The "more time " and more expert instruction model is exactly what Fuchs and 
Fuchs are proposing in their book Response To Intervention. I have learned as a 
Reading Specialist that the decoding piece is what is missing for many kids 
with learning disabilities in reading. The interventon is meant to shore up 
that deficit without ever letting go of the other pieces that make reading  a 
thinking, reflective and repsonsive activity. I have found that some kids 
really do need more explicit instruction concerning sound patterns and how 
words work. They don't get the patterns or they are not able to retrieve that 
information quickly enough to be automatic readers. These kids also need 
scaffolding to help them comprehend, such as reading shorter chunks of text and 
stopping to record their thinking, citing parts of text that confirm their 
thinking, text mapping ,etc. just to name a few. I definitely agree that 
programs generally do not give the immediate feedback and  comprehensive 
literacy teaching that we know is best practice and there is definitely a 
danger to opening a crack in the door to let "programs" in, but there is 
benefit to some of the systematic approaches to word work for those particular 
students who are not responding to what we offer to our students in a 
comprehensive literacy approach.
 
Good teachers know , as Richard Allington strongly asserts , that there is no 
easy fix for struggling readers. I think the key is knowing the student well 
enough to be able to prescribe the best appproach to foster growth. The more we 
become aware of reading behaviors, the better we will be able to intervene 
effectively.Programs, as such, do not support that approach, but some can be 
used affectively to bring real growth for some students IN CONJUNCTION WITH 
best practices in literacy instruction.
 
Laura Klug
Franklin,TN

________________________________

From: [email protected] on behalf of [email protected]
Sent: Thu 1/15/2009 7:18 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [MOSAIC] Interventions





Bev...
What you describe sounds to me like RTI but not the RTI model often 
described here...but one where we really seriously give kids who struggle more  
time
and more expert instruction. It is what RTI SHOULD look like.

I had to LOL when you started writing about doing doctoral research. I am  in
the very earliest stages of thinking about my research. I have started a 
literature review on lesson study, BUT I am not at all certain that I will go 
that way. My temptation is to research the new research based programs in our 
district and using MY rules...measuring comprehension... not just reading rates
 and decoding nonsense words. I  keep wavering back and forth. Either way, 
it will be reading comprehension related...lesson study in reading lessons OR 
what the long term affects are of direct instruction decoding programs on 
comprehension.
Jennifer
In a message dated 1/13/2009 9:35:24 P.M. Eastern Standard Time, 
[email protected] writes:

Yes,  I've thought about a lot of the same issues.  What we have been  doing
for intervention, the last decade and more, is giving each child a  "session"
of balanced literacy by the classroom teacher, a session of  balanced
literacy by a Title teacher, and giving those in greatest need yet  another
session (Reading Recovery).

If only I could lop a couple of  decades off my age, and I was in the mood to
pursue a doctorate, what I  would absolutely research for my thesis would be
a comparison of programs  such as described above, with programs that
provided balanced literacy and  an "intervention in a box", with programs
that were exclusively direct  instruction.



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