Adapting
Instruction:
Reading is a complex
activity that requires the use and coordination of many skills simultaneously.
Difficulty with any of these abilities may result in a reading problem. The
lists below do not differentiate between different causes or types of reading
problems. You should choose strategies that are appropriate to individual
learners’ specific and unique characteristics. Remember to work with their
strengths to bypass disabilities or develop abilities in weaker areas.
Strategies
for Reading Instruction:
Discuss the purpose
of every reading activity.
Teach and provide practice with “authentic” reading tasks, using material from work or home and family.
Focus all reading activities on getting the meaning—on understanding, not just “word calling.”
Teach new words and sounds using multi-sensory strategies: the learner hears it, sees it, says it, traces it, and writes it.
Examples:
l
Build words using cards, tiles, or cubes printed with
letters, letter combinations, or syllables; then spell and read aloud before
writing
l
Have learner trace words with finger on sand paper, read
aloud, and then write it
l
Create raised letters by writing with white glue and ask
learner to trace letters with finger, read aloud, then write while saying
letters
l
Have the learner practice new vocabulary words in his
reading by writing and re-writing them, while saying the sounds
Work on building phoneme awareness (recognition of sounds within words) with listening exercises.
Example:
“Listen to these words. They all begin with the /b/ sound: bird, bank, book. What sound do they begin with? Does this word begin with the /b/ sound? Bat, bake, baby, bowl, car.”
Show visually how
sounds are blended to form words, by writing and sounding the letters one at a
time, then “sliding them together” with a finger or pencil (or use letter tiles
and slide them together).
Teach word patterns
(at, bat, cat) and letter clusters rather than isolated letters and sounds.
Teach
how
to use context clues to identify and guess at the meaning of unfamiliar
words. Demonstrate how you do this by thinking aloud. Then ask the learner to explain the context clues he/she uses.
Use reading
material with pictures and predictable stories to teach the use of these clues.
Then direct the learner to look for picture clues and make predictions when
reading other kinds of materials.
Suggest that the
learner visualize the scene or events described to improve
comprehension. Model the strategy by “thinking aloud”—reading aloud and
stopping to describe your own mental images.
Make
an
audiotape of the learner telling a personal story or experience, and then have
the story transcribed to use as a reading text (a variation on the language
experience approach).
Teach specific
comprehension strategies and demonstrate how and when to use them.
Examples:
l
Underline or highlight important ideas or facts for later
review
l
Read titles and subheadings first and think about prior
knowledge of the subject before reading
l
Read the chapter summary before starting the chapter and/or
read the end-of-chapter questions to identify important information to look for
l
Write shorthand notes or symbols in text to identify
definitions, respond to information, and note areas of confusion or questions
Teach the learner
to notice and understand features of text, like titles, chapter summaries,
subheadings, and other text organizers, such as questions followed by bulleted
lists.
Teach the meaning
of “signal” words¾first, next,
for example, therefore, in conclusion¾and demonstrate (by thinking aloud) how such words provide
clues for understanding.
Encourage the learner
to read a paragraph once for a general sense of the content and then reread for
details.
Teach the learner
to break lengthy text into smaller chunks, stopping after two or three
paragraphs and asking questions to check comprehension before reading further.
Encourage re-reading when necessary.