My 5th grader began reading pullout in earnest in January. At his last school(k-4, diff state), he was never specificly remediated in reading. He did spelling pullout which touched reading skills with workpages and, another year,a ‘tutorial’ which pretty much helped w/homework(not even an issue)
I convinced his new school that he needed more reading instruction and he began this semester
He is doing so well. The papers have excellent grades and, acc/to the instructor his hand is up on every question. She is amazed at the change she has seen in this quiet, introverted little boy.
I asked him what the difference was-why is this class making reading easier?
His first answer was that the questions were easier-I do think they are more straight forward w/less inference and Im sure the readaing level is <5th grade.
Then he added “we read aloud”. I askd if he did or the teacher and he replied both. I know this came up in 4th grade as the teachre there went over vocab on Mon and then had them read silently T-W with a bit of oral reading on Th and testing on friday. If I read the weekly story to him on Sunday before the class began, I could increase his grade on Friday those tests but…..w/o that, he did poorly and, of course, he does poorly on achievement testing as well.
He seems to be such a visual hands on learner. That is my thought and that of his teachers. Many auditory issues-ADD, CAPD, Aspergers have been suggested over the years with ADD the only official dx. He had an undetected hearing loss through age 3 1/2.
Isnt the ability to comprehend/read better after oral instruction contrary to that learning style? Am I missing something? Is it a different ball of wax with reading vs learning subject matter(science, for ex)?
Re: comprehending when read to vs visual learning
My experience has been that an awful lot of what happens when students are supposed to be doing “silent reading” may be silent, but it sure as heck isn’t reading.
I’ve had students in a system where nobody ever read aloud — the official theory of the program was that reading aloud is a “performance” (false, but that was their theory) and that “real” reading was silent (again, I stress that this is false, but that was their theory.)
My most extreme student got to me for help in Grade 4; he had passed through K, 1, 2, and 3 with decent marks, B’s and C’s. He started to get lower marks in Grade 4 which is why he came for tutoring. He was *highly* gifted, with an adult vocabulary and the ability to talk rings around you. And in Grade 4, with four years of good grades behind him, he was an absolute non-reader. He could read fifty words, sort of, very inaccurately. We had to start on the basic pre-primer. We had to do the first phonics book starting with the single consonants.
The thing is, he had done *exactly* what his school had taught him. He had stared at pages silently. He had used picture clues. He had guessed from initial letters. He had discussed all sorts of inferences orally, and boy was he good at inferences. He had circled and underlined stuff in his workbooks and on tests, using whatever clues he could pick up, and he was very smart at picking up clues. Just, nobody ever in four years of schooling had ever asked him to *read* anything.
Now, when I have kids like this, they will swear to me up and down that they have “read” something. But what they mean by “read” is unfortunately not what a literate person means by “read”. They stare at a book and they look at the pictures and they try to absorb the meaning through their pores because that is what they have been told to do. They run their eyes in circles over the page and pick up a few words they do recognize and try to guess at what they others might possibly mean. They flip through pages very fast because they have been encouraged to “read faster” (despite the fact that they can’t read to begin with.) They do work very hard at this, it isn’t a question of effort, but they just don’t get it.
Whenever I get a student with this pattern, that he “reads silently” but “doesn’t comprehend” or “doesn’t retain” or “doesn’t test well” or “learns better by listening”, I very very strongly suspect that here may be another case of bad instruction and a real need for basic reading skills.
For temporary purposes, to keep up with class work, you may have to read aloud to him. It is a good plan when doing this to read slowly with a pencil under the words and watch his eyes to make sure that he is following along with you — this keeps his attention on the subject and helps train proper tracking for reading.
For the long term, it’s most often a very good idea to re-train the basic phonics, the advanced phonics, and have him read his work aloud to you. It takes time but is worth it.
Re: comprehending when read to vs visual learning
My son is the same way. I think he learns auditorally even though he has CAPD. Being read to allows him to fill in the gaps that he doesn’t get when he is reading the story himself.
beth
Re: comprehending when read to vs visual learning
My experience has been that an awful lot of what happens when students are supposed to be doing “silent reading” may be silent, but it sure as heck isn’t reading.
I’ve had students in a system where nobody ever read aloud — the official theory of the program was that reading aloud is a “performance” (false, but that was their theory) and that “real” reading was silent (again, I stress that this is false, but that was their theory.)
My most extreme student got to me for help in Grade 4; he had passed through K, 1, 2, and 3 with decent marks, B’s and C’s. He started to get lower marks in Grade 4 which is why he came for tutoring. He was *highly* gifted, with an adult vocabulary and the ability to talk rings around you. And in Grade 4, with four years of good grades behind him, he was an absolute non-reader. He could read fifty words, sort of, very inaccurately. We had to start on the basic pre-primer. We had to do the first phonics book starting with the single consonants.
The thing is, he had done *exactly* what his school had taught him. He had stared at pages silently. He had used picture clues. He had guessed from initial letters. He had discussed all sorts of inferences orally, and boy was he good at inferences. He had circled and underlined stuff in his workbooks and on tests, using whatever clues he could pick up, and he was very smart at picking up clues. Just, nobody ever in four years of schooling had ever asked him to *read* anything.
Now, when I have kids like this, they will swear to me up and down that they have “read” something. But what they mean by “read” is unfortunately not what a literate person means by “read”. They stare at a book and they look at the pictures and they try to absorb the meaning through their pores because that is what they have been told to do. They run their eyes in circles over the page and pick up a few words they do recognize and try to guess at what they others might possibly mean. They flip through pages very fast because they have been encouraged to “read faster” (despite the fact that they can’t read to begin with.) They do work very hard at this, it isn’t a question of effort, but they just don’t get it.
Whenever I get a student with this pattern, that he “reads silently” but “doesn’t comprehend” or “doesn’t retain” or “doesn’t test well” or “learns better by listening”, I very very strongly suspect that here may be another case of bad instruction and a real need for basic reading skills.
For temporary purposes, to keep up with class work, you may have to read aloud to him. It is a good plan when doing this to read slowly with a pencil under the words and watch his eyes to make sure that he is following along with you — this keeps his attention on the subject and helps train proper tracking for reading.
For the long term, it’s most often a very good idea to re-train the basic phonics, the advanced phonics, and have him read his work aloud to you. It takes time but is worth it.
My son is the same way. I think he learns auditorally even though he has CAPD. Being read to allows him to fill in the gaps that he doesn’t get when he is reading the story himself.
beth