Mindfulness based therapy

http://www.goodtherapy.org/blog/mindfulness-teachers-special-needs-children-0320123/

Reading Interventions

Working as a Reading Teacher has helped me to hone my reading intervention strategies. IES claims that when reviewing 50 years of research, their aren't any clear agreements on a specific way to help students who struggle the most with reading.


From The Report of the National Reading Panel: Teaching Children to Read  (NICHD 2000) which recommends that reading instruction be based on four components: fluency, word study, vocabulary, and reading comprehension. In addition, we have added the component of writing for learning. This work has been heavily influenced and guided by CORE Teaching Reading Sourcebook for Kindergarten through Eighth Grade (2000).

Reading intervntions based on tiers from IES What Works Clearninghouse :
Tier 1: Everyone does in the general classroom

• Screen all students at the beginning, middle and end of the year. Regularly monitor students at risk for a problem in reading. 
• Provide time for differentiated reading instruction for all students based on assessments of students’ current reading level.

Tier 2: More specific interventions done in small group:

• Provide intensive, systematic instruction on up to three foundational reading skills in small groups to students who score below the benchmark score on universal screening.Typically, these groups meet between three and five times a week, for 20 to 40 minutes. (Strongest level of results)
• Monitor the progress of tier 2 students at least once a month. Use these data to determine whether students still require intervention. For those students still making insufficient progress, schoolwide teams should design a tier 3 intervention plan.

Tier 3: Even more specific interventions done one-on-one or very small group:

• Provide intensive instruction on a daily basis that promotes the development of the various components of reading proficiency to students who show minimal progress after reasonable time in tier 2 small group instruction

A very good manual for reading interventions was developed by Jim Wright at interventioncentral.org. 

Foundational reading skills K-2

Kindergarten

Phonemic awareness

Letter sounds

Listening comprehension

Vocabulary development

Grade 1 

Phonemic awareness

Phonics

Fluency (high frequency words)

Fluency with connected text (second half of the year)

Vocabulary

Comprehension

Grade 2 

Phonics

Fluency with connected text

Vocabulary

Comprehension

New Book on Mindfullness Meditation

A new book called The Now Effect: How this moment can change the rest of your life by Elisha Goldstein reports more information on how mindfullness training can treat ADHD symptoms. "As mindfulness meditation is seen to be an effective treatment for ADHD (when included in a multimodal approach), I decided to speak with Goldstein to find out if his latest book has something to offer those of us with ADHD." This blog shares questions and answers with the book's author in a two part series.