Fernald technique
Purpose: To teach the students to write and read words correctly and to extend the student's reading to various material other than personal composition.
Rationale: Fernald claims that many cases of reading disability is the result of of the teacher's failure to use methods that allow students to learn in a manner most appropriate to their individual abilities.
Intended Audience: For use with readers with extreme and partial reading disability. Extreme disability-totally disabled student with zero reading ability. Partial disability-refers to the student with some reading skills , who is unable to acquire adequate reading skills within the instructional framework of the class.
Description of the Procedures:
Stage 1: The student selects any word or words that he or she wants to learn, regardless of the length. Each word is written with crayon on a strip of paper in large, chalkboard-size cursive writing, or manuscript paper. The student then traces the word with finger contact, pronouncing each part of the word as its traced. This procedure is repeated as many times until the student can write the word on a separate piece of paper without looking at the copy. To ensure the student understands the meaning of the word, words should always should always be used in context.
Time allocated: Dependent on student. When there is a decrease in the number of tracing required to learn a new word or when tracing is no longer needed, the student is ready for the next step.
Time allocated: Dependent on student. When there is a decrease in the number of tracing required to learn a new word or when tracing is no longer needed, the student is ready for the next step.
Stage 2: The student learns words simply by looking at the word while saying it over and over. These words are presented to the student in print or in cursive form for study. The word is learned by saying it several times, over and over again, until it can be written from memory. New words are reviewed after reading, filed and reviewed at another time.
Stage 3: Basically step 3 is the same as step 2 except the student has now reached the stage where learning occurs merely by looking at a word and saying it. Whenever an unknown word is met, the student is told the word. At this stage, the student learns directly from the printed page and writing the new word on a card has become unnecessary. The student looks at the word in print, pronounces the word a number of times and is able to write it from memory.
Stage 4: The student is able to recognize new words from their resemblance to words or parts of words already learned. At this stage, the student is able to work out many words. In addition, students are encouraged to survey the paragraph and clear up the meaning of unknown words prior to meaning. Fernald emphasizes that when reading for meaning, sounding out words during reading is discouraged and that the teacher simply provides the unknown word to the student. This is to prevent distraction and for the student to concentrate on the content of the reading material