APPROACHED READING PROGRAM MANUAL

Learning how to read is one of the most important things a child will do before the age
of 10. That’s because everything from vocabulary growth to performance across all
major subjects at school is linked to reading ability. The Phonics Method teaches
children to pair sounds with letters and blend them together to master the skill of
decoding.

The Whole-word Approach teaches kids to read by sight and relies upon memorization
via repeat exposure to the written form of a word paired with an image and an audio.
The goal of the Language Experience Method is to teach children to read words that are
meaningful to them. Vocabulary can then be combined to create stories that the child
relates to. Yet while there are various approaches to reading instruction, some work
better than others for children who struggle with learning difficulties.

The most common kind of dyslexia, phonological dyslexia, causes individuals to have
trouble hearing the sounds that make up words. This makes it difficult for them to sound
out words in reading and to spell correctly. Dyslexic learners may therefore benefit from
a method that teaches whole-word reading and de-emphasizes the decoding process.

Orton Gillingham is a multi-sensory approach that has been particularly effective for
dyslexic children. It combines visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and tactile learning to teach a
program of English phonics, allowing children to proceed at a pace that suits them and
their ability.

No two students will learn to read in exactly the same way, thus remaining flexible in
your approach is key. It can be useful to combine methods, teach strategies and provide
the right classroom accommodations, particularly for students who have specific
learning differences. Remember that motivation is key and try to be patient so as to
avoid introducing any negative associations with school and learning.

Pre-literacy skills

Children begin acquiring the skills they need to master reading from the moment they
are born. In fact, an infant as young as six months old can already distinguish between
the sounds of his or her mother tongue and a foreign language and by the age of 2 has
mastered enough native phonemes to regularly produce 50+ words. Between the ages
of 2-3 many children learn to recognize a handful of letters.

They may enjoy singing the alphabet song and reciting nursery rhymes, which helps
them develop an awareness of the different sounds that make-up English words. As fine
motor skills advance, so does the ability to write, draw and copy shapes, which
eventually can be combined to form letters.
There are plenty of ways parents can encourage pre-literacy skills in children, including
pointing out letters, providing ample opportunities for playing with language, and
fostering an interest in books. It can be helpful to ask a child about their day and talk
through routines to assist with the development of narrative skills.

Visit your local library and bookstore as often as possible. The more kids read with their
parents, teachers and caregivers, the more books become a familiar and favourite
pastime. Young children should be encouraged to participate in reading by identifying
the pictures they recognize and turning the pages.

1. The Phonics Method

The smallest word-part that carries meaning is a phoneme. While we typically think of
letters as the building blocks of language, phonemes are the basic units of spoken
language. In an alphabetic language like English, sounds are translated into letters and
letter combinations in order to represent words on the page. Reading thus relies on an
individual’s ability to decode words into a series of sounds. Encoding is the opposite
process and is how we spell.

The Phonics Method is concerned with helping a child learn how to break words down
into sounds, translate sounds into letters and combine letters to form new words.
Phonemes and their corresponding letters may be taught based on their frequency in
English words. Overall there are 40 English phonemes to master and different programs
take different approaches to teaching them. Some materials introduce word families
with rhyming words grouped together. It’s also possible to teach similarly shaped letters
or similar sounding letters together.

The Phonics Method is one of the most popular and commonly used methods. In the
beginning progress may be slow and reading out loud halting, but eventually the
cognitive processes involved in translating between letters and sounds are automatized
and become more fluent. However, English is not always spelled the way it sounds.
This means some words can’t be sounded out and need to be learned through
memorization.

2. The Whole-word Approach

This method teaches reading at the word level. Because it skips the decoding process,
students are not sounding out words but rather learning to say the word by recognizing
its written form. Context is important and providing images can help. Familiar words
may initially be presented on their own, then in short sentences and eventually in longer
sentences. As their vocabulary grows, children begin to extract rules and patterns that
they can use to read new words.

Reading via this method is an automatic process and is sometimes called sight-reading.
After many exposures to a word children will sight-read the majority of the vocabulary
they encounter, only sounding out unfamiliar terms.
 Sight-reading is faster and facilitates reading comprehension because it frees up
cognitive attention for processing new words. That’s why it is often recommended that
children learn to read high frequency English vocabulary in this way. The Dolch word list
is a set of terms that make-up 50-75% of the vocabulary in English children’s books.

3. The Language Experience Method

Learning to read nonsense words in a black-and-white activity book is not always the
most effective approach. The Language Experience Method of teaching reading is
grounded in personalized learning where the words taught are different for every child.
The idea is that learning words that the child is already familiar with will be easier.

Teachers and parents can then create unique stories that use a child’s preferred words
in different configurations. Children can draw pictures that go with them and put them
together in a folder to create a special reading book. You can look for these words in
regular children’s fiction and use them to guess at the meaning of unknown words met
in a context – an important comprehension strategy that will serve kids in later grades.

8 Tips for parents

No matter which method or methods you use, keep these tips in mind:

1. Read as often as possible. Develop a routine where you read a book together in the
morning or in the evening. You may start by reading aloud but have the child participate
by running a finger along the text. Make reading fun, include older children and reserve
some family reading time where everyone sits together with their own book to read for
half an hour—adults included!

2. Begin with reading material that the child is interested in. If he or she has a favourite subject,
find a book full of related vocabulary to boost motivation.

3. Let the child choose his or her own book. When an individual has agency and can
determine how the learning process goes, he or she is more likely to participate. Take
children to libraries or bookstores and encourage them to explore books and decide
what they would like to read.

4. Consider graded readers. As a child develops his or her reading ability, you will want to
increase the challenge of books moving from materials that present one word per page
to longer and longer sentences, and eventually, paragraph level text. If you’re not sure a
book is at the right level for your child, try counting how many unfamiliar words it
contains per page. You can also take the opposite approach and check to see how
many Dolch words are present.
5. Talk about what you see on the page. Use books as a way to spur conversation around a
topic and boost vocabulary by learning to read words that are pictured but not written.
You can keep a special journal where you keep a record of the new words. They will be
easier to remember because they are connected through the story.

6. Avoid comparisons with peers. Every child learns to read at his or her own pace. Reading
is a personal and individual experience where a child makes meaning and learns more
about how narrative works as he or she develops stronger skills.

7. Don’t put too much pressure. Forcing a child into reading when he or she is not ready can
result in negative reactions and cause more harm than good.

8. Do speak with your child’s teacher. If your child doesn’t enjoy reading and struggles with
decoding and/or sight reading, it may be due to a specific learning difficulty. It’s advised
you first discuss it with your child’s teacher who may recommend an assessment by a
specialist.

Learn more
Learning difficulties

If reading is particularly challenging and your child isn’t making progress there could be
a specific learning difficulty such as dyslexia or ADHD that is causing the
problem. Conditions like dyslexia are hereditary and it’s not unlikely that another family
member will also have a hard time with reading. Visual processing, visual impairment
and hearing impairment can also cause reading difficulties.

In the case of the latter, if you can’t hear the words it’s hard to identify the sounds inside
them and develop an understanding of phonics. Hearing impairment based reading
difficulties are a common issue in teaching children with Down syndrome to read.
Reading Intervention Plan
Informal Reading Inventory Results

Student: K to 3

Grade Level Results:

Independent: 2-2.5

Instructional: 2.5-3

Frustration: 3-3.5

The test:

The informal reading inventory is an individually administered informal literacy assessment. This test assesses reading competency

in the areas of prior knowledge/prediction, word recognition, fluency, and comprehension. This assessment enables teachers

to make instructional decisions that are aligned with the state standards and deeply connected to the students’ achievement

and learning needs.

Findings:

 Prior Knowledge and Predictions

Student’s predictions were relevant to each passage and to her life experiences.

 Word recognition.
Student read three word lists each with excellence. On the third grade level, she began to struggle.
On the third grade passage, she frustrated out in the area of word recognition. This means she had over
15 miscues when reading the passage aloud (she had 22 in total.) It was on this passage that she also began
to use finger pointing to track words. She had trouble decoding, as compared to answering comprehension
questions. She does self-correct, however, when the text grew longer and more complex, her capacity for
self-correcting decreased. In the last two passages, she didn’t recognize that her miscues hindered her
understanding of what she was reading.

 Fluency
Student read aloud with an even tone, using a monotonous voice. From the 3rd grade passage on, she used
finger pointing to track the text. Sometimes she read word by word without phrasing or intonation that
would have enhanced the meaning. At times, she ignored punctuation and read from one sentence to the
next and exclamation points were not read with expression.

 Retelling and Summary Statement

Student had a unique method for retelling what she has read. She retold about the passages by mimicking
the author’s style, even seeming to memorize lines from the story. Memorization came through as strength.
This quick memorization was most noticeable in the lower texts. As complexity increased, she struggled to
remember the language of the story. This type of retelling did not include interpretation and paraphrasing;
she did not use her own words to describe what she has read.
  Comprehension Question Responses
Responding to comprehension questions was the student’s strength. She adequately answered questions
that are considered “from head to text” type of questions. She had some errors when responding to
“from the text” question types about specific details. I noticed with these questions she would respond by
using her own life experience instead of relying on evidence from the story. Sometimes she explained her
own life experiences and what she knew about the topic instead of what actually happened in the text.

For each passage she read (up to grade level 5), she struggled with “putting it together” questions types.
“Putting it together” questions ask the reader to combine two or more explicitly stated facts from the text
that may be different parts of the text, but are connected. At times, this information has to be deduced by
the reader, and represents higher level thinking.

 Emotional Status
The student became fatigued after working on 3 passages each day (testing took two days). This is typical for
any student. When working on level 3, she said: “See, I don’t really get it that much. Sorta the beginning, but
the end not that much…..I wish I had a mind reader, just for reading.”She was aware that the 3 rd grade reading
was more difficult for her, particularly the task of making meaning while decoding. She was also not interested
in learning the results of the assessment.

Conclusion
These strategies should be evaluated for how applicable they are to the day’s lesson. Not all strategies can be used in all lessons.
The student needs to also be aware of what they are being taught, why they are being taught it, when to use it, and how to use it.
While still in the learning stage, they student should be reminded of the strategies that she can employ; they should be referred
to often throughout the year. The student should have visual references such as posters or charts that they can continually refer
to independently. In order to evaluate for effectiveness of strategies being used, they student should be re-evaluated in three
months. In order to show implementation of intervention plan, the teacher should document when and how the student was
taught the strategy and the results of such instruction. Lastly, you should identify which strategy can be used for the lesson,
before you teach it.