Deb: I am a teacher and my questions is: A child is in the third grade has an average IQ, meets criteria for Specific Learning Disabilities in all three areas, and is on the Gen. Ed. curriculum track. Said child reads on a beginning first grade level. Is it legally ok to teach them decoding/fluency skills at his/her independent reading level and use third grade material for exposure to third grade reading skills ( text-based comp., vocabulary words etc.,) reading out loud this material ? The school psychologist says this is route to go, but we want to make sure that this is ok legally also….? thanks
Is someone teaching him to read? My son was in the same situation. Going into 4th grade he was reading prepimer. The school decided to do something about it. He was in a special pullout class for small group phonics lessons I also signed him up for the Masonic learning center The name is orton Gillingham, it is for children that have “dyslexia”. One year he was reading grade level.
Also Library for the blind and disabled So he would get the vocabulary and knowledge of literature.
My son now 15 is reading college level but fluency is still slow.
Don’t know if any of this is helpful. My opinion is teach him to read the level he is at, keep him learning at grade levels. Don’t worry about fluency, it may never happen. Audio text books.
Deb –
The way that this child is being taught is not really a question of legality, rather it’s about what will work for this child. If you have questions about whether the teaching method the school is proposing will be effective, I encourage you to seek an outside evaluation by someone who is an expert in teaching students with learning disabilities (which this school psychologists probably is not).