[rsfowlerMember]

I was told that teaching content to kids that cant read was like giving them a test in chinease.I should water down the content and lower their bar.What do you think? I preteach vocabualry,provide study guides,visual prompts, modified tests and spend extensive time reviewing, do I teach 10th grade world history on a 2nd grade level.

[agardnahhKey Master]

@rsfowler thanks for posting. One of the most difficult things is teaching students that struggle with reading way below grade level. One reason that BrainPOP is successful is because we offer high quality visual explanations that don’t talk down to the viewers. Just because a student cannot read does not mean a student cannot think. Engage them in conversations, ask for opinions, continue providing the visual prompts. . . most of all, use your best judgement. Attend closely to your students’ responses to the work that you do together and be honest. What do others think?

[BJGMember]

Teaching kids to read when your job is to teach history is an impossible combination. I’m a SPED teacher, we do the impossible without any resources every day, so I feel where you’re coming from. BrainPop has helped me with this problem by providing video content, but the challange remains, kids must learn to read or they are lost. I have found 99.9% of my students have a strong visual library. I’ve tapped into that by creating a system that allows three chances to pass a BrainPop quiz. Once a student has viewed the video, and I allow them to do so as many times as they like, they do not take the test online, intead they use a printed version. Students may take and utilize notes on this tests also. On The first attempt the student must make an 80 or better to pass. If she does not achieve this she must watch the video again, taking notes as she wishes but must make a 90% or better to pass. If she still does not meet this requirement, a third attempt may be made, but this time she may have test in hand while she watches the video. I couple all this with a reward system, encouraging the students to do their best. We want them learn, not just assign grades, right?

[agardnahhKey Master]

@BJG, love your last line, “we want them to learn, not just assign grades, right?” Also great that you recognize your students have a strong affinity for visual explanation. I think this is a trend that will deeply affect literacy education in the future. Many ideas can be expressed more effectively combining words and visuals. If it’s more efficient way to communicate that way, we should model and teach how to do that! Thanks for sharing

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