Getting Nonreaders to Read

In January I gave the midyear Directed Reading Assessment to my students. Most of them did well, but a few of them really struggled. Despite all that we had done, they were still not looking at print, and leaning too heavily on the strategy of using picture clues.

I needed to come up with a plan of attack and this is the result. I wrote a set of books containing only sight words and CVC words. There are no pictures in these books. Instead, I made the pictures separate, and then included them, plus the letters needed to make the sight words in the book, in a baggie stapled to the back.

Each week, my target kids work on these books. A typical lesson goes like this: First, they review their alphabet sounds. Second, they practice the sight words that will be in the book by first building the words with the die cut letters in the baggie and then writing them.

Next, the child dictates a sentence to the teacher using one (or both) of the sight words from the book. The teacher writes the sentence, the child reads it, the teacher cuts the words in the sentence apart, the child puts the sentence back together and then reads it again.

Finally, we spread out all the pictures and the child reads the book. All of the sight words in the book have been practiced, and when they come to a CVC word they are required to sound it out using the "tap method". For each sound the child taps on their arm, then they slide the sounds together. For example, in the word "fat" the child makes the /f/ sound on their shoulder, the /a/ sound on their elbow, and the /t/ sound on their wrist. Then they say the sounds at they slide one arm down the other, blending them together. After they have decoded the word, they find the picture that matches the story and place it on the page.

This has really been working for most of my kiddos! I've really seen a lot of progress in them. They are actually looking at and through print now!! We'll see what happens come spring DRA :)

I have also used this set as a take-home book and allowed students to glue in the picture at its completion.

I know you will love this product, I do!!