Dawn Curlee
Reading Specialist/Dyslexia Specialist
Schedule
| 7:15 - 8:00 Language Therapy (Intermediate) |
9:30-10:15 Language Therapy (Intermediate) |
| 10:10-11:05 Language Therapy Class (Elementary) |
| Reading Therapy 8:15 - 9:00 Intermediate |
| Reading Therapy 11:30 -12:00 Elementary |
| Reading Therapy 2:00 - 2:45 Intermediate |
e-mail address: dcurlee@esc11.net
My goal as an Accelerated/Remedial Teacher of Reading is to provide instruction, in beginning reading, decoding skills and in reading comprehension and fluency, that supports the classroom teacher.
Instruction is based on the strengths and weaknesses of each individual student to accelerate their progression in reading.
My goal as a Dyslexia Language Therapist is to provide those students with a scientifically proven, multisensory, sequential approach to learning to read. The program/methodologies to retrain the brain is called Take Flight. This program is an updated and revamped version of the Orton/Gillingham approach to reading by Scottish Rite Children's Hospital.
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Parent Tips for Reading
Practice makes things easier. Soccer, football, softball, baseball, gymnastics, piano lessons etc. have all become easier with practice. New plays, new moves all require additional focus and practice to make the play easier. So too with reading, however, it is not the practice itself but how the practice is done. Therefor the need to practice reading correctly. This is why children need to be listened to when they read so that they are reading correctly and not developing bad habits. If a child needs to "sound out a word" ask them to cover up everything but the vowel, uncover one letter at a time to the right. Say the sounds, blending with each part they uncover. After everything is uncovered from the right, uncover to the left. Say the word. then reread through the word. Ask them if what they said made sense. If not try again. Give them the word if after a couple of times if they still don't get it. Make them accountable for the word - go back to it several times. If, on the other hand "sounding out" is too frequent, give them the word and let them go on with reading and enjoying the story.
Reading should be fun. Children need to read easy books over and over again until they feel confident enough to move to a harder book. They should also be making pictures with the words in their minds so that they understand what they are reading. At each punctuation mark, ask if they have a picture of whatever they just read in their mind. Each sentence should add to the picture.
In addition to sight words, the students who attend my class are given specific phonics instruction. They will learn how to spell, NOT what to spell. Short vowel sounds are especially important to learn:
a - at; e - Ed's, i - it's; o - odd; u - up. The sentence At Ed's it's odd up (there), has all the correct pronunciation of the short vowel sounds. This is our focus currently. Next we will learn why a vowel is short (close syllable) and why vowels may be long (open syllable and vowel partners).
