I have been asked my opinion about a difficult problem facing a learner in the US. Her tutor, Lynda, has done remarkable work in a short time, bringing up the girl's decoding skills. The problem seems to be language skills and vocabulary, now that decoding is in place. The girl repeated 2nd grade and Lynda is afraid her student won't pass the 3rd.
There is written test that students must take to pass the year, but this little girl's vocabulary and language skills are so weak she won't be able to cope with the demands of the test. Lynda feels she has an 8 month window to try to help this girl develop the language, grammar and vocabulary necessary to pass the test- never mind to function fully in her community. The test situation must be front and center as it can mean the difference between the girl being one or two years behind.This is unfortunate, but it seems to be the reality.
These are my opinions based on my own experience, and I would welcome anyone else out there who has some suggestions for Lynda. First, vocabulary is absolutely necessary for reading to develop properly. It doesn't matter how well someone decodes a word- if they have a limited vocabulary they won't recognize what they have read as a meaningful word. I call that recognition the "aha" in decoding. We sound out a word, trying different syllable divisions, vowel sounds, and then when we realize we have just said an English word that we know, there is a moment of triumph- a little "aha!" that's it! Children with poor vocab development don't experience the "aha" very much. This is sad of course because rich vocabulary is the colour in our reading!
Teaching vocabulary is really difficult the older a child gets. It is nearly impossible to take an inventory of what the child doesn't know. The little girl in question would be 8 or 9 years old I assume? So, it's important to jump on it now. Each year school children are introduced to roughly 3000 new vocabulary words. She has a long row to hoe!
I would suggest first testing her knowledge of basic concepts. Whether you use a test or a published program (Linguisystems has lots of material on Basic Concepts) it would be good to fill those in first.
Then, the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test might give you an idea of what words she is missing. It's hard to do much with that, but it would give you something definite to teach to.
The Folks Sentence Builder is a sentence and grammar building kit that I used to use in the public system. It teaches the different grammatical structures we use in our speech and writing. There would be a whole section on using the present progressive, for example. "I am running" "The dog is eating" and includes using adjectives, prepositions, objects etc. (I may be showing my age- there may be something more current than this!) I liked this kit because it worked from pictures and kids usually found it fun.
Of course, it will be hard to make up for the lack of reading to her that has occured, but this would be a must from now until March. If the mom doesn't have the time, perhaps an older student could be enlisted to help. I can't think of anything you could do with this other than to have the older child stop and ask frequently,
"do you know what that is?" and stop for a brief discussion.
I have had limited success using published vocabulary study books, as I mentioned before, it's hard to take an inventory of what someone doesn't know. Having said that, I have used vocabulary books by Stech-Vaughn, and they might help in this situation- it seems that the little girl is almost language deprived.
I am a learning consultant for a Distributed Learning (over the internet and some home visits) school called SelfDesign. I will ask for some assistance on this issue from some of my colleagues there, and report back if I find anything more!
This page had some good insights about teaching vocabulary. I am not advocating for their program, but this page had good info on it, particularly the info about the Matthew affect.
http://www.balancedreading.com/vocabulary.html
I hope I have represented your concerns accurately Lynda. If anyone wants to read the entire description of the issue, see comment #3 under Why don't teachers...
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I wanted to give you an update on the student that I described in this post - the 3rd grader who was struggling with reading. If you will recall she is currently in 3rd grade and has been struggling for 3 years in reading. This year she has to take a standardized reading test (in March) and score at least 60% in order to be promoted to the 4th grade.
When she started with me in August whe was reading a Primer level at a fluency rate of about 42 words per minute. Her standardized test score her first year in 2nd grade was 11%, and the second year in 2nd grade it was 11% (no change...hmmmm). This past August her test score was 18%. Her mother was desperate for help since she had seen no improvement in 3 years and she had already failed 2nd grade (and it was looking like she would also repeat 3rd grade). After I did an assessment of this little girl's reading I recommended that she get intensive remediation 5 days per week. The mother agreed and we began. Here we are just three months later....
Last week her teacher called the parent in for a meeting to share the little girl's mid-year testing scores and I was invited to attend. Her test score is now 60% (the magic number to pass the FCAT) and she is reading at a 3.0 grade level! I am amazed.
As we began her tutoring the inital areas of concern for me were phonics. She had no idea about how to break apart words, how to sound out...we fixed that right away. What was really fun with her was once she began to learn how to decode words she had many, many of the "AHA" moments you talk about here. It was like someone turned on the light for her in her dark room.
Then I began to focus heavily on vocabulary. I tried many things vocabulary workbooks, flashcards with vocab words on them, vocabuarly building computer programs,etc. But the best technique for her was just talking about all the words and phrases that she didn't know in the level readers we were working on. These readers have controlled vocabulary so new words that are introduced appear over and over again which gave her an opportunity to see these new words over and over again. We did many other fun activities to help solidify them for her and to help her begin to use them in her everday life. Boy is that hard work - but fun! All that vocabulary and language work (EVERDAY) paid off! Her scores reveal something beautiful.
In August she scored 1 out of 11 correct in vocabuarly on that standardized test. In November just 3 months later she scored 9 out 11 correct. Her mom is very confident that she will pass the FCAT at this point. All her other reading scores came up too.
Here is the sad part. After that meeting her mom changed her tutoring to just two days per week. I guess she figures she is good enough to pass the FCAT so she can back off in her tutoring. The problem is she is a 4th grader (9 1/2 years old) sitting in a 3rd grade classroom. In order to get her where she really needs to be she should be reading at a 4.5 level. Not only that she is only reading at a 3.0 when her peers in her classroom are reading at 3.5. She is STILL behind. UGH!
This brings me to another point which I just posted on another one of your blogs. I am re-thinking my business and how I will provide services to my clients in the future. I can see from this little girl's success how intensive remediation produces incredible results in a much shorter period of time. It will cost more up front but time-wise it is much better for the student academically and confidence wise. I will continue to do everything I can for her during those two days per week but again I feel like my hands are tied!
Oh, and thanks for recommending the site, "balancedreading.com" I have spent many hours on that site reading research information and looking for the many books recommended there. I also got the book Overcoming Dyslexia and am devouring it.
You have been a blessing to me, Kathy, even though you are way up there in Canada! I look forward to your periodic posts. Thanks for your time and efforts and expertise! Lynda M.
Thank-you for posting this inspirational story Lynda! It is always wonderful to see living proof that these children can learn. Vocabulary is really hard to teach! You did a fabulous job.
It may take some time for this to happen for you, but I can tell you that slowly over the years I have developed a good reputation BECAUSE I get such good results. I would not be able to consistently do that if I didn't set the length and intensity of my services.
I have been seeing one student each month (2 hours a day) for the past two years, without advertising at all. (I used to advertise) Combined with my online work, this is as busy as I want to be.
So it may cost you as you say, because you may be turning down work- but eventually your results will speak for you.
You could offer two services- one, a complete and prescribed reading clinic for 30-40 hours. You could also offer regular tutoring, but inform the families that they should anticipate a difference in results. Just a thought. I have never offered regular tutoring, and
I also turn down math tutoring. I am really good at teaching reading, at this stage of my life, I want to do only what I love doing!
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