When a child is falling behind in school, there are often foundational skills that are weak, leaving a student unable to meet expectations in one or more academic subjects. My initial in-take evaluation reveals which concepts need to be strengthened in order for a student to be successful.
While I am formally Orton-Gillingham trained, I incorporate many remediation methodologies including:
- Judith Hochman’s writing work;
- Wilson Reading System;
- Lindamood-Bell’s Visualizing and Verbalizing;
- Nancy Cushman White’s Structured Reading approach; and
- Preventing Academic Failure (PAF)
I believe that a student must understand the process and approach, and embrace that each concept covered has value in the classroom and at home.
Each individualized lesson plan utilizes a multi-sensory and communicative approach to build skills such as:
- Phonemic Awareness: The understanding that spoken words are made up of individual sounds, called phonemes. A student who is phonemically aware is able to isolate, manipulate, blend and segment the sounds into spoken and written words. Phonemic Awareness is an auditory training process. In my practice, I align teaching in phonemic awareness with explicit and systematic teaching in phonics.
- Word-Attack and Decoding: Recognition of sound/symbol concepts, syllabication, suffixes and spelling patterns, and morphological concepts/patterns. Word-attack skills lend to fluency, allowing readers to comprehend the meaning of text as they read rather than pausing to decode unfamiliar words.
- Reading Fluency: Reading text effortlessly with speed, accuracy, and fluidity. In addition to recognizing most words automatically, fluent readers also incorporate appropriate phrasing, rhythm, and intonation.
- Reading Comprehension: Applying strategies to gain both explicit and implicit understanding of a text.
- Writing Skills: Developing expository and creative writing processes.
- Spelling and Grammar: These lend tremendously to written fluency and reading comprehension. Students are taught to employ a variety of multi-sensory strategies.
- Vocabulary Building: We also utilize various multi-sensory strategies to build vocabulary and learn meaning, nuance and usage on a significant level. This contributes to reading comprehension and both written and verbal expressive language skills.
- Critical and Analytical Thinking: Often associated with “directed thinking,” i.e. solving problems, seeking the truth, and developing understanding, with the focus on a desired outcome. Students learn how to break down situations, practices, problems, statements, ideas, theories and/or arguments into their component parts. Additionally, they learn to evaluate concepts/ideas and make reasoned judgments about how valid, effective, important, relevant, useful and worthwhile they are.