The majority of my first graders struggling with reading also have delayed language development, making it difficult for them to identify concepts in the simplest of books. I would appreciate any tips to help my langauge delayed students progress quicker in reading.
reading skills
No quick fixed I think here - reading builds from their speech. Of course you read outloud to them everyday and give them language exposure in doing so. Make your classroom as language rich as possible. Put written words on many of the classroom things - door, chair, window, ceiling, wall - have fun with it. Have the children point out new ‘things’ to you as they happen - ‘shadow’ , sunlight, or as they notice things that haven’t gotten their ‘word’.
Good luck.
Re: language delays
What would you do if you had a class of three and four year olds?
— Talk to them constantly. Talk about everything under the sun. Taldk about things in the class, show and tell, activities, interesting pictures, and books with interesting information. Explain words and concepts. Keep the class centered on oral language until the kids show language skills higher than the books you want them to read.
— Encourage dialogue. Encourage them to ask questions. Bite your tongue and wait while they formulate sentences.
— Actively teach speech formation. Have kids copy you formulating clearly-pronounced words and complete sentences.
— Teach memorization of songs and rhymes to develop speech and vocabulary and a feel for language.
—Avoid the kind of books that are written to be cute for adults, with all sorts of vocabulary that the average four-year-old has never heard. Rather, stick with home and family and animal picture books to read to them until they are discussing these simple topics well, and then gradually move up to more advanced ideas.
— Much as I want to teach reading, first things first. Don’t push reading until the kids are immersed in oral language for a while.
— When you do teach reading, please use effective methodology, not memorizing. If the kids already start out delayed, using methods that are known to miss out 30% and more of children are going to be trouble down the road.
to have her look at your low kids…Maybe she could come in the classroom and do some collaborative things with you to teach the lower kids…Also do lots of fingerplays and songs with rhymes to help them develop phonemic awareness. With fingerplays you can teach many concepts as they move their hands in various positions. You can get one of those expandable sphere balls to teach them spatial concepts, and they can move it around to learn prepositions. For more hands on learning opportunities they can learn concepts through cooking in the classroom but you have to be careful with food allergies..
There are many great products available from Lingui Systems and SuperDuper if you need ideas. You can download sample pages from books on Lingui Systems to try some book ideas out before you purchase them.