Literacy and the Dibels Program

In the United States today, 38% of children in the fourth grade have been recognized as reading way below the level of their peers. Many of these children are identified with a learning disability and receive remedial instruction in the resource rooms. (Aaron, P. G., Joshi, R., Gooden, R., & Rentum, K. E.)

Early reading success is the foundation of a student’s knowledge and self-esteem. The foundation also provides future opportunities for growth. Students must learn to read proficiently so that they are able to learn more in future grades, post-secondary schools, and the workforce. Beverly Tyner’s Small-Group Reading Instruction: A Differentiated Teaching Model for Beginning and Struggling Readers states “In the United States, which offers few career opportunities for the illiterate, teaching children to read proficiently is the most important single task in education.” (Tyner, 2009). Beverly Tyner created the Small-Group Differentiated Reading Model which incorporates research-based strategies for teaching beginning reading skills and skills

These DIBELS screening assessments were developed to help educators identify struggling, at-risk readers, so that appropriate types and levels of support can be implemented within the school system. They were designed to support efforts at the primary grade levels (K-6th) to prevent reading struggles as the learn progress through the school system. Furthermore, this test was to aid in the elimination in remediation lessons inside of the classroom.

Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) Validity and its Relationship with Reading Comprehension

The Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills Next (DIBELS Next) consists of 7 subtests and is used to measure phonological awareness, the alphabetic principle, reading fluency and accuracy, and reading comprehension (University of Oregon Center, n.d.). Per Good & Kaminski, DIBELS is designed to help teachers make decisions about reading instruction to prevent the occurrence of later reading difficulties (2011). The DIBELS can also be used to see if students are at risk when in Kindergarten. The theory behind DIBELS Next is that teachers need an assessment that is quick and valid to keep track of student’s progress throughout the year and as they transition from grade to grade (Good & Kaminski, 2011). The DIBELS assessments are short so the teachers can administer them to all of the students in a short amount of time. The DIBELS Next is set up to be used as a benchmark assessment so the teacher administers the assessments 3 times per year.

These students are placed into remedial courses in order to help them catch up with their peers. I am also aware that there are other factors that can influence an individual’s ability to learn such as behavior issues, parental involvement, low-income families, certain minority groups, and English language learners. These individual’s may never be accepted by society because of their limited abilities in reading and writing. As a result, their future college education and careers may not exist because they will become anti-social due to learning disabilities. My reason for studying Literacy is to find out why students are not reading on the proper grade levels. Lenses on Reading was an excellent read to begin to identify with why students struggle with literacy and what theories and models can better help the students reach their full

It also misses that some people don’t like to read out of school so maybe the main portion of their reading does take place in school. A lot of people if not forced to read won’t ever pick up on topics they may actually like. In every young readers life it is hard just learning how to read. It also gets to a point in high school where a lot of students pick up interests in other things besides reading. This causes the amount of reading students might be doing to go down.

The ‘Fun-to-Read’ program is a reading program that helps students improve their reading skills. They provide students with assistive reading systems, reading specialists, who help the kids and also training to the teachers. Due to the lack of funding, the program is unable to teach students or keep the program going. Many of our students suffer from learning disabilities, such as attention deficit disorder (ADD) and dyslexia, or other language based disorders. Many of our students are dropping out and parents are sending letters saying that they’re now worried

Children that don’t have disabilities often times play an active role and are able to take personal ownership of their reading and writing curriculum, however; teachers and caregivers often times dominate literacy learning opportunities for students with disabilities. Marvie’s dysarthria proves as a barrier to acquisition of literacy in its nature because literacy is based upon the oral and spoken complexities of language that typically develop in early life (Beukelman & Mirenda, 2013, p. 313). Most importantly, cultural context serves as a great barrier for individuals like Marvie. Culturally there is little expectation that someone with cerebral palsy will develop exemplary literacy skills and there is usually a push to strengthen other skills (Beukelman & Mirenda, 2013, p. 313). Majority of parents would rather their child or loved one be able to verbally communicate, develop relationships, and or become functionally independent rather than focusing on reading and writing (Beukelman & Mirenda, 2013, p. 313 ). The brutal awareness of Marvie’s reality could have potentiality to become toxic to her advancement without realistic

I have spent a lot of time reading with children. I have four children of my own and two nieces and one of my favorite ways to spend time with them is reading. I learned early on that children love to listen to stories and be read to. Since I read regularly with six different children, I learned that all children learn at different rates and in different ways. My first born child learned to read on his own and very quickly. I assumed this was the norm, until I had my second child. My daughter struggled with some of the sounds and letters and I learned that I had to teach her how to read differently than I had her older brother. I also learned that some children are more motivated than other children. I had to come up with different ways to encourage the less motivated child.

Learning to read is a valuable and important skill that children acquire from a very early age. Children gain an understanding of the different sounds in our spoken language from a wide range of different experiences and social interaction with their environment. For example, singing and saying rhymes, sharing books, making and listening to music, pretend play, listening to adults and joining in conversations etc ect. as mentioned by Vygotsky (1978)

Most of the children from all around the world don't like reading books or having someone to read to them. I am focusing more on the kids who have special needs even more specifically people who have ADHD(which is known as a disorder that makes you lack on attention, hyperactivity, and lastly impulsivity). You may ask yourself why do kids not show interest in books? and its mostly because they find it hard to focuser they have difficulty reading so thy tend to say ’this is so boring and its wasting my time or ‘I hate reading’ and when they say the it makes them actually hate reading because they are either afraid/tired of reading because they find it difficult that they find it boring, or they don't follow on what is happening in the story

I thought most students were either motivated or unmotivated when reading because of my background being so much different. The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) stated that, “girls in grades 4, 8, and 12 consistently performed better than their male counterparts in reading achievement” (Marinak, B., & Gambrell, L. , 2010). Also, for Canada they learned that this potentially starts in the primary grades with low desire which caused students to be less engaged in reading the older they were. I knew it was more common for teenagers or high school students to value reading less, and was surprised to learn that it happens in the primary

For a child who is just starting to learn to read, they need sufficient practice in reading a variety of different books to achieve fluency. Reading can be complex and has many different aspects (Burns,1999). It is suggested that children who have problems reading and writing at a young age will find it hard to catch up as they get older and will not reach their full potential as adults, many will withdraw from school or society and some becoming involved with crime (MacBlain,2014). 40 percent of children find learning to read a challenge but with early help, most reading problems can be prevented (Reading Rockets, n.d.).

I would imagine many can relate to an aversion to reading and writing from a very young age. Additionally, I would also go so far as to propose that many younger children also have a someone to sponsor their literary endeavors. A literacy sponsor is something someone decided to define which would otherwise likely go without a name. Dr. Brandt, who has a doctorate in something about literacy, talks about literacy and defines a sponsor as someone or something that made literary interactions