Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Rev. 4-28-15
Part 1: Reading
This handout lists supplementary reading activities for students. If your student
does not grasp a concept as presented in a Laubach skill book, use the
strategies below to work on the material in a different way. The strategies that
follow emphasize different stages of the reading process, depending on the skill
book level of students.
Fluency student can read orally with speed, accuracy, and vocal
expression. Readers who are not fluent find it difficult to remember and
understand what has been read.
Although the strategies presented are not hierarchical, strategies presented for
Skill Book 4 cannot be conducted successfully if students have not mastered the
concepts associated with Skill Book 1. By the same token, some strategies
associated with higher level skill books can be simplified for use with students at
lower levels. Tutors are encouraged to review all the strategies presented and to
use a variety based on the abilities of individual students.
Skill Book 1 students are most likely to need assistance with word recognition,
fluency, and vocabulary. Specific word recognition strategies involve phonics,
sight words, word patterns, word parts, and context.
Students working in Skill Book 2 are most likely to require help with
comprehension, including drawing inferences from written materials and
summarizing the main ideas in a passage.
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Literacy Council of Montgomery County, MD Supplemental Material
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The techniques presented are most applicable for skill book 1 and 2 students but
can be used with Skill Books 3 and 4 depending on students abilities.
The related abilities to associate the sounds of English with symbols (letters) and
use those symbols (letters) to represent spoken words provide the foundation for
successful reading.
Phonics teaches how to read words with regular spellings, even if the words are
made up (for example, zot, brillig). Students must be able to segment sounds in
words in order to sound out unfamiliar words and spell. They must also be able
to recognize sound units such as th, er, ng.
If students have trouble learning phonics, make sure they can accurately hear
the sound you are teaching (see Minimal Pairs activity in Handout #8). Activities
that help students connect sounds and letters include:
Sound cards Sound cards are effective because they are visually simple
and focus student attention on one sound and symbol at a time. Cut index
cards in half. On each card, print a letter or digraph. Review a few cards
at each session, as follows:
o To help reading (visual), show a sound card and ask whats the
sound? whats the chart word? (knowing the chart word will help
the student remember the sound).
o To help spelling (auditory), reverse teach by asking what letter
says /s/?
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Slip strips use slip strips to review short vowels, consonant blends, and
digraphs (such as /sh/ or /ch/).
Example:
o Tutor says Show me /t/. Student should pull out tile/card with t.
o Tutor says, Change /t/ to /at/. Student should place tile/card with a
in front of the tile with t. (adds sound)
o Change /at/ to /an/. (substitutes sound)
o This says /an/. Show me /pan/.
o Change /pan/ to /pal/. Change /pal/ to /pat/.
o Change /pat/ to /tap/. (shifts sounds)
o This says tap. Show me /trap/.
o Change /trap/ to /rap/. (omits initial sound)
o Change /rap/ to /pap/. (repeats sound)
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o Write the word twice. Say the letters as you write them the second
time.
o Close your eyes and spell the word aloud (or, cover up the word
and write it down). Check to see if you are right.
Word families also help students learn more difficult groupings of letters
that appear at the end of words (such as dge, nch, tch, nk, ng).
Example: judge, fudge, budge.
o It helps to review the same ending using another vowel, for
example, hedge, ledge.
o Finally, review the grouping by using different vowels: badge, edge,
ridge, lodge, smudge.
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o Good example: The bird has three eggs in her _____. The student
is likely to respond correctly (nest) because this is where eggs are
typically found.
o Bad example: The bird has ____ eggs in her nest. The student
could provide a number (three), a color (blue), or a condition
(cracked). The surrounding words do not provide help in figuring
out the response.
Fluency Strategies
Students who are not fluent readers tend to focus their energy on decoding
instead of on understanding. Hesitant or inaccurate reading hinders
comprehension. For students who have trouble reading smoothly or with
expression:
2. Echo Reading Read a sentence, then have students read it. They should
mimic your pronunciation, intonation, and rate.
3. Duet Reading You and students read together. The students are likely to
be a few seconds behind you.
4. Audio Tapes Tape yourself reading a passage. Students can listen to the
tape as they read the same passage.
Vocabulary Strategies
Vocabulary is crucial for getting meaning from text. Without mastery of the
vocabulary words used by a writer, students are unlikely to understand the
intended message.
2. Language experience
Ask students an open-ended question to get started (for example, what is your
favorite sport? tell me about your pet). As a student begins to speak, write the
words verbatim. It is important to print neatly! When the student has finished
speaking (and you have finished writing), read the passage aloud. Then ask the
student to read it aloud.
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Comprehension Strategies
Start by asking factual questions that require only a yes/no answer (for
example, in the childrens story, The Three Little Pigs; you might ask Was
the first house made of straw?).
Then ask factual questions that require students to use vocabulary words
(for example, What was the second house made of?)
For example: In Lesson 3, Jimmy gives a lily to Kitty, and Kitty gives her
picture to Jimmy. A factual question (What did Jimmy give Kitty?) does
not promote critical thinking. An inferential question (Why did Jimmy give
Kitty a flower?) encourages students to think beyond what is happening in
the story to why it is happening.
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Skill Book 3 requires students to interpret the feelings of characters and predict
outcomes. Students working in Skill Book 4 should be able to understand
figurative language in a story, recognize the authors purpose, and relate stories
to their own experience and knowledge. They also should be able to read and
understand a variety of practical everyday materials.
These students are most likely to need help with comprehension and application.
The techniques presented are most applicable for Skill Book 3 and 4 students but
can be used with Skill Books 1 and 2 depending on students abilities.
Comprehension Strategies
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Simile a figure of speech in which things that are different are compared
by the use of the words like or as (for example, her eyes were bright as
stars). Create a list of similes and have students discuss their meanings.
Metaphor a figure of speech that is similar to a simile, but does not use
the words like or as to compare (for example, her eyes are stars).
Idiom an expression that does not mean literally what it says (for
example, you are driving me up the wall). Create a list of idioms and have
students discuss their meanings.
To persuade the author presents an opinion and tries to get the reader
to agree with it. Examples include advertisements, editorials, letters to the
editor.
Show students a product label (cleaning supplies and food packages with
cooking instructions, such as a pasta box, are good choices) and explain the
purpose of informing. Ask students to think of other examples. Repeat this
activity at future sessions to illustrate the purposes of entertainment and
persuasion.
Once students are familiar with the three purposes, show them examples of all
three. Ask students to identify the purpose of the different examples.
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Application Strategy
Example: Lesson 9 focuses on reading a map. Bring a county map to class and
have students do some or all of the following.
Other examples:
Food shopping find recurring words in grocery ads (sale, fresh, reduced)
and write them on flash cards. Ask students to find the same words in
other grocery ads. Have students create their shopping lists.
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Writing strategies must be appropriate for the level at which students are
working. Thus, a student at SB2 might not move beyond beginning strategies.
By the same token, a student at SB4 might have to start with intermediate
strategies if he has never written before.
The writing skills introduced in Skill Book 1 focus primarily on forming characters.
Relatively little attention is paid to composition.
The writing skills introduced in Skill Book 2 involve copying sentences, filling in
missing words in sentences, writing the question form of a statement, and
forming new words by adding various endings (for example, -ed, -s, -es).
1. Reinforce writing basics Skill Book 2, Lesson 1 (and all lessons thereafter)
emphasize the use of capital letters to begin sentences and correct ending
punctuation (period or question mark). Skill Book 2 also introduces other
punctuation marks. Reinforce this information in all writing activities.
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3. Have student rewrite sentences to change them from present tense to past
tense. Example: Today, I want to study. Yesterday, ________. Students
rewrite as I wanted to study. When creating sentences, be sure to use
vocabulary words that the students already know.
The writing skills emphasized in Skill Book 3 are: write sentence answers to
questions; write original sentences; write a short summary of a story; write a
check; write a short thank you letter; fill in an application form. The activities
listed below typically are assigned as homework because students often need
time to organize their thoughts and write down what they want to say.
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Depending on their abilities, students working in Skill Book 3 may be ready for
advanced writing activities while students in Skill Book 4 might have to start with
intermediate strategies if they have never written before.
3. Thank you letter Create a short thank you letter to use as a model. Explain
the parts of the letter (date, salutation, body, closing, signature). Once
students understand the components, ask them to write a thank you letter to a
family member for a gift. You may have to ask students what type of gifts
they typically receive so they have a sense of what to thank their relative for.
5. Story summaries Have students read stories in Student Lines and write
short summaries. Because students tend to provide too much detail, limit the
summary to three or four sentences. You should demonstrate how to
summarize a story so students understand what is expected.
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of composition you are asking for; this may confuse your students. Just tell
them what you want.
Eventually, you may be able to ask students to write four or five sentences
about any topic they choose. It may be necessary to suggest general topics
(for example, you can write about something you like to do, or someplace you
like to go, or something your child does).
When reviewing a composition, first read for content. Discuss the ideas
presented. After you and your students have discussed their ideas, go over
the composition again for punctuation, grammar and spelling. If there are
errors in all three areas, focus on one. For example, show students how to
correctly punctuate. You may have to deal with punctuation for several
sessions. Once students punctuate properly most of the time (there will be
lapses), turn your attention to another problem area (for example, spelling).
Over time, you will eventually address all the problems.
You also are likely to discover that student compositions ramble. Create a
paragraph that students can use as a model and explain its three parts:
a. Topic sentence should identify the topic (for example, my job) and
take a position on the topic (for example, is interesting)
b. Facts, details, examples to support the position in the topic sentence
c. A closing sentence
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3. Creative writing It is unlikely that your students will attempt any creative
writing.
a. Description of a person, place or thing
b. Opinion about something
c. Short autobiography
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