I was wondering if I could get some thoughts on my current Reading system/program that I use in my classroom.
My classroom is a special education Resource Room (5th and 6th grade). I do not have an aid at all. My total number of students in class for reading is 13, comprised of LD, CD, and MiMD students. Most of my students are reading at 2nd and 3rd grade levels. I have divided the students up into 4 reading groups based on their reading level of course.
Each student has a typed weekly/daily schedule that they follow for reading, so they know what materials they will be working on for a given day. I use a variety of reading materials that focus mostly on reading comprehension.
Two days a week, I teach the Herman Reading Method, which is a phonics based program that runs off a CD on a computer. This particular program also incorporates cursive writing skills and oral spelling skills. It is a multisensory program. I alternate this program every other day for two groups at a time. (i.e. groups 1,2 have Herman on Mondays and Wednesdays; groups 3,4 have Herman on Tuesdays and Thursdays). I would implement this program on a daily basis for the students, but each lesson is about 25 minutes per day and their isn’t that much time to fit in all four groups. Also, the recommended number of student per lesson is 3 or 4.
The next material that I use in my classroom is a Classic Literature Series that is based on reading levels from 1 to 5. Each book is a classic story (i.e. Treasure Island or Swiss Family Robinson) and each chapter is one page with 10 multiple choice comprehension questions and 10-12 vocabulary exercises. The higher level books have smaller print, while the lower end books have larger print. Students work out of these books on the alternate days that they do not have the Herman program. So, they complete 2 chapters per week and have Herman two days a week.
Next, I use the Barnell Loft, Multiple Skills Series, which contains short stories with 5 comprehension questions per story (unit). My students do 2 stories (units) everyday along with whatever else they have that day.
Finally, I use the CLOZE Connections Series. Students do 2 units of this about 2 or 3 days a week. Students have to read passages and fill in a blank with a correct word from a list of five choices. Again, students are working at their own reading level for this.
I know this may seem like a lot of “stuff” to do each day, but all of the kids manage to complete their work each day. I have to rely on the kids to work on their Classics, Multiple Skills books, and Cloze Connections independently because I have to directly teach the Herman program. Students are reading material at their instructional level, and have performed well throughout the past 2 years.
I was just wondering if anyone had some feedback on my reliance of independent work from the students, and my choice of variety of materials. Like I said, I’ve had good results overall during the last couple of years, but I’d just like some input. Keep in mind, I do not have an aid, so I have to rely on the kids to work on their own.
Thanks for any comments.
Re: My Reading Program - need some feedback
A few questions — since I don’t know your situation these are just questions and thoughts and suggestions.
Why “of course” four reading groups? See thought below.
Most of what you are doing looks like good general ideas, but I have a prejudice against cloze stuff — have never seen it do much good. Do you see any productive learning coming out of this activity, or could the time be better spent on something else?
How much progress are your students making? Are they catching up at all on reading, or staying just as far behind? If they’re catching up, OK, just a few tweaks in the system; if they are leaving as far behind as when they started, well, yes, maybe you need to look at your programming from the ground up.
Why so much work on comprehension? At Grade 2-3 level in reading, these kids are clearly in need of fundamental skills and all the comprehension work in the world won’t help if you can’t read the words to begin with. Have you thought about replacing one of the comprehension programs with another phonics/skills program? Do you have enough computers for kids to work individually on something like the Lexia CD instead of more of the same in workbooks?
Your Herman program sounds like a good thing, but perhaps spread too thin. For each group to get it twice a week for only twenty minutes, and to cover phonics AND spelling AND cursive writing as well as other topics, they must be spending only a few minutes on each topic. You could get double to quadruple bang for the buck by teaching it start to finish (Yes, Shay does this with Phonographix in high school, so you could certainly do it in elementary school) to the whole group or to only two groups. Review doesn’t hurt even if they have seen some of it before, and two to four times the teaching time could really improve progress.
If you are satisfied with the results and your parents are satisfied, I’m not sure I would suggest fixing what seems to be working…