Gina Attinello

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My Topic/Purpose

Phonics Intervention Strategies for Students with Learning Disabilities

Introduction

Reading is a lifelong skill that is an essential part of our society. Many children find this task of reading very challenging and some may never reach reading proficiency in school (Jenkins and O’Connor p.1) It is important as a teacher to be able to identify these reading difficulties and develop a plan to help your students. Early intervention in kindergarten, first and second grade is ideal but all teachers must know how to help students become better readers. This course will help you understand the components of reading and utilize strategies in the classroom.

Needs Assessment

Instructional Problem: Even though many teachers in the younger grades are certified to teach early education, many do not have a specific background in literacy or students with special needs. It is critical for all teachers to be able to develop a plan of action with strategies to help their students. As the year goes on, the gap continues to increase and teachers struggle with ways to close these gaps in their learning.

Gathering Information: In order to understand the need for this mini-course, I created a survey to see teacher’s thoughts on helping struggling readers. I have e-mailed the survey to all the Pre-K to 3 general and special education teachers at my school. http://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/2603452/Reading-for-At-Risk-Learners

Summary All the participants in the survey were able to describe a child who is struggling with reading. The majority of teachers have been in the classroom for 10 or more years and their area of strength is teaching math. Some teachers were able to give a brief correct definition of phonics and what a learning disability looks like. I still consider this is an area of weakness for the teachers because it was not clear to everyone. Even though some teachers understood the basis of what phonics is but struggled with strategies to help their students. Most teachers say they use guided reading as an intervention to help struggling readers and they use exit slips to assess students. During an afterschool discussion, teachers mentioned how most of their students know the sounds the of the letters but can not put the sounds together to make word. For example, several children will say all the sounds of the letters “b a t”, but then when they put all the sounds together they say “pan”.

Participants The participants will be elementary school teachers, staff developers, and special education teachers.

What is to be learned… Teachers will learn strategies to help students become better readers through phonics instruction. They will be instructed to come up with an action/lesson plan to help that child.

Analysis of the Learner and Context

The learners in this course should be teachers (elementary or middle school), student teachers, substitute teachers or tutors. You should already know the importance of literacy in the classroom and be familiar with assessing children in reading (running records, words lists). You should have a positive outlook that all children have the potential to be successful. You must be motivated to help your students and work hard for their success.

Performance Objectives

Participants will plan and implement strategies to help learners become better readers using phonics

Participants will understand the needs of students with a learning disability

Participants will distinguish and utilize phonics learning strategies to help students with learning disabilities

Participants will identify the components of phonics instruction

Task Analysis

Purpose

Teachers will learn strategies to help students become better readers through phonics instruction. They will be guided to create a customized action/lesson plan to help that child.

Unit 1: What is phonics instruction?

Objectives:

Participants will be able to:

define phonics instruction
identify the structure of written words
describe the developmental phases in reading words
identify the common spelling patterns

Activities:

Write your own definition of phonics
Describe the purpose of phonics
Analyze a case study to determine the weakness in phonics
Reflection: How do you teach phonics in your classroom?

Unit 2: Why do children with learning disabilities struggle with phonics instruction? What are common misconceptions about children with learning disabilities?

Objectives:

Participants will be able to:

Determine why children struggle with phonics/literacy
Identify the misconceptions about learning disabled children.
Define a learning disability
Identify signs of a learning disability

Activities:

Watch video on what it feels like to have a learning disability
Guiding questions for video: What were your thoughts on the video? What is one of the biggest misconceptions about children with learning disabilities and learning to read?
Examine a case study an determine what the signs of a learning disability
Reflection: How has your view of children with learning disabilities changed? How has the video impacted your previous ideas of teaching reading?

Unit 3: What are effective phonics strategies to implement?

Objectives:

Participants will be able to:

· Give examples of helpful phonics strategies for students with disabilities

· Determine the benefits of the strategies for phonics instruction

Activities:

Watch a video clip(s) of a phonics strategy and determine why it is beneficial and explicit.

Re-read and analyze the case study to develop a lesson plan for the area of weakness

Reflect on what you learned from the course.

Prerequisite Skills

Essential Prerequisites:

· Ability to read and respond to literature

· Experience with case studies

· Auditory and visual processing skills

· Experience with writing a lesson plan

· Experience writing a goal

Supportive Prerequisites: · Computer proficiency

· Self motivation

· Confidence

Curriculum Map

Click the link below to see my curriculum map.

Media:Curriculum_map_623_revised.pdf

References and Resources

Jenkins, Joe and O'Connor Rand.2001. Early Identification and Intervention for Young Children with Reading/Learning Disabilities.Special Education Programs

Suggate,Sebastian PhD. 2016. A Meta-Analysis of the Long-Term Effects of Phonemic Awareness, Phonics, Fluency, and Reading Comprehension Interventions. Journal of Learning Disabilities Vol 49(1)