Sierra was a typical, struggling 3rd-grade reader. She was reading at a late first-grade reading level in the middle of 3rd grade. She did not have a diagnosis of dyslexia or a history of speech or language problems.
She loved to write stories. Her sentences were good, but her spelling was poor. She struggled to write many words because she could not spell them. So, she tried only to write words she could spell, which limited her word choices when writing. Anyone reading her stories found it hard to read some of her writing. She avoided homework with her parents. [wait…can I do it later?...you’re not doing it right [to her parent] …. why…I already did it...I don’t have to do it…I forgot…]
By the time we met, Sierra was in the second semester of third grade. The year before, an intervention specialist started helping her in the regular education classroom with an Individual Education Plan, and she was making progress slowly. BUT she was still reading at the first-grade level, 2 years below grade level.
Sierra started working with the author of "Reading Sound Strategies" in late January, but wasn’t consistently working until mid-February. Before we started, her parents gave me her mid-December report card. The report card said:
• “Reading 2nd-grade level text to 38 words per minute on ¾ trials. She read mid-first grade text (Level H) to 26 words per minute.
• Answering questions about 1st-grade level text with 70% accuracy on ¾ trials by December of 3rd grade: She answered questions for beginning 2nd-grade level text [Level K] with 70% accuracy.
In June, her report card stated:
• “Reading beginning 3rd grade level text at 42 words per minute with 96% accuracy and 90% comprehension.”
Her 3rd grade MAP reading scores were reported as follows:
• She began the school year at 191. MAP projected she would finish at 194.
• She finished the school year at 204, exceeding her fall projected score by 10 points. She read the text at the beginning of 3rd-grade level, Fountas and Pinnell Level N, indicating an increase from level H to level N between December and May.
What happened between February and May?
Sierra began learning to blend, separate, match, compare, sequence, delete, and insert sounds in words. She learned to read and spell using the methods found in the books “20 Minute Phonemic Training for Dyslexia, Auditory Processing and Spelling” and “Reading Sound Strategies.” Our goal was to meet for 40 minutes twice weekly. She met with the author 27 times through internet sessions in January through May, plus two times in her home for a total of 28 sessions. In addition, her mother was present at each session and provided a repeated reading practice session about once a week. However, as with any family, the activities of life intervened, and the repeated reading lessons were sporadic.
On February 3, the author met with Sierra and her mother for 90 minutes at home. Video clips of Sierra's reading show the change in her fluency between February and May.
pre-lesson reading sample: https://youtu.be/2oJxthJ86F4
post-lesson reading sample: https://youtu.be/iEDuiaMuO-Q
By May, Sierra had advanced to multiple-syllable word decoding and spelling. Once she mastered the phonemes in syllables, she learned about syllable division principles, suffixes, and stress. Sierra worked with videos of syllable chains to practice decoding and building visual memories for suffix spellings. Access to one of the videos: https://youtu.be/FEJgh2KwKZg
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