By Hollis Dannaham, M.Ed.
Dear Hollis,
My fifth grade son is reading almost two years behind his peers. He understands book discussions but while he is reading he often skips over words or mumbles through them. What can I do to help him catch up to his peers?
Mumbling in Massachusetts
Dear Mumbling,
Many times children who struggle with decoding (sounding out of words) memorize whole words so they can keep up in the younger grades. However, when they get into upper elementary school and are faced with multisyllabic unknown words they get stuck because they never mastered the "code" of reading. The "code" consists of two parts, phonemic awareness (processing the sounds of language orally) and phonics (matching sound to symbol). To determine if this is the case, search on the internet for "nonsense word test." Have your son read through these nonsense words as if they were real words. You will then see if there are holes in his phonics knowledge and specifically where those holes are. If this proves to be his struggle, then you can bring this information to his school to see if they have a reading teacher who can provide him with an Orton-Gillingham based intervention group. If not, you can find a tutor who is trained in this method. If his decoding proves to be fine, then I would recommend finding a reading specialist who can assess him properly to discover the underlying cause of his reading difficulty.
Keep me posted,
Hollis
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Dear Hollis,
I am a principal in a K-8 school and I notice that my students are not writing in a clear and cohesive manner. We use the writing workshop model for our writing instruction. Can you suggest something that we could add to our writing curriculum to improve students' writing achievement across the grades.
Underachieving in Brooklyn
Dear Underachieving,
This is a common issue in many of the schools I consult with. Writing is a very complex task that requires the orchestration of many skills. In addition, many teachers are not trained in how to teach writing effectively. There is a great research based program that you can integrate into your workshop model and provides many free resources online. Go to www.thinksrsd.com to get more information. I have seen significant results using this program. Please note that I am not connected to SRSD in any way.
In Service,
Hollis
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After 30 years serving complex learners of all ages as a special education teacher, reading specialist, school leader, and clinical learning specialist, Hollis Dannaham, M.Ed., now consults with schools to design intervention and special education programs, coaches teachers and administrators, and provides professional development workshops. Please send your questions to hdannaham@gmail.com.
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