Any Ideas On Making Reading Intervention Classes Interesting for These Low Performing Students?

I will have two sections of reading intervention classes at the high school level next year. These are kids scoring below and far below basics on California's standardized tests. My guess is that all of them will be long-term ELLs.

These kids have been struggling for years in school so I don't want to kick the year off with routines that have a long history of failure for them. I would like to weave in internet reading and writing activities that will bolster self-confidence and bring up test scores.

If any of you have taught such classes, please tell me some of the things that worked for you. If you haven't but have some creative ideas, would you be willing to share?

I am trying to get a head start on August when I start these classes.

Thanks so much:)

Denise

www.ellteacherpros.com
www.teachingsuccesseswithells.blogspot.com

Tags: ELD, ESL, english, reading, technology, writing

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Permalink Reply by Dan de Souza on June 1, 2010 at 6:35pm

Hi Denise, I teach in Ontario Canada and have taught classes like this. I developed www.readingahead.com for them. We use the resource in Ontario to prepare students for our grade 10 literacy test but it has been used in grades 8 and 9 as well.

The teacher can see everything the students do and you can send them feedback as well.

You can see what the kids see at www.readingahead.com/tour

Let me know what you think.

Dan

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Permalink Reply by Denise Stewart on June 10, 2010 at 7:25pm

Hi Dan,

Avatars? Awesome! Have student test scores improved? How many of your students were second language learners? Students with special needs? How was this program integrated into other discipline materials?

I like the format!

Thanks.

Denise

www.ellteacherpros.com
www.teachingsuccesseswithells.blogspot.com

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Permalink Reply by Dorethia(Dotty) Myers on June 2, 2010 at 1:39am

Sounds like what we will be doing this next school year. when I taught Language!, I use to download videos from Unitedstreaming,. If you have Nettrekker they have good resources. there are lots of websites.
Use SDAIE strategies, differentiate, UDL, unpack those California ELL/ELA Standards and you will be fine.
http://cast.org/

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Permalink Reply by Denise Stewart on June 10, 2010 at 7:37pm

Did you have many ELLs in your classes? What was the average English proficiency level?

Were you forced into a canned reading program for the most part or allowed to be a bit more non-traditional in dealing with kids who may already be turned off to school? Forgive me for asking all these questions, but you are the pro here and I don't even rank at the "novice" level here:)

Thanks:)

Denise

www.ellteacherpros.com
www.teachingsuccesseswithells.blogspot.com

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Permalink Reply by Suzy Deller on June 3, 2010 at 1:44pm

Hi Denise! I can empathize with your situation. I used to teach 6th grade and every year I’d have students 3-4 grade levels below the rest of the class. Unfortunately back then, there wasn’t as much technology as there is today.

Going along with what Dotty noted above, netTrekker can be a very powerful tool for this situation and, go figure, your District is currently subscribing to it. Rather than inundating you with lots of text to read, here are a few ways you can use nT with your Students:
•Each resource has it’s own readability level
•Each resource is aligned to CA State Standards
•Resources have been “tagged” with various types of content such as: interactive media, learning games/exercises, examples (& tons more)
•Read Aloud: reads the website’s text aloud
•Dictionary Feature: allows students to click on any word in the website to see it’s definition

What's great about nT is that you can spend the summer pre-screening the sites for your students OR you can let your students loose to find their own resources.

I actually did a few searches in netTrekker and have emailed you a couple resources you might find beneficial.

Hope that's helpful!

Suzy

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Permalink Reply by Denise Stewart on June 10, 2010 at 7:40pm

I think we used to have net Trekker. I have to ask around when I go to a district workshop on Monday (4 days on differentiation---I am trying to get psyched up for the class).

Suzy, would you remember when you sent those links to me? I am trying to catch up on emails and postings and don't want to overlook your suggestions.

Thank you so much for helping me here:)

Denise

www.ellteacherpros.com
www.teachingsuccesseswithells.blogspot.com

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Permalink Reply by Suzy Deller on June 11, 2010 at 9:27am

Denise - I just sent you 3 emails (to your ellteacherpros email).

Email 1: You have access to netTrekker until 8/31 so I registered a username/password & created folders inside My Portfolio for you. (This has my contact info if you want to talk directly.)

Email 2: An email with the Reading Resources I found in netTrekker.

Email 3: An email with the Writing Resources I found in netTrekker.

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Permalink Reply by Denise Stewart on June 28, 2010 at 5:05pm

Suzy,

Sorry for being so late in responding. I was under a publishing deadline for two books that my friends and I have just finished. It is a first time for each of us and quite exciting to say the least. I mentioned this to my AP and she said that I could order them to use as supplemental materials:)

Thank you oodles for letting me explore around nettreker. I even put in a request with district office to see if they can find the funds to offer it to teachers at my site who will be working with these low achievers. I have downloaded your emails to become semi-proficient at using nettreker before school starts (which is August 12th if you can believe it).

Thanks again:)

Denise

www.ellteacherpros.com

www.teachingsuccesseswithells.blogspot.com

I will

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Permalink Reply by Jeremy Kaiser on June 7, 2010 at 9:02am

One of the things our intevention classes are doing is using MP3 Players to have students listen to stories as they read them. They can check out the MP3 players and take them home, so they can read stories over and over again. This seems to be helping greatly with their fluency. The hardest part is finding recorded resources. I will try and find the main one our school is using and post the url for you.

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Permalink Reply by Denise Stewart on June 10, 2010 at 7:42pm

Our school still doesn't allow mp3 players, but maybe I could make an argument to consider it since they seem to bee quite useful from what you say. Most kids have them anyway so if worse comes to worse, I might be able to get permission for them to have them in school with me. Any resources you are willing to share would be most appreciated:)

Thanks.

Denise

www.ellteacherpros.com
www.teachingsuccesseswithells.blogspot.com

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Permalink Reply by Larry Sandberg on June 8, 2010 at 4:13am

Seconding what Jeremy says, why not try more interactive mediums of learning?

iPod touch has been so effectively used primarily in the age group mentioned.and also for younger children/toddlers.

iPod and iPad apps have been proven very effective in casual learning.

Leading portals like Macworld and 148apps have a lot of information on good apps -educational.

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Permalink Reply by Denise Stewart on June 10, 2010 at 7:45pm

iPods are not allowed on campus (yes, I know that sounds unbelievable, but it is true). I need to try and approach the "higher authorities" at district office on cutting me some slack so that I can make the class one that students, who are already having academic problems, will want to come to class and work.

What are 148 apps?

Thanks.

Denise

www.ellteacherpros.com
www.teachingsuccesseswithells.blogspot.com