I found this video to be very powerful. As a high school teacher, I have seen several students who were well below grade level in their reading skills. I noticed how each day at school becomes an obstacle course. They must carefully get through each day, hoping they are not noticed. their mantra is simply to get by. I suspect many teachers "assist" them by passing them on to the next teacher without addressing their reading problem.
Reading Recovery is a serious attempt to address this problem early on in a student's career. A 75 % success rate is phenomenal. As the teacher from Massachusetts stated "we are saving these students' lives." For some students, having such a program is the difference between perceiving school as a opportunity to explore reality or 12 years in a foreign prison. It is in the community supreme interest that students hold the first view.
Saturday, December 6, 2008
Guided Reading Video related to high school setting
The intoduction to this video was very concise. It highlights an easy to remember pattern that should be employed befor during and after during all reading lessons. The lesson itself was very interesting. The teacher is fortunate that she has only 4 students. This is a wonderful luxury. It allows for tremendous personal attention.
I found the lesson helpful, but I had to translate it my own experience teaching 17 year olds. Though some of my students have much trouble reading, the majority are adept. I do use sp3qr technique in my class. I found that my students would either completely blow off their reading assignment, or would simply drag their eyes across 30 page handouts of dense text without observing the main ideas, conclusions etc. They treated reading assignments as torture and would avoid it altogether, or undergo it but to no real benefit. I now request them to ask frequent questions before and during the reading of the text. making predictions not only keeps the students actively involved in the reading, but it also highlights some content prejudices which they took for granted. They are now engaging with the text, challenging the content and allowing themselves to be challenged by it. The handouts are now a lively component of the class, sparking dicussion/debate.
I found the lesson helpful, but I had to translate it my own experience teaching 17 year olds. Though some of my students have much trouble reading, the majority are adept. I do use sp3qr technique in my class. I found that my students would either completely blow off their reading assignment, or would simply drag their eyes across 30 page handouts of dense text without observing the main ideas, conclusions etc. They treated reading assignments as torture and would avoid it altogether, or undergo it but to no real benefit. I now request them to ask frequent questions before and during the reading of the text. making predictions not only keeps the students actively involved in the reading, but it also highlights some content prejudices which they took for granted. They are now engaging with the text, challenging the content and allowing themselves to be challenged by it. The handouts are now a lively component of the class, sparking dicussion/debate.
Reading First Still Works
http://www.city-journal.org/2008/eon0519ss.html
This article by Sol Stern, a longtime critic on education policy, in the City Journal ardently defends the federal reading First program. A recent study by the Institute of Education Sciences arrived at a negative conclusion, declaring that the Feading First Program did not produce better test results despite recieving greater federal funding. Mr. stern suggests that the study is deliberately misinterpreted for political reasons. He claims that the IES study is methodologically flawed and incomplete. Unfortunately, the media and the long time oponents of 21st century education reform have used the partial study to set a political trap that will demolish funding for the program.
This article falls into the genre of partisan reflections on the success/failure of No Child Left Behind. The author does not clearly demonstrate the positive attributes of his favored Reading First program; instead he highlights weaknesses in the unfavorable study and how such studies can be manipulated for political gain. This article is yet another reminder about how ideological education policy becomes.
This article by Sol Stern, a longtime critic on education policy, in the City Journal ardently defends the federal reading First program. A recent study by the Institute of Education Sciences arrived at a negative conclusion, declaring that the Feading First Program did not produce better test results despite recieving greater federal funding. Mr. stern suggests that the study is deliberately misinterpreted for political reasons. He claims that the IES study is methodologically flawed and incomplete. Unfortunately, the media and the long time oponents of 21st century education reform have used the partial study to set a political trap that will demolish funding for the program.
This article falls into the genre of partisan reflections on the success/failure of No Child Left Behind. The author does not clearly demonstrate the positive attributes of his favored Reading First program; instead he highlights weaknesses in the unfavorable study and how such studies can be manipulated for political gain. This article is yet another reminder about how ideological education policy becomes.
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