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Reading and Organizational Challenges

Reading Disabilities

Reading disabilities are among the most common and far reaching disabilities.  If a child has difficulty reading they are unable to access most of the information presented in school and in addition they are usually very reluctant learners after the third grade when this disability starts to affect the ability to learn information in all subject areas. A student who is a poor reader often has very low self-esteem and little belief in their ability to learn new material.

There are several places in the reading process where a student may have problems.  They may be unable to decode the words which means they can’t look at the letters and figure out what sounds each letter stands for and/or can’t put those sounds together to make words.  The student may be unable to understand what they read.  In many cases the student can read aloud very well but expends so much energy reading each word they can’t remember what each word was after they read it and can’t put the words together into something that they can understand and comprehend.  This means that even though they are reading each word they are unable to pick out the main idea or the important material contained in the text.  They will be unable to make connections with experiences they have already been exposed to.  The student may also have problems remembering material that they have read.  This is where it is helpful to teach methods of note-taking so that the material is reinforced when it is read.

Although your priority as a science teacher is not teaching reading, there are several things that you can do that will make it easier for the poor reader to gain the needed skills in your classroom in order to be successful.  These skills are also those that will help all the students in your classroom gain success.

Strategies

  • The material in your book is probably available in an audio version, either online or on a CD that can be checked out to the student.  Encourage the student to listen to the material as they follow along in the text. 
  • Show the student a way to outline the material in the text that will help the students find the main information in the text.  All students need to learn how to find critical information in texts and the science classroom is an ideal format to share that information.  Think how much work it will save you during the year if you spend your first few weeks modeling and going over the steps.
  • In the classroom you will need to make sure that you go over all material aloud and repeat and re explain any terms that may be unfamiliar.  This is very important when you will be doing labs as the student may be unable to read the lab instructions and so may make a mistake that will invalidate the lab.
  • Most students who are poor readers have a very poor vocabulary, both written and spoken.  Always make sure to use appropriate grade level vocabulary when you are speaking and naturally insert a definition of any words that you are not positive all the students will know.  You will find that this helps every student in the classroom.
  • Knowledge Rating Scale:  At the start of each unit have a list of all the vocabulary that will be introduced in that unit.  Have students mark it with a + if they know the work and can use it.  Have them mark it with a check if it is something they have heard before.  For words they have no clue about use a o.  This gives you a quick idea about the students familiarity with the words in the unit and you know what you need to emphasize and which words you may want to check true understanding.
  • Word Detective:  Use this for a few words that are essential to the unit or that you have consistently seen poor understanding of.
  • Visual Associations Sheet:  This connects the word, definition, picture, and context for each word.
  • More Vocabulary Strategies:
  • Explain and show your students the steps needed in order to study effectively.
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  • How many students do you have that wait until the last minute to study.  This website from The State University of New York at Buffalo has some ideas we can share with all of our students, again the time spent upfront will save you many hours later in the year and will add to students enjoyment of the material and better test scores. 

Try some of these methods and you should find all your students grasping what you are teaching much easier and with greater understanding.  Remember that most teachers assume all students know how to gain information from textbooks and your presentations.  In reality only a few students can do this independently and the time you take showing them specific methods to do so will be time well spent.

Organization

Have you ever had the student who drops all their work into the bottom of their backpack never to be seen again?  How about the student who swears they did the homework but is unable to find it or even can’t find the notes from class yesterday that need to be finished today? There are a few things that you can do to help that student become more successful. Disorganization isn’t a choice the student is making, it’s a result of not knowing and understanding how to keep up with all the paperwork required in school. Disorganization is probably one of the items most mentioned on an IEP at the high school level, and we know many more students without IEP’s who have the same problem.  The question is what can you do to help without using up all of your valuable class time? The answer is to teach organization as you teach science.  Science involves organization through keeping track of results, ideas, and thoughts and then being able to interrelate them to discover new connections.

Strategies

  • Science notebooks: There are many versions of the science notebook.  The primary idea is to keep all work in one place and, hopefully, easier to find and study from. 
  • Homework:  Make sure students have somewhere to write down assignments, don’t overlook the phone for middle and high school students.  They can set an alarm so homework is done at a specific time.  A folder for homework to go into and be returned in works for all ages.
    • Use any site your school has available to post all assignments and make up work so there is no reason for a student to say they forgot to bring it home.  It takes time to get used to doing this but takes only a few minutes every day once you have a routine down.
    • Have students identify an app that they will like and use.
  • Absences:  Have a folder or notebook that is easily accessible with all the work for each day placed in it.  A fairly easy method at the middle and high school level is to use a binder, place the dated assignment in it and place extra copies either in a file behind the notebook or in heavy duty page protectors behind the dated assignment.  At the elementary level have a folder on the desk and just collect the work from the desk at the end of the day and place it in the folder to be completed when the student returns,  stuffing it into the desk rarely works.
  • Binders:  If you don’t use a composition or spiral in your class have a hole punch available for everything that isn’t pre punched for student use.  Remind students who refuse to put things in their notebook to weekly put all work in the proper place.  Suggest students store completed units at home so they will be available for year- end tests.
  • Studying and Note-Taking:  Make sure pages are dated and include headings.  The essential questions, if your school requires them, are a great thing to have students write down as they come in and then answer at the end of class.  Have your students look over their notes every day for about 5 minutes.  They can use this time to fill in thoughts they didn’t finish writing down, add question marks to indicate information that they still don’t understand and generally clean up their notes so they are easier to study from.  You can encourage this by checking notes periodically for additional notations and highlighting and whatever else works for your class.  This is a great way to boost grades and encourage daily study.

 

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