High Interest Book Resources for Low Struggling Readers

So you have a 5th grade boy that loves Minecraft, Nascar, and Science, but he reads at a first grade level, so you have to provide him with a book at a first grade interest level. 

This is a big struggle for many special education teachers! How do we find high interest books for these struggling readers? Books that aren't babyish? Books that they love? Books that will keep them wanting to read? 

What you need are "Hi-Lo" books. Hi-Lo Books is a term used to describe high interest, low readability books. Hi-Lo Books will engage your readers by giving them the content they want, yet setting them up for reading success! Hi-Lo Books can be hard to locate, but here are some resources to get you started!

Saddleback Publishing is a good place to start! They offer engaging topics for our older students, but at a level they can be successful at. 

You can click for a free sample of each book to make sure it is appropriate for your students before you purchase!

High Noon Books is another great resource for Hi-Lo Books! You can search for just the right books for your struggling readers by reading level, interest level, and subject!

You can search by Hi-Lo Levels!

You can find books at an interest level appropriate for 8-12 year olds for example, but at a first grade reading level.

You can also take a peek inside and preview a sample chapter to make sure it is appropriate for your readers!

HIP Books is another great place to get Hi-Lo books for your students!

They offer interest level books for as high as 12th grade and as low as a 1st to 2nd grade reading level.

Choose the books that your students WANT TO READ!

Hip Books doesn't have a preview button right on their page, but you can click on "Read a google books preview" and then view a sample of the book to make sure it's just right for your readers.

You can also find a nice list of Hi-Lo Books here from Schools on Wheels.

Do you have some Hi-Lo resources you could share? Please share with us in the comments!!

The Top 10 Digital & Audio Book Sites for Kids

Books are expensive and I've found that while many of my students don't have access to a large book collection at home, they have access to technology. 

There are so many online digital libraries out there that share a wealth of children's books right at your fingertips. But the truth is, many of them are pricey, very nonuser-friendly, and don't provide a very good book selection.

I've done some research and piloted numerous online digital libraries in my classroom the last couple of years and today I share "The Top 10 Digital & Audio Book Sites for Kids." All sites are user-friendly, teacher-tested, and hassle-free!!

Storylineonline.net 

This site features tons of award-winning titles you'll recognize.

• Free
• User-friendly
• Audio Books
• App Available
• Books read by famous actors

 Tarheelreader.org 

Features books on just about every imaginable topic you could think of.

• Free
• User-friendly
• No audio
• Reliable search engine

Storyberries.com

• Free
• User-friendly
• No audio
• Search by age, topic, time, or conversation

Getepic.com

I LOVE Epic! It's my definite fave and my students too! Choose from many eye-catching titles, customize your library, and create your own avatar.

• Free for teachers
• User-friendly
• Audio Books
• App Available

 Youtube.com

Did you ever think to look on You Tube for read alouds? It is often my go-to for read-alouds. Just search your book and choose a video.

• Free
• User-friendly
• Audio Books
• App Available
• Friendly search engine

Schooltube.com

You can also find read-alouds on School Tube.

• Free
• User-friendly
• Audio Books
• Friendly search engine

Education.com

I love Education.com for lessons, activities, interactive games, and songs...but did you also know they have over 70 audio books on their site? Education.com limits the number of downloads with the free membership, but downloads are unlimited with the premium membership.

• 3 free downloads per month
• User-friendly
• Audio Books
• Common Titles

The premium membership is well worth the investment. You can read all about the perks of education.com in a blog post I wrote here...AND membership is 50% off right now!

 Farfaria.com

Farfaria is another one of my favorites! While it is not free, subscriptions are as low as $4.99/month and as low as $20/year for teachers. That's not very much at all, when you consider 1-2 books can easily cost a whopping $20. 

• $$
• User-friendly
• Audio Books
• App Available
• Thousands of stories

 Onemorestory.com

Another phenomenal audio book site! Although, not free, worth every penny when you take into consideration the price of books. 

• $$
• User-friendly
• Audio Books
• App Available
• Thousands of award-winning titles
• "I can read it" mode for struggling readers
• Word lists and vocabulary components

Meegenuis.com

Another fabulous audio book site! This subscription is only $4.99 a month, which again is much cheaper than purchasing hardcover books. You can also try it free for 30 days.

• Free 30-day trial
• User-friendly
• Audio Books
• App Available
• Award-winning titles
• Customize your library

When you look at the price of books these days, you can't beat these prices for providing good quality books to your children. Or try out the sites that are free! Audio books are engaging to children, and the other great thing about audio books is that children are exposed to modeled reading. 

No more excuses that they didn't have a book to read at home!

No more spending exhausting hours and valuable time searching for good digital/audio book sites! I've done the work for you and I know you and your children will find all of these sites very enjoyable.

SPED Interactive Notebooks are Here!!! {A Year-long Reading Curriculum}

Finally!!! An Interactive Notebook designed specifically for special education classrooms and just in time for BTS!!!! And, a year-long reading curriculum my friends, designed to build fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension!!! Yes, a year-long, with 36 weeks of daily activities!

I'm so excited to finally launch this and be able to share it with you for the upcoming school year! This is a collaborative resource I've worked on for over a year with Susan from "School Bells N' Whistles." So it is a true "Labor of Love!"

Each Monday, students are introduced to 5 new vocabulary words and a new reading passage. Passages are low readability and seasonal. Here's a peek at Week 2, and how the program works.

Students read the passage every day for 5 days as research shows that repeated readings increase and build fluency! They can time themselves or one another (kids love using the timers) and try to beat their time each day. Kids also love this challenge. Each time they read the story, they can color in a book. They also get to make a "Pocket Full of Words" to make daily practicing fun and easy.

On Tuesday, students complete WH questions about their story.

On Wednesday, they get to make a fun flipbook that focuses on comprehension and targets main idea, setting, characters, details, and vocabulary.

Thursday is sentence writing. Students have the option of writing the correct words in the boxes or cutting and pasting the words. 

Friday is a quiz that can easily be used for a weekly grade. The quizzes give students practice with multiple choice, true/false, and short answer items, and also targets skills such as antonyms, synonyms, and rhyming words.

I've tried Interactive Notebooks in my class before, but the cutting was just too daunting for my students! I love that my students will be able to manage the cutting with this set, as the cutting is very minimal and requires only simple straight cuts!

I love the ending results of IN's, and being able to showcase their year-long work in one book. It also makes such a great keepsake and allows everything to remain organized and easy to refer back to for review. They're really nice to show at conferences too or even IEP meetings!

If you're not a fan of IN's, this set can easily be used without them too! You could simply staple each week together, or possibly even spiral bind them.

You can check it out here, and be sure to download the preview to get a free weekly sample to try out in your classroom! You'll get everything you see above!

It's also currently discounted, so snag it up while you can and have your reading lesson plans all planned out for you when you head back to school soon!!

I plan to use my "Spelling for a Year" along with this set as it compliments this set nicely and includes a weekly phonics sheet designed for IN's that you could easily incorporate!

What reading program are you currently using in your classroom??

A Deeper Look Into Dyslexia

I've written about Dyslexia a couple times before, but today I'd like to delve a little deeper. I've been fighting the Dyslexia battle for one of my students for the last year now with absolutely no support....trying to research and find ways that I can be a better teacher for him. Trying to get trainings and resources, and find ways to better assist him. I've been told, "Oh, the district doesn't support Dyslexia," or "It's just a Learning Disability." I've heard that in some districts you don't even say the "d" word!

This lack of support and my determination to help my student has led me to do more and more research on Dyslexia. Through my journey, I've also found that there are many misperceptions of Dyslexia. 

Sound familiar!? I've also heard, "Dyslexia is not real." Well folks, it is real!

These children are not being lazy, nor do they usually need glasses. They are struggling. And yes, letter reversals are normal through the first grade, but after that they should be a red flag! Dyslexia is a language disorder that is neurological in origin, and is characterized by difficulties with accurate and/or fluent word recognition and by poor spelling and decoding abilities.

There is a great amount of evidence that even indicates a change in the brain in a person with Dyslexia versus a person without Dyslexia. Evidence from a number of laboratories using functional brain imaging indicates that there is a disruption of left-hemisphere posterior neural systems during reading tasks when compared to non-dyslexic readers. These findings imply that Dyslexia is a "valid" disorder, and a necessary condition for identification and appropriate treatment. Yet many of us continue to receive no support or tools for teaching these individuals. So as my research continues, I will continue to share it with you. 

We know how important it is to have a correct diagnosis in order to best serve our students, so don't make the common mistake of confusing Dyslexia with Auditory Processing Disorder (APD).   

And btw, is Dyslexia THE only disability that does not have an abbreviation?!? :o I am going to give it the abbreviation of DX for the purpose of this post. 

One of  the things I spent a lot of time researching this year was programs for my student. Of course when I first started looking I was just planning to hopefully be able to afford and purchase a curriculum for my student just as I have purchased other programs for my other students. Add to my cart, pay, and wahlah! Not so easy! I found that all of the evidence-based programs offered for students with DX, required extensive training. :0 

I have spent so much time researching Dyslexia that I started logging it as shown below and using it as evidence towards my teacher evaluation. Here are the top 3 evidence-based programs I found. 

For me, I was back to ground zero! Barton seems doable and requires no training, but $3,000 is not in most of our school budgets. Wilson would be impossible for most of us to do considering the 60-lesson practicum requirement. Orton is the one I've read the best reviews on and is totally doable if there is a training in your area. However, if there is not one close to your area, like me, and you have to pay for a flight and lodging, that is going to be a little expensive. It seems that trainings are only located in the states where DX is "acknowledged." If you'd like to see if there is a training in your area, click here for a full list of upcoming trainings. 

I also recently just discovered the Dyslexia Training Institute, which I have not yet added to my "evidence" sheet yet, but love, and they do offer online courses, of course at a price! They also offer an online Orton-Gillingham certification online, but it also requires the practicum that involves working directly with a student with DX. Since I do have a student with Dyslexia I am planning to definitely look further into this site!   

I cannot lie. I have yet to find the perfect resource or system for my DX student. I'm still working on it. But here are some accommodations that have seemed to help my student. 

1. Books in audio format
2. Text to speech software
3. Reduced paper/pencil work; allow oral responses or scribe
4. Explicitly teaching sight words (student says each letter, then word)
5. Repetition, over and over
6. Color coding
7. Tracking dots
8. Finger tracking
9. Larger print
10. Providing what needs to be copied from the board on a small whiteboard in front of student. 
11. Alternating colors of words in a sentence or paragraph. If using written text, you can do this with a highlighter. 
12. Additional processing time
13. And learning to accept inconsistent performance

I also began doing crossing the midline exercises with my student this year. I discovered through my research that children with dyslexia are not able to communicate the right and left side of the brain like we do, which is one of the reasons for reading difficulties. What's interesting is that I found that my student with DX could not cross the midline!! 

We do these exercises every morning now from "Integrated Learning Strategies" to help teach my student learn to cross the mid-line. You can see the exercises and their post here.  

This video will explain it further!

There's also a DX font that you can download for free that was developed by a gentleman that has DX. Watch his video below. 

Download the font here!

Here are some great sites I've also found along the way that you may find as useful too.
Learning Ally is amazing! Over 80,000 audiobooks to choose from & they also offer trainings. 
The Yale Center for Dyslexia
Head Strong Nation

You may also enjoy Gina Cooke's videos to see the meaning behind the spelling of words!

The research is finally beginning to spread in other states, and my district has jumped on board. My district just recently held a mandatory training on Dyslexia for all of our school psychologists. :) YAY! This was the first ever! I tried to attend, but was told it was only for the psychs, but hey it's a start to know that our psychs will now be trained and hopefully screening for Dyslexia. I'm also reading more and more articles about other states talking about Dsylexia too. New Jersey for one, now names Dyslexia as a disability and their state laws even require two hours of training for personnel. I feel like we are finally making some progress!

The research has been there, but just now seems to be showing itself. I am so excited that this "hidden" disability is finally coming out and beginning to be accepted as "real," and that many districts are also jumping on board, including mine. We have to continue to advocate for these students, diagnose them early, and begin providing interventions asap!