special ed teachers trained in teaching reading?

Deb,

There are apparently few programs in the country that really train special ed. teachers in effective reading methods. People like Louisa Moats are going around the country trying to promote better teacher training in multi-sensory structured language methods. It is a sad shame that special ed. teachers graduate very ill-prepared to remediate reading. I am just thankful I found effective methods (which I paid for myself) before I ended my teaching career. If you are not already a member, I highly recommend that you join the International Dyslexia Association. They have outstanding journals and conferences on reading disorders.

Janis

No, I am afraid your experience is the rule rather than the exception. I actually had a little bit of Orton Gillingham in my practicum in special ed. but I was really the only one in the group that did. I have learned more in the last few months, studying on my own, than I did in my whole time in special ed.

—des

In our district, the SPED director has issued a directive that reading instruction is NOT part of special ed and should not be part of an IEP. It’s the regular ed reading teachers who provide reading instruction. They have all been trained in the Wilson.
I’m actually fighting the battle right now for my son to get the specialized reading instruction that he requires as part of his IEP.

That special ed director is wrong and can probaby be proven wrong quite easily in court.

Janis

I had very similar “training” — a general “reading methods” survey course, a “reading in secondary school and community colleges” which was taught by a community college teacher and had lots of good comprehension and “engage in the book” strategies but nothing about accuracy, and a summer practicum where we did some general language experiences (like make lists of words taht mean ‘afraid’ and discuss differences & similarities in meaning).
In hindsight I got the feeling nobody wanted to *touch* the issue and risk taking a side in the Whole/Language — Phonics feud.
When I got to my non-reading seventh graders and figured out that they had almost no decoding strategies I rooted around and read and researched. Jeanne Chall’s book was in the school library; that helped a lot. Read some whole language “research” and was deeply impressed by how unlike research it was (but then, of course, we can’t reduce reading to things researchable; it’s the interaction with the language and that’s unmeasurable…. yea, right…) Got SRA Corrective Reading and read the directions. It worked.
Annoyed a few vice principals. Got a job at private LD school and had intensive, team-teaching total immersion in Orton-Gillingham… and hey, it works, too.
Sped programs that teach reading instruction are few & far between … check out Wisconsin, though, I remember reading about something there some years back. Also, Barbara G…? Guyer??? in West Virginia also teaches it; there are some courses in Virginia perhaps out of VCU as well.

I earned my endorsement in Sped without a single class in reading. Almost all the classes I had were theory (theory of behavior management, yeah, that’s helpful) or about the law and how to fill out an IEP form. We got almost no direct, hands on instruction that would actually help in a classroom.

I’ve mentioned before what a total joke my MA in Education was. However I was accused of “ranting” so won’t go into the details.

My BS and MA programs also did hardly anything to prepare me for teaching reading. To top it off, the first district I worked in believed in whole language, and I received very little guidance from anyone on what to do. The second district was better, and I gradually developed my own “method” that has worked. Now I use Wilson, which is working very well, except that there’s so little time!! NEVER in my undergrad. or graduate program were the phrases “multisensory structured language”, O-G, Wilson, LIPS, V/V, or any of the others mentioned. Most of what I’ve learned has been on my own research, although my district did send our 3 sped. teachers to the Wilson Overview last year.

Like everyone else I had no training in teaching reading. My era did a lot of task analysis to break tasks into smaller steps. I like to say I was taught to slow down, do it again and be nice. I spent a lot of years in middle school and worked on comprehension and accessing the curriculum. I knew very little phonics having been in school during the “Dick and Jane” era. When my own son did not learn to read, I took a harder look at teacher training in my (his) district and found that very few teachers had training. I tried to educate the district and set up some reading inservices, but ultimately I met too much apathy. We moved for our son to attend a private LD school. Remarkably I got a job in a public school district that has spent a fortune training teachers, supplying materials and support for improved reading instructions. I have Lindamood-Bell (LiPS) training and the expectation and support for me to teach children to read. I incorporate some of my PG and Wilson training and skills I have learned by looking for programs for my son. So, the move is afoot and some districts are training their teachers. If you have the chance to work in such an environment as I now have… the difference is remarkable.

It is sad, but I, too, join all of you in having no special training in teaching reading. I face students who can’t seem to read phonetically and sight word methods just don’t make it with these kids. I hadn’t heard of some of the programs like Lindamood Bell and Phono-Graphix until I started reading posts from this site. I have been a resource teacher for 14 years and I haven’t had any special training. It was a big shock to me to begin teaching reading to students who have all kinds of problems.

As a UK-trained teacher (London University) my story is the same as all you guys from USA - in other words I trained myself!!!

You know, all of you are miles ahead of the pack just by recognizing that teachers need training and with training there is hope for our students. I have been blessed with a job in a public school district that has trained me and given me a one-to-one “clinic” type environment in which to teach. Today, I retested three students and all show excellent progress on decoding skills. Two are third graders and in four months of daily one-to-one instruction in Lindamood Bell LiPS and other programs they have increased decoding skills in all areas ( CVC, final e, two vowels). I have them for the rest of the year and maybe even another year if we need to. Amazing! The other student I tested today is in 9th grade. This is his second year with us and he decoded up to 5 syllable words very comfortably. Now he can read to learn…and plan a future for himself. Many reading programs work, but teachers need training and support and students need time and more time and more time. :lol:

First of all I would like to “Thank you” for asking the question, and for all the honest responses from the teachers. I commend you for your interest and not abiding by the “status quo” With that said, I will confess that I am not a teacher, but the Mom of a severely dyslexic child. Over the past number of years I have done much reading and research about reading and reading programs. The International Dyslexia Association has been a wonderful source, as has been the many wonderful articles on this website. If you are specifically interested in changes in “How reading is taught” I would sugggest that you look at the work of Lousia C. Moats. She is the co-author of the book “Parenting a Struggling Reader” (Susan Hall is the other author). Ms Moats is an authority on how to teach reading and is trying to change how Teacher’s Colleges in the US teach reading. Also read “Parenting” as it is a good source for basic information about Reading and has a number of good sources to check out.

Thanks for pushing the envelope - District need more people willing to push past the “status quo” or “status static”.

Angela,
Just curious but what is your position in your district - are you a SPED teacher?

Yes, I am a special ed teacher - previous 14 years were as a Resource Specialist. The job I have now is considered a Designated Instructional Service (DIS) just as OT or speech would be.

The sad news, I guess, is that I’m not alone in my experience. Until recently when I started using Phono-Graphix with some success, I felt like such a fraud as a special education teacher.

I know I still have much more to learn, but I also know I’m on the right track. I need to continue to seek out effective methods and obtain the necessary training. I need to advocate for better reading instruction training in teacher colleges. (I didn’t want to find that I was the only one whose training was more focused on compliance with the law than actually affecting student outcomes.) And, I need to squawk loud and long about reading instruction/training in my district.

Thanks for all the input.

As a veteran in sp. ed. (20+ years teaching), I would have to partially agree with the majority of you. The colleges dont seem to require enough “how to teach reading” courses. My pet peeve is no training offered in OG programs. Most sp. ed. teachers seek training on their own as I did. I learned the Herman program back in 1989 and became a true follower of these type programs. The only program in college I am aware of is a Dyslexia Specialist program offered on the graduate offered by Farleigh Dickinsin University in NJ.

hi!
I have a multiple subject credential with a Masters in education and wanted to find out about getting a specialist or reading credential.

as i was reading all your posts i realised how ill preapred sp ed teachers can be to teach reading. if i got a reading credential, would i be able to work with LD kids? Are you familiar with any place in the LA area that provides a reputed program?Is there any place that i can do a program online or distance learning?My email address is [email protected]
Thank you.
Satya

Some of the CAL State schools have good master’s program in reading. Cal State San Bernardino has been strong in that area for years. Cal State Fullerton should be good, too. I am not familiar with Cal State L.A. or some of the others. Why not check into them.

No way college can really prepare us. We would be in college for 8 years to have all the courses we would like, then, with no application level of experience, we would just be heads stuffed with information.

The best way to learn is to pursue the areas of need yourself. I was driven to look in many directions as the result of coming to understand my students and wanting to have more and better tools. To have it any other way boils down to the colleges telling us, “this is the (only) way to do this.” That is also wrong. A good teacher has tools and can use them in different situations.

I did have some multi-sensory experience in college and grad. school, so I was familiar with the theory.

Thanks Anitya!
While i was doing my Masters i became interested in working with LD kids, but by then it was too late. i thought i’d do a specialist credential in reading. i don’t think i’m too interested in a mild-mod credential as i wouldn’t want to teach kids with mental handicaps.
Satya.

My take would be that rather than get another degree, get training in a specific program from the best source you can find and then work at using the program with students. That might mean going up to San Luis Obispo to learn from the Lindamoods or going east to a Wilson training or PG training in Florida. Then working in an environment that allows you to have practice and support from an experienced teacher.

For Lindamood training you usually don’t need to go all the way to SLO. There are Lindamood trainers around LA.

While these programs are good, you do need more than just this. You need many tools.

Maryanne Wolfe, of Rutgers University, suggests that the act of reading involves 17 areas in the brain.

So, to be effective, we need to read current research to begin to understand what we are up against, the the extent that these difficulties are presently understood.

Maryanne Wolfe has been developing computer softward called RAVE-O. This was supposed to be ready a year ago, but I don’t think it is on the market, yet. She is attacking reading disability from several directions and indeed, effective remediation mandates this, in my opinion.

I think the best things the colleges can do is teach about the PROCESS of reading. If we understand where the hang-ups are, then we can design the best remedial programs.

I don’t think teaching one approach, even if it is O-G or LMB is the way to go at the college level. We need teachers who understand and can arhitect, not tecnhicians (let the parapros do that part of the job).

Too bad most colleges DON’T teach that!! Most special ed depts. teach a hodge podge of reading approaches that are not particularly effective. I had various stuff thrown in on sight words (not that they don’t have their place), reading readiness (but nothing on phonemic awareness), even junk like word shape configuration.

If you really want to teach reading you might want to consider a degree in academic therapy. The folks here in NM do teach on OG based system but lots of other ideas, tools and background like Anitya was talkign about.

LMB will not refer you anybody and if the kid is not appropriate for it they won’t tell you that. OG wouldn’t tell you if it is overkill too. So I agree that it would be best to know theory and application as well as technique. I just don’t think special ed is the way to get there.

Reading teachers are not any better and mostly do the slow and loud method (of course there are exceptions), just saying their education isn’t better.

—des

Wow! Thanks everyone on so much advice. It seems to make a lot of sense. So My take on what all of you are suggesting is to do a mixture of a lot of things…do an educational therapy program and LB and OG IF possible giving a wider and broader outlook.

hi!
I’ve been working with dyslexic kids but don’t have a formal degree in it though i do have a credential and a Masters. i was thinking of doing a program specifically for LD kids…..maybe a reading specialist credential or a mild-moderate credential.i’m a little confused as i don’t particularly want to deal with kids besides though who have LD’s so then a mild-moderate credential would not be much point i guess. what do all of you think?
Thanks

I think additional training should be provided. I am a first ECE teacher, and I teach students w/EBD. Colleges should good quality courses addressing behavioral issues especially in my area of ECE. This has definitely been a learning experience.

ECE new teachers need training in reading really bad. I spoke on the wrong issue, but is definitely an issue with 1st year teachers especially ECE teachers. We are handed resources and strategies but are not being taught how to use them and teach them. I struggle daily with this issue.

Unfortunately when it’s taught, fundamental falsehoods are often taught. In a way, no training is better than some of the “they just need to learn to love language” stuff out there.
Hang in there — see if you can find a teacher to observe on a regular (if infrequent) basis. I learned most of my classroom management being a lifeguard adn watching the more experienced guard deal with kids.’\ ‘
And check my site for stuff for teaching middle schoolers.