Hello,
What do you have your students do for reading when you use the Orton Gillingham or the Wilson program, and none of the subs are trained to use these programs? I’ll have to leave completely different lesson plans, but what will I leave?
Thanks for your suggestions,
Caron
Re: Preparing for a sub.
I usually find interesting stories from literature books or workbooks that the class can read together with the sub. After the story is read, the class can answer questions about the story. The questions can pertain to finding the main idea, sequencing, cause and effect, fact and opinion, and other types of comprehension areas. Goodness knows most of the kids will always benefit from practice in this!
I try not to leave *completely* different lesson plans. When I was doing OG there was stuff students did independently anyway (I had 2 students for 50 minutes and we traded off from doing 1:1 halfway through).
Oral reading of a good story is always a good “punt,” especially if it’s perceived as a reward for doing well. 15 minutes at the end of class with something good means 15 minutes less planning ;) (Of course, there’s always getting an appropriate video, too). If it’s a good novel, you can continue with it :-)
I’ve made a lot of “word building” puzzles for very basic students. I take an index card and pick 5 two-syllable words with all closed syllables; rab bit, ad mit, im pact, in tact, and cab in will work for students who have only done short a and short i. I write a syllable on a piece of index card so it’s clear whether it’s the beginning syllable or end syllable (if it’s a beginning syllable, the end of the syllable will be right up against the edge, so that when you put it next to an “end” card, with its letters flush to the left, there won’t be a space between the syllables).
My guys would have a Franklin spellchecker so that htey could type in their “words” and make sure they were real words (which was a good way of introducing the thing); if it said “correct!” they were… otherwise try something new.
Then I had them copy the assembled words onto a table with three columns: first syllable / second syllable / whole word.
Spelling practice doesn’t take long but it’s good practice: ten words or so on the page for them to “trace, copy and recall” (fold the third column back; see http://www.resourceroom.net/readspell/guidespell.asp for the whole explanation & graphics).
Syllable division: also doesn’t take very long, but splitting a list of words into syllables and practicing (silently) reading them is good; you can add “highlight the cvcc syllable in green” too. FOr words to divide, see http://www.resourceroom.net/readspell/wordlists/default.asp).
Depending on how much you have the students reteach back at you, you can build in a few minutes of having the studnets show the teacher some of what they have learned. (I was scared to do this at first, but my students rose to the occasion.)
My ideas are all for independent “seatwork” — I *know* there are good ideas for groups, too :-) Give ‘em a lot of structure and make it drill-level (where they know it by heart) and they’ll usually fly; if they don’t it means I haven’t been reviewing enough!