Kelli Koppes

Dyslexia- classroom plan

While dyslexia can be a broad range topic, it is essential to determine the strategies that
will best help students find success in the classroom. Many of the various strategies can help any
form of dyslexia and I will attempt to highlight strategies that parallel best practices in the
classroom setting. I have listed some general recommendations for all students with dyslexia.
One of the first things that I would use in the classroom is a picture schedule to help
students identify a time for scheduled activities throughout the day. This will enable the student
to identify the upcoming activities for the day and the timeframes for which they are happening.
All of this will help the student with their time management skills and ability to complete their
work.
Students with dyslexia need to have work areas that are free from distractions. The use of
study offices, noise-reducing headphones, and quiet areas are essential for these students.
Likewise, allowing extra time to complete tests or quizzes will help the student feel less stress
which in turn will allow the student to perform better. Giving extra think time for students to
answer questions gives them the time they need to organize their thoughts so that they can better
express themselves in front of their peers.
The Response to Intervention (RTI) is a process that can also be used to provide extra
help. Through the RTI process, students can work to develop their deficient skills. These
students receive additional small-group instruction that provides a systematic plan for developing
beginning reading skills that students can utilize to develop their phonemic awareness and
phonics skills. This will also greatly influence student achievement.
While dyslexia can cause problems across the curricular areas it seems to cause the
greatest difficulty across the language arts areas. Specifically, the problems with phonological
awareness, sound discrimination, syllabication, and the blending of sounds can pose great
difficulty. Teaching the proper sequence of language development is essential.
Likewise, the use of pictures as mnemonic devices will help students to visualize and
bring meaning to abstract concepts. These pictures can be useful for defining the number of
syllables in a word, determining the onset and rime of a word, as well as creating a list of
rhyming words.
While the above mentioned accommodations and interventions can be provided in the
regular education setting, it is important to monitor student success and provide on-going open
communication with parents, the reading specialist, and the instructional coach. These informal
meetings provide additional ideas, strategies, and activities that may help the child. If the student
continues to struggle, it may be necessary to pursue a request for an evaluation for special
education services or a 504 plan.
Here are a few more specific interventions and/or accommodations that would be beneficial for
the student to use in the Language Arts area.
Reading:
- Have a place in the room where students can go and listen to the books on a tape or CD.
- Provide students will the opportunity to wear headphones to eliminate the noise around
them.
- Pick books that have a lot of rhyming words and repetition in them.
- Add activities on the classroom iPads that deal with phonics and phonemic awareness.
- Relate new information to the students personal experiences to help build background
knowledge.
Spelling:
- Have the students take the test orally.
- Reduce the number of words on a spelling test.
- Provide students with extra time to take the spelling test.
- Allow students to take the spelling test in a quiet place that is outside of the classroom.
Writing:

- Have students orally respond to questions rather than writing them.

- Reduce the amount of written work that students have to do.
- Provide students with paper that has raised lines on it.

While this list is not exhaustive, it is merely the beginnings of an intervention plan to help
students with dyslexia find success in the classroom.