Last week, I was grateful for the chance to be attached to the Psychological Services Branch, Ministry of Education. The intervention specialists and dyslexia coaches carried out a School-based Dyslexia Remediation workshop for fourth grade teachers from schools all over the country. These support strategies are targetted towards helping dyslexics because they have innate phonological deficits. So, certain things that are simple for neurotypical people are high hurdles for them to cross. I was happy to attend this workshop and learn from my comrades.

For instance, I appreciate how the teaching of morphology is sensitively embedded into the curriculum. When students internalise the meaning of high utility affixes, this will hopefully alleviate their difficulties with reading.

I love how there is a systematic way to building literacy in students. They are first taught how to decode unfamiliar words and apply word attack strategies to infer the meaning. Subsequently, since they understand a passage at the word level, they will be challenged to answer both literal and inferential comprehension questions.

I know that Singapore has received accolades for our educational system. I think one reason may be our systematic way in imparting skills. Did you know that we apply a formula to answer inference questions correctly? This is the equation:

What is in the text + What I know = Answer to inferential question

Yes, funnily enough, we lean on our left brain in order to tackle language arts, which is primarily a right brain discipline. Pragmatic Singaporeans!

I also loved how students are encouraged to ask their own questions so that they engage more actively and rigorously with the text.

This SDR programme pairs one teacher with four students. In this iteration, students take turns to be the Preview Expert. And yes, we have a structured way of pre-reading a text because we use a thinking routine called See, Think and Wonder. I think it’s great that we place the onus on our students to take some ownership of their learning. Giving them a sense of control will hopefully keep them on their toes and make them more motivated.

In a nutshell, this is how we get students to comprehend a passage. I believe this is applying the Science of Reading.

I thought the best part of the workshop was when we got to fill in the blanks with laminated pieces, each piece denoting a strategy that we must use. I am not too embarrassed to admit that I got the order of certain strategies wrong! So, the learning point is never assume that I have mastered what the presenter wants to teach us. I need to ensure that I undertake some hands-on activities in order to confirm that I have retained information accurately.

In all, the workshop recharged my dying batteries and galvanised me to want to work hard next year. Sensei is gonna be infinite!