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Blog About and Share a Literacy Resource for Struggling Readers

  • Posted by Susan Ruckdeschel
  • On 28 June, 2015
  • 3112 Comments

Let’s take all this knowledge from our course Literacy Strategies for Struggling Readers and put it to productive good. Whether a new literacy resource, a differentiated resource, a resource for inclusive classrooms, or one focused specifically on struggling readers, let’s share a resource and talk about it in this blog.

  1. First, tell us why you chose the resource.
  2. Next, provide us with a link to the resource and a brief description of it.
  3. Explain how the resource works effectively, or has the potential to work effectively, with struggling readers.

CompareContrastBlendedLearningHappy Blogging!

3112 Comments

Katherine S.
Getepic.com is a great resource or struggling readers. It allows the students to find a book that is on their level that their teacher has approved, read along with the book being read aloud to them and take a quiz (similar to AR) on the book. This makes a great tool for those that sometimes cannot stay interested in a book that just looks like words on a page. They can take the quiz to see if they will do okay on the AR test.
Katherine Rottman
The resource that I find most helpful in my 10th grade English classroom is Storyboardthat.com http://www.storyboardthat.com/ This resource allows students to take any literature piece that we are working on and chunk it into a storyboard. They can use their summary skills to give the main points of the story and then create their own story board with visuals that the website provides. This allows the students really get the main parts of the story and lets them get creative at the same time. This really seems to help with ELL students, the use of visuals allows them to express what they remember from the story even if they are having a hard time writing it out. I can see if they understand the story by looking at their storyboard.
Kalyn Salgueiro
One of my favorite resources to use is NewsELA.com It's a news site geared towards encouraging reading and use within classrooms by teachers, and allows teachers to select Lexile levels that best suit their students. It also allows students to find reading material that they might find more engaging and relates to their cultural backgrounds.
Katherine Rottman
The resource I like is called storyboardit.com. This resource allows the students to create their own storyboard after reading a literature piece. This really helps the ELL students as they get to be creative and use visuals to recreate a summary of what they just read. It allows the teacher to see if they are understanding the material by the storyboard they have created.
Katherine Rottman
The resource I like is called storyboardit.com. This resource allows the students to create their own storyboard after reading a literature piece. This really helps the ELL students as they get to be creative and use visuals to recreate a summary of what they just read. It allows the teacher to see if they are understanding the material by the storyboard they have created.
Christina Buehler
I like to use readoworks.org. I use this for close reading strategies and using context clues for vocabulary. It is also a great source for paired texted that can be used for writing.
Nicole Swanson
The website I chose was brainpopjr.com. I chose this site because it has aided all of my students in the learning process. This is due to the various activities and levels included on the site. My student enjoy all the activities and ask to complete an activity after we are finished.
Ermite
the Florida Center for Reading Research is a great website that is available to all educators. It provides center activities for students from Kindergarten to 5th grade. It is great because the resources are all aligned to state standards. Teachers can use them for remediation and accelerations. Students enjoy these centers because they like doing things with their hands and many of the centers involve cutting and gluing. Here is a link http://www.fcrr.org/Curriculum/studentCenterActivities23.shtm
erica oLsen
There are many great websites out there to use for reinforcement. Duolingo and Babbel are great
erica oLsen
I like all the literacy books. Have students work in small groups to read to each other and they should have same skills.
Staci
The resource I like to use for my struggling readers is NewsELA. NewsELA is really helpful tools regarding my struggling because it offers a variety of reading materials based on the specifics the educator requires. NewsELA is very precise and great with details.
Danielle Mormino
I love the Scholastic Guided Reading short reads for not only my ENL students, but all students as well. They focus on one reading skill, include a lesson plan for each short read, and have many grade level vocabulary words in it. These can be taught in two guided reading sessions which is great for my struggling learners. It allows me as their teacher to quickly and effectively assess which students are using a particular skill or strategy in their reading.
Susan Kane
I have been using resources from Teachers Pay Teachers for some time now; I have found a plethora of suggestions, products, and ideas that have helped me in a K-12 Intensive Reading program for hospital-bound residents. Guided Reading and Early Readers: Word Work Skill Builders is a guided reading word work packet can be used as an early intervention for non-readers or struggling readers in Pre-K through the 3rd grade as it targets the blending and decoding skills that ELL and academically-challenged students may lack. For $3.00, this download contains a 6-week progress monitoring system of word lists and letter cards with associated sound boards. The materials can easily be diversified with graphics or whatever the teacher knows will work in their particular class of students. It has received a 4 star out of a 4 star rating and follows the common core standards RF.K.1, RF.K2, RF.1.2., and RF.2.3. https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Guided-Reading-Interventions-Early-Readers-Word-Work-Skill-builders-990169 Orton-Gillingham Level 3 Word Lists and Sentences is Level 3-word lists and sentences that support the Orton-Gillingham lesson plans, the Orton-Gillingham approach, and dyslexia intervention. It includes easy read fonts, spacing, formatting, word lists and sentences for Grades 3,4, 5, and 6. For a $5.00 download, you will receive a collection of 22, Level 3, words and sentences lists suitable for Orton- Gillingham instruction with printable worksheets for group and individual instruction. Included are phonograms, digraphs, vowel diphthongs, suffix -tion and -sion plural -es and spelling generalizations. https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Orton-Gillingham-Level-3-Word-Lists-and-Sentences-967861 Orton Gillingham Level 4 Word Lists and Sentences which is the same as the Level 3 but for Grades 3, 4, 5 and 6 and the download is only $4.00. https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Orton-Gillingham-Level-4-Word-Lists-and-Sentences-977026
Kristin Avery
I chose the resource http://www.dreambox.com/ell because I teach mathematics. Frequently, I get ELL students who are extremely strong in math foundations, but language can be a barrier in learning new concepts. This website is a wonderful way to help strengthen their math skills. The student can listen to my lesson in English, but then get additional support from this website in their native language. The website provides visuals which are great for struggling readers.
Kristin Avery
I chose science-z because I teach 5th grade science. The link is https://www.sciencea-z.com/ and the site provides a variety of printable science books for all different reading levels. It has pictures, color, and black and white versions available. For science teachers, it is a good way to work on content vocabulary, reading fluency, and comprehension while still teaching the curriculum. It works effectively with struggling readers by providing 5th grade level content at different reading levels and with a variety of visuals as well.
Teresa Collins
I teach in a self-contained classroom, so my resources are usually different from others. One of the resources that I love is symbol sticks, it is from the Unique Learning System which our county purchased for our use. This site allows me to make communication boards for my students that will work with their devices easily and safes them so that if I need them in the future all I have to do is go to my boards and print them.
Sarah Freeman
A resource I use in the classroom religiously is EdPuzzle. This is great for Reading and Language Arts. I chose this resource because my kids LOVE it and it keeps them engaged. https://edpuzzle.com/ EdPuzzle provides students with a video to watch on any content area. It could be a book or an informational video. It also keeps them engaged by pausing the video and asking them questions throughout. It helps struggling readers because it can read the questions and the book. The videos helps the visual learners. It also helps the teacher to see what students need help in specifically.
Kylie Ondriezek
IXL is a great resource to use in the ELA classroom to provide support for fluency, vocabulary, and grammar. Teachers can choose different strategies based upon grade level to assign students problems to practice. Students can earn medals and awards for problems completed and for accuracy which incentivizes learning.
Domonique
the source I use is: http://www.interventioncentral.org/ This is a large resource of RTI options. I have a huge variety of learning abilities in my ESE classroom. If one option does not work, there is another option on the same page
Diana
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UW6H5dAPuhY The resource I chose is not necessarily a specific resource but rather an activity, which touches on a lot of skills that ELLs students would benefit from. It is also simple to get and easy to differentiate to each student's interests. It is step-by-step drawing on youtube. All you have to do is type how to draw ..... and a whole video library pops up. These videos are engaging, they can be paused so that you can catch up, but they provide oral and picture directions for a student to follow. The student is working on listening comprehension, patience, and following directions and they are having fun. Additionally, these listening skills, scanning to see if anything was missed in the drawing and following directions are all essential for students as they learn to or are improving their reading skills.
Diana
A Diagnostic Literacy Practice that I have seen used, and think is very useful is Lexia Core 5: https://www.lexialearning.com/products/core5. This is an online computer based program that has built in assessments of the students and then provides games an activities, for the students to work on independently to improve the areas they have deficits in. It is research based and is made by the people who created Rossetta Stone. It works because it is fun, it is motivating and it is very interactive with levels and badges that the students try to earn.
Kylie Ondriezek
www.avidweekly.org I chose this resource to help second language learners. It has monthly articles related to current events. There are also resources for teachers to use specifically with ELL students. AVIDWeekly also provides extension activities to pair with the articles. There are also various media resources that teachers can choose to pair with particular articles.
Christine
I love to use bookflix with students.
Evelyn Kirksey
I chose The Superkids Reading Program (our curriculum) because it was built on scientific research that teaches all aspects of reading. www.superkidsreading.com It has fun characters that makes reading exciting as it provides progressive lessons with decodable text While it combines penmanship, reading, grammar, and spelling into one program.
Megan
I would use the resource that converts text to audio. many students need to hear to understand.
Samantha McFee
Common Lit is a great resource because I can assign lower level texts with lower level questions in order to scaffold the learner's progress. I can adjust the text and the questions as they continue to improve.
Brian O'Leary
These games are great even for my high school students they are easy and silly enough to build confidence but also have the ability to make a majority of my students realize they've been messing something up for a long time. I emphasis to my class that it is okay to make a mistake but you have to learn from that mistake. If you do not learn from your mistake it becomes a problem.
Rebecca Yochim
I have found that with my struggling readers (kinders) http://www.starfall.com/ is a great resource. The students are engaged in the activities, and enjoy the different aspects of the site. It helps to strengthen developing reading foundational skills.
Kevin
I chose the strategy "Fist to Five." While extremely simple, it's also extremely effective. Here's a link to the strategy: https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/getting-instant-student-feedback Basically, to check for student understanding, just have students hold up 1 to 5 fingers, indicating how well they understand a concept. You can also use it for how much time a student needs to complete a certain task. Again, it's obviously simple, but you'd be surprised how effective and useful it is.
Rebecca Burns-Wein
I chose NewsEla because it is a GREAT resource. Not only can you assign topics to your students, you can adjust the GRL (Lexile) for each student. It gives you current events that are school appropriate and paired text for them. You are also given writing prompts, vocabulary and comprehension activities. My students love this resource. You can find articles on almost any subject. If you have not tried this resource, I would tell you ....check it out!
Rebecca Burns-Wein
My go to resource is NewsEla because it is a GREAT resource. Not only can you assign topics to your students, you can adjust the GRL (Lexile) for each student. It gives you current events that are school appropriate and paired text for them. You are also given writing prompts, vocabulary and comprehension activities. My students love this resource. You can find articles on almost any subject. If you have not tried this resource, I would tell you ....check it out!
Rebecca Burns-Wein
My go to resource is NewsEla because it is a GREAT resource. Not only can you assign topics to your students, you can adjust the GRL (Lexile) for each student. It gives you current events that are school appropriate and paired text for them. You are also given writing prompts, vocabulary and comprehension activities. My students love this resource. You can find articles on almost any subject. If you have not tried this resource, I would tell you ....check it out!
Nancy Reilly
The website: https://www.readinga-z.com/ Offers many reading levels, it seems to be beneficial when differentiating skills. Students build confidence when they are able to read and comprehend skills.I chose this resource to help struggling readers, and I know it works! Read 180 - Scholastic - (800) 724-6527 www.scholastic.com http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/web_games_vocab.htm My class love using the Smartboard with these learning games. loves games it offers.
Nancy Reilly
EDITED The website: https://www.readinga-z.com/ Offers many reading levels. Students build confidence when they are able to read and comprehend skills. I chose this resource to help struggling readers, and I know it works! http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/web_games_vocab.htm My class love using the Smartboard with these learning games. loves games it offers. Your comment is awaiting moderation. I do not use Reading 180. My colleagues have tried this program.
Jane
As an economics teacher many of my students do not understand the material. I overcome this by providing ACDC Leadership economics youtube channel as another way to learn about the content. https://www.youtube.com/user/ACDCLeadership Mr. Clifford has numerous videos on micro and macro economics that explain the topics in entertaining and informative ways. He makes a point of connecting the material to HS life. This resource is effective with all levels of readers because they can listen and watch the material. Then later they can return for guided notes or to review the concept.
Patrick Dickensheets
The most effective resource I have for struggling readers is n2y.com, Unique curriculum. It is directly aimed at benefiting and teaching ESE students who have significant cognitive disabilities. The texts often come written in many different levels for the same story. The questions have the option to be picture-based or not as well. It does a fantastic job about making the reading easier to understand but not taking away key vocabulary or ideas. This program is able to meet students at their current level, and increase in complexity as the student's skills grow. It can also provide the same story presented at their independent reading level and instructional level at the same time.
Cynthia M Washam
The following site is a gift to any kindergarten or first-grade teacher looking for creative new ways to teach decoding It's nine strategies complete with illustrations. A couple involve singing, appealing most to auditory learners. One involves incorporating words in pictures, engaging visual learners. Several involve movement, such as using fly swatters to count syllables or beads to segment phonemes. All are easy to adopt with minimal investment in materials. https://www.weareteachers.com/cracking-the-code-9-hands-on-strategies-for-improving-decoding-skills/
V. Boyd
My favorite resource is Readworks. I enjoy using them because I can choose the lexile level that I want to use for my class and increase it as my kids get stronger. I can also choose the subject matter to give my kids a broad expanse of experiences to keep them engaged and adding to their knowledge. They also have audio to help kids build their listening skills. The link is: https://www.readworks.org/
Nancy Reilly
CommonLit (commonlit.org)seems like a good resource for ELL and all students who are struggling with reading. ELL students can click on words they don't understand for a definition and even have it translated in their own language. Our school subscribes To Raz-Kids, also. I find www.sightwords.com useful also.
Katie Coleman
I use Florida Center for Reading Research's website (fcrr.org). I find that their student center activities are helpful in meeting the needs of struggling readers and ENL students and there is a variety of information and presentations to refer to.
Nancy V
I see many put ReadingA-Z, which I also agree is very friendly and differntiated to support various language levels. I also like ReadWorks as it targets reading comprehension and can be found at different levels.
Cindy Conner
I chose the resource Reading Is Fundamental because it offers lots of useful information for parents, educators and even volunteers. You can find this resource at https://www.rif.org/. Literacy Central is an online destination for teachers, parents, and literacy volunteers to get thousands of free digital resources tied directly to the books children love and teachers use everyday. The resource would be effective because it offers support materials to popular books, has online supports and parent links as well.
Steve Cullipher
http://www.colorincolorado.org/article/using-science-develop-ells-language-skills While I am new at teaching science, I like this site because it has great ideas for hands-on science lessons that will help ELL's with vocabulary development while learning science.The students will be able to associate vocabulary with visual and tactile experiences.
Dianna
Having students think, say, and then write a sentence really helps with organization. Asking them to share with a partner, giving a star and a question also helps.
Steve Fleming
I chose the Bee Line Reader website because it can be a great way for students to take control of some of their eye movement problems that become a significant distraction to them while reading. The Bee Line Reader provides color gradients to lines of text on pdfs and websites so that a reader's eye can better track the lines.
Sheryl Milligan
I really enjoy the website storylineonline.net. It has several stories where celebrities read the stories aloud to the students. This is a great resource for struggling readers and ELL students. Several of the stories are cross cultural as well.
sarah goudelock
I use newsela at least once a week. Articles can be read online or printed and there are short 3-5 questions 'quizzes' at the end of each article. One can search by topic or current events. My students like these articles and they are short so we can read them in small group (typically under ten minutes). The students can also set up an account and choose what they'd like to read and submit their quiz answers to the teacher. These articles are also a good jumping off point for further study of the subject and/or for use in a paired reading.
Kelley
One resource I was introduced to this year was a Focused Reading Intervention kit, found at https://www.teachercreatedmaterials.com/administrators/series/focused-reading-intervention-110/. I used this during our intervention block where I had a group of below-level kids, some of which in Tier 2 of the RtI process. This resource is great because it gives you a story and questions/activities to do in sequential order. If your school can afford it, I highly recommend!
Laura Leister
The resource that I chose is an article about how story-telling motivates and inspires ELL students to learn English. I chose this because I often read aloud to my ELL students in small group to model things like fluency and inflection. I show pictures to provide visuals, I explicitly teach unknown words, and show emphasis and drama. I've found that it is highly effective and motivates to them participate as well. https://www.edutopia.org/blog/storytelling-inspires-children-learn-english-matthew-friday
Laura Leister
The resource that I chose is an article about how story-telling motivates and inspires ELL students to learn English. I chose this because I often read aloud to my ELL students in small group to model things like fluency and inflection. I show pictures to provide visuals, I explicitly teach unknown words, and show emphasis and drama. I've found that it is highly effective and motivates to them participate as well. https://www.edutopia.org/blog/storytelling-inspires-children-learn-english-matthew-friday
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