Hi! I taught an 8th grade intervention class that I completely got to set up (pretty much) and now I am a literacy coach who works with intervention class teachers as well as content area teachers to integrate literacy strategies into their lessons.
The biggest area of need (one of them) is non-fiction reading. Teach the kids HOW to read non-fiction. Even as basic as what the title is for and how to use that info. Most students do NOT read the title or use info from it. They look more at the pictures. Teach them to read the captions w/ the pictures because the pictures alone can be misleading. Teach them all about the text features- even what you think is the most basic thing. This is why they are not making meaning from these texts (well one reason anyway). For vocabulary, I did something that was very succesful. As I was working on my reading specialist credential, I had to work in the literacy center and do one on one tutoring while the professor watched. I had an 8th grader who had been struggling for quite some time and she was second language. I did Possible Sentences and this worked so well! Basically, what you do is choose 8-10 words from the text. Some need to be words the kids will know, none should be super difficult and exclusive only to the content, but should be central to meaning making of the text. Using pairs of words, the students make sentences using the words based on what might be in the text (this requires looking at the text/title, but not the content). Write the sentences down on the board. As they read, they are looking for if their sentences were correct. If not, they change them. Then you can go over the meanings of the words- I usually ask them first to see if they could get it and if not I give a definition. Now, I googled Possible Sentences and all the first things that came up didn't go into much detail and left some steps out. It is most effective is you follow the procedure exactly, and I think I may be leaving something out. So, if you could get some more detailed info it would be good. But this worked SO well not only for vocab, but it helped focus their reading and give them an idea about what the text would be about so they knew what they would be reading before they read- which is KEY with struggling readers.They often read w/ no idea and then just look at the words and can't get any meaning. But if they can get an idea about what it is going to be about first, their brain gets ready to understand the text. Good luck! On Fri, Jul 4, 2008 at 3:10 AM, <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I will be teaching greds 6 and 8 AIS next year. AIS is a response to > intervention program for kids who have scored a low 2 on our state's > assessment the > previous year. I've taught these same courses this year and I have found > the > kids have very poor vocabulary, fluency issues and their comprehension is > terrible. The 8th graders really concern me as they are one year from > moving into a > highly rigorous high school program. If you were to teach these classes > what > are some things you would do? How would you set the program up? > > Any suggestions on professional books that would be a help in this area? > > Thanks > > Pat - NY > > > ************** > Gas prices getting you down? Search AOL Autos for > fuel-efficient used cars. > (http://autos.aol.com/used?ncid=aolaut00050000000007) > > _______________________________________________ > The Literacy Workshop ListServ http://www.literacyworkshop.org > > To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to > http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/lit_literacyworkshop.org. > > Search the LIT archives at http://snipurl.com/LITArchive > -- - Heather "DIBELS is the worst thing to happen to the teaching of reading since the development of flash cards." - P. David Pearson" "When our children fail competency tests the schools lose funding. When our missiles fail tests, we increase funding. " —Dennis Kucinich, Democratic Presidential Candidate _______________________________________________ The Literacy Workshop ListServ http://www.literacyworkshop.org To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/lit_literacyworkshop.org. Search the LIT archives at http://snipurl.com/LITArchive
