Reading Difficulties in Teens and Adults

 

Older struggling readers need instruction in skills they missed in the primary grades. They need effective instruction geared toward older students. The consequences for low literacy skills are well known: dropping out of school, poor quality of job choices, chronic social dependency, poor health, and incarceration.

Effective reading instruction can enable older students to acquire the skills they need to become literate. Structured teaching of language that includes: phonology (the study of speech sounds: b say /b/ as in boy, h say /h/ as in ham and so forth), orthography (the print system), speech to print correspondences (phonics), word meanings (semantics), sentence structure (syntax), and text organization (discourse) is what is needed. Students need to work both on word study and text comprehension for effective reading instruction. The instruction must match the student’s level of reading development. For example, poor readers often are unable to identify single speech sounds in words, so they need instruction in phonology. When their phonological skills improve, they will be better equipped to spell and expand their vocabulary. Students who can read with sufficient accuracy and speed need instruction in vocabulary and other comprehension skills. It is not the student’s age that determines the design of remedial instruction. It is the student’s level of reading skill and his/her strengths and weaknesses across the language spectrum that determines the necessary instruction.

Fisher Hill workbooks were written for older Spanish-speaking students who struggle with reading and writing in English. Our workbooks teach the fundamental skills and provide the practice needed to apply these skills in reading meaningful text for older students. Older struggling readers can be taught with well-designed language-based instruction.

Fisher Hill has an excellent literacy series for Spanish-speaking teens and adults who want to learn how to read and write in English. The literacy series begins with English Reading and Spelling for the Spanish Speaker Book 1. When completed, students are ready to practice their beginning reading skills with English Reading Comprehension for the Spanish Speaker Book 1 and writing skills with English Writing Composition for the Spanish Speaker Book 1. The vocabulary presented in the first books is reviewed in English Vocabulary for the Spanish Speaker Book 1. The four series, each with six workbooks, were written to be used together to give students a good foundation in English literacy.

Visit our website at www.Fisher-Hill.com to learn more about our literacy series for Spanish-speaking teens and adults who want to learn how to read and write in English.