My 4th grader is Gifted/LD in reading. We have just completed vision therapy to help with his tracking and focusing, we have seen great improvement with his reading (he now reads on grade level). When reading silently he test at 100% comprehension but when reading out loud he still has a few problems decoding but he still has the comprehension. His teacher has tested him and he has all the digraphs but with the dipthongs he is missing oi, ou, ea and aw. My question is this the 4th graders at our school are divided by their reading ability for reading, language and spelling (they have the same teacher for all three subjects). I want to make sure all of his needs are being met. Should I have him placed in the advance class to meet the gifted needs or should he be placed in a lower level to help with the reading.? Last year was not a good year with reading and I do not want to be kicking myself at the end of this school year.
Re: Which Reading Class Should My Child Be Placed?
I agree with you completely… recently I was the specialist in a school that grouped students from the results of informal testing as early as kindergarten. The teachers told some of the parents that their child would not learn to read. the anxiety was overwhelming and destructive. when several children left the school and went elsewhere they did much better. In my opinion grouping is not a good idea at an early age.. provide tutoring and make sure the reading program at the school is multi-sensory and can be individualized.. this is not to difficult for an experienced teacher.
dr. mae sakharov ed.d.
My personal experience, as student, teacher, and parent, is that school reading programs rarely teach reading skills. You’ve done well teaching reading skills on your own — the best is probably to stick with what works, namely home/private tutoring in phonics and vision skills.
Meanwhile, the top reading group in school at Grade 4 level will be mostly concerned with content and comprehension, and will play to your son’s strengths.
I always recommend starting with the highest group possible and moving down if necessary; it’s always easier to move down by choice than to fight your way back up.