Suggestion

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Suggestion
By Just Hired

Does your district have any specialized programs (such as reading recovery, wilson reading, etc)? It sounds as if he might benefit from a reading with a systematic approach to phonics. I don't know much about these programs,
but I know they are approaches for students who haven't succeeded otherwise. They are very individualized and systematic.
If not, have you tried month-by-month phonics for the upper grades? It has a variety of activities that teach explicit strategies for spelling and reading words. One strategy "guess the covered word" teaches the skill of using context clues to determine an

unknown word. It also has some visual checking strategies called "what looks right". These strategies can be taught to a class but it sounds like he needs more individualized instruction to learn these skills to internalize them and make them automatic.

As far as the not self correcting and re-reading, it sounds as if he needs to be in a small group setting for individualized instruction in these skills. Perhaps the books he is reading are not just right books, and he doesn't self correct because when he is reading he is decoding, not comprehending. He is most likely unaware of the mistakes he is making because he is focusing just on decoding. He should be reading books that are at his instructional or independent level, not his frustration level.

This can be VERY hard at upper elementary levels, because he could be reading grade level texts but shouldn't be. Could those books be put on tape or could he be supported in some way so that when he is listening to them he can be focusing on comprehension strategies rather than decoding?

I hope these ideas help. I know I keep saying he should this or he should that, but the reality of the classroom doesn't always allow a teacher to give an individual child THAT much support. Reading is developmental, and even if he gets tons of support from you, he will only make a few gains this year. I wish you the best of luck.