Rex, I so agree with all that you've described here - so wisely and eloquently.
thank you. I plan to share it with my grad students in reading! sally
From: "Jones, Rex" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: 2007/01/17 Wed PM 02:19:22 CST
To:
"Mosaic: A Reading Comprehension Strategies Listserv"
<[email protected]>
Subject: Re: [MOSAIC] Mosaic Digest, Vol 5, Issue 15
Hi Michelle:
I'm a principal in an affluent district just over the state line from you. I
struggle with same kinds of issues you're identifying, and I've come to the
conclusion that the best intervention for struggling readers in the
intermediate grades is more about affecting their learning in the regular
classroom setting as opposed to pulling them out to interventions. The
gentlemen who co-authored Reading Don't Fix No Chevys (Smith and Wilhelm) have
just come out with a new book entitled Going with the Flow: How to Engage Boys
(and Girls) in Their Literacy Learning. Their message at the outset of the
book is that growing readers starts with engaging them, and there are at least
four principles incorporated into the reading instruction block in classrooms
where all students are successfully engaged in the learning process. Those
principles are:
1. Readers have a sense of Control and Competence (they can see that they
are successful, and they have a measure of control over their challenge)
2. Readers are appropriately challenged (instruction in the classroom is
differentiated)
3. Readers set clear goals with their teacher and they get immediate
feedback on their progress
4. The experience in the classroom is so engaging to the reader that s/he is
completely caught up in it
Now, this book is written for secondary teachers, but smart teachers and
building support people can adjust the ideas to fit any level. Other resources
I would point you to, if you haven't seen them or heard of them, are the two
books by Franki Sibberson and Karen Szymusiak. The first book is entitled
Beyond Leveled Books, and the second is Still Learning to Read. These books
help us define in our own minds what a "transitional reader" looks like. What
you described in your e-mail is, indeed, a transitional reader--they have the
fluency, so their reading sounds great, but they aren't really "interacting"
with the text they read. They can answer some fairly simple comprehension
questions, but the higher level questions shut them down. I think when we pull
kids out of the workshop, though, we take away the social influences of other
better readers, and reading is as much a social process as it is a cognitive
process. Is there any way you can push into the classes and work with
the classroom teacher in the workshop? You might even do some demonstration
lessons for them.
Cris Tovani has also written some great books to get educators thinking about
how to grow readers.
Rex Jones
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[ <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Wednesday, January 17, 2007 2:24 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [MOSAIC] Mosaic Digest, Vol 5, Issue 15
I've been reading and learning from this site for about a year now and have
loved all the information and comments I've gleaned. I'm a reading specialist
in a well to do district, working with 4th & 5th grade readers who, for the
most part, have fluency down but have enormous trouble understanding what
they've read. We use Fountas and Pinnel as our "bible" and the interventionists
are expected to use guided reading to help the students get up to speed. I
feel that the kids get the guided reading in the classroom and that hasn't
worked, so I need to use something else. I was a reading recovery teacher as
well as middle school intervention which was skills based. What do you other
interventionists use for upper primary kids? Also- our teachers (and I) feel
that if there's one thing the kids have trouble with, it's inferring. Anyone
else agree? By the way- I've been using the Strategies that Work but seem to
have trouble getting the kids to the point of independently using them-any
others have ideas?
thanks- Michelle 4/5 NY
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