Meeting Individual Needs
Like other curriculum subjects, reading level varies from student to student and class to class. Each student is given personal attention as needed, which helps to address individual needs.
Just as our mission states, we acknowledge the dignity of all learners while challenging them on a daily basis to develop their talents and reach their God-given potential. In-line with this statement, we strive to give each student the individual attention they need in order to be successful.
For instance, students in our Multi-Disabilities class focus on reading by utilizing various iPad apps, which help to make learning to read more interactive, while tactile letters are often used for the matching of functional words. A classroom Smartboard is used as a supplement to the Weekly Scholastic newspaper.
However, each student starts their early school career by learning the basics of reading. After a foundation is built, they are able to develop their skills through various efforts:
• Social stories create perfect opportunities for students to learn how to interact in social situations. For instance, ordering from a menu, shopping in a store, making lists, and getting hired for a new job are great occasions to practice reading accuracy and comprehension.
• Novel study allows our Secondary class to focus on skills like vocabulary, contractions, and alternative dialects. Reading two novels per marking period gives students and adequate chance to look at plot and character development and story mapping.
• Phonics skills are always in focus, from low-levels to more advanced levels. Blending sounds, vowel sounds, and strategies for reading unknown words are practiced as-needed and applied to reading strategies.
• Poetry reading is part of our curriculum because it helps students to understand rhyming and interpretation. Poetry also aids in the writing and brainstorming processes.