Understanding and Supporting Learners with Dyslexia

Introduction      Teachers of students with dyslexia should prepare themselves with a toolbox of strategies that can help their students to develop skills in areas that will allow them to become successful readers.  In this post, five instructional strategies will be introduced that can be useful for students who may have dyslexia.  Each strategy is explained with which component of literacy that is targeted, the goal/objective/purpose, directions, assessment, materials, and expected outcomes of using the strategy.  There is hope that by sharing these strategies with preservice and veteran teachers that our students with dyslexia can receive supports in the classroom to help them to develop ways to effectively learn to read text and be successful learners.  List of Strategies Strategy: Elkonian Boxes Targeted Component of Literacy: Phonemic Awareness Goal/Objective/Purpose: Students will use Elkonian sound boxes to segment and blend the phonemes in wor...

  Teaching Strategies for Students with Dyslexia Introduction:  In order to teach a student with dyslexia, one must first understand what dyslexia is and do research or be properly trained in order to offer the most effective and appropriate practice. A parent or teacher may suspect that their child/student has dyslexia and their immediate reaction is to have them visit a reading tutor on a weekly basis. Although this may feel like the right thing to do, it could ultimately be counterproductive to getting the student where they need to be due to the continued frustrations and anxiety brought on by reading.  All students arrive at school with varying needs, strengths, and abilities. As educators, it is our responsibility to meet each student where they are in order to best serve them. This blog will aim to provide teachers and parents with additional resources they may use to support their student/child with dyslexia.  Manipulative Letters: “Using manipulative letters...

Introduction     One of our roles as educators is to help families with finding ways to support their child's learning beyond the classroom.  This home-to-school connection is especially important for students with reading difficulties like dyslexia.  In this blog, we will introduce and discuss ten possible resources and materials that educators can share with families of students with dyslexia.  These resources will include descriptions of how they help their child with literacy learning, where they can find or make the materials needed, citations, visuals, and links.  The list of resources and materials to share with families can be viewed below.       Name of Material/Resource Heart Word Magic How does this help my child? This website provides videos of irregularly spelled high-frequency words using the strategy called Heart Word Magic.  This strategy breaks down high frequency words into their decodable parts and the parts that ...

Introduction      This week's blog contains a collection of resources that current and pre-service teachers can look upon and use to help support students in their classrooms that may have dyslexia.  These resources include websites, videos, and articles that can provide information on dyslexia and ideas for implementing practices that can be effective for students who have dyslexia.  Each resource is explained with a general description, cost (if applicable), strengths, and any possible drawbacks.  The list of resources and information can be seen below:      Name of Resource: International Dyslexia Association website Link or citation: https://dyslexiaida.org/ Description: This is the International Dyslexia Association's website.  It provides a wealth of information for teachers, parents, and advocates who wish to learn about dyslexia and how to support people living with dyslexia.  General information included on this website are...