1. Not all non-readers are
learning disabled; some are just instructionally disabled
Teacher often regard students who cannot
read as having learning disability. In Every classroom in the elementary school,
teachers are confronted with children who are having difficulty learning to read. Once teachers fail to teach that child, most often than not, they would assume that these children are academically poor or needs special attention to be able to read. In light of this scenario, teachers should first ask themselves several questions before surrendering to the fact that these children are
reading disabled.
2. Reading intervention starts at an early age.
Reading should be done sooner than later because of the importance of reading. Learning to read is a basic skill that will be used for a lifetime and for a non-reader to remain at that state for a longer period of time might have difficulty in coping with various challenges at each stage of his development. To solve a word problem, one must read the problem itself, to know the rules; one must read the rules and so on. Once a
child is seen to be slow in coping up with literacy activities, teachers must pay more attention to that child to intervene with the risk at hand.
3. Reading begins and ends at home.
Reading shouldn’t start at school, it should start at home. Nowadays, because of the very busy status of parents, the tendency is parents depend more on the
school in teaching their child the basics of literacy. What they fail to consider is their importance in teaching reading. Reading would not be successful if the school is the only institution working with it. Home literacy experiences prior to school entry, are critically important in later school success. There is a lot of difference between a child who reads at home and a child who doesn’t.
4. Read and Reread.
A good book should not be read only once. Rereading should help the child to be familiar with the text/words in the book or to understand the text more. Rereading also can be use to assess the if there are changes with the way the child reads. The child could self-correct himself due to rereading of texts and reading of new texts. 5. Choose books appropriate to the level or capability of the child. In choosing a book, the teacher must be aware of what the child can read. The book must be not too easy and not too difficult but just right for the child. If the child showed progress, the teacher could make use of a more sophisticated book for him/her to read. The child should also choose the book that s/he wants to read and so as the teacher.
6. Learning to read English language depends on the language used by the Reader. There''s a lot of difference in teaching a Filipino or Korean how to read English language than teaching English-users how to read. Teacher must first teach the native language before teaching a foreign language. Filipino children have difficulty learning because they''re only sounding the letters not creating meaning out of it. There must be enough attention in giving lectures in English or in practicing English language in the classroom to help the child develop meaning with English words. Name tags are also useful in the classroom. Teachers could label the things that can be found in the classroom to add something to the vocabulary of early readers.
7. Know the strategy that the child uses when reading a text.
In teaching the child how to read, the teacher must know how the child reads. The teacher must observe, analyze and hypothesize about the way the child handles the text. From the teacher’s observation, the teacher could set-up a plan on what to teach a child. The teacher must constantly analyze if there are significant changes in the way the child reads to know if the plan is effective or not. 8. Learning takes time.
Each child has specific time in learning how to read. If the child doesn’t learn the skill compared to the average students in the class, it may be presumed that the child might need more time to learn the skill. The teacher must make the necessary adjustments to help the students cope up with his/her average classmates.
9. Learning must be from dependency to being independent.
Since classroom teachers will have limited time to interact with individual pupils, children must be able to work independently with print in both reading and writing. Because of this the teacher must inculcate to the child strategies of independent problem-solver. Independence grows out of knowing the “how to” of reading and writing as one reads and writes with others.
10. Active interaction between the school and home of the struggling reader.
Home must work together with the school in making reading easy for the child. Parents should provide literacy environment at home for the child to be attracted to reading. Parents could buy books for the child to read. The teacher could give suggestions on what to buy or what the set up should be at home. Parents should also spend time reading stories to the child or in sharing literacy moments (writing, reading book) with the child. The school on the other hand must also build a literacy environment in the classroom.
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