Mandy,
well said. We must provide equal access to education & various helps, but we are not required to provide success, that is up to the student.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
I have a reading deficience, but it does not limit my success or goals. I relate my real life situations and how to learn in different ways. I was the student who had a dictionary beside my books. It took me twice as long to read a chapter, but with teachers support I succeed to my goal. It is the job of the student to put forth more work, and they should know that by now as I did. I talked with all my instructors so they knew that I had this issue, but I was deteremined to succeed. I will also say that it is part instructor I had some very unsupportive instructors and others who helped me succeed. The best advice I can give is be there for them when they come to you because it is not easy to say "I am dumb"... that is how it feels when you tell people you are different. I used it to push myself and others use it to limit their selves.. so I ask you to help your students when they need it and just ask what you can do to help.. hands on learning or putting something into pictures really helps "us" to recall information.
Dale,
I agree with you & use some form of outline. I know some instructors who view this as spoonfeeding or old fashioned but I still outline my own notes when listening to a presentation of some kind.
Dr. Ryan Meers
I use outlines frequently to help with the organization of concepts and ideas presented in the text. It seems to help with linkages of concept and application, as well as providing a form on which to take notes.
Melinda,
I think this is a great strategy that we could all use; especially those fields with a unique jargon.
Dr. Ryan Meers
I, personally, am a great reader so my vocabulary is broad. I have noticed by watching students' faces and eyes, particularly, that some of the words I use are not familiar to them. When I feel this is the case, I explain the definition of the word in simple terms. This pertains to "English" words. When it comes to the medical terminology I use constantly in the classes I teach (medical coding), I explain using examples whenever possible to reinforce the students' understanding of the medical term. And, of course, we have vocabulary assignments every class in medical terminology to reinforce through repetition. By helping them with the spoken word, I have found that they are more open to asking about words they have difficulty when reading. By going slowly and pronouncing words and sometimes having the class repeat words and/or phrases from their reading assignment out loud, I feel it helps them without their feeling self conscious. I may have every student in the class read some key sentences or words out loud each class so everyone hears pronunciation and hopefully helps with the reading challenged.
I like to find out where students have come from, whether it's right out of school or have been on the job for awhile. This helps me plan for how well I'm going to be able to help them learn a medical vocabulary, which can be akin to learning a foreign language. I always to try to break the words down and show students how the word parts can be re-formed to make other words. Mindy Smith
Amber,
and this is a great illustration of our need as instructors to truly help our students & not just try to show how smart we are.
Dr. Ryan Meers
Reading deficiencies are deeply rooted in an individual and require effort on both the instructor and the student. Self-esteem and self-worth are closely tied to ones ability to read effectively. When I use a word that I think may not be known to all in the class room I'm sure to define the meaning. This encourages the students and keeps them from lossing interest. Furthermore, my hope is it creates a hunger that drives them to pick up the dictionary more often to find the meaning of an unknown word.
Amanda,
yes and this will also help them be able to see the meanings & put the words in context so they can start developing an even deeper understanding.
Dr. Ryan Meers
Repitition is helpful. We read out loud as a class the term words for each unit and discuss what it means. We usually give an example, in context, for each word.
One way to help students with reading deficiencies is to present the material in basic terms. If the student understands the material being presented they won't feel so overwhelmed by it.
Margarita ,
these can be great tools to help those students who are struggling. The important thing to remember is to still challenge them & not sacrifice content.
Dr. Ryan Meers
I think the hardest challenge we face is determining their reading level and needs. Our program is accelerated and having a student wil a learning challenege or disability is very diffucult to help in class. I would recommend working with one of our tutors or assigning a mentor either myself or a fellow instructor to work with the student one on one and determine what learning stragties would help.
I am thinking use a lots of picture and video aids to help them understand better
We always do a round robin when working with our Medical Language book. When a student states they are not comfortable reading out loud. I respect their decision, but once the lecture is over I ask privatly what would make them more comfortable reading out load. In one case in particular, the student stated that he was shy and had a learning disability. The information was documented and reviewed by the PD and Dean. As a team it was decided that the student would benefit from one of one tutoring with the campus Academic Coach. Three weeks after the first session, the student asked if he could read out loud next. What a great outcome.
To students who have trouble remembering what they read or staying focused, I encourage them to read aloud in a room by themselves. Reading aloud will help them stay awake and alert, for one thing, and what the eye doesn't process the ear may catch. Research has shown that reading aloud to an animal also increases a student's reading confidence -- the animal provides an "audience," but a low-stress one at that.
I also encourage taking notes and/or highlighting to students who have a hard to comprehending and remembering written material. Both slow the student down from merely skimming to actually reading, and the notes or highlighted material provides a quick overview for the student to review before class and/or an assessment.
Lastly, I encourage students to summarize for themselves (either mentally or in writing) a section of a text before moving on to the next one. Taking the time to summarize helps students make an effort to process what they read.
Rosemary ,
although it takes a good bit of time, nothing seems to really beat the one-one instruction/contact.
Dr. Ryan Meers
Work with them one on one, help them in prnouncing the word properly and understanding the application of the word, as well as frequent repitition of both the word and how it is properly used/applied.
Having had some students already who have had visual as well as language deficiencies I find that I need to tailor the method used to the student's particular need. In the case of visually challenged students, I enlarge the print on visual aids and provide larger print handout material. As for students with language challenges or different native languages, being able to translate some of the more common terms into their native language or into more basic terms seems to be very helpful.
