Hello Mary Beth, Have you tried scrolls and textmapping with them? I originally developed these methods for LD students -- and my first work in this area was with middle school students who were reading way below grade level. I found that these students responded particularly well to scrolls. They liked being able to see the whole text at one time. Rather than getting bogged down by decoding problems, they were able to stand back a bit and think about the text as a whole. They could then selectively zoom back down to the word level -- dropping down here and there to struggle with the words only after they had gleaned a foundation of information that could be used to help with the decoding. They found this liberating since they were able to engage in comprehension at their thinking level, rather than being forced to work with texts that were intellectually less challenging and written at a much lower grade level that matched their decoding skills. This had a feedback effect. With higher interest came more motivation; with more motivation came more progress on decoding; with more progress on decoding came more interest in reading. The result was that while these kids still had (and will always have) learning disabilities, they did learn how to circumvent their weaknesses and instead use their strengths -- their visual, spatial, tactile, and kinaesthetic abilities -- to engage with and comprehend text.
It's a decidely low tech approach, but it is highly interactive and does give struggling readers a chance to read more demanding texts. It also costs significantly less than high tech solutions -- all you need is access to a copier, tape or glue stick, and some colored markers. If you try it, please let me know how it works for your students. Don't hesitate to contact me off list if you have questions about implementation. Best of luck to you and your students, Dave Middlebrook The Textmapping Project A resource for teachers improving reading comprehension skills instruction. www.textmapping.org | Please share this site with your colleagues! USA: (609) 771-1781 [EMAIL PROTECTED] ----- Original Message ----- From: "LOOSE MARY BETH" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Mosaic: A Reading Comprehension Strategies Listserv" <[email protected]> Sent: Wednesday, December 13, 2006 9:15 AM Subject: Re: [MOSAIC] Technology and Reader's Workshop >I have a related question for the group...have any of you come across >worthwhile websites for interactive reading for middle school students >reading way below grade level (at first-third grade levels)? It's hard to >find something a little more sophisticated, but yet matches their reading >level. Any ideas? > Thanks, > Mary Loose _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive.
