Page 5 - 200806 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - June 2008

New Hope For Non Readers 5 5 New Hope For Non Readers Dear Educators and Parents, When I started out thirty years ago as a special education teacher, I never imagined I would become a school psychologist, special education director, university professor, education researcher, and author of an innovative reading methodology for non- readers. I enjoyed my years as educator, but I felt terribly frustrated by that unreachable group of children who seem to exist in every school, defying instruction and never learning how to students and adults who gave up a long time ago read anything. You know who they are because Based on that experience, I developed the – are experiencing what it feels like to read for you all have them. They fall farther behind each Failure Free Reading methodology, a meaning, with engagement and confidence. In year, eventually give up and then drop out of compensatory methodology designed to just the first lesson, they realize “I can read.” school. Unbelievably, there are almost a half scaffold vocabulary, fluency and I’ve had the great privilege of seeing this million of these students sitting in America’s comprehension for non-readers. My approach is happen again and again, and it never fails to classrooms right now. Their average total sight not remedial like phonics interventions inspire me. Trust me, it’s never too late to help word vocabulary is fewer than fifty words. That designed for the struggling readers who score your non-readers take their crucial first steps to is a tragedy for each and every one of them. from the 20th to the 50th percentile. Instead, becoming readers. Failure Free Reading meets the unique needs of No matter what I tried with my non-readers – the worst-performing students, those who score Sincerely, and believe me, I tried everything – I just in the 0-15th percentile range. The program couldn’t help them. But eventually I realized controls for three essential, research-based there was a big difference between the poor elements that together enable non-readers to readers, the struggling readers, and the non- finally be able to experience reading success: readers. The non-readers were extremely sufficient repetition, comprehendible sentence deficient in vocabulary and background structure, and age and developmentally knowledge, and they didn’t respond to skills appropriate story content. I also found that by Dr. Joseph Lockavitch, training. I started calling them “phonetically starting my students at their frustration level I Failure Free Reading Author and President deaf ” because I could literally give them was able to accelerate each student’s hundreds of hours of alphabetic instruction, and vocabulary, comprehension, and fluency — www.failurefreeonline.com it still didn’t help! Clearly, they needed non-readers included. something very different. An ‘X’ Zone MUST Read!!! Today, non-readers of all ages – even secondary