Yeah, Bill!


Pat


-----Original Message-----
From: Bill Roberts <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: Mosaic: A Reading Comprehension Strategies Email Group 
<[email protected]>
Sent: Tue, 22 May 2007 10:43 pm
Subject: Re: [MOSAIC] fluency v. comprehension - another POV




 Maybe I am really missing the boat on the fluency thing...but I
 probably belong with the "old school" way of teaching...even though I have
 only been teaching for 8 years.  I have a friend who...taught me so much
 when I took over in her classroom.  She retired and I took her class over
 mid-year as my first teaching position.  She said, "You will find that
 programs and ideas about teaching come around and come around. 
 Guaranteed,
 if you teach as long as I have, it will come around a couple times.  Hang 
 on
 to what you know to be good practice for you and for your kids.  Stay
 flexible....calm...and wait.  It will come around again."


ook at any Reading textbook from the 18th or 19th century and you will see 
hat they recommend reading orally until fluent.  It's been around for a 
ong time.  When the idea of "silent" reading appeared, many scholars were 
keptical of the practice, claiming that the written word was meant to 
poken aloud.  NOTHING is new.....BUT if we are to help a student become a 
etter reader, then we must be prepared to work with whatever skill is 
ecessary (comprehension, visualization, fluency, etc.) to help that child. 
y main question is this:  What is your ultimate goal?  Is it reading well 
ut loud?  Is it better comprehension?  Passing the state test?  Or is it to 
ake them better thinkers, because thinking makes them a better person?  As 
eachers, we need to reflect on OUR perceptions and goals as well as the 
tudents' needs.  I can't remember the quote exactly, but there is a quote 
hat goes something like this:
"The goal of Education is about making a life, not making a living."
I love it when a child walks out of my classroom saying they are a better 
eader, but I also love it when they leave my class a more confident, more 
ositive, more caring individual....and I think that in a world of scores 
nd charts and data, we sometimes get bogged down in discussions of lessons 
hen we need to remember that we are more than teachers of content --- we 
re teachers of youth.
Bill

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