SEND

Cognition and Learning|Reading

Tools and tips

What is a reading age?

Quite often baseline standardised reading tests give students a reading age, this a score that would put them in a comparable group of student by age. It is often disheartening to students to let them know this, and there are often better scores you can use such as a standardised score. The KS2 SATS also include a reading score which can be used as a general guide to ability. It is important to get an idea of what kind of interventions your school runs for literacy in order to help students apply their skills in your area. Highlight the students who struggle with reading on your seating plan, quite often I find older children who have either hearing or visual problems fail to wear their glasses or hearing aids, (too cool for school), it is important to know about these students and make note, sit them close to the board, check in with them, print out bigger text. etc. (Students who are squinting or overly loud are usually the ones to watch out for.)

Listen to them read

The best advice I can give to any teacher to assess how to help struggling readers in class is to listen to your students read. A few sentences can give you an indication to level at which they are struggling, either a student struggles to get through any words, misses words when they are reading or can not decode new words. Try to do this in private away from the rest of the class, acknowledge with them that you can see they might struggle and that you are there to support them, work through what that might look like in your classroom. Often poor readers have low self confidence when it comes to learning and a teacher offering support can make the world of difference.

Read through with class:

A simple read through of a worksheet or piece of text can be enough to include students who would struggle. Check out this site (Natural Readers) for a way to vary the way text is read out. You can use different accents and speeds, or even encourage students to use this independently.

Reading Partners:

Use stronger readers to sit next weaker ones and encourage them to help their partner, it can often be used as a symbiotic relationship, if you use the weaker readers strengths to help the stronger reader. For example; ask the student not reading to take the role of recorder for summarising key ideas, or figuring out what they need to do in a task.

Teach new vocabulary

It is important to teach new words a handy sheet for teaching new vocabulary is included in the Toolbox. Display your keywords- link them to SPAG objectives- refer to them. Break the word up; notice the parts of the word (Root, suffixes and prefixes, hard bits). For weaker classes/students have word banks and keyword sheets to support spelling and vocabulary, a useful link to free high frequency words (the words we use most) are linked here.

Chunk up written instructions:

Quite often readers who struggle can have working memory difficulties which can impact on how much information they can take in at anyone time. Poor readers also miss chunks of information and fail to get the general gist of a piece of writing or instructions. Panic often sets in when students are presented with a lot of text at once and this can lead to anxiety and avoidance behaviours.

Go over multi-syllabic words in texts:

Struggling readers often have a good grasp of basic phonics but struggle with longer vowel sounds or longer (multi-syllabic) words. By scanning these longer words and pointing them out before a student reads a text they can read the text with more fluency as they do not become stuck on these words. You could also highlight these words on text or better still ask students to highlight the tricky words before they start themselves and go over any as a class.

Give texts before-hand for reading prior to lesson:

If you are planning on reading a larger piece of text in your lesson why not give it to a student prior to the lesson. There are a lot of online systems to help with this such as Google Classroom or your school VLE. You could also give this to an LSA to complete with the student in consolidation or intervention time.

Readability

Check the readability age of your text by using the SMOG Formula (Cards in Toolbox Section), or cut and paste into this linked web page for instant readability scores.

Think about text format:

Text must be large enough, good quality and have clear paragraphs and space to support readers. Busy worksheets quickly overload students, students with visual problems are often helped with a handout of what is on the board or sitting nearer the board. Remember what students copy or read from a board will not necessarily be what comes out-Especially if a student is relying on auditory pathways to output visual information.

Use visual cues to support understanding:

A picture paints a thousand words- Our brain has a biological preference for visual stimuli, and sometimes a simple visual cue can really support struggling readers and put reading into context.

Use a phonics approach first:

Allow struggling readers time to read a word and if they are struggling, model a phonics (Sounding out) approach to word attack where possible. It is also helpful to break down words into syllables or smaller units. Students may also benefit (where appropriate) from some explanation of word entomology- such as common suffixes etc. It is important to let the student 'have a go', and only if needed correct.

Connect reading and writing (Look Hear Say Write):

Check out the video below (Toolbox Section) that explains the importance of connecting different inputs, this would be particularly useful for teaching keywords and subject specific vocabulary.

Reader for Tests and Assessments

Consider using a Human or Computer Reader for tests and Assessments. I can recommend 'claro read' as a good free screen reader. If the student has been tested for reading difficulties they may be granted Accessibility Arrangements for formal examinations. If you use a reader note it down and pass it onto your SENCO so that they can build a picture of need for the student.

Toolbox