Back to: Module: Helping Students Read
Now that you’ve completed this module, you should have the foundation you need to help students who are learning to read. You understand how to decide which skills and techniques work, the process that produces good readers, and even how to strategize and plan lessons. You should feel confident as you prepare for reading instruction.
Take a sheet of paper and begin making a list. Briefly consider the following 10 questions. For each, if you answered “yes,” write down a few things you remember about the question from the earlier parts of the module. You can use short sentences, bullet points, or even diagrams to respond. If you answered “no,” leave the question blank for now. We will revisit the list you made after you have completed this unit, which provides a review of the module.
- Can you explain the basic components of reading and how they relate to decoding?
- Can you locate learning to read in the larger process of language development?
- Can you describe the differences between phonemes and morphemes?
- Can you explain how phonemes and graphemes support the decoding of words?
- Can you describe how decoding coupled with a set of words that students recognize immediately (i.e., by sight) helps students improve their reading?
- Can you plan lessons to boost the reading fluency of your students?
- Can you explain how reading fluency will help students comprehend a text?
- Can you design strategies, tools, and plans that your students can use to help them read and understand a text?
- Can you help your students draw inferences?
- Can you come up with instructional ideas that allow you to help all of your students and not just a mythical “average” student?