Curriculum for struggling reader

[cdrumm4448]

I spoke to my mom today and she mentioned that my nephew is having trouble in school again. He is failing two classes (he's in 5th grade at public school) and is part of the special education class there (I'm not certain for what, but I think math and reading.) Anyway, my brother and SIL checked out a franchise tutor and they want $1200 for 40 sessions, three times a week. I wanted to check here to see if anyone has any recommendations regarding curriculum my SIL could work with my nephew on at home, instead of the expensive tutoring. I'm not sure if he has been tested for learning disabilities, but do know that he has trouble with reading comprehension. He's in 5th grade but reads at a 3rd grade level. What should they do to help him? His school has said they can't do anything else for him.

[Mandamom]

If he's struggling solely with comprehension -- Read with him on his grade level (3rd grade) daily and have him describe in detail what he's reading along with a discussion of vocabulary. (Have the parents start using some of those vocabulary words in their daily lives so he's more comfortable with hearing the words, too.) At first they might start out with reading a paragraph and then having him talk but increase that as he gets better. As he gets better slowly increase the difficulty of the book level. As he gets better start asking inferential and other higher level questions.

 

My math suggestion is to go to the mathusee.com website and print off their general placement test (not the leveled ones) and give him the test and see what problems he can do. If he struggles with subtraction, teach him how to subtract; if he struggles with multiplication facts or another process then his parents can teach him that.

 

Of course, if he's struggling with phonics issues that will need to be addressed with something like PHonics Pathways or ElizabethB's phonics page or any other phonics programs that you might like.

[creekmom]

I would look into using Megawords and possibly some of the other remedial books by EPS - School Specialty Intervention. I recommend ordering one of their catalogs to really get an idea of what would help him the most. Here is a link

 

http://intervention.schoolspecialty.com/

 

One other suggestion is the Reading Detective software by Critical Thinking Company. My kids have always enjoyed the stories/games, and it does a good job teaching comprehension skills.

[merry gardens]

I spoke to my mom today and she mentioned that my nephew is having trouble in school again. He is failing two classes (he's in 5th grade at public school) and is part of the special education class there (I'm not certain for what, but I think math and reading.) Anyway, my brother and SIL checked out a franchise tutor and they want $1200 for 40 sessions, three times a week. I wanted to check here to see if anyone has any recommendations regarding curriculum my SIL could work with my nephew on at home, instead of the expensive tutoring. I'm not sure if he has been tested for learning disabilities, but do know that he has trouble with reading comprehension. He's in 5th grade but reads at a 3rd grade level. What should they do to help him? His school has said they can't do anything else for him.

How sad that his school is giving up on him.:sad:

I recommend Barton Reading and Spelling. http://www.bartonreading.com/ It's not cheap, but it's much cheaper than tutoring. Whoever plans to work with him should take the tutor screening first. Next give him the screening to make sure he has enough phonemic awareness to begin the program. It he doesn't pass one of the sections ( think its the third part), try Lindamood LiPS program before Barton. Barton is an Orton Gillingham based program and it comes with training DVD's that teach the tutor (presumably your brother or SIL) what to do.

[ElizabethB]

I would have her give him the MWIA II. If he misses more phonetic words than holistic words or reads the phonetic words more than 10% slower than the holistic words, there is a problem from too many sight words. This actually is the most common cause of what is considered a comprehension problem, it's not usually comprehension but that the phonics skills are not automated enough to read well.

 

For someone in that situation, they need a lot of nonsense words and a lot of focus on phonics in isolation--just working over and over on the sounds and the words. My online lessons are good with supplementation with my game, which makes both regular and nonsense words, and I also have a program she can work through on my how to tutor page. It will be easiest for her to watch the movies with him first, then work through the program on my how to tutor page.

 

Other good books for older remedial students are linked to their websites when applicable from my phonics and spelling books page, these are the 3 best for his age and ability:

 

Rx for Reading Teach Them Phonics by Ernest Christman (Rx is sometimes spelled out as Prescription)

 

We All Can Read, 3rd Grade and Above by James Williams

 

Back on the Right Track Reading by Miscese Gagnon

 

Edit: And a blog post by an inner city school teacher who also does remedial work about why she believes that most comprehension problems are decoding based, here's a quote from her post about how reading comprehension is tied to decoding problems:

 

I often hear teachers say they have students who are "great decoders" and "poor comprehenders." I decided to investigate this phenomenon. I waved some $50 bills at a teachers' meeting and offered $200 to anyone who could find such a student for me who was NOT clearly an ELL case or a student with cognitive challenges.

 

Her colleagues could not produce a single student!

 

My webpage "Why Johnny Doesn't Like to Read" also describes and explains this problem.

Edited March 15, 2010 by ElizabethB

[EmeraldGirl]

Reading Reflex can usually be borrowed from the local library. If they read the first 3 chapters it might give them a perspective on why he is struggling. Some kids just need to be taught a different way than a school teaches. It must be very difficult situation.