Embedded Files
What does a Literacy/ Learning Specialist do?
The primary goal of a Learning Specialist is to strengthen areas of skill and target areas of weakness by providing structured, small group instruction to students who teachers believe will benefit from additional support in a smaller and more intimate setting. In addition, Learning Specialists provide guidance to classroom teachers, serve as a resource for parents, and communicate with outside service providers in an effort to provide your children with a comprehensive system of learning support.
How are early literacy skills supported through the Learning Specialist?
I support early literacy skills using a multi-sensory, Orton-Gillingham approach across the following domains:
- Phonemic awareness (letters, sounds, word families, spelling patterns)
- High Frequency/Sight Word Study (writing and reading commonly used sight words)
- Reading fluency and accuracy (how fast/slow a child reads, how accurate a child is when they read)
- Reading comprehension (understanding of a story and its central elements; ability to make inferences and connections; recalling plot and facts)
- Strategy work (strategies to decode unfamiliar words; strategies that support reading comprehension)
- Writing Skills (handwriting, application of sight words and spelling patterns)
How often will you work with our children?
- In Kindergarten, the support I provide is delivered in-class, twice a week (2x/week), to all of the children. *Please make note of the following: There are no formal support groups in Kindergarten and 1:1 support is not provided to children through the Learning Specialist.*
- In 1st Grade, support is targeted based on initial assessment data, and happens in a pull-out, small group format. I work with no more than four students at a time, during their scheduled reading block. Groups may be subject to change throughout the year, but generally remain the same. Priority for groups is given to children who have been identified with specific learning needs, have an IEP on file, or have undergone a neuropsychological evaluation.
Report abuse