👋Hello everyone, my name is Mr. Malcolm and I have been working with students for nearly 7 years now. I have primarily focused my time and efforts on helping students improve their reading abilities by creating reading assessments and evaluations to help identify what each student is struggling with the most. This way we can truly help each student improve their reading skills by identifying the root problem and targeting the lessons from there.

❗Note: First time student's will have a reading assessment evaluation for their first lesson to help identify which areas they are needing assistance in. Parent's will be sent a follow-up message with their child's reading scores and suggestions from the teacher.❗

Here are some examples of things we may cover in the class (depending on the student's reading skills).

🏃‍♂️Fluency: (Speed, Accuracy and Expression)
-If a student is struggling in fluency it could be for a multitude of reasons. They may be struggling decoding the sounds in a word, they might take pauses between each word or maybe they keep getting distracted and looking up every now and again. In this class my goal as an educator is to identify those areas and begin working on those key points to help your student become a proficient and fluent reader. Some of the main areas that we may work on to improve fluency in class will depend on each students area of weakness but here are some possible strategies we may implement in class.

1️⃣Rereading:
-Students who are struggling with accuracy by skipping, adding or replacing words may benefit from realizing when they are doing this by practicing some re-reading drills where they will read a passage over and over until they are reaching a certain accuracy rating. This may help students learn to slow down and really focus on each word instead of assuming the next few words and skimming the passages.

2️⃣ Phonics:
-Many times when a student is struggling with fluency it is because they might actually be struggling with decoding and pronouncing the words, which is not a speed problem but more of a phonics problem. Students who are struggling with pronouncing simple words such as (mad, made) or even more complex words such as (ambiguity, credibility) might need some reinforcement in vowel identification, pronunciation, syllable break down, diphthongs etc. Many times these skills are taught to a certain measure but if they are not "Mastered" then more complex reading will be significantly difficult.

3️⃣ Expression:
- Expression is a very important factor when reading proficiently and often times is overlooked and not focused on, leaving children to read in a monotone and distant voice that doesn't allow them to fully enjoy or engage with the story they are reading. Learning how to identify the right expression for different stories does require a level of comprehension but when learned correctly it can significantly improve their reading fluency, rhythm, comprehension and pronunciation.

📖Comprehension:
- Many students may struggle with comprehension in some form. Sometimes they might be great with multiple choice questions but struggle with summarization. Sometimes they are great with both of those but needs assistance with answering open ended questions that requires them to think more. While others may be doing well in many areas of comprehension but they are now ready for more complex sentence structures which requires much focus and knowledge from the student in order to properly comprehend what was read. In this class students may begin learning multiple different strategies and concepts to help them begin comprehending what they are reading on a higher level! Here are a few strategies your student may learn in class.

1️⃣ Summarization:
-Students who are struggling with summarizing the passages are normally finding it difficult to properly organize and retain all the information into bite sized chunks. Something we may go over in class is helping the students implement structure into their reading pattern by using graphic organizers such as story maps, venn-diagrams, chain of events and other strategies, while other students may benefit more form targeted questions throughout the reading to help them identify the main important pieces throughout the text.

2️⃣ Story Knowledge:
- Students who are struggling with following the storyline or retaining the information from what they read may benefit in learning strategies such as learning how to use prior knowledge, making inferences, self monitoring, forming mental pictures and also practicing summarization. These skills are essential for students to properly understand what is happening in the story while also teaching them to be self aware of if they are actually understanding the passages or if they need to re-read it and identify what area is not making sense.

3️⃣ Figurative Language and Complex sentences:
- There are many students who might be doing well in other areas but may struggle with understanding figurative language or complex sentence structures. In this class students may be able to practice learning and identifying the different types of figurative language and breaking down the hidden meaning behind them. For example they might read a story about a boy fighting an army of giants only to find out he was just cutting down grass... and later they may found out that the grass represents something completely different. While other students may benefit from studying syntax and identifying word meaning through root words or the surrounding context. They may also benefit from identifying the nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc. which may seem simple at first but within a complex sentence it can get a little puzzling properly following this.

If you are looking to help your student improve in any of these areas in reading, then Lord willing I am looking forward to teaching you child soon!

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❗If you are looking for a less expensive class or unable to find a time that fits your schedule then please consider these group classes! :)❗

⬇️3rd, 4th & 5th Grade⬇️
https://outschool.com/classes/reading-comprehension-3rd-4th-5th-grade-MakT4URn

⬇️Middle School⬇️
https://outschool.com/classes/reading-comprehension-middle-school-zWmqWhy3