Diane Corcoran Nielsen
"To learn to read is to light a fire; every syllable that is spelled out is a spark." — Victor Hugo, Les Miserables
I'll always remember my years of teaching K-8 computer literacy and computer-aided instruction. There was something about the small time I spent with kindergarteners each day that made me learn more about teaching thanm perhaps any other experience.
For years teachers have seen students who were promising readers in the primary grades begin to experience challenges in third and fourth grades as reading materials became more difficult. University of Kansas researchers conducted a study with the goal of identifying how to better predict in kindergarten who might have reading difficulties in the future and to determine what extra instruction should include in order to help ensure their later success as readers. The researchers worked with more than 350 Lawrence kindergartners to see whether they could predict which studedianenielsen100nts might have future reading difficulties. They also provided reading interventions focused on both aspects of learning to read words (phonics and letter identification) and comprehension (vocabulary and story understanding) with a group of students that showed some difficulties with language and reading-related assessments in kindergarten.