The irony that struck me when I read Cathy's latest response is the term
"reading specialist" and the job as it's "de-volved." I am a literacy coach,
so I'm saved from most of what she describes, thank goodness. But, to me, the
irony here is that our "specialists" are addressing 2 out of 20
benchmarks--and it appears to me some of the most inappropriate and least
profitable. If you haven't done so yet, please read Rereading Fluency:
Process, Practice, and Policy by Bess Altwerger, Nancy Jordan, and Nancy Rankie
Shelton (Paperback - Oct 17, 2007). I think this is an absolute must-read,
true breakthrough book, which shows well-designed research and interprets it in
light of current issues.
And what should "specialists" be doing? I think we might all agree: whatever
is necessary to help the children in front of them. If so, the first thing
might be to use their professional skills, talents, education, and experience
to find out what those strugglers actually do need and then trying to make sure
they get it. Aren't we giving the children who are the most in need of
expertise to the experts--and then tying the hands of those very experts?
Please don't take this as a criticism of our specialists; nothing could be
further from the truth.
But, in this discussion of what's essential, I would propose that the reading
specialist should be the educator who needs, and has, the greatest professional
freedom and responsibility. And further, that the "what's essential" question
is even more essential in these cases. And so I can't help naming Allington's
book, What Matters Most for Struggling Readers, to further support my bias.
Any reading specialist who has not read that book must do so. I know of no
better resource to help us get our heads straight on what's essential. For
most of you, it will be such an affirmation of what you already know!!
When you put Allington's work aside Altwerger's book on fluency, what you get
is a clear picture of what part phonics and fluency should play in the day of a
reading specialist and struggling readers. It's a clear picture of what I
would say is truly essential: living the literate life and helping EACH learner
get the tools to understand and comprehend.
And I would further submit that the reading specialist is the person in our
schools who has the education, experience, caring, and intellect to ferret out
what is essential for the toughest of our kids and provide them with that very
thing.
What some of our schools do, instead, is to saddle those folks with a
one-size-fits-all suit (that's not all-weather, either)
curriculum/direction/requirement that the least educated and least experienced
para-professional could do just fine with. Scripted, identical-for-every-child
instruction may be what's made some of those children struggle in the first
place.
Thanks for listening. Bev
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