I have a number of students I see each week who are in grades 4-6. One of the biggest challenges of personalizing their instruction is finding appropriate decodable texts. Many times, these learners have confusions on specific concepts, but they have developed other higher-level skills. For example, I have one student who is confused by single syllable words ending with -tch, -dge, and -ck. Yet she is fluent with many vowel teams (e.g., ai, ay) which is a later skill. 

Recently, I was reading a high-interest article with a fifth-grade student on whether schools should allow students to use ChatGPT. After a lively discussion and some writing work, I started thinking about using ChatGPT to create custom decodable books. I tried it and it works!

When I input my request for a text to ChatGPT I make sure to include the concept I want to focus on, the number of words I want in the passage, and the grade level of the student. It's not a perfect process and the text sometimes needs editing, but so far, the students are enjoying a more challenging text overall with a focus on the concepts they need. I even ask ChatGPT to add an illustration to make the text more engaging.

One thing to remember is that refining the request can make the text even more helpful to the student. For example, if the text contains words trigraphs (e.g., str, shr) and those are difficult and haven't been taught, I ask Chat GPT to remove words with trigraphs. 

I have several series of decodables that I select books from, and ChatGPT would never suffice as a single source of decodable text. But, I'm finding it's a great option to have when I want to really zero in on what an intermediate student needs.

The majority of students I currently work with are in grades 3 and up. These students missed crucial literacy instruction at the appropriate time for various reasons including COVID closures and insufficient online instruction. But we can't continue to use that as THE reason why so many students continue to struggle to read and write. 

What I have noticed is that many times, parents and caregivers are not made aware of how far their child is from grade-level expectations in reading and writing. This seems to be especially true for students who have been given accommodations including a reader (someone or techology that reads for them) and a scribe (someone or technology that writes for them). Students have a right to appropriate tools that supports their capability to learn and demonstrate their understanding. But sometimes parents don't know what a student's independent reading level is and the importance of continuing to increase that proficiency. 

I encourage the parents and caregivers I work with to ask about their child's independent reading level compared to grade level expectations. Then follow up by asking what instruction is being provided to move the student to grade level. The answer should include specific goals and learning strategies. It should also include dosage, meaning how often instruction is happening, how long learning sessions are, and how many students are in the group. 

Some of the students I see have a different issue. They have been using coping strategies, also called work-arounds, to handle work that is extremely cognitively challenging. They seem to be doing fine, but they often lack motivation or fatigue easily. Taking a look at a student's written work helps me figure out when this is happening. This work needs to be done with pencil and paper and without the option of copying from passages. When reviewing this work, I often find spelling is extremely difficult and the difference between oral language and what is written is notable. Without technology, it's very hard to apply work-arounds to writing. Parents can ask to see classroom writing samples and again ask the same questions about grade level expectations and instruction as for reading. If writing samples aren't provided, read a text to your child and ask them to respond in writing without the benefit of using the text. What do you notice? You can share this with your child's teacher.

The earlier intervention happens, the more effective and short-term it likely will be. Literacy issues won't resolve themselves by reading to kids at home or by waiting to see if students develop skills with age. Knowledge about kids' progress is critical and it needs to include information other than what is provided from computer-based universal screeners and other technology-based assessments. Asking specific questions and continuing to monitor your student will provide an entry point for change in instructional outcomes.

October is National Dyslexia Awareness Month. We wanted to bring awareness to dyslexia with a book study. Ameer shares his story of struggle and triumph while ultimately learning to read in his mid-twenties after a dyslexia diagnosis. He discusses how learning to read changed his life. We invite you to read along with us and share your thoughts and connections to Ameer's story. Leave your comments below. We would love to hear from you. 

Merten and Morgan

Recently, we completed Orton-Gillingham Comprehensive Plus training offered by the Institute for Multi-Sensory Education (IMSE). There are many reasons for this, including the patterns we have seen emerge among the many literacy learners we assess and instruct: lack of phonics knowledge, lack of fluency with reading and writing high-frequency words, difficulty with and aversion to writing, and a deep desire to read at the level needed to fully participate in the classroom. As usual, learners are our guides to gaining the tools we need to instruct them better. 

In the past, we created a Reading Toolkit for one of our partners, The Sandra Dunagan Deal Center for Language and Learning in Georgia. Through that process, we learned a great deal about multi-sensory instruction and became curious about how it could be most effectively used with our learners. We also picked up a text titled Proust and the Squid by Maryanne Wolf and read it together. Our thinking continued to shift and expand. We learned about appropriate use of decodable books from a professional development session by Pam Kastner. Soon thereafter, I read a recommendation from a Literacy Specialist regarding the use of word sorts, such as Words Their Way, and Orton-Gillingham. I had already noticed that some of my learners needed modified sorts and some really struggled to understand them. A scope and sequence from Recipe for Reading by Nina Traub was cited and that set me on the path of learning how I could use this to make my word sort instruction more effective. This led to a commitment to 30 hours of Orton-Gillingham training. 

Learning how to teach reading and writing (listening and speaking, too) is a life-long journey. There are many opportunities to reflect on what is and isn't benefitting students and to try to understand the reasons why. We have both sought as much professional development and coursework possible to expand our scope of practice. That has lead us to the National Board Certification process, to Literacy Specialist Certification and to many conferences, books, articles, and peers who we believed could help us help students. Now we have added Orton-Gillingham instruction to our toolboxes and we have immediately seen positive results with many students. This is happening at a time when Science of Reading is getting a lot of attention, especially where we live and work, and it is helping us form and reform our beliefs and understandings about how students learn to read. 

If you would like to know more about this topic, or others related to literacy, take a look a our podcast page. Our podcast is titled Academic Conversation with Merten & Morgan and in it we discuss our literacy journey, including a series about Proust and the Squid. You can also reach out in the comments, on Facebook, or using our gmail: [email protected]. We love to learn alongside teachers, families, caregivers, and others who want to build a literate future for all students.