The Reading Instruction Show

This study examines four interconnecting elements within Special Ed World: (a) reading instruction, (b) data-resistant theoretical constructs, (c) paradigmatic parochialism regarding what is considered “scientifically-based” research, and (d) manipulative approaches to teaching.

.An individual Orton-Gillingham course costs over $2,000 and associate level training costs $4,000 plus $250 for materials. There are various levels of training and certification that can be purchased. What you get for your money is an expensive, Humpty-Dumptian approach to reading instruction where children are taught a specified list of reading subskills in a predetermined order and in a specifi...

Fidelity is a term often misused by the designers of commercially-prepared reading interventions and by decision-makers outside the classroom. Teachers are told they must implement an evidence-based program with “ fidelity ”. This term has been misinterpreted in an educational setting to mean following the instructional recipe exactly as written. In other words, fidelity means that teachers are re...

Rosalie Fink (Fink, 1996; Fink, 1998) Interviewed successful men and women with dyslexia to see why they were able to be so successful despite their profound “disability”. She discovered that all these successful adults were all allowed to immerse themselves and read in areas of interest as children. Here, they developed expertise, built conceptual and vocabulary knowledge and became familiar with...

Intervention sessions for students with dyslexia should occur no less than four days a week and should include variations of seven elements: (1) word work, (2) word identification, (3) maze and cloze work, (4) comprehension, (5) reading practice, (6) fluency work, and (7) writing. Classroom resources and supports for students who dyslexia should include variation of nine elements: (1) emotional su...

As you read sentences on a page your eyeballs do not move from left to right, letter-to-letter, word-to-word in a straight, steady line. If you were able to attach little lasers to your eyeballs you would see that your eyes are actually hovering and jumping about like a hummingbird. They move unevenly, go back occasionally, skip some words, and fixate on others. These small, rapid, jerky movements...

This is my 3rd podcast related to dyslexia. It addresses the International Dyslexia Association and Orton-Gillingham reading "instruction" and state laws requiring a certain type of reading instruction for struggling readers.

Language experience activities are an effective strategy to use with beginning level readers. Here students dictate an experience or story to the teacher. The teacher then records what students say. I strongly recommended that you use this activity with each intervention session for two reasons: First on an interpersonal level, language experience activities enable you to make personal connections...

Reading practice is incredibly important. Extensive reading has been linked to improvement in general knowledge, vocabulary, spelling, verbal fluency, and reading comprehension. Also, the amount of reading students do is positively correlated with word identification skills, academic achievement, comprehension, reading fluency, and writing. Finally, increasing the time spent reading independently...

Students with dyslexia need more intense versions of the types of reading instruction that occurs within a general education setting. Intensity here refers to (a) more time, (b) more time-on-task, (c) more time engaged in authentic literacy activities [reading and writing], and (d) smaller instructional groups (3 to 7 students). It should include variations of the following seven elements: 1. Word...

Depending on what study is cited and what definition of reading and reading deficiency is used, anywhere from 6% to 20% of students are what might be called “struggling readers”. Also depending on studies and definitions, anywhere from 3% to 5% of students are severely struggling readers. Terms like “reading disability”, “severe reading disability” and even “dyslexia: have been used with this grou...

When assessment looks different from instruction and practice, you will often get results that under-represent students’ actual ability. Removing a reading event from its meaningful context during assessment creates an artificial, non-reading event. A valid assessment for reading should look, to the greatest extent possible, like real reading

This is an insightful podcast looking at teacher preparation programs.

There are two basic approaches to early literacy instruction: A skills-based approach and a child-centered approach. The podcast describes each.

There are four basic word identification strategies: (a) morphemic analysis, (b) context clues, (c) analogy, and (d) phonics. Direct and explicit instruction related to all four strategies should be included as part of all students’ classroom reading instruction. This podcast describes morphemic analysis

This short podcast describes what sight words are, and how they should be assessed.

This podcast describes and explains theories in the context of education and education research, human learning, and four types of knowledge necessary to become and expert teacher.

As you read this page your eyes do not move from left to right, letter-to-letter, word-to-word in a straight, steady line. Your brain simply gives the impression that they do. Eye movement research shows that your eyes move unevenly across the page, going back occasionally, skipping some words, and fixating on others. The small, rapid, jerky movements that your eyes make are called saccades. Where...

While this concept of fidelity may be appropriate for experimental research where control and treatment groups need to follow strict parameters in order to isolate a variable; it is neither effective nor appropriate when educating real students in the uncontrolled confines of the real world. , it would be a form of educational malpractice to insist that teachers follow a recipe with “fidelity”. In...

Parents are wondering how to handle reading at home during the COVID-19 or during the summer months. This podcast offers some simple tips.

Large unit phonics is based on the brain’s natural inclination to notice patterns and complete configurations based on partial data. When we look at words on the page, we tend to notice letter patterns much more so than individual letters. This podcast describes two activities: shared reading for large unit phonics and word sorts.

There are three types of phonics instruction: synthetic phonics, analytic phonics, and large unit phonics. In a meaning-based approach to word work, they should all be included.

This podcast described scaffolded oral reading (ScORe) and provided some tips for using the language experience approach.

The language experience approach, or language experience activity, is a powerful strategy to use with struggling or beginning readers. Here readers practice reading using words and concepts within their experience.

This podcast describes a strategy to develop reading fluency for severely struggling readers, or any other readers reading at RL 1 or RL 2. The materials for this strategy can be found at www. Readocity.com