Teaching Late Bloomers - Part 3

Many people believe that students who struggle in early elementary school are "late bloomers" and they will catch up with their peers in the next few years. Based on the definitions provided in the previous two posts, here is my response to the concept of "late bloomers," as well as ideas for intervention that would hopefully help a struggling student improve their reading skills.

Research does not support the idea of “late bloomers.” Several studies show that children who are behind in reading in first grade tend to still be poor readers by fourth grade. Also, children develop reading skills quickly in early elementary school, but beyond sixth grade, students tend not to improve their reading abilities. In order to improve reading skills in struggling readers, teachers need to intervene as soon as possible. Based on this information, I would reason that a vast majority of students are not “late bloomers;” therefore, this struggling first grader should be provided more intense, individualized reading instruction right away.

I would start giving this student individualized reading instruction in addition to regular class lessons as soon as I identified him or her as a struggling reader. Since most poor readers have difficulty with phonemic awareness, I would begin by teaching or reinforcing letter sounds with this student. Before the student would be able to read, he or she would need to have a basic understanding of how each letter sounds and how these sounds fit together. I could teach this through flash cards or repetition and matching games. Once the child had a good understanding of letter sounds, I would be able to begin phonics instruction, because the child would understand that sounds blend together to make words. Reading words out loud would reinforce the idea that words are made up of letters, which each make their own sound. Throughout my instruction, I would constantly assess the student’s understanding and document his or her progress. This would help guide my instruction to fit with the student’s pace of learning. Hopefully this direct, intense phonemic awareness and phonics instruction would help this struggling student improve his or her reading skills.

Teaching Late Bloomers - Part 2

The American Federation of Teachers' article, "Waiting Rarely Works: Late Bloomers Usually Just Wilt," says that poor early readers are lacking a basic literacy skill: phonemic awareness.

The primary skill many poor early readers are lacking is phonemic awareness - the ability to hear and understand individual letter sounds. Many poor readers have trouble improving their reading skills because they do not understand the basic sounds that make up words, meaning they are not able to decode unknown words. Children need to understand the connection between letters and the sounds they make alone and connected to other letters. This allows them to blend together letters sounds to be able to sound out unfamiliar words.

Teaching Late Bloomers: Can they catch up?

The following post is based on an article by the American Federation of Teachers, "Waiting Rarely Works: Late Bloomers Usually Just Wilt." This post will define and compare the developmental lag theory and the early reading weakness as a skill deficit.

The developmental lag theory states that some children learn to read more slowly than others, and that these children will eventually catch up with their peers. This theory says that reading problems will diminish as the brain develops. The “early reading weakness as a skill deficit” theory believes that children who are behind in reading do not catch up without intense intervention. These students need direct instruction as soon as possible so that they do not fall farther behind. The developmental lag theory does not take into account children who have learning disabilities or children who just might need more individualized reading instruction because it assumes that all children will improve their reading skills naturally as they grow. The other theory accounts for these students and emphasizes the importance of working with them as soon as a delay is noticed. It acknowledges that students need instruction in order to learn to read, and some need more assistance than others.

Know the Rules: Special Education

The link below will take you to another document, Article 7. This is Indiana's special education law, which outlines every aspect and component of special education in Indiana. This is an important document for all teachers to know, not just special education teachers, because students who are in special education came from general education classes. General education teachers need to be aware that a child cannot be placed in special education unless his or her classroom teacher has been using best practices to teach. Also, eligibility processes for special education require documentation, so general education teachers should document everything when they notice students who are struggling. When a child in a general education class is being diagnosed with a disability, the general education teacher will probably play a role in the case conference and Individualized Education Plan process, so it is important for these teachers to understand the procedures in which they will participate.

http://www.doe.in.gov/exceptional/speced/docs/Art_7.pdf

How to Get Started with RTI

The link below goes to the Indiana Department of Education's Guidance Document for Response to Instruction. This document defines and describes the RTI model, the roles of teachers, and how to implement RTI in a school.

http://www.doe.in.gov/rti/docs/RtI_Guidance_Document.pdf

"Literacy in an elementary school is everyone's business."

Listen to a principal describe the importance of literacy and how RTI has helped teachers and students in her school love literacy. The link below will take you to a video from an elementary school practicing a three-tier RTI model. Hear from teachers, reading specialists, and the principal about how they successfully use RTI in their school, and watch phonics instruction being implemented with students in each of the three tiers.

http://www.readinghorizons.com/rti/

Bridging the Gap: "RTI in Action"

The video below is an excellent introduction to Response to Intervention, which includes video clips from classrooms implementing RTI so that you can see it in action. This video, "RTI in Action," comes from Lehigh University's Center for Promoting Research to Practice.