askchapo

I'm sure it's different in every area, but when I taught both US students and ESL at my local literacy council, we just gave a basic comprehension test and started students at that level with national literacy council approved workbooks. It's kind of a drag to have to do that first to stretch comprehension, but other than that, a couple paragraph at a time with a dictionary, pen and notebook. I would look up each word I didn't know/was unsure of, write it down with the pronunciation and definitions, and write a sentence with it like I was in primary school doing vocabulary word homework (this was before smartphones and PCs). When I got to the end of the paragraph or page, depending on the difficulty of what I was reading, I reread, glancing at my notes. Then I'd reread the whole chapter. It's slow, tedious, and it worked for me. It worked so well that I used the method after I had a smartphone to read hard copy Hawking. Sorry I can't offer a quicker method, and it's been a few decades since I worked with the literacy council. Less than a decade ago, I worked with two people who literally could not read or spell "cat” or "dog." I went to the dollar store and got the little work booklets for preschoolers and started there. The 60+ year old with "severe learning disabilities" was reading Dr. Seuss within a couple of months, but I also ended up buying the large plain not cards and cutting different-sized windows in them so all the words didn't "swim together." I suspect they experienced vision issues and/or dyslexia. Maybe there are more modern methods, now.

With my kid, I spent good money on Hooked on Phonics. It helped a lot but dyslexia really messed with them.