Week #3

After finishing the reading assignments for this week I feel like there is a lot of new information to process! My favorite part was chapter 10 and the discussion of factors related to reading problems. There are so many types of IQ tests, and they all seem to offer some slight difference from the next. I am not sure how anyone decides which one is the best and makes the decision to use it. The Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children - III did seem appropriate because it is done individually and the students are not required to read or write. There are so many factors as to why a student may struggle with reading. It enforces the idea that assessments are so important so we can discover specifically where and why a student is having problems.

Dyslexia is one reason that a student may struggle with reading. I was quite surprised to learn that dyslexic students have IQ's in the average to above average range. Since most IQ tests are so concentrated with reading, it is not an accurate measure of intelligence for a dyslexic student. There are many strategies to help dyslexic learners such as breaking different tasks into distinct parts, focused learning on sight words and teaching phonics.

I am excited to learn about the "next step." While we spend this class learning about different assessments and how to give them, I want to know what happens next! How we can take this newly learned information and have some concrete ideas as to how to specifically help our students in the future.