Here are some suggestions with respect to how parents/guardians can help encourage reading for the struggling adolescent reader. Any thoughts you may have is welcome!!!
Parents/Guardians of reading-challenged adolescents can employ several strategies to encourage the development of their reading. One simple strategy is to observe what interests the child and ensure that there are magazines, books, newspapers or any other written pieces on the topic, around the home so that he/she can read them in his free time. It is important here to not judge the child and make selections that one may think is best for him, but to get literature on topics of interest to him.
Parents can also foster the appropriate environment for reading. One strategy is to create a reading space at home, where there is an abundance of books, free of television and radio, where the child will be able to read. It is important for parents to remember that a computer with internet access provides a world of reading material for the child, so that this can become part of the reading space. Each day reading time should be set aside, even if this means limiting television viewing to make time for reading. Parents can also become role models for the child by themselves reading every day. If they read aloud to the child and tell stories, they will be helping him to develop his reading competence.
Most importantly however, parents need to encourage and praise them for their efforts. Having an adolescent child who is struggling with reading is indeed very worrisome, and parents may become frustrated with the situation and in turn rebuke the child. However, parents must empathise with their children and encourage their efforts by words of praise. Indeed, once given the proper instruction and surrounded by people who support and encourage him, the struggling adolescent reader will certainly improve.
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Pink Floyd - Another Brick in the Wall, Pt. 2 with lyrics
Maybe this is what our frustrated, reading-challenged kids are thinking...
Monday, June 21, 2010
What is appropriate instuction for a child who is faced with reading challenges?
Hi! I am Nikiesha Charlene Noohar-Bisram. I have been a High School Language Arts teacher for close ten years now. My career started in the year 2000, when all students writing SEA were guaranteed a place in a Secondary School. This was the year “Education for All” was coined in Trinidad and Tobago. Throughout my career I have often met students who are faced with various literacy challenges. I have taught those who could not read basic sight words and those who could read the words but did not understand what they were reading. I have felt frustrated over the years because I did not know how to help them. Not surprisingly, literacy has always been a matter of interest to me. After attending workshops, I have tried strategies to help these kids, but I believe that I have met little success. My attempts have been random acts and I never implemented a formal programme that would help the students develop their literacy skills over time.
It was the birth of my son however, that was the impetus for my desire to become a reading specialist. I wanted to ensure that if, God forbid, he was faced with some form of a reading challenge, that I would know, in no uncertain terms, how to help him. I wanted to ensure that there would be no more random acts of trying to help kids with literacy challenges; that I would possess the knowledge that would be required to help them.
Lee and Neal (1993) state:
There are many students who struggle with grade level assignments and are forced to read at frustration level each school day...their reading skills improve little from year to year and in effect they fall further behind their peers. Some of them are labelled learning disabled and slow learners but the inescapable fact is that they have the potential to learn if they receive the appropriate instruction. (p. 276-282)
What does appropriate instruction really entail for a child like this???
It was the birth of my son however, that was the impetus for my desire to become a reading specialist. I wanted to ensure that if, God forbid, he was faced with some form of a reading challenge, that I would know, in no uncertain terms, how to help him. I wanted to ensure that there would be no more random acts of trying to help kids with literacy challenges; that I would possess the knowledge that would be required to help them.
Lee and Neal (1993) state:
There are many students who struggle with grade level assignments and are forced to read at frustration level each school day...their reading skills improve little from year to year and in effect they fall further behind their peers. Some of them are labelled learning disabled and slow learners but the inescapable fact is that they have the potential to learn if they receive the appropriate instruction. (p. 276-282)
What does appropriate instruction really entail for a child like this???
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