Essential Reading Skills

Orton-Gillingham methods build strong, confident readers.   If your child is struggling in school, consider working with an Orton-Gillingham tutor over the summer to help them build reading confidence and a lifetime love of learning.  Don’t let them struggle for years.  Signs that a child will struggle with reading are evident in kindergarten.

The sequential part of Orton-Gillingham teaches reading skills in a direct, systematic, orderly way and including: phonemic awareness, letter recognition, concepts of print, sound/symbol relationship, word reading and spelling, syllables, fluency skills, vocabulary, and comprehension.  When a child struggles with fluency, usually one of the more fundamental building blocks, listed above, is weak.   Fluency involves the pace and accuracy of reading and prosody.  Prosody is the expression, volume, phrasing and smoothness.

Minnesota has adopted Read Well by 3rd Grade, but most of us don’t know what that means.  We read to comprehend information, but before we do that reading fluency is key and before that, other building blocks.  Today, in many of our schools children’s fluency is measured by giving them the same three grade level passages multiple times over the year and having a child read each for one minute. A recorder marks the errors a student makes and indicates the number of words the child read.  Sometimes comprehensions is tested by having the student retell the story…. but that is a different conversation.  Most research expect that a third grade child should begin the year reading grade level material at a rate of 70 or more words per minute and end the year reading 100 or more words per minute they are considered meeting their benchmark with 95% – 97% accuracy, respectively.  The numbers for the rate of reading represent the 50th percentile.  If a students falls below the midpoint they should be receiving additional intentional support in the area that they have demonstrated a weakness in that comes before fluency on the continuum of learning to read.  If your child is not meeting the midpoint by the end of third grade, fourth grade will be significantly more challenging than previous years.  I could argue that for some students meeting the middle is even too lower of a threshold.

I’m happy to talk with any family about reading, if I can’t help you, I can often direct you to someone that can.  Please feel free to call me at 218-340-7393.

 

 

 

iPad Apps for Struggling Reading

from http://www.educatorstechnology.com

February 1, 2014
Whether you’re the parent of a child with a reading disability or an educator that works with learning disabled students on a daily basis, you’re undoubtedly always looking for new tools to help these bright young kids meet their potential and work through their disability. While there are numerous technologies out there that can help, perhaps one of the richest is the iPad, which offers dozens of applications designed to meet the needs of learning disabled kids and beginning readers alike. Here, we highlight just a few of the amazing apps out there that can help students with a reading disability improve their skills not only in reading, writing, and spelling, but also get a boost in confidence and learn to see school as a fun, engaging activity, not a struggle.

Helpful Tools

These tools are useful for both educators and students with reading disabilities alike, aiding in everything from looking up a correct spelling to reading text out loud.

Speak It!: Speak It! is a great text-to-speech solution that can allow students with reading disabilities to get a little help with reading when they need it.
Talk to Me: Talk to Me is another text to speech application. It can be used to read words out loud as they are typed, which can help students to better correlate the letters and words with how they’re pronounced.
Dragon Dictation: Dragon Dictation works in reverse of the two apps we just listed. Instead of reading text out loud, the applicationwrites down spoken text. For students who struggle with writing, it can be a great way for them to jot down ideas or get help learning.Merriam-Webster Dictionary: If spelling is a problem, it’s always a good idea to have a really great dictionary on hand. This app from Merriam-Webster can provide that.
Ditionary.com: If Dictionary.com is your go-to place for definitions and spelling help, this app can be a great way to bring that functionality to your iPad or iPhone.
Prizmo: With Prizmo, users can scan in any kind of text document and have the program read it out loud, which can be a big help to those who struggle with reading.
Flashcards for iPad: This app makes it easy to study words, spelling, and other things that young and LD readers might need help with.
Soundnote: Using Soundnote, you can record drawings, notes, and audio all at once, balancing reading-based skills with those that are auditory and visual.
For more apps see
http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2014/03/40-ipad-apps-for-struggling-reading-and.html

New Tutor Consortium

Tutoring Duluth is joining a new group of area tutors.  This new cohort is a group of like-minded tutors meeting the needs of students on an individual bases. Most important, for us as tutors, this will help us help our students, but we will also be able to support each other and grow as tutors.  In addition to the reading and writing support I offer, one of the cohort tutor’s does high school and college level support for students in math and science and another is a professional writer.  These tutors will be able to support students in preparation for the ACT/SAT as well as day-to-day academia.  We are scattered around the Duluth-Superior area and the Arrowhead region making it easier for families to find conveniently located services.  Look for the new website….

TwinPortsTutoring.org …..coming soon.

I’m so excited to be part of this group.

October is Dyslexia Awareness Month

 

Film Screening– Tuesday, October 29

12:00pm-1:00pm,

and

7:00pm-8:30pm

Lake Superior College 

Room S1981 

(Parking near the S bldg. entrance)

Q&A follows 7:00pm showing 

Refreshments Provided! 

Co-sponsored by

Lake Superior College Disability Services & PASSED

For additional information contact Deb Dwyer                                                 [email protected] – 218-340-7393 or PASSED on Facebook

Individuals with disabilities may request reasonable accommodations by contacting LSC’s Disablility Services at (218) 733-7650 or [email protected]

Upcoming Dyslexia Workshop

DYSLEXIA:  WHAT A PARENT NEEDS TO KNOW

In this workshop students will learn the definition of dyslexia and reading difficulties including signs/symptoms, accommodations, 504 plans vs. the IEP, and the importance of the paper trail.  Discussion will also include current research, assessment, remediation, and assistive technology.

Location: Denfeld High School                                                                                          When:    Tues., Sept 24, 2013  ~   6:30-8:30 PM

Cost:      $15.00

To register contact:  Deb Dwyer – 218-340-7393 – [email protected]  or http://www.duluthcommunityed.org/

Also PASSED (Parent Advocating for Student Success in EDudation)                                  Lunch Gathering                                                                                                                   Noon @ Wed. Sept. 18th                                                                                                Vineyard Church – Lunch available for $5.00 or bring your own.

Dysgraphia Workshop – Wed. October 8th at 6:30

From ncld.org — just in time for a new school year

Back-to-School for Parents of Students With LD

Back to School Guide - Students LDThe start of the school year is a busy time for students, parents and teachers alike. This guide will help you better advocate for the needs of your child with LD so she isn’t lost in the shuffle. Learn how – and why – to become an effective advocate and ally for your child with LD. From understanding your child’s disability and special education law, to managing your emotions, to communicating effectively, this guide covers it!

What you’ll find inside

  • Tips for building and maintaining strong, positive relationships with your child’s teacher and others at school involved in her education.
  • Five essential skills that will help you advocate effectively for your child at school.
  • An overview of your child’s legal rights to assessment and assistance with a (possible) learning disability – and your right to participate in the process.
  • Suggestions for making the most of your parent-teacher conference before, during, and after the meeting.
  • A handy worksheet to help you prepare for successful meetings with key players at your child’s school.
  • Recommended resources to expand your knowledge on this topic.
icon_guidesDownload your Back-to-School for Parents of Students with LD (13 pages), print, and go! (Note: You’ll need the Adobe Reader/Acrobat Reader to download the file.)


This toolkit was made possible by a grant from Oak Foundation.

Dyslexia: More Than a Score

By Dr. Richard Selznick  (http://www.drselz.com/blog)

Saturday, June 8, 2013

***Note:  (This blog was published some time ago, but due to a problem with the website it needed to be reposted.  It has been revised.)

I had the good fortune to recently take part on a panel during a symposium on dyslexia sponsored by the grassroots parenting group, Decoding Dyslexia: NJ.  Dr. Sally Shaywitz, the author of “Overcoming Dyslexia” was the keynote speaker.  While talking about assessing dyslexia, Dr. Shaywitz said something that really struck me.  She noted, “Dyslexia is not a score.”

That statement is right on the money.

Scores are certainly involved in the assessment of dyslexia.   Tests such as the Woodcock Reading Mastery Test, the Tests of Word Reading Efficiency and the Comprehensive Tests of Phonological Processing, among other standardized measures yield reliable and valid standard scores, grade equivalents and percentiles.  These scores can be helpful markers.  However, the scores often don’t tell the whole story.

Here’s one example:

Jacob, a fifth grader, is in the 80th%ile of verbal intelligence and his nonverbal score is in the 65% percentile, meaning Jacob’s a pretty bright kid.  Jacob’s word identification standard score on the Woodcock was a 94 placing him solidly in the average range, with similar word attack and passage comprehensions scores.  Effectively, both of the scores (Word Identification and Word Attack), placed Jacob just below the 50th percentile, but solidly in the average range.

Jacob’s scores would not have gotten the school too excited.  Yet, here’s what I told the mom.

“There’s a lot of evidence in Jacob’s assessment that suggests that he is dyslexic.  Even though his scores are fundamentally average, he was observed to be very inefficient in the way that he read.  For example, while Jacob read words like “institute,” and “mechanic” correctly, he did so with a great deal of effort.  It was hard for Jacob to figure out the words.  For those who are not dyslexic, word reading is smooth and effortless.  Those words would be a piece of cake for non-dyslexic fifth graders.  They were not for Jacob.”

“Even more to the point, was the way that Jacob read passages out loud.  Listening to Jacob read was almost painful.  Every time he came upon a large word that was not all that common (such as, hysterical, pedestrian, departure) he hesitated a number of seconds and either stumbled on the right word or substituted a nonsense word.  An example was substituting the word “ostrich” for “orchestra.”  The substitution completely changed the meaning.

“Finally, the two other areas of concern involved the way that Jacob wrote, as well as his spelling.  While Jacob could memorize for the spelling test, his spelling and his open ended-writing were very weak.  The amount of effort that Jacob put into writing a small informal paragraph was considerable.  There also wasn’t one sentence that was complete.”

“Even though Jacob is unlikely to be classified in special education, I think he has a learning disability that matches the definition of dyslexia as it is known clinically (see  International Dyslexia Association website:  www.ida.org ).  The scores simply do not tell the story.”

“Dyslexia is not a score.”

Takeaway Point:

You need to look under the hood to see what’s going on with the engine.  With dyslexia, you can’t just look at the scores and make a conclusion.

“Learning Disablities’ movement turns 50

From THE WASHINGTON POST

 by Valerie Strauss on April 12, 2013 at 4:00 am

brainIt was 50 years ago this month that the movement to help students with learning disabilities began. Here’s what happened. This post was written by Jim Baucom, professor of education, has been teaching for more than a quarter of a century at Landmark College in Putney, Vermont.

By Jim Baucom

This month, we will commemorate an important historical event that opened doors for generations of students with learning differences and, in essence, may have made Landmark College, where I teach possible. At Landmark, we specialize in teaching students who learn differently, using methods designed specifically for those with dyslexia, ADHD and Autism Spectrum Disorders.

Fifty years ago, on April 6, 1963, a group of concerned parents convened a conference in Chicago to discuss a shared frustration:  they all had children who were struggling in school, the cause of which was generally believed to be laziness, lack of intelligence, or just bad parenting.  This group of parents knew better.  They understood that their children were bright and just as eager to learn as any other child, but that they needed help and alternative teaching approaches to succeed in school.

One of the speakers at that conference was Dr. Samuel Kirk, a respected psychologist and eventual pioneer in the field of special education.  In his speech, Kirk used the term “learning disabilities,” which he had coined a few months earlier, to describe the problems these children faced, even though he, himself, had a strong aversion to labels.  The speech had a galvanizing effect on the parents.  They asked Kirk if they could adopt the term “learning disabilities,” not only to describe their children but to give a name to a national organization they wanted to form.  A few months later, the Association for Children with Learning Disabilities was formed, now known as the Learning Disabilities Association of America, still the largest and most influential organization of its kind.

These parents also asked Kirk to join their group and serve as a liaison to Washington, working for changes in legislation, educational practices, and social policy.  Dr. Kirk agreed and, luckily, found a receptive audience in the White House. Perhaps because his own sister, Rosemary, suffered from a severe intellectual disability, President Kennedy named Kirk to head the new Federal Office of Education’s Division of Handicapped Children.

In this position, Dr. Kirk helped persuade Congress to write laws requiring schools to provide an appropriate education for children with learning disabilities, and his influence in Washington helped create financing for the training of teachers so students received the expert guidance they needed.

At the time of that historic meeting in Chicago, the most powerful force for change in America was the Civil Rights movement.  Today, we would do well to remember that the quest for equal opportunity and rights for all was a driving force for those who desired the same opportunity for their children who learned differently.

Five months after the Chicago meeting, Martin Luther King Jr. led the march on Washington where he delivered his inspiring “I Have a Dream” speech. Twelve years later, The Education for All Handicapped Children Act was enacted, guaranteeing a free and appropriate education for all children.

Special services for students who learn differently began to flourish, giving those who had previously felt little hope an opportunity to learn and succeed in school.

The ripple effect kicked in, and these bright young people set their sights on college, a goal that would have been rare in 1963.  This led to the historic founding of Landmark College 27 years ago, as the first college in the U.S. created specifically for students with learning differences.

In Lewis Carroll’s Through The Looking Glass, Humpty Dumpty emphatically declares:  “When I use a word it means just what I choose it to mean – neither more nor less.”  If only that were true of diagnostic categories, like “learning disabilities.”  Our students are bright and creative learners who ultimately show no limitations in what they can achieve either academically or in their professional careers, so we prefer “learning differences.” It’s reassuring to know that even Dr. Kirk thought the term did not fully capture the capabilities and needs of these unique learners.

At our campus celebration, we won’t parse labels, or any other words for that matter.  But instead, we will recognize the actions taken by a small group of concerned parents gathered in Chicago a half century ago who only wanted their children to receive a better education. Today, we call that advocacy and it’s worth celebrating.

Conversation about Dyslexia

6:00 PM at Barnes and Noble at the Miller Hill Mall in Duluth, MN, on Tuesday, October22.  Conversation will be driven by the participants that attend.  Topics that are expected to be discussed are signs of dyslexia, potential classroom accommodations, informal assessment verses comprehensive educational evaluation, assistive technology, and more.