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 for decoding practice is an effective method for teaching reading, particularly in improving the phonological and decoding skills of students at risk for reading failure. The manipulation of the letters serves as a way to make the abstract concepts of blending and segmentation of sounds more concrete” (Pullen, Lane, 2016, p.27). Phonemic awareness and decoding are two rudimentary factors of reading. Using manipulative letters has proven that students are able to develop a more concrete understanding of segmenting and blending.
Goal/objective:
To increase a students phonemic awareness and decoding skills.
Directions:
Teacher/parent models a new word and shows how the letters come together to form a new word.
The student will then demonstrate how the letters come together and recognize the difference in letter structure and sound.
Guidelines:
Use lowercase letters of the same color
Model blendable sounds
Select target words from text
Guide Students in the moving of letters to show segmenting and blending
Help students encode and decode new words
Use both real words and nonsense words
Focus on accuracy and automaticity
Assessment:
The student will be assessed on their ability to accurately encode and decode words given by their teacher, and how quickly they are able to recognize the correct letter to spell the word.
Materials:
Magnetic letters
Letter tiles
Letter cubes
Letter stamps
Letter cards
Desired Outcome:
The student will develop a more concrete understanding of letter structure and sounds which will increase their reading fluency and comprehension.
Vowel Patterns & Growth Mindset
The student is given a word list with a designated vowel pattern. Throughout the week they are given activities to learn the words, as well as a growth mindset activity to boost their self-confidence.
Goal/objective:
The students will better understand vowel patterns through activities and practice while also being supported in their socio-emotional development through a growth mindset activity.
Directions:
Monday: Students received a word list based on the vowel pattern.
Tuesday: Students do an activity with the words they learned on Monday.
Example: Rainbow write, words in a sentence, ABC order, Drawing the word out.
Wednesday: Students received a growth mindset lesson.
Thursday: Students practiced dictation using the vowel pattern.
Friday: Students have ten words to spell for a formative assessment.
Assessment:
A formative assessment will be taken on friday to assess student progress
Materials:
Word list
Paper
Pencils
Hand mirrors
Crayons
Markers
Desired Outcome:
Through the practice and focus on vowel patterns the students will increase their spelling ability as well as maintain a healthy mental state and better understand their style of learning.
Rhyming:
Children in small groups are asked to rhyme, 'A cat wearing a ___(hat)', or 'tell me a word that sounds like man'. Children are also asked to provide words with the same initial consonant, e.g., in response to pictures of a fox, a foot, some feathers and a fish, or in response to: 'I went for a walk and I saw a /p/ as in __', where the desired response involved a word beginning with /p/.
Goal/objective:
Students will learn word families and the sounds of words and letters through rhyming activities.
Directions:
Students are pulled into a small group to develop their rhyming skills by learning word families, and the sounds of letters and make mental references to use in the future.
Assessment:
Students will be formatively assessed through the means of anecdotal notes and informal conversation had through the activity.
Materials:
List of rhyming words and sentences
NPS uses Heggerty
Desired Outcome:
The students will develop a better understanding of word families and sounds to increase their reading ability and sound recognition and application.
Oxford Reading Tree Rhyme and Analogy:
The use of onset, rhyme and rime analogy and comprises twelve story rhymes (big and small books), tapes, alphabet frieze, alphabet mats and activity materials.
Goal/objective:
For the student to develop their phonics skills, which will in turn increase their reading ability and fluency.
Directions:
The student and teacher will meet in a small group setting to read the books provided in the set to discuss and recognize the sounds of onsets and rimes and how they come together to create words, which create sentences.
Assessment:
The student will be assessed by reading a story or being given a list of words, such as CVC words, at the end of the week on their level to read aloud and be timed and counted for accuracy and fluency.
Materials:
Oxford Reading Tree Rhyme and Analogy set
Desired Outcome:
Students will be able to better understand onsets and rimes, allowing them to increase their automaticity through the practice of segmenting and blending with the sets.
Multimodal Teaching:
Goal/objective:
Research and evidence-based tests have proven to show that students with dyslexia are positively impacted when teachers appeal to their other senses, such as auditory and visual. Multimedia learning strategies strengthen students' knowledge, understanding, and perceptions of what a teacher is trying to convey. “Dual Coding theory (Paivio, 1991) shows how the visual and auditory stimuli coming from the outside world are intercepted by different senses and are processed by our brains differently. There are two coding systems for the processing and representation of the information: a verbal system and a non-verbal system. These systems are divided into subsystems deputies to develop visual, auditory and tactile information. A verbal input matches a verbal output, a non-verbal input matches a non-verbal output. In multimedia learning, according to Paivio, these two systems are integrated but are processed separately. The experimental data confirm the hypothesis according to which the memory benefits from the dual coding (Antonio, 2016, p.16-17).
Directions:
When using resources or teaching materials also look into using multimedia methods in whole group and small group settings. Videos and audio in conjunction with print can be extremely helpful and make a student with dyslexia feel more at ease because they are able to comprehend and partake in activities more easily.
Materials:
Videos and audio used in support with print and other learning materials
Desired Outcome:
The student will increase their understanding and comprehension of lessons through the use of multimodal presentations and teaching strategies.
Work Cited
Antonio, G. (2016). Engage Students with Dyslexia in Video-Based Learning Activities.
Online Submission, 1(1), 15–35.
GOSWAMI, U. (1996) Rhyme and Analogy as part of the Oxford Reading Tree. Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
Gritz, C. N. (2020). Spelling Interventions for Students Who Show Signs of Dyslexia.
Networks: An Online Journal for Teacher Research, 22(2).
Piotrowski, J., & Reason, R. (2000). The National Literacy Strategy and dyslexia: a
Comparison of Teaching Methods and Materials. Support for Learning, 15(2), 51.
https://doi-org.ezproxy.lib.ou.edu/10.1111/1467-9604.00145
Pullen, P. C., & Lane, H. B. (2016). Hands-On Decoding: Guidelines for Using
Manipulative Letters. Learning Disabilities: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 21(1),
27–37.
Yeh, S. S., & Connell, D. B. (2008). Effects of rhyming, vocabulary and phonemic
awareness instruction on phoneme awareness. Journal of Research in Reading,
31(2), 243–256.
https://doi-org.ezproxy.lib.ou.edu/10.1111/j.1467-9817.2007.00353.x
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