TIPS FOR READING INSTRUCTION

Contributed by Jessy Rae D. Licaroz – Teacher III, Sta. Rosa Elementary School, Pilar

From relying on research to assessing often, these principles of good instruction provide teachers with strategies for promoting their pupils’ reading achievement. Here are some tips for teachers:

• Rely on good research

Promote the adoption of reading instruction programs in your school that are based on sound research and that provide all children with explicit, systematic instruction in phonics and exposure to rich literature, both fiction and nonfiction.

• Push for good professional development

Insist on high quality of instructional strategy that includes discussion of research on how children learn to read as well as extensive in-class follow-up.

• Make success school wide

Promote adoption of effective reading instruction and professional development methods.

• Team up with parents

Involve parents in support of their children’s reading. Work with parents and guardians to ensure that their children arrive at school ready to learn every day. Children should spend more time reading that is available at school, and teachers can reinforce this important point to parents and provide ideas on how to make reading an everyday activity in their home.

• How’s it going?

Assess students’ progress regularly.

• Small classes pay big dividends

Encourage school officials to reduce class size for reading instruction and to provide tutoring for pupils who fall behind. Changes in school organization may be necessary to create more appropriate class groupings and effective uses of special education and other supplementary resources.

• Be alert to older non-readers

Reading success is especially critical in the early grades because it is easier to prevent reading problems than to remediate them. Teachers at all grade levels should keep an eye on students having trouble with reading. One-to-one tutoring programs built on sound phonetic principles can often make a remarkable difference in pupils’ reading performance in a period of months. Teachers can help ensure that older pupils reading below grade levels have level-appropriate texts for independent reading.

• Use help wisely

Classroom paraprofessionals involved in reading education should receive the training and support necessary to enable them to make a significant contribution to children’s reading achievement. Teachers should utilize paraprofessionals in ways that augment the research-based reading program used in the classroom and allow pupils to receive more individualized support. Volunteers should also receive adequate training and supervision should be assigned work with children who can benefit from their assistance, and they should operate consistently with the reading program of the school.

From these tips the teachers, principals and the institution should help each other to promote quality reading instruction and to support the needs of each pupil to learn how to read with understanding. In this case, no one will be illiterate in reading and everyone will have FUN in Reading!

References:

Excerpted from: Every Child Reading: An Action Plan. (June, 1998). Learning First Alliance.Reprinted with permission.Retrived fromwww.learningfirst.org

Practical tips for teachers in enhancing learning experiences (2014) retrieved from

http://www.unimelb.edu.au/accessibility/guide/dyslexia-2.htm