Remedial Reading Essay Example for Free

Remedial Reading Essay Proficient reading is an essential tool for learning a large part of the subject matter taught at school. Reading is the gateway to learning: without it, children cannot access a broad and balanced curriculum. Reading difficulties are associated with negative educational, employment and economic outcomes, making reading- related issues relevant to various policy domains. The negative effects of reading problems are well documented. There is evidence that reading disability is associated with social, economic and psychological problems. Traditional approaches to dealing with reading problems, such as tracing and grade retention, do not help ( especially if it going about dyslexic children. Remedial reading is an extremely important class for children who are struggling with reading. Because these children have difficulties reading, they generally do not like it. It is crucial for remedial reading teachers to make reading fun at the students level. This involved me to find interesting and lively reading materials. play games, use art and creativity during the lessons. First of all I determined the goals of remedial reading : Comprehension- understanding the meaning of words and sentences, integrating this meaning across texts and making inferences beyond the printed words. Decoding- converting printed words to spoken words. Phonics –linking sounds with letters and using these correspondences to read words. Teaching phonics takes account of the fact that there is not always a one-to-one correspondence between letters and sounds: ship has 4 letters, but only 3 sounds. Phonological awareness-awareness and manipulation of the sound structure of speech. This has different levels: syllables( foot-ball), onset-rime( f-oot-b-all), phonemes(f-oo-t-b-a-ll). Spelling and writing- mapping sounds to print, moving from individual letters, to groups of letters ( such as oa and sh), to word, to sentences . This support phonic knowledge for reading. Vocabulary- knowing the meaning of words. Fluency ( one of the major goals)- reading accurately and with sufficient speed. There is clear evidence that unless students become fluent in there ability to identify words, they will have difficulty concentrating their attention on comprehending and responding to the texts the read. I believe reading is an active, meaningful, constructive process. Students are taught to monitor their reading to ensure that what they are reading makes sense. This â€Å" mini remedial reading course† consists of 14 lessons. The duration of the lesson is 45 minutes. The type of the lessons is pupil-to teacher ratio. There is no question that one-to-one tutoring is the most powerful form of teaching invention. It seems highly likely that at least some children who are encountering very serious problems in learning to read need the intense support of one-to-one tutoring. For my lessons I was going to use the book â€Å" You Can Do It ! † by Dr Sharon Azaria. I chose it because the units in it are well- organized . Each unit consists of several reading rules, a text based on them reading comprehension and writing activities. New vocabulary is given as well. The types of texts are very predictable which is excellent in early intervention programs. They have recurring language patterns, and include repetition of language elements, which makes them easy for students to read. I think even children with very restricted word recognition capabilities can quickly begin to think of themselves as readers because they are successful with these predictable texts. It is great that the degree of predictability decreases from unit to unit to ensure that students attend to the printed texts in order to build a multifaceted word recognition strategy that will make them increasingly independent readers. I like the fact that texts and exercises become longer and more challenged as the reading capabilities of students grow. So there are many reasons to choose this book: length of texts, challenge of vocabulary, complexity of language, sophistication of concepts, etc. , so that students are challenged to apply the strategies and skills they are learning. MEANS OF TEACHING THE CHILD Texts are carefully selected and sequenced to ensure student success. The stories of the book â€Å" You Can Do It â€Å" contain a great amount of words with a letter or a letter combination on the topic of the lesson. It’s good they are followed by pictures. Reading for meaning . The book â€Å"You Can Do It† will provide me with a series of lessons which can be used as a very effective program for remedial reading. It reflects a model of reading as an active, meaningful, constructive process. Before-reading activities are used to build relevant background knowledge, concepts and vocabulary. With the help of this book the pupil will be taught to monitor his reading to ensure that what he is reading makes sense. The texts he’ll be asked to read are for enjoyment and for the information. Other activities are developed within the framework of reading for meaning. Reading for meaning is the constant point of reference. Intervention instruction is frequent, regular and of sufficient duration to make a difference. Weekly contact with a student ensures that progress is steady and allows me to become very familiar with the pupil and his strengths and needs. It also allows the teacher to reinforce and extend strategic behaviors that the student is acquiring. An instructional period of at least 15-20 minutes allows time for instruction and practice along a number of demonstrations that provide the pupil with the strategies he needs to become an effective reader. Pupil-to-teacher ratio. It seems reasonable to begin with group instruction for most students and to switch to individual instruction for those ones who have difficulty making progress. Word learning activities are used to help children become very familiar with print. Reading new texts and rereading familiar ones ensure that the pupil engages in meaningful, connected reading. This reading course (â€Å" I Can Do It†) includes activities that help students focus on and become familiar with printed words. The student is presented with the letters that form a word from a selection he read. Words are selected because they contain word identification elements that will be useful to the student. Progressively longer words are built from the letters. I can begin by asking the pupil to make take two letters and form the word ( for example the word â€Å"at† ). Next, he can be asked to add a letter to form rat, to change a letter to form cat, to rearrange the letters to form act. Using similar directions he can move through eat, ate, tea. Writing is used to teach and extend word identification skills. It has been recognized that asking students to write words ( not to copy them) is a very effective approach to developing word recognition and reading. For example, my pupil has difficulty with phonemic  awareness ( according to the test analysis) I can draw a box for each of the sounds in the word. The pupil is guided to think about the number of sounds in a word and the letters that represent those sounds. Activities completed at home extend student opportunities for reading. I always mention the importance of cooperation between home and school ( or individual lessons like in our case). Parents will be informed about the nature of our course and regularly updated on their child’s progress, and told about ways in which they can support the child and contribute to his progress. They can reread familiar texts for building fluency. I will care to send home only materials that the pupil can successfully respond to at home without teacher support. Again, the emphasis is on consistent success and the avoidance of failure. Conclusion: Every child has the right to develop into a thoughtful, competent reader. The remedial reading course ( the book â€Å" I Can Do It†) like many other programs calls for considerable teacher decision making, but within a well- defined sequence of instructional activities. When the pupil is reading aloud, I must decide when to coach a child in the use of strategic behavior and which strategies and skills to teach the child to use. When the pupil is writing, decisions must be about how and which forms of support should be given. Through the use of a regular sequence of activities, the pupil quickly come to know what will be happening in each instructional session and the order in which it will happen. Time is not lost in transition or deciding on activities.