If you were going to try to help an 11 year old get better at reading what would you do?

[Shelly in IL]

I'm considering "tutoring" a friend's child with reading this summer. I've taught both of my kids to read well, they are now in high school and college and I need something to do! This child has no developmental delays preventing him from reading, he is a youngest child and has somewhat fallen throigh the cracks.

 

However he is older than my children were in beginning reading. Are there materials available for the older reader that he would find more interesting?

 

Any suggestions on ways to make it fun would be great! Thanks

[ElizabethB]

If he was taught with phonics, this:

 

http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/WellTaughtPhonicsStudent.html

 

If there were sight words and whole language practices, the things on my how to tutor page.

 

Most students that age enjoy my phonics concentration game and are surprisingly still motivated by being allowed to choose the marker color when working with words on a white board. I like to start out all my remedial students on a white board with large uppercase letters, the large size and writing from left to right slowly helps.

[Shay]

Rewards Intermediate (Sopris West).

http://www.voyagersopris.com/curriculum/subject/literacy/rewards/samples

 

Edited to add: works on reading multisyllabic words and fluency. Perfect for the age you mentioned. A friend of mine used it with her struggler and saw steady, immediate results.

[Alte Veste Academy]

Nothing to recommend for the actual teaching, but I would strongly encourage the Mom to read aloud every day if she doesn't already. Too many people stop too soon. To love reading, you have to love books, and to love books, you have to get them into your head and heart, one way or another.

 

I would also do buddy reading (you read a page, I read a page).

[ElizabethB]

While he is waiting, I would have him watch through my online phonics lessons.  He is the perfect age for them, he is old enough to sit through one or two a day.  (Although he should take a break halfway through lesson 22 and 23, and maybe even watch lesson 22 over 2 days, it is especially boring.)  They are boring but effective, most people gain a grade level or two after watching through them and one 18 year old gained 6 reading grade levels after watching through them and my spelling lessons, also free online.