Friday Freebie Link from the Institute for Multisensory Education (IMSE) added to Phonics page!
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Adolescents who exhibit the need for basic phonological awareness may need further testing. Please reach out to your site specialist (e.g. instructional coach, psychologist, and/or initiate the COST process) with your concerns.
Adolescents have proven success with word identification strategies, rather than an explicit phonics approach.
Word Identification Strategies:
Support students by selecting challenging spelling patterns and words for immediate transfer to familiar and unfamiliar text. This builds upon the academic strengths and weaknesses of students' phonics skills.
Word study activities in decoding polysyllabic words and word parts can be highly engaging and motivating for students struggling with word identification.
Fluency improvements account for substantial gains in reading comprehension.
Strategic readers and slow word callers indicate a need for fluency instruction.
Teacher model of fluent reading with content-area texts that contains many unfamiliar words is important.
Lessons should be short, focused, and connected to the real-world interests of the students.
Incorporate repeated reading, paired reading, echo reading, choral reading, reader's theater, peer tutoring, and self-selected reading. Practice is critical for success.
Choose vocabulary that focuses on essential course content.
Pay attention to and instruct academic vocabulary.
Explicitly teach using the following method: explain and model; student guided practice in different contexts; independent practice: and repetition of steps as needed.
Have students work with each other to learn and engage with each other to deepen learning.
Introduce new words in clusters so connections are made.
Tie words back to previously known words.
Provide multiple exposures through discussion, word maps, and writing.
Focus on morphology strategies so students learn root word meanings.
Foster independent reading for reading exposure to new words.
Focus on developing general content knowledge as a way of setting expectations for specific content.
Identifying different text structures helps adolescent readers identify and summarize important content.
Provide modeling through read-alouds, setting a purpose, framing problems, and previewing concepts.
Emphasize both a written and oral focus.
Encourage and support student rereading and high level questioning.
Model strategic processes and summarizing.