Diane Lyon
www.ReidLyon.com
Asking the Right Questions:
SESSION III:
Saturday, October 15, 2011
10:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
Fundamental Learning Center
Diane Lyon
www.ReidLyon.com
Asking the Right Questions:
How do I help a dyslexic student succeed in school?
What is effectively implement research practices for
the classroom and in the home?
Where can I find practical strategies?
Know who you are listening to!
I am a person with dyslexia
I have a child who has dyslexia
I’m an advocate
I worked at in the U.S. Department of Education, Offices
of Special Education in Washington D.C., I was a Chief
Operating Officer at, a company that develops research
based Educational Program, an internet-based,
supplemental and intervention, reading program & I was
a Reading Research Project Coordinator at SMU and
now present and manage G. Reid Lyon’s consulting
company, Synergistic Education Solutions.
(www.ReidLyon.com)
Why do I do what I do? (video)
Reading is Fundamental
An alarming 44.7
percent of high school
dropouts score in the
bottom quarter of
reading ability
measures
(Center for Educational Statistics, 2009).
Reading is Fundamental
1 out of 3 prison
inmates have
the lowest level
of reading
proficiency
(Center for Educational Statistics, 2009).
Kyle’s Journey With Dyslexia
Kyle, my son, was placed in a self-contained Special
Education class, in 2nd grade… (1991)
By 3rd grade, I advocated that he be in a General
Education Class with his peers.
By 4th grade I was home schooling him part-time.
Kyle attended Indiana University went on to Law school
& graduated within the honors program & on the Deans
list Chicago Illinois.
Our commitment started with Reading and ended with
building Self-Esteem.
Planning & Hard Work Pays Off
How did we stay focused?
• We agreed on a daily plan (in writing)
• We agreed on a monthly plan (in writing)
• We agreed on a yearly plan (in writing)
• Kyle had a dream (in writing)
• Kyle had choices (in writing)
• Kyle knew the reality if we did not stick to a plan
Tips for Student – Parent - Teacher
For Students
– Hard Work with lots of Repetition
– Stay Positive
– Set Realistic Goals & write them! Learn, Exercise, Give-back
For Parents
– Lots of Encouragement (for Teacher and Student)
– Communication and Relationship building is the Key!!!
– Patience is a Virtual
For Teachers
- Agree to the Goal (What is education success ?)
- Allow adaptation and accommodations (spelling/reading/writing w/ technology)
- Basic understanding of individualized
Lessons I Learned
• Don’t think you will change people ….they have to be
willing to change (but your example helps)!
• Believe in yourself, teachers, & in children w/ dyslexia!
• There is power in numbers (people & data & books) !
• Listen to data … use data to tell your story to
everyone not just to some!
• Put everything that is important in writing!
• Don’t take anything personal!
• Your local media could be your best friend, get to
know them!
What Else Made The Difference?
Technology
• Laptop for the Student
• Websites
Data
•
•
•
•
Weekly student data
Monthly student data
Yearly student data
Know the data of other students
Research
• Read it
• Know it
• Share it
Effective Reading Instruction
“Reading instruction effectiveness lies not with
a single program or method but, rather, with a
teacher who thoughtfully and analytically
integrates various program, materials, and
methods as the situation demands.”
(Duffy & Hoffman)
READING INSTRUCTION MUST BE
INTEGRATED FROM KG- G12
• If a critical component is missing, students who
are at risk will not develop the essential skill
• Success and failure in reading are opposite sides
of the same coin- it’s the same theory, not two
theories, one for success and another for failure
• Instruction is the key!
Many people who struggle with reading…..
.
…..
are delayed in the development of phonemic awareness.
have had less exposure to print and the alphabet.
have vocabulary that are usually less well developed
– ½ in poor children compared to other children.
have a range of experience and conceptual knowledge
that is often limited or different compared to other
students.
What the National Reading Panel Says
About the Role of Vocabulary in
Reading Instruction
Learning in rich contexts is valuable for vocabulary
learning. Vocabulary words should be those that the
learner will find useful in many contexts. When
vocabulary items are derived from content learning
materials, the learner will be better equipped to deal
with specific reading matter in content areas.
What the National Reading Panel Says
About the Role of Vocabulary in
Reading Instruction
There is a need for direct instruction of vocabulary items
required for each specific text.
Repetition and multiple exposure to vocabulary items
are important. Students should be given items that will
be likely to appear in many contexts.
(Reprinted from National Reading Panel, 2000, p. 4-4)
Reading Comprehension Non-Negotiables
 A student must be able to read correctly,
approximately 95 percent, of the words
accurately in text to comprehend what is read.
 MOREOVER, to comprehend, a student must
know the meanings of 90 to 95 percent of the
words being read.
What does it take to comprehend text?
• Readers who read well are active readers
• Readers who have clear goals in mind for their
reading comprehend well.
• They constantly evaluate whether the text, and their
reading of it, is meeting their goals.
• Readers who read well typically look over the text
before they read, noting such things as the structure of
the text and text sections that might be most relevant
to their reading goals.
What does it take to comprehend text?
• As one reads, frequently making predictions about
what is going to happen is key.
• They read selectively, continually making decisions
about their reading--what to read carefully, what to
read quickly, what not to read, what to re-read.
• Readers who read well construct, revise, and question
the meanings they make as they read.
• They draw upon, compare, and integrate their prior
knowledge with material in the text.
WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO UNDERSTAND
WHAT YOU READ?
Read different kinds of text differently. For example, when
reading narrative, attend closely to the setting and characters
When reading expository text the reader frequently construct
and revise summaries of what they have read.
Expository text is nonfiction reading material. The intent of these
written works is to inform as a fact
text processing occurs not only during ‘reading’ as we have
traditionally defined it, but also during short breaks taken
during reading, and even after the ‘reading’ itself has
commenced. (started)
Reading Fluency
• Fluency is partly an outcome of word recognition
• “ability to read connected text rapidly, smoothly,
effortlessly, and automatically with little conscious
attention to decoding” (Meyer, 2002)
• “rate and accuracy in oral reading” (Shinn et al.,
1992)
• “ immediate result of word recognition proficiency”
(NRP, 2000)
Why have we, as a Nation, not met our reading goal?
 The sheer magnitude of the reading crisis in
America
 The sheer complexity of reading development
and reading difficulties
 The complexity of an effective
classroom/building implementation
LANGUAGE COMPREHENSION
BACKGROUND KNOWLEDGE
VOCABULARY KNOWLEDGE
LANGUAGE STRUCTURES
VERBAL REASONING
Skilled Readingfluent coordination of
SKILLED
word
reading and
comprehension
processes
LITERACY KNOWLEDGE
WORD RECOGNITION
PHON. AWARENESS
DECODING (and SPELLING)
SIGHT RECOGNITION
The Many Strands that are Woven into Skilled Reading
(Scarborough, 2001)
Free pdf: Google Reading Made Easy
http://www.rfbd.org/
Reading for the
Blind and
Dyslexia, DVD
and Books on
Tape
made a huge
difference in
Kyle’s and my
life.
www.freereading.org
Example:
Phonological
Awareness: Students
learn to identify and
manipulate the sounds
in spoken words
including skills such as
oral segmenting and oral
blending.
Letter Sounds:
Students learn to say the
most common sound for
printed letters.
Sounding Out:
Students learn to
decode printed regular
words
Word Recognition:
Students learn to
recognize common
regular words by sight
http://www.studygs.net
Time
Management
Problem solving
Thinking
Studying Skills
Learning w/
others
Response-to-Intervention Requires
• High quality core reading instruction.
• High quality core is differentiated.
• Differentiation requires adjusting instruction based on
student performance data.
• Students with performance indicating
risk for failure receive additional small
group instruction (Tier 2)
ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/publications/practiceguides/
Assisting Students Struggling with Reading: RtI
U.S. Department of Education
Institute for Educational Science
What Works Clearing House
Free so:
Order some
Print some
Share …….
http://www.fcrr.org/
Florida Center
Reading Research
disseminate
nformation about
research-based
practices related
to literacy
instruction and
assessment for
children in preschool through
12th grade.
Ed.gov/parents/needs/specied/edpicks.jhtml
Federal website
Learn the Law!
Learn about Federal
Funded
Research
Office of Special
Education and
Rehabilitative
Services, Overview
Information; Training and
Information for
Parents of Children
With
Disabilities--Parent
Training and
Information Centers
http://www.ed.gov/progra
ms/pirc/index.html
http://www.readingrockets.org/
Website For:
•
•
•
•
•
Parents
Teachers
Principals
Librarians
En espanol
-Colorín
Colorado
http://www.interdys.org/
IDA Website Dyslexia
•
•
•
•
News
Literature
Articles
Research
AHEAD Association on Higher Ed & Disabilities
“AHEAD envisions
educational and
societal environments
that value disability
and embody equality
of opportunity.”
AHEAD is a professional
membership organization
for individuals involved in
the development of policy
and in the provision of
quality services to meet
the needs of persons with
disabilities involved in all
areas of higher education.
www . ahead . org
Written by many who walked the walk!
•
The Crisis in Our Classrooms
Blaunstien, Lyon
• Armed with the Facts:
Shaywitz
• I Could Not Read Until I was 30
Diane Lyon
• A Parent’s Journey
Ankney
• A Parent’s Pressure Cooker
Garza
• Changing the Odds
Marion Joseph
and many more chapters….
Dallas Children’s Theater website: www.dct.org
“hard 2 spel dad” dramatizes the story of two young people, one
diagnosed and one not, who struggle with learning
differences
the play reveals what it's like to be learning different and how great
the challenges can be
the play portrays the frustrations of struggling with an undiagnosed
learning difference and the consequences that can result
What the National Reading Panel Says
About the Role of Vocabulary in
Reading Instruction
Parents, educators, advocates, and attorneys come to
Wrightslaw for accurate, reliable information about
special education law, education law, and advocacy for
children with disabilities.
www.wrightslaw.com/
I Am by Written by 14-year-old J. Miller from New Willington, PA.
Hear Me Out... I have a learning disability,
But that is not who I am.
Who I am on the inside is what matters.
I am just like everyone else.
I am a human with many thoughts and feelings.
I am not dumb.
I just can't read as fast as everyone else.
There is nothing weird about us.
I AM WHAT I AM.
It matters not what you call me.
I will keep on going.
No learning disability is going to stop me from knowing what to
do.
Having a learning disability is not bad.
It is not a crime.
It's just that I learn differently than the others.
But all that matters is that I am!
This work can wear us out…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_qGJ9svUbM
Resources
dyslexia.yale.edu/About_ShaywitzBios.html
http://www.leavingjohnnybehind.com/
Free pdf: Google
Free pdf
A Parent's Guide to Helping Kids with Learning
Difficulties
peterswife.org/LD/ParentsandReading.pdf
Resources
www.ReidLyon.com
www.deniseeide.com/
Susan Hall 90% reading goal
talkingfingers.com/store/conte
nt/making-speech-visible
Questions?
Thank you for your attention!
For questions or to schedule a
presentation email Diane :
Reading 4 all@ tx .rr.com
or visit:
www . ReidLyon.com