Catching Readers Before They Fall: Ch. 7

I Thought I Knew How to Teach Reading, but Whoa!
This chapter was all about teaching kids how to read and how to read fluently... reading fluently is key. Classrooms these days are becoming more and more diverse, meaning that some students may have high literacy levels while other students may need a lot of extra assistance from the teacher. Throughout this chapter it discussed a lot of different strategies to use for struggling readers at the emergent levels who need lots of support as they learn to take on the earliest strategic action. This chapter made me a little nervous to have my own classroom because I never really thought of having many different types of learners in the classroom; I always imagined a picture perfect classroom where I can do whatever strategies and lessons I please, but that is not realistic at all. This chapter kind of put things into perspective for me and made me realize that I won't have all highly intelligent students.
I really liked the five different assessment tools that were described at the beginning of the chapter. These different tools would be very beneficial to do at the beginning of the school year so I can get a feel for the different literacy levels in my classroom. This will form a good framework for me to work off of for the rest of the year. I think is is important to know the different individual literacy levels in my classroom so I give them texts and activities that are appropriate for them and will help them grow and learn. I can get frustrated very easily, so as I am working with the struggling readers it is very important that I stay calm and patiently help them work through their difficulties. As the book says, "Know that these students do have strengths; it may just take a bit longer for you to discover them (pg.110)." Every student has their own strengths and weaknesses, but it might just take a little more work and interaction on the teacher's part to bring those strengths out of the struggling readers. Another quote that stood out to me was, "there are no set teaching sequences: there is no prescription to learn this before that (pg. 110)." I always feel like there is a set sequence to teaching and that I have to follow specific lessons, rules, and guidelines, but that is not true! Yes, there is certain curriculum and standards that we have to follow as teachers, but we do not have to follow a set teaching sequence. As the book says, we need to remain responsive to the needs of EACH child, making sure we are linking what they already know to new learning. Before we start teaching the students new information, we need to make sure they have a good grasp on the information they already know. All of the students' knowledge builds on top of each other and if they don't understand something before learning new information it could mess up their whole learning experience. Readers also draw upon their background knowledge along with the pictures to predict a story line, so students need to be clear on their background knowledge so it is easier for them to draw meaning and understand different books.