Teaching struggling or dyslexic readers?
Read the article below where I share my tips and experience for helping older, struggling readers.
The impact of poor reading skills on older students
If you are reading this then you are probably worried about the reading skills of someone you know. Maybe it is your child or maybe you are a teacher trying to teach reading to older students and finding it a difficult battle.
Parents are often unaware that their child has a reading problem until it becomes a problem. Everything may have seemed fine and now suddenly they have low test scores or an annual report that indicates a problem. As a private tutor this is where I usually meet these children. Parents are upset and concerned and at a loss when it comes to helping their child.
I have lost count of the number of children I have taught to read. Most of these children take to reading like ducks to water and cope perfectly well with the teaching they receive in school, learn to sound out phonetically and then move on to reading words that can’t be sounded out. They soon develop confidence, then fluency and become great readers. But this isn’t always the case and some children get left behind. There are a number of reasons for this:
Learning difficulties
Yes, some children do have learning difficulties— both diagnosed and undiagnosed—and these will impact on the ability to read fluently. However, even dyslexic students can improve their reading with the right intervention materials. I have had students diagnosed as severely dyslexic by educational psychologists and yet they still improved greatly with repeated practice. If you think your child has a learning difficulty you need so speak to the school and ask for an assessment.
Sickness and time away from school
When I worked in a school setting this was a massive factor for some students. It is very difficult to help children who are absent on a continual basis and sadly, however much you try to help, they end up with very poor reading skills. However, some of these children, with the right reading intervention, can achieve great reading. I always remember one little seven year old boy looking at me in shock and surprise as he read every word on the page as if to say “who read that?” He was lucky enough to be getting fantastic phonics teaching every day. Some older children in the school didn’t do as well sadly and this impacted not only on their reading but their whole school career and beyond.
Reading is the golden key to education. Without it, students are unable to access other areas of the curriculum – even maths. They need to be able to read and understand to make progress. Without reading ability their future lives are very limited. I have seen so many children failed in school when a simple assessment and plan could have been put into place for them to catch up and move forward with their peers. These students ALWAYS have missing phonics knowledge. I believe everyone who has the ability to read, should be able to read. I hate to think that there are older students out there who have been denied the opportunities to learn to read and I do whatever I can, every time I get a new student, to put that right.
What about the kids who fall through the net? The ones from unsupportive backgrounds. The ones who get low grades and poor reports but go unnoticed? In my experience these students— often boys— will start to realise at about the age of eight or nine that they can’t read like everyone else. This is not a recipe for good self-esteem. These students will either withdraw quietly—making themselves even more invisible than before—or they will start acting up. Disrupting lessons and being rude to teachers is a great diversion tactic taken by many of these students.
Whenever I get older students who have reading difficulties I usually start by explaining that I am there to HELP them and that although they may feel embarrassed, they do not need to and that the lesson is totally between us, no one else will know about their reading progress. I may point out that it is not their fault that they can’t read fluently but that I CAN help them and I WILL help them. If I can get their trust and get past all of this then they will make great progress. Of course, many will withdraw and some will storm off or throw stuff across the room. If you can keep them in the room and get them to engage with you, try something else other than reading. Do anything that will build a rapport between you; talk about things they like, draw, color, listen to music, do something creative or physical—whatever it takes to get them to engage with you and go slowly towards your goal. Whatever you do, DO NOT make these students read to you at this stage. It will only make things worse. Try other tactics, YOU read to THEM, just ask them to follow you as you read, point to easy words and ask them if they know them. Make it fun, use art, music, sport, flashcards, computer games, apps—anything that gets them that little bit closer to learning to read. Try and find out during these times where their problems lie.
One thing I can tell you is that all the struggling readers I have met have had missing phonics knowledge. Every. Single. Time. And I have met a LOT.
Use this SIMPLE but highly EFFECTIVE phonics assessment to test your students.
Unsure about the teaching order of phonics? Click here for free advice.
When you get to the point of engagement with your student, you will need the right reading materials. I have developed my reading resources—from the ground up—with my most struggling readers. I try to incorporate whatever it takes to help them read. My resources are very repetitive, but this works. You don’t need to re-invent the wheel, the old school methods work best with reading, they just don’t fail. You will need a willing student and lots of patience, but with that combination and the right materials you will teach them to read.
I have used these resources with great success and have helped children from 7 upwards move from the bottom of the class upwards — sometimes improving reading ages by three to four years. I have used them with young adults who have gone onto college courses and apprenticeships that they had previously been turned down for. I have helped students get into top fee-paying schools and pass tests that they previously failed, once, twice or three times. And now you can do that too.
Students that lack fluency needs lots of practice. I have found the most successful way to gain this quickly is through rhyming poetry. You can find poems online that are right for your student’s ability, from very simple to more challenging. I had fantastic success with students aged 9 upwards with this method. Often I would read it through first and they listened and followed and then I would read a line, they would repeat and so on until they could read it on their own. Students quickly gain confidence due to the rhyme patterns.
Some students will skip letters and words whilst reading, thus losing understanding and disrupting their fluency. Encourage these readers to track the words with their finger, put a ruler under the line they are reading or put your finger over the next word, blocking it, so that they can focus on the word they are reading. I tell mine to ‘bounce their eye balls on every word’, try it, it works!
I hope you have gained helpful information from this document and I hope that if you decide to purchase some of my intervention materials that they will help your students as much as they have helped mine.
Everyone should have the opportunity to read. How fantastic that you can be the facilitator in major change in that young person’s future.
Good luck and happy reading!
Caroline Henderson