledge of sight words or phonics. They allow for
teaching and review of progress and may be particularly suited to using with a
precision teaching approach.
Attendance is a key issue and, if a child has poor attendance, there needs to
be some contingency in place to address the needs of the partner. For
example, there could be a substitute helper/ learner available.
Models of partnerships include:
Older special school pupils working with younger special school pupils
Selecting Helpers
Students can be selected by Learning Support Teachers, nominated by Class
Teachers or can volunteer.
It is important to note that helpers may have reading skills that would be
considered delayed in comparison to the mainstream population, and some
may even be weak in comparison to their own classroom peers. For example,
a fourteen-year old helper may only have a reading age of nine years. In fact,
this does not prove to be a difficulty if the helper and learner are carefully
matched, with the learner having significantly weaker skills and the helper
having at least enough expertise to be helpful to the learner.
When selecting helpers it can be very beneficial for the helper group to
include some children with advanced reading skills and/or high social status.
This avoids the possibility that participation as a helper is seen as a negative
stigma (the scheme is perceived as being for weak readers). A very
successful way to engage weaker older readers in the scheme is to reframe
their difficulties. For example, while acknowledging that their own reading
skills might not be perfect, it is an opportunity to value the work they have
done, for example: You have made so much progressare doing so well
and of course, you know what its like for younger kids when reading is
tricky so you will be really understanding This puts the helper in a
positive role. It can be particularly beneficial to sixth class weak readers who
may be ready to graduate from a learning support setting and who need to
build their confidence before transfer to secondary school.
Matching Partners
There is some initial work in managing the logistics of matching partners.
When matching partnerships, it is important to consider both chronological
and reading ages. Ideally, there should be at least a two year gap on both,
and often times the gap can be considerably greater. Anecdotal evidence
suggests that learners prefer their partners to be a number of years older,
perhaps because this age difference legitimises the difference in reading
ability. Same sex reading partners seemed to work best socially. There may
also be factors of personality or social issues to be considered.
Partnerships should ideally meet three times per week or more. Meetings can
happen during lunchtime, at designated times in the school day (such as
immediately after lunch) or after school. Each meeting will need approximately
20 minutes. A satisfying block of time for partners to meet might be for one
term (approximately 3 months). This time-frame allows for a relationship to
build up between the partners, but does not create an unlimited commitment.
The model chosen in any one school will depend on the age and maturity of
participants, constraints of the time table and availability of suitable space.
They are complimented on their ability to read and praised for their
assumed progress over the years.
The scheme is briefly outlined and students are told very clearly that
participation in the scheme involves a commitment, and their consent is
sought before further training progresses.
Helpers then have the opportunity to practice the skill with another
helper.
Pause, Prompt, Praise is a simple approach suitable for use by peer tutors
(see Wheldall 1995). The procedure involves the following simple steps:
when the child cannot get the word after brief prompting, the
teacher/tutor quickly supplies the word;
This initial training only needs about twenty minutes. At this point the matched
learners can be invited to join the training. Responsibilities for the learner
include remembering meeting times, coming to the appointed place, selecting
a book and keeping a record of each session (if the learner is very young, the
helper may have this responsibility). The readability of the book chosen is
primarily a matter for learner selection. In the event that the book proves too
hard during a session, helpers are advised to read it to the learner and, at the
end of the session, ask the teacher/ co-ordinator to supply an easier book for
next time.
During the second part of the training session these learner responsibilities
are described. Both partners complete their first record form together. This
gives them a chance to learn each others names, identify the place where the
partnership will meet and make a note of the meeting days. There is also time
for a brief trial reading partner session, closely supervised by the attending
adults.
In all the training sessions do not require more than forty minutes.
Conclusion
Peer reading is an effective form of literacy intervention for students in many
educational settings. It not only is easily established, but is cost effective. For
many participants, not only are there impressive gains in literacy skills, there
are also other gains, such as improved self-esteem, attendance and social
skills. Dearden (1998) argues that if peer learning is of such value to both
parties involved, then there needs to be a way of ensuring it happens (p257).
It is hoped that this Rough Guide will encourage teachers to accept the
challenge and implement such a programme in their own schools.
References
Dearden, J. (1998). Cross Age Peer Mentoring in Action, Educational
Psychology in Practice, 13 (4), 250 - 257.
Wheldall, K. (1995). Helping readers who are behind, Educational Monitor 6,
(1) 23-5.
Reading Partners
Your reading partner is _________________________________
Reading Partners
Your reading partner is _________________________________
Names ________________
Day/ Date
Book/Page
and ___________________
Comment
Today was
Help words
good very tried lovely hard worked enjoyed funny
boring effort excellent reading
Reading Partner
Awarded to
___________________________
In recognition of hard work,
co-operation and reliability in the
Reading Partner Scheme
_________________
Date
____________________
Signed
Typically, this kind of intervention runs for about one term. The
weekly self-monitoring sheet below may be helpful to you.
Positive Declarations
NEPS LWG 2012
Week Beginning______________________
Time of
Day
Affirmations used
Individual I
Group G
Whole Class W
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Other comments/
Additional
activities
introduced
Signed_______________________________
Time of day: this helps you monitor that affirmations are used three times a
day, spread throughout the school day
Sample affirmations: no need to write out each and every affirmation, but just
note an example or two to check for variety
Individual, group or whole class: Note whether the affirmations were done
collectively or not, if the affirmations are done in a mixed way, for example,
some group and some whole class, note G +W etc