1. Introduction

Objectives: In this unit you will

1. Learn the basic concepts of teaching reading to adult learners
2. Think about learner strategies and materials that will help your student
3. Think about specific instructional activities to use with your student

Estimated time for completing this section: 3 hours

Note: This section on reading could take up to 8 hours for those who wish to delve more deeply into the course manual, Applying Research in Reading Instruction for Adults: First Steps for Teachers. The link to the manual also sits in the sidebar.

Review

In the previous module you considered the characteristics of the adult learner and how they apply to you as a tutor and to your adult student. Your student's life experiences and active interest in her own progress will aid you in customizing lessons to meet her goals. In learner-centered learning, it is important to use your student's goals and experiences to motivate her. You will also learn to help your student identify:

• what she knows,
• what she knows some of the time, and
• what she does not know at all.

Because your student has most likely experienced years of frustration in school, she can assist you in identifying her reading strengths and gaps. This self-awareness is one of the many characteristics that set an adult student apart from a child.

If you would like to review the principles of adult learning, click here or here:
https://teal.ed.gov/tealguide/adultlearning

In this unit, you will learn how to strengthen your student's reading skills as you follow the principles of learner-centered learning.

Optional: Checklist for marking progress through this course:

Click here to download a PDF checklist that will help you keep track of your progress. You may save the document in your files. It will not save in this blog.

2. Before You Begin

Think back on the last 24 hours. What did you read and what was your purpose for reading? List everything you read in the first column of a two-column chart. Then list your purposes for reading in the second column.

Questions: How many items did you read for pleasure? Work? Family related matters? Other? Now imagine your life if you were able to read only a portion of the items that you listed.

Woman Reading a Book*

Reading purposes

Good readers read for a purpose. They read to

• learn about something (newspaper, magazine, website).
• research a subject or study for a test (textbook, driver's manual).
• be entertained (novel, comic book).
• learn how to do something (cookbook, instructional manual).
• find specific information (as in looking for the due date on a bill, finding details on the charges on a doctor's statement, or checking the TV listings).

Good readers scan for information. They speed up or slow down according to their familiarity with the text. 

• When hunting for restaurants in the White Pages, good readers will quickly scan a page. 
• Looking for an answer in a book, good readers will skim until they find it. 
• Reading medical advice for their child, they will slow down to make sure they understand all the terminology.

Whatever their purpose for reading, comprehension is the goal.

Required: Read the following text from Applying Research in Reading Instruction for Adults by Susan McShane. (Chapter 7, p. 72-73.)

* Woman Reading a Book Image byPetr Kratochvil (Public domain pictures)Share on facebook

Share on twitterShare on emailShare on printMore Sharin

3. Helping Your Student Become a Good Reader

In the next few sections we will discuss the steps you will take to help your student become a good reader, starting with some exercises that will help you understand why your student can graduate from high school without being able to read. In this section, we will discuss the following topics:

Understanding your student's reading difficulties

Activating your student's prior knowledge

Understanding the characteristics of poor readers and good readers

Using effective reading instruction with adults

4. Understanding your Student's Reading Difficulties & Why she Passed the Early Grades

To understand why your adult student made it so far in school despite her poor reading skills, please read the passage titled "The Marlup" and answer the four questions below the reading passage.

1. What did the narg horp in the marlup's kump?
2. What did the marlup juf the narg?
3. Was the narg trungy?
4. How does the marlup pove his kump?

(Created by Dr. Kenneth Goodman. Reference: Burke, Carolyn. "The Language Process: Systems or Systematic?" in Hodges and Rudorf Language and Learning to Read. Houghton Mifflin, 1973, pp. 29-31)

Chances are you were able to read this passage with some fluency. If these questions comprised 60-75% of a test or quiz, you might even have made a low passing grade with your first four answers, but could you have given your opinion on the following 20-point essay question?

"In one hundred words or less, tell me why the narg wheved the marlup's kump? What do you think the marlup will do next?"

Probably not, as it was a comprehension question. As you can see, reading means more than simply decoding words. Readers must also be able to read with understanding and construct meaning from text.

(Answers:

Whev

"Why did vump horp whev in my frinkle kump?"

Er'm muvvily trungy

The marlup poves your kump frinkle)

5. Activating Your Student's Prior Knowledge

As you begin your lessons with your student, you will need to guide her in setting a purpose for reading, activating her prior knowledge, and selecting appropriate reading strategies. To illustrate this point, please read the following passage:

What does this passage describe?

What would you need to understand this passage better?

Would it have helped you to know the title?

Now reread the passage. Does it make more sense? Why?

Setting a purpose for reading

Good readers set a purpose for reading. Poor readers will often begin to read a passage right away without pausing and examining the title of a book or article, skimming through the pages to view illustrations, or reading the synopsis inside a book jacket or a summary at the top of an article. Often they'll just jump right in.

If you notice your student doing this, you will need to slow her down. By discussing the topic ahead of time, she can draw on a variety of life experiences. Help her to understand the text by:

• pointing out a title or illustration, 
• encouraging her to flip through a book or magazine article, or skim through a website,
• asking what she already knows about the topic, and 
• asking her to predict what the passage is about.

This process might go slowly at first. You will have to model the procedure and describe what you are doing.   Follow this procedure consistently, so that the habit becomes ingrained in your student.

In this way you will help her to set a purpose for reading. She will also begin to understand that she already knows a lot about the topic before she begins to read.


Helping your student with active reading

K-W-L Activity (Click here for a K-W-L sheet)

A good reader is someone who thinks before, during, and after their reading experience.

This activity (click on the live link above) will help your student activate her prior knowledge before reading, sustain continued involvement while reading, and reflect back on the reading after she is done. If your student is unable to write, do the writing in the chart for her.

At first you might want to use this activity systematically. KWL helps you to understand how much your student already knows, and provides her with the chance to use her life's experiences to understand the text. The activity also helps both you and your student check up on her comprehension as she goes through the text and reflect on what she has learned after the lesson.

K stands for What I Know
W stands for What I Want to Know
L stands for What I Learned

Using KWL

• Ask your student to read the title of a passage and look at the pictures and predict what the text will be about. (Magazine articles provide plenty of images!) Ask her fill out the first column, What I Know (K). 

• After some discussion, ask her to fill in the second column, What I Want to Know (W). You can fill it in for her if she is unable to write. In a small group, ask the most experienced writer to fill in the KWL chart. (It is important to choose a text that is of high interest to your student, or you might hear her saying "I don't want to know anything else about this topic." If she collects stamps, you might want to choose an article about stamps from an exotic country, or if he loves to watch basketball, you might choose an article about the Boston Celtics.)

• Then ask her to read the text. 

• Your discussion afterward will help her to identify What I Learned (L).

Tip: Practice this activity with someone in your family or a friend before trying it with your student.

6. Understanding the Characteristics of Good Readers and Poor Readers

7. Using Effective Reading Instruction With Adults

How did you learn to read in school? Using phonics or whole language? Or components of both? Chances are that you love to read and read voraciously, which is why you decided to volunteer to tutor and adult.

Reading has become so automatic for you that you rarely think about the process, but the many adult literacy learners who seek help experience great difficulty with print skills. Their reading vocabulary is not as extensive as ours and they lack the fluency skills we've developed as good readers. Our students read painfully slow and their understanding of the text is often inaccurate. Being non-readers, they do not build up their reading vocabulary or work on their comprehension, and therefore they fall further behind in school and fail to develop a love for reading.

As a tutor you will be helping your students

• set a purpose for reading, 
• use their prior knowledge about the subject to help set the stage for reading, 
• improve their decoding skills, 
• increase their reading vocabulary, 
• improve their fluency, and, finally, 
• work on their ability to construct meaning from text.

All the things that you do automatically.

Before moving on, we will need to discuss the components of reading and provide a few definitions.

The five components of reading instruction are:

1. Phonemic Awareness:Phonemic Awareness (PA) is the awareness that speech is made up of a sequence of sounds that can be manipulated—changed, added, or subtracted—to form different words: sick, slick, slim, slam. (Phonics, another term for Word Analysis, refers to the knowledge of letter sounds, syllable patterns, and the rules used to decode words.) - 

Assessment Strategies and Reading Profiles (ASRP) 

Optional: To further understand the concept, please view the video. While the video is aimed at teaching children, the topic also hold true for adults. Instead of children's materials, tutors should choose adult poems or rhymes to teach these skills. 

2. Decoding: the ability to apply your knowledge of letter-sound relationships, including knowledge of letter patterns, to correctly pronounce written words. Understanding these relationships gives [readers] the ability to recognize familiar words quickly and to figure out words they haven't seen before.- Reading Rockets

3. Fluency: the ability to read a text correctly and quickly. - Reading Rockets

Optional Video on Fluency

4. Vocabulary: the words we must understand to communicate effectively. Educators often consider four types of vocabulary: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Listening vocabulary refers to the words we need to know to understand what we hear. Speaking vocabulary consists of the words we use when we speak. Reading vocabulary refers to the words we need to know to understand what we read. Writing vocabulary consists of the words we use in writing. Vocabulary plays a fundamental role in the reading process, and contributes greatly to a reader's comprehension. A reader cannot understand a text without knowing what most of the words mean. - Reading Rockets

5. Comprehension: is composed of two equally important components. Decoding, or the ability to translate text into speech, is only part of the process of reading comprehension. The other part is language comprehension, or the ability to understand spoken language. All struggling readers have difficulty with either language comprehension or decoding or both.- Reading Resources, SEDL

Each of the first four components plays an important role in facilitating comprehension, which is, of course, what reading is all about. The final component, comprehension, involves thinking about reading and taking meaning from print.

• Research has also demonstrated that phonemic awareness and phonics, while necessary to learn to read, are not sufficient, especially when we think about reading as a way to extract meaning from printed text. Good readers must also be able to apply these skills quickly, understand the words they read, and to relate what they read to their own lives and experiences. - National Center for Learning Disabilities

Print Skills and Meaning Skills = Comprehension

Image from Assessment Strategies and Reading Profiles 

At this point of the workshop, you may be asking yourself: "How can I help my student achieve her literacy goals?"


As we discussed in the previous unit, adults possess uneven reading skills. Some may lack phonetic skills but might have an extensive sight word vocabulary in reading product labels or grocery store items. Others might need to work on fluency or develop comprehension strategies.

Chances are that while you may have helped a child with reading and homework, you have never formally taught an adult before. For this reason, we will start with reading comprehension. After you have examined reading comprehension, we will introduce the other reading components. Then we will show you how you can incorporate all the elements of reading instruction into a lesson tailored to your student's needs.



Optional readings: 

• Click here to read Susan McShane's: "Components of Reading in Comprehension Strategy Instruction".

• Click here to read a section on Reading Components, Assessment Strategies and Reading Profiles (ASRP)Literacy Information and Communication System

Please leave a comment

8. The Three Phases of Teaching Reading

One of your tutoring responsibilities will be to help your student identify and learn a variety of reading strategies before, during and after reading, or BDA.

Shared by Alonzo Youn, DocStoc, Public Domain

Optional Reading: A checklist for reading purposes and BDA activities for each.



A. Before reading: The first phase

"Learners who read at the fourth-grade level and below need to be taught pre-reading strategies explicitly. For example, they should learn how to use pictures, section headings, and summaries to predict content and learn how to activate their prior knowledge by asking, 'What do I already know about this?'" (McShane, p. 75).

This video shows a before strategy: Making predictions

• Optional reading (Click here to learn more about what good readers do.)

B. During reading: The second phase
Tutors can help their students check for understanding by teaching them to employ reading strategies as they are reading. Because poor readers have no idea that their tutors also employ similar reading strategies, it will be helpful to discuss these strategies as you use them.

Find the following strategies, except for DR-TA in McShane, Chapter 7, Comprehension-Strategy Instruction at http://www.famlit.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/adults-applyingresearch.pdf . Click on the live links to read about the reading strategies.

• Thinking Aloud - click on link. (McShane, p. 80)  Think-alouds have been described as "eavesdropping on someone's thinking." With this strategy, teachers verbalize aloud while reading a selection orally. Their verbalizations include describing things they're doing as they read to monitor their comprehension. The purpose of the think-aloud strategy is to model for students how skilled readers construct meaning from a text.- Reading Rockets

• Restating: You can teach learners to stop periodically (after each section, for example) and try to restate what's been read in their own words. If they have trouble with this, they know they're not getting it. (McShane, p. 81) 

• Coding Text - click on link. (McShane, p. 81)  This is a strategy used to help students keep track of thinking while they are reading.

• Asking Questions: Another way [students] can monitor their understanding is to ask themselves who, what, when, where, and why questions after each section or page. If they can't answer these questions they know to stop and reread. (Be aware that this strategy may work best with stories, news articles, and other narrative texts because they are likely to have all the "5 Ws" represented.) (McShane, p. 81) 

• Monitoring and Repair Stragegies: - click on link. (McShane, p.81) 

• Directed Reading-Thinking Activity (DR-TA): Curry School of Education handout, http://curry.edschool.virginia.edu/reading/projects/garf/Kevin%27s%20handout%202.doc  In DR-TA, you will ask your student to stop reading a text along the way and ask comprehension questions - "Did anything change? Do you want to modify your predictions? Why? How do you think the story will continue? Did anything surprise you?" etc. etc.

Optional Video: Demonstrations in Think Alouds

C. After reading: The third phase

After reading, you will assist your student in identifying what she has learned and what she still needs to know. In addition to using graphic organizers, you will also help her develop the following skills:

• Summarization - (click on link - title) (McShane, p.93) Summarizing is how we take larger selections of text and reduce them to their bare essentials: the gist, the key ideas, the main points that are worth noting and remembering. - Reading Quest 

• How to Identify an Unstated Main Idea (click on link - title) (McShane, p. 94)  A paragraph is a group of sentences related to a particular topic, or central theme. Every paragraph has a key concept or main idea. The main idea is the most important piece of information the author wants you to know about the concept of that paragraph.- Cuesta College

• Question Answering - (click on link - title) (McShane, p. 89)  An author often supports his or her main idea with key facts and examples that help make the overall meaning of the text clear. You might ask your student questions based on one of these facts or examples.- Strategies for answering reading questions

• Question Generating (click on link - title) McShane, p. 90  Generating questions works hand-in-hand with making predictions. Good readers are  Generating  questions  works  hand-in-hand  with  making  predictions. Good  readers  are inquiring readers. They ask questions of themselves and the writer as they move through the text - Generating questions

Optional video: The Cloze Procedure

Helps students think about words in context of the entire sentence.

A word about graphic organizers

Graphic organizers are excellent tools for teaching your student before, during, and after reading strategies. Click on the link and scroll through the graphic organizers. Do any seem familiar? Graphic organizers appeal to visual learners and reinforce critical thinking skills. They are also an excellent resource for review and reflection before moving on to a new reading goal.

Optional Video: Graphic Organizers in Identifying Important Events

Optional reading: Story Structure, McShane, p. 83.

An example of a graphic organizer we've used in this worshop is the learning styles graphic in the previous unit. Click here to see it.

9. What are the Four Key Elements of Reading Instruction?

While comprehension is the goal of reading instruction, all of the reading components contribute to the development of comprehension. As mentioned before, the four key reading components are:

Why are these four reading components important? To understand some of the difficulties a poor reader encounters, please read the following abstract from the "Amplitude death: The emergence of stationarity in coupled nonlinear systems Review Article", Pages 205-228. Garima Saxena, Awadhesh Prasad, Ram Ramaswamy. It is available for purchase from Physics Reports at this link.

Please Read this Abstract:

When nonlinear dynamical systems are coupled, depending on the intrinsic dynamics and the manner in which the coupling is organized, a host of novel phenomena can arise. In this context, an important emergent phenomenon is the complete suppression of oscillations, formally termed amplitude death (AD). Oscillations of the entire system cease as a consequence of the interaction, leading to stationary behavior. The fixed points which the coupling stabilizes can be the otherwise unstable fixed points of the uncoupled system or can correspond to novel stationary points. Such behavior is of relevance in areas ranging from laser physics to the dynamics of biological systems. In this review we discuss the characteristics of the different coupling strategies and scenarios that lead to AD in a variety of different situations, and draw attention to several open issues and challenging problems for further study.

Would this text have tempted you to purchase the article? Why or why not? What would have helped you to comprehend the text better or read this passage more fluently?

Let's consider the four components of reading in terms of your experience with this text.

• Alphabetics: P. 33 (Optional: Click on link to learn more the topic)

Chances were that you were able to "read" unknown words in the text by sounding them out and using your knowledge of the sounds of vowels and consonants and their blends. Poor readers will need to be taught how to do this through systematic teaching of phonemes, phonics, word sorts, and word families. Adult learners often have a hard time hearing word sounds, or phonemes, and need systematic practice in learning this skill. 

This site, Fat Phonics, is an online tutorial that allows tutors to work with students as they learn the alphabet and the sounds of the vowels, consonants, consonant blends, and more. For tutors who are uneasy teaching alphabetics, this site can be a valuable aid in teaching the concepts.

Click here to enter the site: http://www.abcfastphonics.com/index.html

Word Families:

Another way to familiarize students with ending sounds, beginning sounds, and sound blends is to teach them word families. This short video shows an easy and fun way to teach your student word identification skills.

Fun with word families: You can make a variety of these "eggs" to teach an assortment of word families. Index cards work just as well.

• Fluency: P. 49 (Optional: Click on link to learn more the topic)

Why is fluency important? Think about the abstract you just read. Try reading it out loud. Did you hesitate at times? Did you recall the first few sentences when you completed the abstract? Fluency affects comprehension.

Poor readers often struggle through new text that is beyond their "comfort" level. Some hesitate, unable to sound out words or figure out punctuation. Others will read without expression or affect, rushing through the words without thinking about their meaning. Often, poor readers struggle so hard with each word that when they reach the end of a paragraph or sentence, they will have forgotten the beginning text. Many poor readers mistakenly think that by merely "reading" the text, they have successfully completed the assignment, not taking into account whether they have comprehended the text or not.

In practicing fluency, remember to set your student up for success.

1. Read out loud to your student first.
2. Then ask them to read the passage silently. 
3. Discuss words your student doesn't understand, going over the definition or concept. 
4. Read the passage together with your student. (Echo reading)
5. After your student has mastered the text, ask her to read the passage out loud. 

Rhymes and poems are a fun way to practice fluency and master word families.

Punctuation marks: 

Ask your student to look at a sentence and identify its punctuation. Find a way to describe each mark, so that your student has a guide for reading aloud. For example:

1. Comma - a pause. Slightly hesitate. This is a comma   ,
2. Period - a stop, like at a stop light. Take a deep breath before continuing to read. At the end of this sentence you will find a period.  .
3. Question mark - your voice rises when you ask a question. Do the same when you see this mark. ?
4. Exclamation mark - this mark is used to emphasize an important point or to catch attention. Sound excited or boldly emphasize the words. !

Then read the passage, using inflection. Ask your student to read the sentence exactly as you read it.

Remember to tell him what you are doing and why punctuation is important in guiding him through the text.

An example of an independent reading assignment for your student:

The First Well is a story that can be as interesting for adults as children. Your student can practice reading a story on his own by watching this YouTube video - reading the words, listening to the reader, and looking at the images for comprehension clues. He can even practice reading out loud with the video reader.

 

• Vocabulary: P. 59 (Optional: Click on link to learn more the topic)

The abstract pointed out the importance of teaching vocabulary and new concepts. If we had taken the time to teach you some important vocabulary words and concepts, ie. nonlinear dynamical systems, suppressions of oscillations, and stationary behavior, you might have understood the abstract better.Poor readers often struggle because they are unfamiliar with the vocabulary. While some can figure out the meaning of words from their context, direct instruction of words meanings, discussions about words and word parts, and

In order to set your student up for success, you will need to teach new vocabulary and topics by

• using the KWL chart and finding out what your student already knows and needs to know about a topic. 
• asking your student to underline words he doesn't know
• asking your students to guess a word's meaning using context
• asking question and using the dictionary to find word meanings
• using graphic organizers
• teaching prefixes, suffixes, and word roots
• going online or using images to visually demonstrate new concepts
• appealing to all the senses, and using podcasts or videos 

For example, one student's personal goal was to read Tom Sawyer. He had never traveled outside of the city he was born, and had difficulties understanding the length and breadth of the Mississippi River. When Tom and Becky were trapped in a cave, he could not understand their dilemma, for he had never been in a cave or seen a cave before. The vocabulary was also difficult. In order for that student to fully appreciate his reading experience of Tom Sawyer, all these new concepts needed to be introduced prior to each chapter.

Teaching Vocabulary Words: While the content in this video is meant for English Language Learners, the principle for teaching vocabulary words is the same for adult literacy learners.

Teaching Sight Words: This teacher makes it clear that teaching sight words is as important for adults, as for children and students in High School.

Click here for a list of the 220 most common sight words. Many of these words cannot be sounded out because they do not follow decoding rules, so they must be learned as sight words.: http://english-zone.com/reading/dolch.html

Optional Reading:
Why Teach Vocabulary?: http://eps.schoolspecialty.com/downloads/articles/why_teach_vocabulary.pdf

• Reading Comprehension: P. 71 (Optional: Click on link to learn more the topic)

We've already introduced The Marlup in helping you to understand why your adult students were able to fake it through school without comprehending the text. Think about the times when you had difficulty comprehending an important legal document or a medical condition you were researching. Then think about the activities you undertook to understand those new concepts. As a tutor, you will be helping your adult student learn similar independent reading and critical thinking skills.


Asking Questions:

We've already introduced the concept of BDA (Before, During, and After reading strategies). Asking and answering questions is crucial to reading comprehension, activating your student's prior knowledge, and setting the stage for active reading.

Click here to find an online resource for more Questioning Skills: http://www.hallco.org/literacy/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=14&Itemid=2



Summarizing: 
This important skill let's teachers know if the student understood the text.

Click here to find graphic organizers that will help your student restate the text. Graphic Organizers for Summarization: http://wvde.state.wv.us/strategybank/GraphicOrganizersforSummarization.html



Thinking Aloud:

Thinking aloud as you work with your student is one way to transfer the reading strategies that you use to your student. The following advice, designed for English language learners, works equally well with adult literacy learners:

Giving Instructions:

Also, as you work with your student, be sure to provide clear instructions, providing written and verbal instructions.

Next: At this point, you may be wondering: How will I incorporate all the reading strategies I learned in this unit in a tutoring session?  The next module will show you how. Using a Language Experience Story, a story dictated by your student to describe her own experiences, you can strengthen your student's reading skills. The beauty of the Language Experience Approach as a method of instruction is that it

• encourages your student to express her thoughts and ideas,
• provides immediate and meaningful context, and
• allows the tutor to use the story to strengthen word identification skills and work on fluency.

10. Putting it All Together: A Sample Series of Lessons Using the Language Experience Approach

The Language Experience Approach (LEA)

In this reading technique, your student dictates the language experience story. This approach works equally well with beginner, intermediate, and advanced students because you are using the student's own words and a story she already knows. Just remember to keep the story short and simple at first. The idea is to help your student to relax with speaking, listening, and reading.

Because your student is telling the story, she is already familiar with the vocabulary. By using her own words and a topic she knows well, you are building on what she already knows. This technique will build up confidence in her abilities to read, thereby motivating her to continue learning.

Required Assignment

Click here to learn how to create a language experience story through a series of videos. 

These include before, during, and after activities. Estimated time to complete the videos and reading: 15 minutes.

Now go to "comments" and discuss how comfortable you feel using the Language Experience Approach. Read what others have to say.

Optional practice:

Read the selection by clicking here and learn how to create a language experience story.

Then Pair up with a spouse, friend, or child, and practice creating a language experience story. Choose a before, during, or after activity to practice.

Read more about Language Experience Stories in the following resources. (Choose one.)

Optional Reading:

Tutor, pages 47-52

LitStart, pages 100 - 111

Online

• Creating a Language Experience Story
  http://www.literacyconnections.com/InTheirOwnWords.php

Optional Videos:

1. Watch a tutor teach alphabetics to a student

Basic Reading and Writing Techniques: Part 1, Alphabet Study (9:34 min) These alphabet study techniques are especially suitable for basic learners. It includes a review of the previous lesson, new words and rhyming words, writing the words, and find sounds in an experience story.

2. Watch a tutor teach word study to a student

Basic Reading and Writing Techniques: Part 2, Word Study (9:45 min) In this video the tutor transitions from alphabet study to word study using an experience story. The student reads the story silently, then discusses unknown words. He then reads the story out loud, adds to the story, and practices spell tracing.


3. Watch a tutor teach reading and writing techniques using a map

Basic Reading and Writing Techniques: Part 3, Reading a Map (5:54 min) The tutor uses an atlas and a map to prepare the learner for his upcoming vacation. They practice writing place names and reading directions.

11. Summary

Learning to read is a lifelong process. Teaching your adult students reading comprehension strategies and strengthening their decoding skills will help them become independent readers. By helping them to learn to read sight words, use contextual cues, engage in pre-reading activities, and apply letter-sound relationships, you will aid them in achieving their literacy goals.

Patience is required for the lowest level literacy learners, many of whom have significant gaps in phonemes, phonics and vocabulary that one-one-one tutors can help overcome. The best tutors are those who earn their student's trust and who create a variety of methods for students to learn to read. This simple manipulative in the following 1:09 minute video, for example, is a fun way for adults to learn word families. Students can even create their own!

In the next unit, we will approach teaching writing much in the same way as we have show you how to help your student to read. Keeping your student's goals in mind, you will work with her on the three phases of writing using activities that are designed to help her feel comfortable putting pencil to paper.

12. Self Check

Please answer the following questions, then click on the link below to check your answers:

T__ F __ 1) It is possible for your student to have passed tests in high school without comprehending much of the text.

T__ F __ 2) Activating prior knowledge means introducing new concepts to your student before she starts reading.

T__ F __ 3) Poor readers start reading a text without reading the title or skimming the text beforehand.

T__ F __ 4) The KWL activity will help set a purpose for reading and keep your student engaged.

T__ F __ 5) Good readers need to employ only one reading strategy to comprehend the text.

T__ F __ 6) The four components of reading instruction are: alphabetics, fluency development, vocabulary development, and reading comprehension.

T__ F __ 7) Teaching adults to read is the same as teaching a child to read.

T__ F __ 8) Poor readers need to be taught pre-reading strategies.

T__ F __ 9) It is important for tutors to think out loud, and teach their reading strategies to their students.

T__ F __10) Directed Reading Thinking Activity and KWL Activity check on a reader's comprhension.

T__ F __11) Graphic organizers help visual learners understand the text.

T__ F __12) It is vital to correct your student's grammar during a Language Experience activity.

Click here for the answer key

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