MAKING STUDENTS WITH
SIGNIFICANT DISABILITIES MOTIVATED AND SKILLED READERS
Presenter(s)
Jason
Burke
Don Johnston Incorporated
26799 W. Commerce Drive
Volo IL 60073
Day Phone: 847-740-0749
Email: jburke@donjohnston.com
In
this changing environment of No Child Left Behind, even our students with
significant disabilities will see raised expectations in the area of reading
and content knowledge. Participants will learn how to choose text that is
considerate of the needs of students with significant disabilities, use it in a
way that gets reading results and get students involved in meaningful
content-based curriculum.
The
National Reading Panel (2000) and the Office of Elementary and Secondary
Education agree that students must become skilled in the following areas of
reading to become experienced readers:
Phonemic awareness
Phonics
Fluency
Vocabulary
Comprehension
Beginning
readers begin to build a vocabulary before they begin recognizing sounds, letters
or words. Vocabulary knowledge is an important part of word identification and
comprehension. There are different methods for building word knowledge, direct
and indirect. By using an indirect approach, teachers can expose beginning
readers to vocabulary words across various contexts. This provides the
opportunity for students to infer the meaning through the context in which they
encountered it, not through definition. Enrichment Texts, which can be found in
the Start—to—Finish. Literacy Starters books, are authored to motivate students
to experience engaging content and considerate text through multiple repeated
readings. As students interact with the text, their oral language skills become
stronger and stronger as they talk about the pictures and make text-to-self
connections with the content being presented in text.
Attending
directly to print also supports students in developing their vocabulary and
oral language skills. They understand that print (words) carries the meaning,
not pictures. The Transitional Text used in each Literacy Starters set was
designed specifically for this purpose. Word—by—word highlighting helps
students with directionality and a one—to— one correspondence between written
and spoken words. A second fluent reading of the passage by phrase helps
students see how the individual words form connected text.
In
addition to supporting the important task of learning concepts about print,
Transitional Texts also support students with developing their phonological
awareness. Students are required to take an active role in reading with the
computer in the read with me version of the book. The computer silently
highlights word-by—word as a cue for students to read the words aloud or in
their head, then provides auditory feedback for confirmation.
As
students begin to recognize new words, the Conventional Texts provide an avenue
for students to practice reading connected text with comprehension. This helps
students with their ability to read text automatically and with accuracy because
the word usage and the variability of sentence structures have the appropriate
difficulty for students with significant disabilities who are beginning
readers. Students read these books multiple times to achieve fluent reading,
which then promotes students to decode and comprehend simultaneously.
Combining
the three text types, Enrichment, Transitional and Conventional Texts, can
prove to be a powerful method for reaching students beginning reading goals.
Educators can use Start-to—Finish Literacy Starters to craft a strong plan that
incorporates scientifically— based reading research and reading throughout the
curriculum to get students on track for the high-stakes accountability in today’s
classrooms.
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