BEN BRONZ READING SYSTEM

At the Academy, reading disabled students have up to four reading classes per day, as well as fluency practice sessions at home. There are three major components -- non-hierarchical -- which comprise the basic system: Decoding, Fluency, and Comprehension. All are taught each school day, and the fluency practice is additionally carried out by parents in the evening and on weekends.

Decoding is mainly taught through linguistic analysis, using Let's Read at Ben Bronz. This is a linguistic reading system which emphasizes recognition and transformation of word parts, and word building. Students learn a vowel-consonant sound unit, and learn to transform it by changing beginning or ending consonants. They then build words from these parts. For example, begin with an.

When students begin bulding words in their first lesson, two important awarenesses occur; they feel amazed that they can read difficult words, and they do not feel put down by learning the 'simple' words like man or cat, because they see the connections to other words.

For a few students, sound-sign relationships and awareness of individual sounds in words must be cultivated. These students are given classes in Fluent Auditory Discrimination.

Fluency. Many students come to us knowing how to decode, but their rate of reading is too slow to be functional. Their reading is so labored that they use all their energy decoding, and are not able to focus on comprehension. We build fluency by having students read a graded selection as rapidly as possible in one-minute timings, after which they record their number correct, and their 'learning opportunities.' The latter are written on a hard word list and studied.

Comprehension. Too often, Special Education students are pulled from content classes to receive special reading help. This creates deficiencies in their general knowledge. Compounding this problem is the characteristic of many learning disabled students of not independently absorbing information from their environment, or generating or applying strategies to help their learning. To develop comprehension and general knowledge, we teach the reading comprehension skills in the content classes. Students simultaneously gain a knowledge base and gain skills which help them learn and remember vocabulary and facts.

Aileen Stan-Spence 9/97.