Write on! Reading Help

Reading is important, there is no question. Many students find reading to be difficult for a variety of reasons. This course is designed to help your child discover what factors are making reading difficult in terms of their own learning style, and to go back to basics by studying the six syllable patterns in order to develop not only a better understanding of how words function, but also to promote recognition of these patterns in new words. The following is a generalized schedule for the class. Please note that because this is an ongoing course and is meant to be individualized to your child's needs, the timeline itself will be very flexible. I will also be reviewing material with each class, since review is vital to learning.

**It is also important to understand that reading is an ongoing, lifelong challenge that must be practiced on a daily basis in order for a person to improve and retain skills. This is why I request that parents actively engage in helping their child with daily practice in short increments to reinforce developing skills. Each student's learning style and struggles are unique, and progress with reading improvement is generally a slow process, so small successes are those to be celebrated.

Week One (eg. Week of September 12): Individual Learning Needs / Reading Blockages / What is a Syllable?

-- discuss reading struggles, what has worked, what has not
-- guided discussion on how student best learns: visual, auditory, tactile
-- discuss any learning differences and accommodations that student has made for own learning.
-- student interests, reading platforms (eg. novel vs graphic novel), preferred genres
-- importance of daily reading practice; use of online games for decoding; games for cell phone; board games for interactive reading remediation
-- what is a syllable? why is it important to know these? pattern recognition as reading strategy
-- types of syllables

Week 2 (eg. Week of September 19): Different Syllable Types

-- types of syllables
-- practice with syllables

Week 3 (eg. Week of September 26): Decoding Words

-- practice chunking words: decoding unfamiliar words, spelling unfamiliar words

Week 4 (eg. Week of October 3): Decoding Full Sentences

-- read full sentences: what to do when you read a sentence and encounter an unfamiliar word? decode, then re-read sentence

Week 5 and on (times will vary depending on learners in class): Decoding Paragraphs / Understanding Words in Context of Sentence and Paragraph / Reading Comprehension Strategies for Larger Texts


*Because each student is different, progression to next steps from decoding to reading comprehension will vary.