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.