The Problem: High School Students Who Can’t Read
These students sit in the back of every classroom, zoning out or mouthing off. They hide a secret and do whatever it takes to keep it under wraps. They can’t read.
The Teacher’s Dilemma: No Training, No Time for Non-Readers
High School teachers are neither trained nor tasked to teach reading. They certainly don’t have time! It is inappropriate to sacrifice class instructional time to meet the needs of a few non-readers. When teacher teams meet, the names of struggling or failing students come up. Teachers often recognize the reading difficulty. But nothing changes for the student because high school classes are not, and cannot be, designed to teach reading.
Shouldn’t Non-Readers be in Special Education?
Special Education classes and pull-outs serve widely diverse student populations. Smart students who can’t read (generally dyslexic or ESL) tend to fall through the cracks. Addressing the reading issue in special education deprives the student of the subject content material they need in the regular classes. High School special education fails spectacularly at teaching reading to high school students. In fact, a “SPED” label convinces the student he or she is too stupid to learn. The label produces its own failure. A few schools break out of this sad cycle by placing bright dyslexic students in gifted classes with an Individual Education Plan (IEP) providing audio textbooks.
He’s Just Lazy; He Could Read If He Wanted To Read
Overwhelmingly, dyslexic adults report that they worked extremely hard in school but were told constantly that they were lazy or didn’t care. They remember advice to “try harder.” Exhausted and demoralized, these students eventually give up. That is UNLESS one adult acknowledges them as smart and working hard, but struggling to read, through no fault of their own. That kind of encounter gives hope.
What Can a High School Classroom Teacher Do for Dyslexic and ESL Students?
High School students who read below third-grade level generally fail and drop out of school. The cause may be dyslexia or English Language Learning. Even if the student has an IEP or 504 plan with reading accommodations, success evades most of them. Many students simply won’t self-advocate to use special privileges such as extra time on tests or a “reading buddy.” It’s just too embarrassing to be the only one in a group who needs help. But, statistically, 15% of students are dyslexic. Add the ESL students, and 20% of any class probably needs reading accommodations in order to work to their potential. Moreover, these students need a chance to improve their reading, not just accommodate it. So what is a teacher to do???
Don’t Teach Reading — Teach Content With Embedded Reading Support
Reading supports in high school only work if the whole class uses them. Luckily, this benefits 100% of the students by providing a more interactive, multi-sensory learning experience for every student. The following techniques work well in high school.
Introduce Speech-to-Text and Text-to-Speech
Encourage ALL students to use text-to-speech and speech-to-text technology. Google Classroom makes it easy. If everyone uses these tools, dyslexic students often shine, as they tend to excel at technology skills. They may help other students learn to use the tools. Now, instead of being kids who can’t read, they become a new tribe of kids who are experts at Google Voice Typing. Assignments can include speech-to-text as part of the writing process. Highlighting text and having the computer read it back helps in editing one’s own work, and it’s a fun way to learn how to pronounce new vocabulary. Have students model the techniques they like best, using computers and phones. Celebrate students who develop creative ways to use technology to interact with text. Suddenly, all students become more involved, have fun, and develop real life skills, WHILE learning the content material.
What if you, as a teacher, aren’t comfortable in the digital world? This is your opportunity to showcase the digital skills of your dyslexic students. Let them teach the class how to use these tools. Their self-esteem soars, and everyone learns new skills that we all need now.
Speech-to-Text and Text-to-Speech Technologies hold a powerful key for dyslexic students. Using STT and TTS means the student sees and hears words simultaneously, in context. These three done together — seeing, hearing, context– is crucial for a big-picture thinker. Meaning must come first, then details such as individual words become memorable. Teaching vocabulary separately, apart from context, just doesn’t work for these learners.
Smart Pens, Voice Recognition, and Online Textbooks
If school budgets allow, smart pens and oral writing programs such as Dragon Naturally Speaking add even more flexibility for non-readers, but these are not a necessity. As more schools adopt online texts to save money on books, students benefit if they can hear and see words at the same time. It’s a waste of new technology to just read it on screen as though it was a book with irritating blue light. For more ideas, check out this great teacher handbook: Hacking Google for Education: 99 Ways to Leverage Google Tools in Classrooms, Schools, and Districts (Hack Learning Series) (Volume 11)
Get Everyone Talking Out Loud
Here’s important information from Victoria Francis, Ed. Spec. and a master teacher: “When teachers introduce new vocabulary, we should do a session where we say the word to the class and have the kids repeat it back to us in unison, then say the word to their “buddy” next to them. ALL teachers should be doing this! It was eye-opening when I had my classes do this….I could hear which students were having problems with the word, and I could hear them get better as we repeated the words.
Classroom teachers RARELY give the kids time to actually say new words out loud and I think this should be a common practice. It’s so important that kids say the words out loud, not just ESL or dyslexic kids. But about 95% of the time the teacher is the only one in the room saying the words.”
Consider using Unison Reading
Provide Headphone Time
Really?! What if the students listen to rap music instead of working on the assignment? This is a possibility, so some spot checking is in order. But students experience a dizzying sequence of up to seven classes a day. Short study periods, under pressure and often interrupted, keep many students distracted and overwhelmed. Non-readers who want to study but can’t in this environment, will welcome the chance to put on headphones and concentrate as they hear and see the text simultaneously.
Headphones help level the playing field for students with dyslexia, ADHD, or autism. Additionally, some neurodiverse thinkers, including many dyslexic people, find that music allows them to focus on content material and learn it more successfully. We must resist assumptions that the way we as teachers learn best is how each of our students learn best!
By Yvonna Graham, M.Ed.
www.dyslexiakit.net
@GrahamYvonna