Topic: Dyslexia

10-second review: “Can dyslexia be cured? In a word, no. Dyslexia is a lifelong condition that affects people into old age. However, that does not mean that instruction cannot remediate some of the difficulties people with dyslexia have with written language.”

Source: RF Hudson, et al. Reading Teacher(March 2007), 510. A publication of the International Reading Association (IRA).

Comment: I don’t know enough to respond to this statement. There have been several attempts to overemphasize phonics as a way of improving the ability to decode words. On the other hand, some people in the field of reading say that the overemphasis on phonics leads to word calling, not comprehension. I’m wondering if the new-found interest in fluency would have an effect on the dyslexics’ comprehension.

And I always have wondered whether the directed reading assignment (build background on the topic; pre-teach unfamiliar vocabulary in the passage; setting purpose for reading; and applying what has been learned from the reading) has really been tried. RayS.

Topic: Dyslexia.

Topic: Dyslexia.

10-second review: Dyslexia Defined. "Dyslexia is a specific learning disability that is neurobiological in origin. Characterized by difficulties with accurate and/or fluent word recognition and by poor spelling and decoding abilities. Deficit in the phonological component of language that is unexpected in relation to other cognitive abilities."

Source: Shaywitz and Shaywitz. 2003. Quoted by RF Hudson, et al. Reading Teacher (March 2007), 507. A publication of the International Reading Association (IRA).

Comment: Now that’s a mouthful. In other words, the dyslexic is a bright student who has trouble reading and the problem seems to be an inability to decode words fluently.

A personal note: I once had a “mini-stroke.” It occurred in probably less than a minute. Afterwards, I could not decode the words I had written or the words in the newspaper without much laboring over just recognizing each word, let alone putting them together into sentences with meaning. I began to understand what a dyslexic goes through. I was furious at my inability to read as I normally had and I understood how dyslexics could become combative and angry at the world. I was lucky. My ability to read slowly, in about a day, was restored.

The two or three dyslexics I have encountered in my teaching of writing had excellent minds. They could talk using an outstanding vocabulary. They could express connected ideas orally. They could not put on paper any kind of connected discourse.

What did I do? They wrote for ten minutes a day. I rewrote their ten-minute essays, putting the ideas into order. They rewrote my corrected copy. They did this every day for a school year. At the end of the school year, they could write in sentences and they could connect the sentences into paragraphs. I don’t know what would have happened if I had been allowed to continue to work with them in this way for another year. Rays.

Topic: Dyslexia

Topic: Dyslexia

10-second review: What to do with dyslexic children: early intervention with intense, explicit instruction. Listen to parents.

Source: RF Hudson, et al. Reading Teacher (March 2007), 513. A publication of the International Reading Association (IRA).

Comment: Pay special attention to the parents’ description of the child’s reading difficulties. The problem might be dyslexia and then again, it might not. The same is true for children with “learning disabilities." RayS.

Topic: Successful School Reading Programs

One-minute review: What are the characteristics of successful school reading programs?

Strong building leadership

Developing a collective sense of responsibility for school improvement

Securing resources and professional development for teachers

Providing opportunities for teachers to collaborate

Increasing instructional time

Helping school staff persist despite difficulties

Strong staff collaboration

Ongoing professional development

Shared student assessment data

Aligned to state or district standards and assessments

Reach out to parents.

Source: BM Taylor, et al. Reading Research Quarterly (January/February/March 2005), pp. 43-44. A publication of the International Reading Association (IRA).

Comment: Each one of these concepts requires some thinking about: what they mean and how to implement them. RayS.

Topic: Remedial Reading

10-second review: What are the characteristics of remedial reading students? Studied a “struggling reader.” Found that the student was a successful reader in some contexts and a struggling reader in others. We need to look more carefully at “struggling readers” and should not be too quick to label them.

Source: SF Triplett. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy (November 2004), 214-222. The secondary publication of the International Reading Association (IRA).

Comment: Some common sense on the subject of remedial readers. RayS.

Topic: Syntactic Readability

10-second review: How can grammar help to establish readability? Interesting method for measuring syntactic complexity for readability. 0-count structures, SVO, etc.; 1-count structures: prepositional phrases, etc.; 2-count structures: passives, infinitives as subject, etc.; 3-count structures: clauses used as subjects, etc.

Source: M Botel and A Granowsky, “A Formula for Measuring Syntactic Complexity: A Directional Effort.” 513-516.

Comment: Interesting, but useless as a practical measure of readability. RayS.

Topic: Readability

10-second review: What are some problems with readability formulas? “Even the best readability formulae are divorced from the influence of reader purpose and experience.”

Source: AV Manzo. “Readability: A Postscript,” 962-965.

Comment: If your purpose can be achieved through skimming, you can spin through the most complex material to find the ideas you need. If you have a great deal of experience with the topic, you will read it much more easily than someone who knows almost nothing about it. RayS.