I *love* that during that Dyslexia Awareness Month, reading teachers and organizations highlight important teaching tips, statistics, and research regarding this language-based specific learning disability and its impact on learners. Many of us who work with struggling readers also notice the need to address their social-emotional needs as part of our instructional strategy. So then I wondered: what does the research say about the mental health of learners with dyslexia?
How do you get your students excited and hopeful for the New Year? By giving them something to look forward to. And there's nothing better than being able to picture a better version of yourself in the future!
It seems to be a natural rhythm of life that when we begin a new year, we want to grow, become better, or improve from previous years. And we pass this onto our children. So how do we deconstruct the New Year's Resolution for our students?
As I map out the procedures in my small groups this year, one of the first things I will teach my students is how to check in with me. Pre-COVID, I would always do an informal, "how are you?" or "tell me about your weekend." However, during and after the pandemic, doing a social-emotional check-in became imperative. It was important for me to know my students' mindset when coming to my small group, as well as connect with them positively at the beginning of our lesson. But I only have a short time frame for my intervention lesson, so I needed something quick and efficient, yet meaningful.
Boom -- the daily check-in sheet was born. And not only did it make my day easier, more importantly, the students couldn't wait to check in with me. 💝
Some more thoughts on doing a daily SEL check-in with your students:
Are some of your students plateauing in the area of reading comprehension? They can give you a basic re-tell, but when it comes to developing ideas about the character or determining the author's lesson, they're struggling. How can we best support students in making good inferences?
Just like any phonics structured literacy lesson, we’re not leaving it up to chance: direct, explicit teacher modeling. Show students exactly how you figured out your new idea. And then provide students with many, many opportunities to practice with constructive feedback.
Let’s break down the process of making an inference:
Growth mindset is one of my favorite things that has come out in recent years, along with the science of reading. I have a firm belief that if we use best teaching practices and support our students' development of grit and fortitude, they will become very resilient readers.
As teachers, we traditionally talk about it in the beginning of the school year or in January for New Year's Resolutions. We create goals, we post them, and maybe at the end of the year, we'll evaluate our progression towards achieving them. That's a good start . . . but our students need more.
In order to really develop a growth mindset, it needs to be ingrained in all our directions, instruction, conversations, and activities. And it can be done without heaping more work our over-burdened selves.
Character feelings lessons begin in kindergarten and end in . . . well, we still talk about our feelings as adults, right? Teachers are pros at experiencing a wide range of feelings, LOL. 😬
As students are developing their vocabulary banks, it's easy for them to just use words within their comfort zone: happy, mad, sad, and scared. Our jobs are to help them grow their vocabulary and use precise language. What better way to scaffold the process than with some organized lists!
It's been awhile, friends. I hope that this blog post finds you well! Or at least persevering through the challenges. Because there are plenty of them.
I could make lots of excuses of why I haven't been writing on this blog. Eventually I'll write a blog post about some of my personal challenges, taking a deep dive into the importance of healing. (I would love it if you followed me on Instagram...my *favorite* social media platform.) Nonetheless, I'm here now, and I've got some deep thoughts about assessing children's reading via purely digital methods.
