I have been a teacher in a private school for fourteen years. My love for children made me stay longer in teaching profession. I feel kind of satisfaction and fulfillment every time my pupils learn from me.
Teaching is really fun! Especially if your pupils easily understand and apply what they have learned from you. But there are different kinds of pupils that you will meet. Some are really fast-learners and some needs more supervision. One of the problems that I have encountered in teaching is to teach pupils who have difficulties in reading.
I had a pupil in Grade 1 who is having a hard time in reading. I have noticed that he is reading backwards. And he also has difficulty in memorizing the letters and sounds of the alphabet. When he spells a word, he would write different letters combined together. He was showing signs of dyslexia (a disorder that involves difficulty in learning how to read). So I decided to make a reading module suited for him.
Here are the 10 steps that I did in teaching him how to read.
1. SING THE ALPHABET SONG: I introduced to him again the letters of the alphabet. I played the alphabet song and we sang together. See link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAlX1V3lK5s
2. SING PHONICS SONG: When he was already familiar with the letters of the alphabet, I taught him another song. This time, a phonics song which can be viewed or downloaded in youtube. We usually sang it together until the time that he has memorized all the sounds of the alphabet.
3. SING THE VOWEL SONG: I taught him the third song which is "The Vowel Song" which can also be viewed or downloaded in youtube. I explained to him the difference between vowel and consonants.See link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fR-BLFZyAWs
4. BEGINNING/MEDIAL/FINAL SOUND: Then I started giving him written activities like writing the beginning sound of a word, the medial and final sound.
5. CVC WORD: When he's already good at sounds, I started teaching him how to read CVC (Consonant-Vowel-Consonant) words. ie. pan, can, ran, pen, ten, win, fin, top, lot, nut, gut..
I asked him to give the sound per letter. For example: pah - ah - un - pan. Then repeat it until he reads it correctly. After teaching CVC words per day (at least 5 words a day) I used a timer to test if he can read the words correctly in a fast time. He enjoyed this activity because he sees his progress in reading.
6. SHORT/LONG VOWEL SOUNDS: When he could read CVC words already, I taught him the difference between short and long vowel sounds. I gave him list of short and long vowel sounds (A,E,I,O,U) to read. Then use the timer again.
7. SIGHT WORDS: When he could already read CVC words, I introduced to him the sight words through music. There's an in-between spelling activity of the sight words and the CVC words so that he could practice his writing as well.
8. SENTENCES: After reading sight words and CVC words per day, I also gave him sentences to read. (Words in the sentences should be the same with the words that he's practicing to read)
9. CONSONANT BLENDS: I introduced to him words with consonant blends. Like pl, cl, br, gr, tr, sh, ch etc. and he read it again and again. (Of course, don't forget the timer)
10. PRACTICE: And last but not the least, PRACTICE, PRACTICE..Practice makes perfect.
Fortunately, after few months of patience in teaching, my pupil was able to read! I hope that my methods in teaching how to read can help others too.
