Lucille--

I knew I would hear your voice!

Do you use assessments, and if so, what kind?

Thanks!

Andrea:)

On Sep 28, 2008, at 12:41 AM, Lucille Cuttler wrote:


> Explicit direct instruction in phonological awareness and structure  

> of English, as early as possible - specifically, an O-G approach -  

> would reduce the numbers of "struggling" students by grade four, if  

> done in grades K-2, and if possible,  sooner.

>

> This is in accordance with neuroscientific findings.

>

> The very fact that this dialog is going on gives evidence that the  

> departments of education are not developing teachers for the tasks.  

> Can we dare to ask why the tools for teaching English, although  

> well known and practiced since the early 20th century, still remain  

> a mystery for the general population?  The Colleges preparing  

> teachers should catch up and give students the tools they need and  

> deserve, by including O-G in the curriculum for K-6 teacher  

> candidates.

>

> I personally appreciate the notice of a distinct difference between  

> lack of educational opportunity and dyslexia.  I have just  

> personally been thrilled to work, as a volunteer literacy tutor,  

> with a young woman who was identified, wrongly, as dyslexic.  She  

> was deprived of education of any kind until Grade 6.  By dint of  

> much effort, she has now achieved a B.A degree and is accepted for  

> law school.   Lucille Cuttler

>

>  -----Original Message-----

> From: learningdisabilities-bounces at nifl.gov  

> [mailto:learningdisabilities-bounces at nifl.gov]On Behalf Of Sandman- 

> Hurley, Kelli

> Sent: Saturday, September 27, 2008 3:07 PM

> To: The Learning Disabilities Discussion List

> Subject: [LearningDisabilities 2368] Re: Dyslexia - What is it?

>

> There is a distinct difference between lack of educational  

> opportunity and dyslexia. For those who have NBT or Never Been  

> Taught, they will benefit from the same type of intervention, with  

> one important exception - they will learn much faster. For the most  

> part, those with dyslexia will have much more difficulty with  

> phonemic awarenes and phonics than their NBT counterparts. This can  

> be teased out witha good assessment that includes nonsense words  

> and phoneme segmentation.

>

> There are also reading disabilities that manifest later in school  

> (around 4th grade when words become more difficlt) that are not  

> dyslexia. I don't know what the statistics are for the Never Been    

> Taught group but it is estimated that  approxiamately one in five  

> people have some degree of dyslexia.

>

> Andrea's point is a very important one. When beginning to teach  

> someone, it needs to be determined via a valid assessment and  

> knowledgable tester and tutor whether or not dyslexia is present.

>

> So, how do you determine the needs of your students? What  

> assessments are you using? How do you determine what curriculum to  

> use?

>

> kelli

>

>

> From: learningdisabilities-bounces at nifl.gov [learningdisabilities- 

> bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Andrea Wilder  

> [andreawilder at comcast.net]

> Sent: Saturday, September 27, 2008 11:09 AM

> To: sharonhillestad at yahoo.com; The Learning Disabilities Discussion  

> List

> Subject: [LearningDisabilities 2367] Re: Dyslexia - What is it?

>

> Sharon--

>

> Personally I think every teacher should have screens / assessments  

> available to use with their students.  And I also think that a  

> teacher should know exactly what dyslexia is so they can recognize  

> it when they see it.

>

> Andrea:)

>

> On Sep 27, 2008, at 1:59 PM, Sharon Hillestad wrote:

>

>> Are we talking about two different problems? Dyslexia being some  

>> kind of brain problem and the low level reader or functionally  

>> illiterate           person something else? The latter is far more  

>> common than the former. I really disagree with so much of our  

>> resources going into dyslexia when the bigger problem is plain old  

>> NBT - Never Been Taught. This is something that needs addressing.  

>> One teacher who faced this head on was Marva Collins. After 14  

>> years of teaching in a public school, She created her own school  

>> so she could teach her own way and she was very vocal about the  

>> fact that functional illiteracy is a taught disability.  I visited  

>> her school in 1981. It was located in Chicago’s inner city. All  

>> 200 students were black and most of them came from working class  

>> families. She had books in stacks in the hallway and essays  

>> written by the students on the walls. There is book and a movie  

>> about her school. Marva Collins, teacher, is one of the most  

>> admired women in America.

>> At the time of my visit, she was tutoring a young man who was in  

>> college on an athletic scholarship. He couldn’t pass his classes,  

>> let alone graduate, because he didn’t know how to read well. The  

>> college ended up paying for his tutoring so he could learn what he  

>> should have been taught in grade school.

>> Marva was tutoring him on the same skills (phonics, grammar, using  

>> a dictionary, etc.) that she taught her elementary students. She  

>> taught basic skills so effectively and thoroughly that many of her  

>> students could read classic literature at an early age.  President  

>> Regan wanted her on the Education  Committee. I really wish she  

>> would have accepted his offer. Lots of the NBT kids end up being  

>> called dyslexic and grow up to be low proficientcy readers.  Oh well.

>> Sharon Hillestad

>> Director of a literacy center in Clearwater, Fl

>>

>> --- On Fri, 9/26/08, Andrea Wilder <andreawilder at comcast.net> wrote:

>> From: Andrea Wilder <andreawilder at comcast.net>

>> Subject: [LearningDisabilities 2363] Re: Dyslexia - What is it?

>> To: "The Learning Disabilities Discussion List"  

>> <learningdisabilities at nifl.gov>

>> Date: Friday, September 26, 2008, 5:46 PM

>>

>> Thanks, Kelli,

>>

>> I think I will just stick with the developmental disability as I  

>> am getting used to that.  Personally, I don't confuse it with  

>> Down's syndrome--maybe others do.

>>

>> Thanks!

>>

>> Andrea:)

>>

>> On Sep 26, 2008, at 4:51 PM, Sandman-Hurley, Kelli wrote:

>>

>>> Andrea:

>>>

>>>

>>>

>>> There is a lot of reference to dyslexia as developmental dyslexia  

>>> but I would differentiate that from a developmental delay such as  

>>> Down’s Syndrome. The main point behind stating that dyslexia is  

>>> not a development disability is to say that it is not the result  

>>> of low I.Q. In order even be diagnosed with dyslexia, the learner  

>>> has to have at least low average intelligence.

>>>

>>

>>

>>

>> Kelli

>>

>>

>>

>> From: learningdisabilities-bounces at nifl.gov  

>> [mailto:learningdisabilities-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Andrea  

>> Wilder

>> Sent: Friday, September 26, 2008 12:46 PM

>> To: The Learning Disabilities Discussion List

>> Subject: [LearningDisabilities 2358] Re: Dyslexia - What is it?

>>

>>

>>

>> Hi Kelli--

>>

>>

>>

>> Correct me if I'm wrong--but dyslexia is a developmental  

>> disability, in that  it is inborn--part of the individual's  

>> genetic make-up.  I think there is some mixing up of letters when  

>> the individual has a condition akin to "visual neglect," which I  

>> understand only slightly.

>>

>>

>>

>> Andrea:)

>>

>>

>>

>>

>> It has occurred to me that we have discussed some interventions,  

>> but we have not discussed what the actual definition of dyslexia  

>> is. There are many myths and misconceptions about dyslexia. I will  

>> use the definition adopted by the International Dyslexia Association:

>>

>>

>>

>> Dyslexia is a specific learning disability that is neurological in  

>> origin. It is characterized by difficulties with accurate and/or  

>> fluent word recognition and by poor spelling and decoding  

>> abilities. These difficulties typically result from a deficit in  

>> the phonological component of language that is often unexpected in  

>> relation to other cognitive abilities and the provision of  

>> effective classroom instruction. Secondary consequences may  

>> include problems in reading comprehension and reduced reading  

>> experience that can impede the growth of vocabulary and background  

>> knowledge.

>>

>>

>>

>> One of my favorite things to do is explain what dyslexia is not:

>>

>>

>>

>> n      Caused by poor eyesight or hearing problems

>>

>> n      A Developmental Disability

>>

>> n      Acquired Alexia, Aphasia or Anomia – these are caused by  

>> some type of head injury (ie: stroke)

>>

>> n      A degenerative disease

>>

>> n      Lack of educational opportunity

>>

>> n      The result of a lack of effort or laziness on the part of  

>> the student

>>

>> n      It is NOT seeing letters or words backwards. Although this  

>> is a symptom, people with dyslexia don’t actually see things  

>> backwards. Rather,             they have trouble processing with  

>> phoneme goes with the grapheme.

>>

>>

>>

>> I have attached some slides I have taken from a much longer  

>> presentation to help discuss the definition of dyslexia and the  

>> remediation/accommodation that we can use with these students.

>>

>>

>>

>> Kelli

>>

>>

>>

>>

>>

>>

>>

>> <dyslexia_listerv.ppt>

>>

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>>

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>

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