Suzanne Graybush Blog #2 LTED667
Nelson Mandela once said it best, "Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world." One day and student at at time, I vow to build an arsenal of intelligent life long readers and learners. Through the role of Literacy Coach helping teachers, or Literacy Specialist intervening where students need, whichever comes my way, I hope to help teachers see the light in teaching reading.
As a Literacy Specialist I see myself pulling students to check their reading abilities through testing and running records to ensure each child gets the help they need. Another aspect I hope to fulfill is training content teachers reading strategies to ensure success in not only ELA, but Science, Social Studies, and even Math. In one article, "Teaching Content-Area Literacy and Disciplinary Literacy" by Ramona Chauvin, PhD, and Kathleen Theodore, MA," this need is explained better by stating, "When K–12 teachers are asked to identify the challenges students face in learning, one of the major issues often discussed is that students struggle to comprehend the texts that are used in their classrooms. These difficulties are even more pronounced for students in Grades 4−12, where more than 8 million students struggle to comprehend texts in academic content areas." This is clearly an issue that needs to be addressed. In middle school this is a dire need! I observe it on a daily basis, and even when I am tutoring students. Giving these students a graphic organizer or a note taking chart can enhance their learning, but content teachers are not always "in the know" when it comes to teaching literacy. How can this be done? This same article by Ramona Chauvin, PhD, and Kathleen Theodore suggested some strategies,"Content-area literacy might use strategies such as monitoring comprehension, pre-reading, setting goals and a purpose for reading, activating prior knowledge, asking and generating questions, making predictions, re-reading, summarizing, and making inferences." By giving content area teachers these tools, I know I can make a difference.
As far as working with students, I see it as small group or even one on one instruction. Over the years, I have been able to see a student's potential and what they need in as little as 2 meeting with them one on one or even in a group. By Chunking information and offering prompts to extract knowledge, along with a little ambition goes a long way. I feel I can diagnose and offer options pretty quickly to obtain results, if a student is willing to work.
At my school, a middle school, in a non-diverse white American beach town, I hope to offer my students a remedial reading program. A "push in" program to promote literacy beyond the 5th grade level in 8th grade. I am not sure where the problem lies exactly, but I would be sure to get to the bottom of it. Our school system needs a program to acknowledge reading difficulties early on in elementary school and follow students who fall off in middle school. Studies have shown that close reading strategies have made such a difference in middle school students that have been identified as "below reading level" in various schools. One such study was documented in the article, "Close Reading as an Intervention for Struggling Middle School Readers," where the administrators compared a "close reading study group" to another using multiple strategies to cite the differences in reading growth. As far as the article goes, "Students in the close reading experimental group routinely discussed solutions to text- based questions with one another in small groups prior to engaging in larger class discussions. These small- and whole- class discussions during the close reading sessions required students to return to the text to support their answers." And this is exactly what is expected with students in middle school. With this extra help after school, students were able to back up a literary analysis with evidence, and that is a win in ELA language Arts, especially for struggling students.
Close reading strategies are another of many that have been added to my tool belt as a future Literary Specialist.
References
Fisher, D., & Frey, N. (2014). Close reading as an intervention for struggling middle school readers. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 57(5), 367–376. https://doi.org/10.1002/jaal.266
Chauvin,, R. (2015). Teaching Content-Area Literacy and Disciplinary Literacy. SEDL Insights, 3(1).
Hi Suzanne, thank you for pointing out the fact that in grades 4-12, students continue to experience difficulties in reading comprehension, especially in academic content areas. I too see this in my classroom of previous and current 4th-6th graders. I find that they do benefit from small group and one-on-one instruction as they require more assistance in text analysis and individualized learning as a whole. By breaking down skills into smaller concepts and tailoring lessons for each individual’s strengths and weaknesses, I have witnessed self-confidence increase because of the change in setting. By sharing our knowledge and tools with general education teachers, we encourage collaboration as together we work towards reaching a common goal of expanding students’ reading achievements.
ReplyDelete