Month: October 2023

Reading intervention is a process to help students with specific reading problems. It involves using effective teaching strategies that are determined from appropriate reading assessments.

Students need explicit instruction in the following areas that make up a solid reading foundation: phonemic awareness, sound-symbol correspondence, phonological processes and patterns, and structures of print.

Motivation

Students who are motivated to read exert more cognitive effort and reading comprehension improves as a result. Educators need to focus on student motivation in their classrooms. They can do this by making sure that their students experience success. They can also give specific positive praise to students when they do well, and break difficult assignments into smaller, easier tasks that are more likely to be completed successfully.

Interventions that aimed to trigger students’ interest had the largest effects on reading motivation and reading comprehension. This finding can inform teachers who are committed to furthering their students’ reading development, developers of educational methods, and those who make curricula decisions. In addition, it suggests that motivation-only interventions might yield similar results as broad interventions. However, since moderator analyses only included immediate post-tests and not delayed ones, it is difficult to draw firm conclusions about the long-term benefits of these interventions. For now, it is important that they encourage students to continue reading and practice often.

Scaffolding

Scaffolding is a technique that helps students learn to read by providing guidance as they progress through their reading. The level of guidance needed will vary from student to student. The goal is to help the student move from dependence on instructional support to independence.

While research has found that scaffolding improves reading comprehension, it is unclear what dimensions of scaffolding help most. Tutors who are trained to scaffold students with complex texts should know how to balance contingent and non-contingent scaffolds. They should also be able to determine the student’s academic level and the appropriate amount of guidance.

During the training day, tutors reviewed their lesson plans and practiced teaching complex texts to their students. They were then asked to record a video of their second practice lesson and share it with Dan for analysis. Each of the videos was coded by a member of the research team to identify the scaffolding interactions that were used. These codes were combined to create sum scores for each scaffold category (vocabulary, fluency and comprehension).

Fluency

To read fluently, a person must know letter sounds and phonics. Once a child is proficient at decoding letters and sounds they can move on to reading more quickly and with less effort. This allows the brain to attend to other aspects of reading, such as meaning.

Research has shown that building fluency in students is critical to reading comprehension. To improve their oral reading fluency, students should practice rereading grade level texts multiple times. This can be done in many different ways. One way is through a process called cold reading where a student reads a passage aloud without any prior practice. This is then scored on a WCPM (Words Correct per Minute) scale.

Another method is to have students reread books with a teacher and listen for errors. The teacher can also help to teach students how to read with good prosody — the appropriate tone, pitch, emphasis, and pauses in the text. This skill is also linked to comprehension because it contributes to the ability to place pauses around phrase boundaries, which helps readers understand the meaning of the text.

Comprehension

Reading comprehension is a complex cognitive process that requires interaction between the reader and text. It depends on a variety of factors, including prior knowledge and verbal reasoning abilities. It also includes strategies, such as visualizing, questioning, clarifying and summarizing.

Comprehension can help readers make sense of a story, book or passage and apply it to other contexts. It can also inspire creativity, allowing a person to take new ideas and information into consideration in future decisions or thought processes.

Teaching reading comprehension skills can improve students’ overall reading performance. This is why many reading interventions include activities to teach these skills. Research shows that the use of a combination of instructional practices — such as direct instruction, modeling, guided and independent practice, graphic organizers, vocabulary instruction, close reading, discussion and collaboration and text-based questions — is best for students with diverse learning needs.

Developing a child’s confidence and self-esteem is vital for their social and emotional wellbeing. This is something that is often a focus of early education.

Children need to learn how to interact with people from different cultures. They also need to understand that everyone is unique. This can help them grow into well-rounded individuals in society.

Education is important

Education is an essential component for children’s development. It helps them build a broad understanding of different subjects, cultivates their critical thinking abilities, and gives them the skills they need for future endeavors. It also helps them develop their character and moral compass, making them more responsible citizens.

Language and literacy development enables children to express themselves and communicate with others. Math, science, and social-emotional skills help them learn through exploration, investigation, and problem solving. They explore concepts such as counting, sorting materials, and identifying shapes and textures.

Providing high-quality early childhood care and education (ECCE) is one of the best investments countries can make to give children a strong start to life and set them on the path to reach their full potential. However, global progress has been slow and uneven. UNICEF is working to ensure children have uninterrupted access to quality learning opportunities, especially for those affected by crises like war, natural disasters, and poverty.

Kids need to learn how to think for themselves

Developing critical thinking skills is important for kids. This helps them develop their ability to solve problems independently and resist peer pressure. They also need to be able to consider different perspectives and ideas to form their own beliefs and morals.

Parents can help their children build these skills by providing them with daily routines that offer learning opportunities. For example, they can read to them and encourage them to talk about what they’ve read, ask questions, and think about how something works. They can also use educational apps like Vroom to turn everyday activities like mealtime, bath time, and commuting into fun brain-building experiences.

Parents should also refrain from rescuing their children impulsively when they encounter obstacles. By doing this, they will learn to think for themselves and not depend on adults for all of their decisions. This will also teach them that it is okay to make mistakes and not be perfect all the time.

Kids need to learn about different cultures

In today’s increasingly diversified world, kids need to learn about cultures of different countries and beliefs. They must be exposed to these ideas early on, so they can grow up to be tolerant of different people. When children become tolerant of others, they can better get along with their peers and expand their career prospects.

At this stage, kids are developing their self-concept and need to understand how they fit into the world. If they don’t see themselves reflected in the classroom, they may begin to feel invisible or insignificant.

To help them understand the importance of cultural diversity, parents and teachers can teach their kids about different cultures. They can also introduce them to different foods, music, and holidays. They can even visit international restaurants to learn about different languages and customs. They can also read nonfiction books and use websites to learn about different regions around the world. These resources will give them a richer understanding of the world around them.

Kids need to learn how to interact with others

The formative years, up to about age eight, are a critical time for kids to learn how to interact with others. These social skills will have an impact on their lifelong relationships with friends and coworkers. Kids learn these social skills primarily through play with their peers and their families.

Emotional development helps children understand their own feelings and those of other people, such as empathy and showing concern for a friend. They also develop the ability to discriminate between friends who are close and those who are not.

Language and communication development help children speak, listen, and read. Cognitive (thinking) development teaches them to focus, understand, and solve problems. They also improve their thinking abilities by asking questions and trying new things. Teachers help children learn how to work together as a team. They also teach them how to share and take turns. Often, teachers will pair older students with younger ones for activities such as art projects and reading time.

Choosing the right school for your child can be challenging. Attending new parent nights and open houses is a great way to start your research.

Schools are found all over the world, and while they may look different from each other they all serve one purpose- to educate.

The word school derives from the Greek skhole, meaning leisure, and later came to mean “a place for discussion.” (Merriam Webster, n.d.)

Education

Education is a vital part of the development of children. It teaches them about their culture, and develops skills that will help them in their professional and personal lives. It also teaches them about critical thinking and honesty, which will stay with them throughout their lives.

The lack of funding and the inability to pay for tuition can be major barriers to education. In addition, many schools struggle with inadequate teaching and overcrowded classrooms. Other obstacles include the language barrier for migrant students, and curriculum that is not relevant to students’ future employment needs.

Additionally, some students may not have access to adequate healthcare, causing them to miss school. This can be especially problematic for low-income students. Schools often offer health services through School-Based Health Centers (SBHC). They can address issues like vision, hearing and dental care.

Socialization

Socialization is the process by which a child learns to associate with others and live within a culture. It occurs at different stages of life and schools play a crucial role in it. They provide a formalized environment where children begin to internalize societal norms, values and behaviors.

Students must adjust to school environments that are often quite different from the family setting. They also must adjust to the many structural features of day-to-day school life that differ from the family home.

Streaming, dress codes and school uniforms, and relationships with teachers all contribute to students’ socialization. Students “learn gender” at school, and they also learn to empathize with others who may be very different from themselves. These skills can be vital to their professional and emotional well-being.

Personal development

Personal development is a key part of school life that can help students overcome barriers to learning and increase aspiration. It can also help them improve their mental wellbeing and happiness, which has a positive impact on their whole life.

Personal growth also allows people to figure out their strengths and weaknesses. This can lead to a better understanding of themselves and their abilities, as well as provide them with a clearer sense of purpose.

In addition, personal development can also improve the quality of a person’s relationships. It can also give them a better perspective on the world and humanity. Additionally, it can lead to more creativity in all aspects of life, from work to hobbies. It is also important to know that personal development can be done in a variety of ways, including taking courses and learning new skills.

Culture

School culture is the prevailing atmosphere that influences everything that happens within a school. It encompasses the relationships between teachers and students, as well as the overall feel of the school. It is important to know that a school’s culture can impact its academic performance, student engagement and attendance.

While most principals understand that culture is a critical factor for their schools, many find it hard to define and articulate. They may talk about it in vague terms, and they might think that addressing culture is too soft or irrelevant to school improvement.

In a positive school culture, the teaching staff are able to work together as a team and share educational values. In addition, they are able to recognize the achievements of their students and celebrate them.

Religion

Religious studies encourage the development of morals in students. They help students understand the importance of honesty, faithfulness, hard work and respect for others. Furthermore, students learn about religious personalities who exhibited great faith and perseverance and thereby helped shape the world. This understanding helps them become good citizens.

In addition, the study of religion helps students understand cultural diversity. This is because different regions practice various religions, and understanding these differences will enable people from all cultures to co-exist peacefully and achieve their goals.

The National Council for the Social Studies has called on educators to incorporate the study of religion in ways that are constitutionally and academically sound. This includes ensuring that all groups, including student religious groups, have the same opportunity to participate in school activities.

Students with reading difficulties have a wide range of instructional needs. Some of these challenges lie at the word level, while others involve higher order reading skills.

Reading intervention focuses on developing different reading skills and strategies in an integrated manner. This is done through targeted instruction in the following areas:

Phonics

Phonics is the process of connecting letters to sounds. Students need to have solid phonics skills in order to decode words and build their reading fluency. It’s also important that they learn to sound out and segment words into individual sounds (sound awareness).

Many phonics programs can be used as part of a reading intervention program. The most effective phonics programs use structured, synthetic phonics instruction that teaches letter-sound knowledge in a systematic way.

Students who are struggling with phonics can benefit from intensive or targeted reading intervention to accelerate their progress. This may take the form of a specialized program that is taught outside class time, private tutoring, or changing how their regular classroom teacher instructs the class.

Fluency

When students are able to decode words quickly and accurately they can begin to focus on the meaning of the text. However, this is only the beginning of comprehension skill development. In order to fully comprehend what is read the student must notice context, make inferences and think about what they are reading.

Fluency and comprehension might seem like two different skills, but research shows that they are linked. Students who struggle with fluency will often have trouble understanding what they read.

To build fluency it is important to have students practice the same passages over and over. This is an essential component of the Reading Recovery model and can be done one on one or in small groups. It is also important to teach students how to pronounce words correctly and to incorporate prosody (inflection, volume, smoothness, phrasing) into their reading. It is helpful to have students pair up with another student and read aloud together.

Comprehension

Children who understand what they read can visualize stories, make predictions and inferences, laugh at jokes, and think about the overall themes of a text. This is the ultimate goal of reading. Recognizing words on a page does not necessarily make it meaningful to the reader.

Children that struggle with comprehension are less likely to enjoy reading and are more limited in their access to a wide range of reading materials. They also may lack a sense of the purpose and utility of reading in their lives.

To improve comprehension, students need to understand how the content they are reading connects with their background knowledge and experiences. Intervention that includes direct and explicit comprehension strategy instruction may support students’ ability to comprehend more quickly and accurately. In addition, the integration of strategies with background knowledge may enhance students’ comprehension performance. This meta-analysis builds upon prior research by investigating moderators in the effect of comprehension intervention on students’ reading comprehension.

Vocabulary

Vocabulary is the stock of words in a reader’s “bank” that he or she uses to deliver messages. Beginning readers must build a repertoire of familiar words so that they can recognize them and understand their meaning.

As students progress in reading, their vocabularies must expand to include new, unfamiliar words that they need to be able to read. This is a challenging process that can be impeded by a lack of vocabulary instruction.

Most children acquire vocabulary incidentally through their everyday experiences with oral and written language, including listening to books read aloud to them, and reading extensively on their own. However, research has shown that explicit vocabulary instruction can significantly improve students’ reading comprehension and vocabulary test performance. Vocabulary instruction should be systematic and focused on both the meaning and usage of words. It should also be paired with contextual and definitional activities.

Research suggests that children learn best when schools provide a comprehensive range of supports. Unfortunately, most kids – especially in the poorest countries – don’t learn much.

Infant classrooms are safe and nurturing spaces that support healthy brain development. Teachers focus on infants’ physical, social, emotional and cognitive (thinking) development.

Early Childhood Education

Early childhood education is the learning that children receive during their preschool or pre-kindergarten years. The curriculum can include a variety of experiences, like domestic play, sensory play and constructive play, as well as educational activities.

Oftentimes, the lessons that children learn in ECE programs are fun and exciting. This helps them learn that education can be fun and that they can concentrate for longer periods of time. Young children tend to have short attention spans, and a good education program will help them develop a sense of focus that will carry into their school career.

A quality ECE education also teaches children the importance of cooperation. They will need to work together with their peers in a classroom, and will also learn how to work with adults. This will be valuable in their future careers, as well as in their relationships with other family members. They will also have the skills to build positive self-esteem and regulate their emotions.

Socialization

For people of all ages, socialization is important for the acquisition of skills that are necessary to function in society. Education is one of the main sources of socialization. In school, young people receive guidelines regarding authority, schedules and tasks from teachers who are responsible for guiding their behavior.

Children learn a variety of social skills from their peers as well, especially in the peer group that forms at school. Siblings also play a major role in socialization, with older siblings serving as tutors and managers for their younger sibling.

Class and gender are other significant influences on patterns of socialization. For example, white parents are likely to socialize their children in ways that emphasize the importance of obeying law enforcement officers, while parents of color must have what’s known as “the talk” with their kids to teach them how to interact peacefully with police. Gender stereotypes are also conveyed through the types of toys and clothing that are typically given to girls and boys.

Learning to Think for Yourself

Thinking for yourself is a key component of learning to cope in the world outside school. It requires a space that allows children to take some charge of their own explorations, and to plan their own work. It also means that adults can’t be expected to impose their own agendas on every working group – and that they can’t be a substitute for the children themselves.

Historically, schools have been places where children have learned to think for themselves – although not always in the ways we might have imagined. The mandarin education of imperial China, for example, was an important avenue of social mobility and elite renewal. But it did not aim to foster independent, critical thought – rather, it taught the bureaucrats of an empire how to manage and administer the state. The same can be said of many current teaching approaches. Recipe approaches that follow the experience, explore and explain mantra do not automatically embed this capacity.

Learning to Cooperate

Working cooperatively with others is a vital skill for all children. It allows them to balance their own needs with those of a group or individual and helps them see how following rules or requests is actually beneficial for all.

Children learn cooperation mainly through observation and imitation, so parents need to show how it’s done. This doesn’t mean putting your toddler on a sports team but rather engaging in team work at home (e.g. sharing the dustpan or helping with a chore) and reading books that feature people working together.

When a child does cooperate, be sure to let them know that you noticed and praise their efforts. This will encourage them to continue to do the right thing. Also give them some choices during play to empower them, for example, letting them decide whether they want crayons or markers to use in an art project or asking them to put on their jackets or hats first before heading outside to play.

Education support includes a range of resources that help families with children. These may include counseling, family-planning, day care assistance, clothing, school supplies, tutoring and academic advising.

Founded in 1877, Education Support is a UK charity that supports teachers, trainees, serving and retired professionals. Its services also extend to those in further and higher education.

Attend School Board Meetings

Civic duty doesn’t just mean paying taxes, voting and completing jury duty; it also means showing up at important civic meetings like school board elections or meetings. Attending a school board meeting is one of the most powerful forms of activism because it allows you to have direct access to a governing body and impact meaningful change.

School boards are elected by their communities, so getting to know the people who represent you can help you recognize which ones vote in line with your values and concerns. Attending school board meetings gives you the opportunity to observe the decision-making process and voice your opinion during public comment periods.

School board members can make decisions about the budget, academic calendars, disciplinary procedures for students and more. The only limit to attending a school board meeting is the restrictions of the district’s policies and laws. For example, some districts may require attendees to register in advance or show identification before allowing them to enter the meeting.

Attend Parent-Teacher Conferences

The goal of a parent-teacher conference is to discuss how students are doing in school and what parents can do to help. Meetings are typically held in the fall and spring, but can be requested at any time.

Teachers should be prepared to answer questions and show examples of classwork, homework assignments and tests or quizzes at these meetings. They should also be willing to give parents accurate assessments of their children’s academic progress and social growth. This may include delivering bad news, which can be difficult.

Parents should prepare for conferences by checking the teacher’s website or contacting her ahead of time to set up an appointment, and by tracking their child’s academic performance throughout the year. The teacher should also send home a conference schedule and meeting agenda for the event. She should also provide copies of materials for parents and a contact number to reach her after the meeting. This helps ensure that all issues are addressed.

Keep Your Kids Healthy

As students and teachers prepare to return to school, it’s important for kids and teens to stay healthy throughout the term. Regular hand-washing, avoiding sharing water bottles or food, getting enough sleep and staying current with vaccines are all ways to keep your children safe from illness and infection this school year.

Education support staff, also known as paraeducators, make up the backbone of every school system. From classroom assistants and cafeteria workers to custodians, bus drivers and secretaries, their hard work is vital for student success. MSEA is proud to represent these dedicated employees and their fight for decent wages, working conditions, fair benefits and respect for their invaluable contributions.

Schools in the CSI and ATSI support models can participate in NYSED-organized Supplemental Support programs, which are designed to help schools implement and strengthen their internal continuous improvement efforts and systems. These programs are optional for all eligible schools. For more information, click here.

Schools provide children with a safe place to learn and grow with teachers, peers, family members, and friends. They also help children learn how to work together and communicate effectively.

Many kids don’t know what they want to do with their lives, but school opens doors for them. It lets them explore their interests and develop relationships with people that they will be working with for the rest of their lives.

1. They Help You Learn

Besides learning new information, schools also teach you how to think critically and solve problems. These are skills that can help you throughout your life, whether it’s in the workplace or in other areas of your life.

Schools are places where you can learn about a wide range of subjects, including history, science, literature, and even art. They also offer a variety of extracurricular activities, such as field trips and workshops.

School is the best place to explore your interests and develop your passions. You can discover what you love to do by taking different classes, and you can make friends with people who have similar interests as you.

School also gives you the opportunity to learn how to work in groups and develop leadership skills. This is important because working with other people is necessary in many jobs. Regular attendance at school also cultivates habits that are valuable in the workforce, such as punctuality and reliability.

2. They Help You Develop Social Skills

A school provides a good opportunity for students to learn and practice social skills. This can be done by giving them assignments or activities that require collaboration with other students of different ages, or through extra-curricular pursuits such as sports and music.

Many teachers choose their career paths in part because of their desire to impact the lives of kids. However, many don’t get the training they need to teach interpersonal skills, which is important for a healthy learning environment.

The best way to help students develop their social skills is by identifying which ones they need work on. It’s also a great idea to incorporate role-playing in the classroom. This allows students to practice the skills in a safe, comfortable environment. By setting goals for improvement, students can feel empowered to tackle the challenges they face at school. They will learn to be more confident and competent in their interactions with others. They’ll also develop the empathy needed to understand and help others cope with difficult feelings.

3. They Help You Develop Your Interests

Children often develop interests from various sources like a friend, a book they read, their own curiosity, and of course, their school. They might even have a few hobbies and activities they enjoy doing. But, many times, these interests don’t go beyond the school day and become a major aspect of their lives.

Teachers and parents can help kids nurture their interest in learning by encouraging them to explore the subjects they love. For example, if a child is interested in art, they can take up art lessons or participate in theaters and plays.

It’s also a good idea to encourage students to join clubs or activities related to their interest like the Horticulture club, Engineer’s club, dance club, etc. This will help them learn more about their interest and develop a sense of community among their peers. It will also help them make connections between what they do in the classroom and their careers or future goals.

4. They Help You Develop Relationships

Students need positive relationships in order to be engaged and feel school belonging. In addition to caring adults, students need peers that share their interests and are there to support them in their learning. This is why schools are the natural place for children to develop and build relationships — they provide an environment where it is safe and possible for students to be open to others and learn from them.

Teachers and other school staff play a critical role in nurturing these relationships. This means they should receive training on how to effectively interact with students, and the time, space and opportunities to do so.

All parents want their children to attend schools where they are known, cared for and respected, and supported to achieve their best. Relationships are key to their success, and recent brain research suggests that students in these contexts make more progress academically than those who don’t. This is why all school systems should focus on creating and sustaining high-quality relationships in all their buildings.

Kindergarten is your child’s first introduction to academic learning. Children learn in a variety of ways, including through play and exploration.

Kindergarteners learn about shapes, numbers and basic addition and subtraction. They also practice their fine motor skills by drawing and constructing.

Emotional development helps your child recognize and understand his own feelings and the feelings of others. Teachers encourage children to cooperate with and respect one another.

Language Arts

Students learn to express themselves creatively through a variety of activities, including singing and playing musical instruments. They also engage in imaginative play and use their creativity to create their own storylines. Kindergarteners develop their vocabulary by interacting with various types of literature and games that emphasize word walls, context clues and read alouds. They will also begin to recognize sight words through interactive games and shared reading.

They will also discover the connection between letters and sounds by learning to phonologically understand, identify, isolate, manipulate, add, blend and delete phonemes in spoken language. They will practice basic tracing and printing skills, and they will learn to write the alphabet in upper and lower case. They will also begin to learn how to read short texts, using pictures and other context clues to make predictions and ask questions about the text.

Math

Kindergarten students learn the numbers 0 and 5, how to add and subtract, the days of the week, basic money skills, time concepts, and basic graphing. They also start to recognize patterns, a skill that helps them understand the world around them.

Mathematically proficient students in Kindergarten carefully look for structures and patterns in the number system and other areas of mathematics. For example, kindergartners notice that adding 1 to a group of four results in five because they understand the concept of commutative property.

They also begin to see the difference between 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional shapes, a process known as sorting and classifying. Your kindergartner may even begin to sort her toys into groups of the same kinds, or order her stuffed animals by height.

Social Studies

Early childhood is a critical time for building the foundations of social studies. Social studies focuses on learning about social systems, the abstract societal norms and values that affect all humans, and developing civic competence and disciplinary literacies (Mindes, 2015).

Kindergarten children learn about their homes and classroom, local and national symbols, American holidays, and history. Teachers encourage students to question societal systems and values and develop an awareness of how they affect their lives.

Kindergartners also learn about geography and economics. Teachers have found that social studies combines elements of the subjects of history, geography, civics, and sociology, even though each subject may not always receive as much class time as the term social studies implies. This integration of subjects has convinced educators that they need to devote more time to social studies.

Science

In kindergarten, kids explore the world around them and begin to develop organized and analytical thinking. Although science curriculum varies by state and by school, most kindergartners will learn similar concepts.

Children discover that materials have properties, such as shape, size, color, temperature, odor, flexibility and weight. They also learn that these properties can be observed and measured. For example, when they sort apples by size, they start to measure them with a tape measure rather than estimating based on how much they weigh.

Kindergartners also practice predicting, which is their ability to guess what will happen during an experiment. For example, they may predict whether an apple will sink or float. This is one of the key scientific skills that kids need to develop in order to move on to more advanced experiments.

Health

At this age, children are inquisitive and always happy to explore the natural world around them. The kindergarten science curriculum fosters this curiosity, encouraging children to observe and investigate the natural world.

Children are encouraged to use their five senses to learn about living things and to record their observations in their science journals through pictures, dictation or kindergarten-style writing. They also learn to recognize and respect the needs of plants and animals.

Daily health checks are essential in assessing a child’s well-being. It is important to follow your program’s policies for when a child should be sent home from day care due to illness, and to help families understand these procedures. In addition, these documents are important for tracking and recording immunizations and identifying children with ongoing health issues that may affect learning.

Reading intervention provides students with the opportunity to improve their reading, writing, study skills and test taking strategies in a class that meets at their instructional level. Instruction is based on the school district curricula and units of study.

Children need to become automatic at recognizing words in order to free cognitive resources for deriving meaning from text. Teachers need to provide support and reinforcement for efforts toward this end.

1. Explicit Instruction

Explicit instruction is an evidence-based teaching strategy that is one of the highest leverage practices for students with learning disabilities. This instructional approach teaches skills by identifying specific targeted objectives, planning and designing structured instruction experiences, providing clear explanations of the skills to be taught, modeling them directly, and providing scaffolded practice sessions.

Watch this 8-minute video to learn more about explicit instruction. Then, take a look at this helpful resource on using explicit instruction with students with dyslexia.

2. Multisensory Instruction

Many students have a preferred sensory learning style, also known as a learning strength. When they use techniques that involve their area of strength, they retain more knowledge and are able to apply it to new learning activities.

Reading is an inherently multisensory skill that benefits from a multisensory teaching approach, particularly for children with learning differences. For example, the Orton-Gillingham reading system uses sight, sound, movement and touch to help students learn letter combinations, sounds and words.

Adding sensory components to lessons helps engage the senses and makes them more memorable for kids. Examples of sensory activities include skywriting, sandpaper letters and clapping while spelling. Other tactile learning materials that can be used for multisensory lessons include modeling clay, raised line paper and textures.

3. Vocabulary Development

Most students acquire vocabulary incidentally, through everyday experiences with oral and written language. They learn words in a variety of ways, including by interacting with others, listening to books read aloud to them, and reading extensively on their own.

Vocabulary instruction should be explicit and targeted, addressing both meaning and usage. Involve students in a range of activities to help them relate new words to their prior knowledge and experiences, and to the text they are reading (Baker et al., 2013).

To support students in constructing the meaning of new words, use visual presentations and strategies that promote the development of background knowledge, such as sorting vocabulary picture cards or identifying prefixes, suffixes, and root words in unfamiliar multisyllabic words. For more ideas on effective vocabulary instruction, check out this blog post!

4. Fluency Development

Students need to be able to read connected text quickly, smoothly, and automatically. This is called fluency. Fluent readers can focus on comprehension, which requires understanding what they have read rather than decoding each word.

Fluency can be modeled and practiced through repeated oral reading and through a variety of strategies, including echo and choral reading. Students should be encouraged to read a lot, and often. This helps build their confidence.

It is important for them to hear examples of fluent reading from their teachers and their parents. They should also be allowed to read books that interest them and can be found at their level. Many students find that if they read aloud to someone else, they are more successful. This can be done in small groups by pairing a stronger reader with a less-fluent reader.

5. Reading Comprehension

Reading comprehension is the process of understanding a passage. This includes decoding the words and using background knowledge to construct an understanding of the writer’s message.

Children can practice their comprehension skills by talking about what they have read and asking questions. They can also use visualizing strategies, such as creating in their minds a picture of the text or story they are reading.

Reading intervention is often used to provide intensive instruction to students who are reading below grade level. It can be part of the multi-tiered system of support and may include a pull-out program or small group intervention. In addition to reading comprehension, reading intervention focuses on developing fluency and vocabulary. All of these skills are important for students who struggle with reading.