The development of Tailored Reading has been a highly personal journey. Of course, my experiences as a teacher and tutor since 1964, and the work that led to earning my master’s degree in Learning Disabilities in 1972, have contributed towards its evolution. However, the fundamental perceptions and premises upon which the system is based have originated to an even greater degree from the difficulties presented by my own learning problems. It gives me much pleasure to know that the system enables almost any concerned individual (e.g. parents and volunteers) to truly help at-risk readers, without the necessity of going through my many years of struggle. The following is a brief distillation of some of the major points I have found to be of great importance concerning Tailored Reading and at-risk readers:
1. At-risk readers, children whose needs are not met by the school system, develop, for various reasons, increasing gaps in word knowledge (sightwords, phonics, and vocabulary) practically as soon as they begin formal instruction. This causes them to continually lack the ability to read some of the simplest material.
2. Most at-risk readers can comprehend simple, straight forward selections if they can read and understand the individual words which compose them, as well as being able to attend to the task at hand. Word mastery obviously does not ensure comprehension, especially if idioms, higher level sentences, metaphors, experiences beyond the reach of the reader, and other than straight forward sentence dynamics are involved. However, being able to decode and understand the meaning of the verbal units is basic to whatever additional support is needed to comprehend the ideas developed from the word combinations.
3. Unless their word gaps are found and filled, these pupils never reach their learning potentials. They become frustrated, develop low self-esteem, lack the motivation to learn, and often acquire various negative behaviors, the results of which are all too common in today's society.
4. Most teachers follow curriculum-driven procedures and have little time, energy, or an appropriate mechanism to provide the necessary individual help so desperately needed by these children.
5. The good news is that Tailored Reading can furnish the resources that enable tutors to complement their pupils' regular instruction by finding and filling gaps in their knowledge of words. It is exciting to see how "magically" comprehension improves, bringing with it very positive affective outcomes as well.
As an example of an instructional sequence that stems from the above concepts, let us say that it is found that a pupil (who might be of any age and grade) knows only half of the words at the preprimer level (which includes many of the most frequently used words such as, "a," "in," and "dog"). By guiding the child to creatively use only known words, she is empowered to achieve instant success. Following this, by teaching "new" (gap) words in direct association to the known, using rebuses (picture clues) and "whatever works" to facilitate the process, further achievement is practically assured. Once even less than a dozen words are mastered, the pupil is able to enjoy reading specially written Partner Plays, short dialogues (which can be read with tutors, parents, and friends) that contain only words the pupil knows.
For example, the following Partner Play contains only the words, "dog," "goat," "car," "train," "is," "a," "in," and "the." The spoken part is indicated by letters rather than names to make the plays even more user friendly.
1. A: Is a dog in the car?
4. B: A goat is in the car.
2. B: A dog is in the car.
5. A: Is a car in the train?
3. A: Is a goat in the car?
6. B: A car is in the train.
As the pupil learns more words (including those able to be decoded through his growing phonics skills), additional readable material opens the way toward continued progress and good feelings for all concerned.