[MOSAIC] Dyslexia and comprehension

[CNJPALMER at aol.com]

There are a lot of views about dyslexia but most people see it as  a problem 
with decoding rather than comprehension...these kids can often  comprehend at 
a high level when the text is read TO them rather than when they  have to read 
it themselves.  I have a little guy like this that I work with  ... he scored 
advanced on the state test as a third grader when he had the  special ed 
accomodation that allowed the test to be read to him. He could not,  however, pass 
a mid first grade benchmark when asked to read for himself. 
 
Perhaps it would be interesting to refocus the discussion on how we ensure  
that our learning disabled students benefit from comprehension strategy  
study...how to find the balance between the specialized programs needed to learn  
decoding and still ensure that these students understand that reading is about  
thinking... 
 
There is no doubt, as far as I am concerned, that there are as many ways to  
teach decoding skills to disabled students are there are definitions of  
dyslexia. BUT...who knows about any research done on teaching comprehension to  
learning disabled students? Even better, what success stories are out there  
where you all have used Mosaic strategies to improve the reading skills of  
dyslexic students???
 
This has been a great discussion of interest to many on the list...let's  
think about how we teach comprehension strategies to this population!
Jennifer 
Maryland
List moderator



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