[senco-forum] reading books for y6 RA just 7

On 9/12/07, Paul and Philippa Bodien <bodien at gmail.com> wrote:

Hello Kate,
>
> What about trying a new direction if the Y6 boy has attained a RA of 7
> years after much effort?  I have seen this type of lengthy failure to read
> despite good teaching before.  Each boy needed a somewhat different
> approach... here's what worked:
>
> *     a boy of 9 years had an IQ of "at least 130" (EP report).  Word
> reading and word attack (non wordreading) on 1st percentile.  After a year
> of phonics,phonoligcal awreness his rading was still stuck at Y1 level -
> just able to decode simple words.  I used a text to speech program and gave
> him dictations of simple texts (happen to have Spelling Made Easy but you
> can use anything as longas it is controlled for phonic level).  I used
> Write:Outloud (from Don Johnston).  Any text to speech software will do
> though.  Dictte to him and he types.  The program either says what he is
> tryingto write or it does not.  He self corrects.  At some point gethim to
> readhis own work back from the screen.  This work, over many weeks - with no
> other teaching - led to him reading much better.   Once you have the
> software it is no cost except time given by ault to dictate.  Any adult with
> a positive supportive manner can do this.

*   Maybe he has eye problems?  He may need a behavioural optometric test.
This is not  available on the NHS (very sadly) .  Several of my students
made no or very limited progress until they had had their eyes tested (by
Keith Holland) and had had glasses and/or vision therapy.  I have
information on behavioural optometry that I will happily send out as
attachments (have offered this in past postings to forum).  Or look at
British Association of Behavioural Optometrists' web site or Keith
Holland's.  (Keith set up BABO).

*   Ruth Miskin Literacy reading scheme is just superb - one of the best
reading schemes I have ever seen in print.  It is now published by OUP.  But
it is expensive.  I think it should be the main reading scheme (or something
very like it) for all primary schools.  We are just moving away from a pilot
in our school to using it as whole school.  Kids taught this way should not
fail unless there are real diffculites (as Solity's research showed.  3%
failed in his longitudinal study with 12,500 primary children in UK).

*  A bright boy (IQ 120) aged 9 - years of good teaching by his school left
his decoding level at RA 5 years or so with overfast attack on text and
limited but amazingly good comprehension given his inaccuracy of word
reading.  I used Scrambler since he had been taught phonics intensively and
though he knew it he was not applying it.  Scrambler was a Dutch softwa4re
that multi fonts text.  So for example, the word apple would have each
letter produced in a different font.  This totally destroys the familiar
shapes of the words and forced him to really look at each word slowly.
After 6 months his RA had incr3eaded, his reading speed (which was way to
fast for his accuracy level) had decreased and his comprehension - cos he
could now read some words better - had increased too.  By the time we
completed using Scrambled text his RA was at an appropriate level for his IQ
and age, as was his speed and his comprehension had gone beyond what the
Neale Analysis could score (ie higher than 13 years).  He was about 11 years
old by this time.

Unfortunately I have not been able to contact the Scrambler people more
recently.  If Dave at Bangor is reading this maybe he would like to design
something similar?

*    Acceleread Accelewrite by Martin Miles and co-author is fantastic.  It
is available from iansyst.  Both Martin and Ian are on this forum. It is
very affordable and just needs text to speech software.  It is a structured
way of doing what I did with Spelling Made Easy (I had not met Martin when I
used SME and dictation).

*  commercial interest declared on this next one - NFER-Nelson has Martin
Turner and I have just published a book called Dyslexia Guidance by Martin
Turner (former Head of Pscychology at the Dyslexia Institute (now Dyslexia
Action)), me and a colleague who is a whizz with secondary and above.  This
book is designed to be easy to pick up and use - about a third of it is
photocopiable material.  One of the ideas in there is the six syllable
drill.  When used at the appropriate point in a multi sensory structured and
cumulative teaching programme (ie a dyslexia programme or similar) this
drill can make the difference between being literate and being functionally
illiterate.  We use it all the time with our students and it has achieved
wonders.  Other than buying the book (40 pounds) (and no - it is not going
to make me rich) there is no cost to this approach.  You just need ordinary
school materials (card, pens) and a supportive positive adult who has read
the book carefully.

Philippa

On 9/12/07, Kate Barnes <kate.senrab at btinternet.com> wrote:
> >
> > I have alittle money to spend on reading books for 3 year 6 boys (2 of
> > whom have just arrived) with Reading ages around 7. The one who has been
> > with us since reception has made huge progress to get to this stage. He is
> > severly dyslexic,and has ADHD,  but very intelligent. Progress is painfully
> > slow, He has read all the wellington sq, fuzzbuzz bangers and mash,
> > wildcats..that he can manage at the moment. We both need something new and
> > inspiring!
> >   I have looked at the Ann Arbour Titles which seem good value, but the
> > RA is rather vague...Barrington stoke have some good titles, but they are
> > expensive....can anybody recommend anything new?
> >   thanks
> >   Kate
> >
>
>