Advice regarding student in reading

[Alyssa/NE/3]

I need some help from experienced reading teachers if I may. I have a little girl in my class who is fairly consistently not making good grades on reading tests. Her mother told me that she is stressing out trying to get her child to understand our weekly stories. She was in an early intervention reading pull-out situation last year but they "exited her" after state scores came back last spring! Hmmm... Anyway, she does have a hard time focusing. No, she's not ADHD, or ADD or any of those initals. I have tried to offer suggestions to her parents on what to do. I don't know what else to try. We do pre-reading activities, during reading activities, after-reading activities, comprehension questions, related story activities, "cutesy" activities, read together, read with tape, read with pairs, read with a group, she's read only with me, we discuss plot, setting,etc. All these great activities I keep reading about on the net, and teacher magazines, and on here, and what I remember from my own studies, and nothing is working. I don't know how I can help her more. She's definitely not a special ed. candidate, it's really nothing like that. Truthfully, she's more worried about her outfits matching, and her hair, and "cool" markers, notebooks, and pens.... just typical girl stuff. There must be some other technique I can try, does anyone have any other thoughts? Thanks

 

[SusanTeach]

types of questions

What areas of the test is she messing up? Is it the vocabulary, inferring, comprehension, etc...? Does she read the stories and then not know what she is reading? Have you had her seen by the speech/language pathologist? They're not just for speech issues. That might be one route to at least rule out. Have you tried letting her use the cool markers and notepads to illustrate the sequencing of the story? Another oral thing that works well is for them to predict what might happen. That helps them think about what's coming up and their mind tends to focus on whether their answer was right or not.

 

[Nicole e.]

How's her fluency?

How is this little girl's oral reading fluency? Is she losing the message of the story while decoding, or is she just not making the connection from written word to conceptualization? That would help me better know how to give you advice. Thanks!
Nicole

 

[Alyssa/NE/3]

Reading

Thanks for the help so far. We do predict and make predictions as part of our pre and during reading strategies. I try to get her to make a prediction, she just agrees with someone else's. I guess that way she thinks she is saying something without saying anything. She does have difficulties with fluency. We read a poem each week to help with oral fluency. However, I don't have them read the story very much orally as a whole-class because for most of the kids it doesn't help with comprehension. I don't think she's making the connection either. There was something last week or the week before where I could tell she had no real grasp of the story by what she said. When we introduce the story on Monday, they read a page on their own and I say read to find out this ......., then I pick someone to give an answer then I read it aloud, same passage they just read. Sometimes I ask, where did you find that information- read just that part for us. So hopefully, they are reading it twice in one sitting. I also may stop and have so and so pick up for just a bit then I go again. I want them to read aloud, but like I said, too much of them reading, and we all lose our focus.

 

[mo teach]

Have you tried

Read aloud by rows? Sometimes it helps the shy ones
and then popcorn the row(you call it) and occasionally popcorn
an individual... just an idea. Also memorizing a poem or verse per week helps fluency because oral recitation for meaning gives practice with
text. Okay so shoot me I have had my 3rd graders memorize all 4 verses of the Star-spangled Banner one verse per week--lots of fancy new words... but they loved how important they sounded in their BIG voices.
lol

 

[Tylana]

Journal

Maybe she could keep a small journal for the story. She would rewrite sections of the story in her journal to reread later and also to read before she goes on to the next section. THis will help her comprehend what she has read and get her ready to comprehend what she will read next.

 

[ellen]

suggestions

I 'm sure I am mentioning some things that others have already mentioned, but what part of the tests are giving her problems- the vocabulary, the comprehension questions, etc. I would suggest giving a diagnostic test to identify where her problems are. My reading series came with one (sections each of vocabulary, comprhension, etc). You could see which area she scores lower in. Also, if her fluency is low it could be blocking her comprehension. One strategy I teach my studenns is click or clunk. After a page, a paragraph, whatever, the studetns ask themselves if what they read clicks or clunks. If it clicks, they get it and they go on. If it clunks, they need to reread. We spent a good deal of time talking about how they know it clicks- they could retell it to a friend, they could tell me what it was about, they could answer questions, etc. I've found this has helped my lower readers with their metacognition.

Let me know if you need specific stratgies for fluency, comprehension, vocabulary, etc. I've got lots of resources if you need them.

 

[Alyssa/NE/3]

Ellen...

I forgot to mention. She does well with the vocabulary portion. However that stands to reason as there's only 6-7 words at a time and we do daily 5-10 minute activities all week after we introduce it on Monday. I actually like what I do with vocab. I have 15 different activities I can choose from (that I think I got off here ) so it never gets dull. I need help with her comprehension. Fluency is not a strong point for her, either, but not like comprehension! Could I teach the comp. aspect in small doses like I do for the vocab? Maybe I try to do to much at once.

 

[Mar]

Idea

My child is sort of like this except we have had her working with a Speech/Language friend for a while. They worked on fluency by rereading stories several times. She timed her while they read, etc. I feel my daughter does better if she read what she is interested in. Try Scholastic book Amber the Orange Fairy by Daisy Meadows. My daughter also likes Lizzie McGuire books. Another one my child wanted was Aquamarine.Making friends usually tries to rule at this age so use this knowledge to your advantage.

 

[Mar]

Idea

My child is sort of like this except we have had her with a Speech/Language friend for a while. They worked on fluency by rereading stories. She timed her while they read, etc. I feel my daughter does better if she reads what she is interested in. Try Scholastic book Amber the Orange Fairy by Daisy Meadows. My daughter also likes Lizzie McGuire books. Another one my child wanted was Aquamarine.The idea is to hook her interest so she will want to read.

 

[Nicole E.]

hope it helps!

I am the one who asked about your student's reading fluency because I think it's the main reason many struggle with comprehension. (Definitely not always- I actually have one who can fluently read at a 5.5 grade level, but who comprehends at a 1.8 level.) Anyway, my suggestion for improving her fluency would be to send home small paragraphs, perhaps from a oral fluency assessment book, or from Dibels, that her parents can 1. read to her first 2. then, the parent and child chorally read it 3. Then, she reads it independently to the parent. It then goes into a folder/binder, and the parent should have a time each night where the passages are reread, rotating what passages are reread each night. It should only be a 10-15 min. thing. To improve comprehension, I might suggest an old box of SRA's? You know, the box with the color-coded cards where the child starts in a low-level color, must read and answer a certain number of cards correctly before advancing to the next color. They could become a part of all of your students' independent work, maybe during guided reading? Also, I would suggest making up clozes to go with each story where she has to fill in the missing words/phrases you've made into a summary about the basal story. Make the missing words crucial elements of the story. It will force her to concentrate on characters, setting, problem, solution, but is not as overwhelming as answering actual comprehension questions. Obviously, having a tutor come in to read a basal story before you introduce it in class would be helpful too. I'm rambling on here... after reading the story in class, give her an opportunity to read it with a tape/CD before answering any comprehension questions as well. My basal series came with a CD- maybe yours did too? I also believe smaller passages work better for those struggling with comprehension, so workbooks with main idea paragraphs, or like I said, the SRA's, could be very helpful for targeting the comprehension issue in a tutoring/one-on-one situation. Maybe even a better reader in your class could do the tutoring if no adult is available.

 

[Alyssa/NE/3]

Yes...

That is funny because just last week I made up some CLOZE paragraphs for something we were reading. I also bought a book that has very brief passages and asks comprehension questions!!! I guess I'm on the right track. Oh, it's funny the SRA's were mentioned because I was on ebay and Amazon looking for an old set. I'm still searching. I can't afford a new one and do they still even make them? Any ideas on who/what company may have old kits? I used them when I was in school! :-)

 

[mo teach]

WE use

McCall-Crabbs for comprehension selections with questions

 

[Nicole E.]

SRA's

Send a blanket e-mail to your colleagues- I bet some veteran out there has a dusty box in the closet! Good luck!