Teaching Mars Reading Comprehension at Age 14.

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Instead of dumbing him down with primary-school readers, I am seeking meaningful texts of literary merit that are really worth his time.

I remember reading Ishi in college--the true account of the last survivor of a California tribe of Indians and his relationship to the a world in which no living being spoke his language. As I recall, this man had dignity, humor, wisdom and the respect of white people who met him.

Have Wrong Planet people encountered this text and found personal meaning there? Do you have other texts to suggest?

Look at the Jeffersonian Model. There are many classic texts to work with for reading.

moved from The Haven to Parents' Discussion

Thanks for info about the Jefferson--he is an all-time favorite American of the era with Ben Franklin, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Fredrick Douglas etc.

I like the Jefferson model. But when a 14 year old's reading comprehension is at the 3rd grade level, it would not be accessible except with heavy scaffolding. Mars has had so much scaffolding, he can't conceive of reading independently. He leans on teachers and tries to please them with the "right" answer before taking the time to process for himself--the result of 3 years in an Autism school that gave token rewards for robotic rather than thoughtful answers.

So I'm using strategies to promote automaticity with meaningful text. For example, yesterday he got a e-mail from a therapist setting up a socialization program meant to appeal to teens. She wanted his critique of the language in her flier from an ASD teen point of view. So I printed it out,divided it into paragraphs, cut it up, folded each paragraph up and let him pick up pieces of the e-mail like a game of grab bag. Then he relaxed enough to read and understand for himself.

I'm finding that if he doesn't play some game to defeat anxiety about getting the "wrong" robotic response, he can't think for himself or be patient enough with himself to access language and meaning stored in memory.

We're inventing the wheel here.

Love your input--especially from any of you out there who may have overcome such challenges as a teen.

There is a program put out by scholastic called Read 180. It is designed for older readers who read at a young level. In the program are lots of books written at their reading level, but on topic for a middle/high school student. You would have to do the research on the website to find a way to order the books without the program. You might want the whole program, but it is really designed for the classroom and expensive.
I hope this helps.

http://read180.scholastic.com/reading-i ... gram/about

Thank you Eureka C. This sounds like a nice idea. I called SRA. Their lowest price is $40,000. M was on a similar Lexile Program in his previous school, and it was not a match.

We are happy for now drawing meaning and personal experience out the the texts supplied in daily life

I eager to hear of others who have taken the reading journey with ASD so late in life.