Module 4: Instructional Challenge

Marcus is a student who very frequently miscues by substituting words that start with the same letter or first few letters of the word in the text, but his substitutions often are not syntactically or semantically acceptable (they neither sound right grammatically nor make sense). What possible teaching strategies would you suggest to help Marcus?

Marcus would definitely be apart of my smart group and one-on-one instruction. I think I will pull him individually to start out with so that I could conference with him and to make him aware of the mistakes that he is making while he reads. I would give him a mini lesson over different strategies that my correct his error. I would also model reading the passage he read, so that he could hear the text without the mistakes. We would then do guided reading.  We would focus on syntax and semantics of words and sentences. I would also ask him a variety of comprehension questions about the story he is reading.

Once I feel confident with Marcus, then I would partner him up with a higher level reader so that he could hear that student read. Partner reading is a good strategy because it allows both students to read and collaborate ideas about how they can improve their reading and comprehension. It also gives them an opportunity to discuss key points about the text. I am confident that the partner that Marcus has will motivate him to read the to the best of his capability.

After partner reading, I would pull Marcus in a small group setting. In the small group, I would allow the students to whisper read so that I could hear everyone read. I would pay special attention to Marcus so that I could catch any errors that he may make and go over them with him at a later time. If Marcus displays improvement, I would move him into a literature group. The literature group would be positive for Marcus because he will get to pick out his own book, and he will have time to practice his reading.