Module 6

MODULE 6

I read chapter 12, and several Reading Rocket articles

This module was the most interesting and most appropriate for me yet. As I draw into the end of the school year, I wonder, like all teachers, if I have done all I could for my students. This gave me insight into what I need to do now for my first graders that still struggle as readers. I made copies of the Reading Rocket articles and highlighted the chapter. I plan to use this information on a regular basis as I teach in the future.

1. The three most important concepts I gleaned from the readings:

1. I was excited to find the Literacy Milestones. Many times, even though I know what is needed by PASS objectives for first grade, I cannot always find where my struggling readers truly are in their path to become good readers. These articles give me insight as to where and what might have been missed so that I can go back and help these students gain the knowledge they are missing and become the good reader they can be.

2. Reading about the difference between being learning disabled and reading disabled helped me tremendously when defining the needs of students. Many times, a learning disability is very obvious, but when a child simply has a reading disability, that is so much more difficult to observe and help – especially in a classroom with 24 other students.

3. I was surprised at what I read about early interventions in Pre-K and Kindergarten. I do believe that there should be strategies in place to help prepare for reading and that phonemic awareness should be taught at this level. However, I never saw in any of the readings the realization that reading is part developmental as well. You cannot expect a young first grader to catch on as quickly as an older first grader. And I am NOT talking about chronological age; I am talking about developmental age. I believe that just as children crawl, walk, etc. at their own pace as they develop; so does their ability to read. Again, I must add that I’m talking about normal development and we must be aware of any instances in a child’s life that would impede or facilitate their own development. The reality is, although while we teach reading in whole group and small group settings geared for the average student, we must teach reading to the individual if we are to make them successful readers.

2. How I plan to implement the research into my classroom? What changes I will make to my classroom teaching knowing this new information:

Although I have always had the goal of teaching to the individual student, many times I am stumped as to why with all I do, little Johnny still cannot catch on. I can usually determine the why, but I did not have enough tools to help him as I should. I feel that with the information I gleaned from these articles and chapter, I have more tools to help my students.

I plan to look differently at my students who struggle and not just make the assumption they have a learning disability. I intend to keep my parents more involved in the day-to-day reading responsibility of the children. If a child is struggling, I will make more contact with that parent and do more than my district does as far as the RTI program. I am still working out exactly how to do this, but my first line of attack will be reading assignments at home that require parent feedback as well as the child’s. I will be professional and courteous, but I will call that parent on the carpet and find ways to help the child at home. I am understanding and compassionate of busy lives, but I will endeavor to help parents find ways (grandparents, library visits, etc.) to get their child reading. I also plan to gain the program Reading A-Z for my classroom so that I can print off leveled readers for my students who do not have books at home. I plan to use the charts from the articles to show parents where their child is in their reading milestone so that we can make a plan to help their child get to where they should be.

Class size reduction is a clear indicator for success, but that is not a reality. However, I can reduce my class size by utilizing other resources available to me. I will send my higher ability readers to the library on our campus. I will have my high school aid pull children into the hall for fun reading activities. In this way, I can reduce my class size by about 10 children and at that time I will be able to use literacy centers and small group work to target needed areas.

3. The before/during/after reading strategies I used while I was reading and the effects of it after implementing it in my classroom.

I was finding so much information this time, that I used the standard hi-lighting as a during reading strategy. In putting this to use in my classroom I took a different approach. I used a small reading sample and asked questions about the story. I put this up on the smart board, gave each child a copy and had them use a red, green, and blue colored pencil to answer the questions. We read the first question, found the answer in the article, underlined it in one color and answered the question in that color. There were three questions and each question was answered and underlined in its own color. In this way the children were able to see how to go back into the article to get the facts they needed. We all thought it was fun and each child keeps the colored pencils at their desk to use on other similar worksheets.