5th and 6th grade elementary students who can't read

[Eribee]

Hi Everyone

I have 3 students in my 6th Grade class who can't read English. I'm a little worried about them but feel like there is nothing I can do to help them because I have to get the class through the curriculum and it would waste the other 10 students' time to learn the alphabet. I have the same situation with a few 5th Grade students too.

2 of the students have special needs and I don't know if they get any support for English in their special classes. I don't think they do.

Does anyone know if students are supposed to be able to read English by the time they reach Middle School? I work in a small elementary school and am the only English teacher, my co-teachers are all home-room teachers so they don't have time to teach the children who are falling behind. I don't want to create a problem for the English teachers at the middle school either though.

Does anyone have any ideas for addressing this if it is a problem?

Thanks!

[BBetz1985]

I think your best bet would be to ask the students and their homeroom teachers if they are interested in having extra help sessions during your lunch break or after school. I realize that your break time may be the only chance you have during the day to unwind, but I have taken 15 minutes out of it for a similar group of students (although not for falling behind, for discipline purposes) and have had a lot of success.

Food for thought.

[thesmittyguy]

I do an after school class every Monday and Friday for 1hr.  I just teach basic phonics and other sounds.  It seems to be helping as a few students are now able to understand the basic sounds and how they come together to form the different vocab they are learning.

To be honest I have about 10 kids in all my classes that have no idea how to read the English language.    In my school they were never taught how to read, they were only taught how to listen and repeat.   

[complex303]

I have a 'green' class that has 5th graders that can't read.  They've all got learning problems, mostly ADD and dyslexia.  They have trouble focusing on phonics videos and worksheets.  So I don't even bother with those... Instead we play an alphabet/phonics game for 20 minutes.  I say a letter or sound and whoever can write it down first (on a piece of paper, or better yet, on the whiteboard), gets one point. 

One day during break time, two of my green students wanted to play the alphabet game.  Other students wanted to join in, so I changed the rules so that the higher-level students had to write in cursive. 

[Eribee]

Thanks for the ideas! I appreciate the input.

I will suggest my co-teacher builds in time in the schedule for the next native teacher to do extra, mixed classes focusing on reading and writing.

Unfortunately I have 21 different classes to teach each week (there is only one class per grade so I can't repeat anything) so I need all the additional time I can get to plan those lessons.

It's such a shame though, I really worry about those children once they hit middle school. I don't know how they've just sort of drifted through the system to end up not even knowing the alphabet after at least 4 years of English lessons!

[jehall]

Yeah, I have similar problems. I teach a special class to grade 5 and 6 students who failed their English tests and more than half of them refuse to say anything in English. Not even, "Hello." Unfortunately, every grade of every subject will have the occasional student who has "drifted" through the system. If you're situation is like mine, the best I think you can do is to teach them phonics. If they can leave you knowing the sound of each letter on sight, then you've accomplished something.

[Eribee]

Thanks for the reassurance. I will try to get them to learn the sounds of the letters at least. I was so shocked that my Grade 5 students didn't even know those!

Good luck with those kids who refuse to even say Hello!

[energizerbuns]

I have a grade five student, elementary, who doesn't know how to read.  I see her twice a week, once during regular class and once during an after school class (which parents have to pay for, and I'm not sure why they would put her in there if she can't read...).  She's so far behind the other students that there's no way she can catch up.  She's very shy but I can tell she REALLY wants to learn.
   
I was hoping to find some sort of homework printout, or self study printout, that I could give her to help her with her reading skills at the very least.  I wish I had the time to help her one on one but I teach 30 hours a week and generally stay late just making lesson plans (still at school now  ).  Anyway, any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[pizza hamburger]

Yes, they're expected to be able to read by the fifth grade, if not the sixth grade, but it's not unspeakable for a kid to flat out not know what sounds letters make by grade six (in fact, it's more common then you'd think).  If they can't, sixth grade isn't too late for them to learn how to read.

kizclub.com has a lot of free phonics printables.  There are also many great phonics books here in Korea.  Your school might have some copies of some phonics books available.  You can always make copies and give them as homework.  If you're not already assigning vocabulary/phrases from their lessons as homework, you could start, since that's what they'll get tested on if they're tested (at the schools I teach, they are tested).

[strawberry]

I have middle school 2nd graders that can't read... my co teacher helps them with phonics / writing alphabet etc while I teach... it's super sad...

[popeye2u]

I am in a rural school and almost half of the 6th grade cannot read in english.  About 6 students cant read in 5th grade.  Its just pure economics.  Parents can't afford hagwons.

[lindznicolew]

It is important to get the co-teacher involved when the children cannot read and work together to pronounce sounds.

[MiWonTeacher]

I decided to make a phonics summer camp. Kids who can't read are at such a massive disadvantage in the class and it is killing me to watch them fall behind year after year. I hope that this will become the standard at our school so that stragglers will become a thing of the past. In America, summer school is for students who need extra help, not for kids who need something to do for fun. I will do my best to implement this model at our school. I'm interested to hear your thoughts.

[glb0b]

I am also doing 2 weeks of teaching low level 5th and 6th grade students. They are already having a 2 week camp for other subjects so my camp has been added to that.

One stipulation that I made was that it shouldn't have more than 6 students. I have already done some teaching of phonics and basic English for low level 6th grade students to boost their ability for the test. It only works with a small class size as they need to be constantly monitored to do stuff and not just draw all over their books! Also it is much harder for them to hide behind the better students (like they do in regular class) if there are only a few of them.

I recommend starfall or the stuff from fun-fonix if you don't have a phonics text book.

[MiWonTeacher]

Starfall is an awesome group interactive curriculum. We will be using phonics textbooks in our camp (we have a good budget). I think there are going to be at least 20 kids in each level maybe up to 40, so I'm concerned about that.

We are using a curriculum called Jump Up Phonics. It won Korea Foreign Language Education Industry Award's Top Prize on 2008.

I'll give a report about how these classes work out. The text book has four levels: Alphabet, Long/Short Vowels, Double Consonants, and Double Vowels. It will be a 3 week camp. I'm hoping they will be motivated by achievement and the prospect of not being lost in English class for the rest of their academic lives.

[daninsanam]

Don't give up on these kids who can't read and write.

I had one student who at the start of grade 5 was regularly ranked 2nd lowest in the grade in English,
she even flunked the listening tests. Her average scores were about 15%.
She didn't know phonics or even the names of all the letters and had no idea what was going on in class.

Anyway, now she's halfway through year 6, and dropped in to my classroom after school to tell me her result on the national test :

80%! 

Plus, she can do all four skills confidently and is now in the top third of the class.

So it can be done! The elementary school curriculum is not insurmountable, and if you've got kids who are way behind, just
be patient, be stubborn and keep working with them. If anyone tells you that "they can't do it" or "you're wasting your time
with that one", ignore them. Anyone can learn a language if they put the work in.