Carol wrote: Which brings me to my question. What is the answer to administrators who believe that the boxed Reading Program is the answer? We are a high performing school but administrators seem crazed at the lack of "consistency". How can we convince administrators that Ellin's model can meet the need for a "research based reading program"? Is it possible? Thanks in advance for your suggestions.
I haven't had the opportunity to "chime in" for some time, and am glad to address this question, Carol. :) Thank you for asking it. I think (and this is just my opinion and perception...) that not everyone is as skilled at teaching reading as perhaps the teachers in your school building. I know when I left the classroom and went to be a mentor teacher, my eyes were opened to the many malpractices that are going on out there with regard to literacy instruction. In my heart, I can't believe that teachers ever want to do the wrong thing...I think we become complacent and stale, and many times, don't carve out the time to read and learn and grow ourselves. I remember when my district was given a core antholgoy series, one of the reasons stated to teachers by curriculum personnel was, as you say, for consistency; but another statement that was given was because we would have so many new teachers who had no experiences teaching reading in the next few years, that they needed some guidance; and a core reading program could provide that. I really don't have an issue with a "core reading program." BUT, a core program is only as good as the teacher implementing it. That being said, my BIG bugaboo is this: The answer is not giving someone a book and saying, "Here, read, follow...and raise achievement levels!" I believe the answer lies in ensuring that all teaching literacy deeply understand reading process and how to implement quality literacy practices into the classroom. That's why Mosaic and To Understand are so beautiful. They get at the heart of these two important concepts; and, are BEST PRACTICES. I would bet that if you dug through recent iterations of core reading programs, you'll find these practices embedded in there. But again, it takes an excellent teacher who knows and understands quality literacy practices to implement the lessons well. Even with a core reading series, the literacy concepts outlined in Ellin's, Debbie Miller's, and many other books are universal; and therefore, transferrable. You will find that if you take the text from a ready series and apply what you know about good literacy practices and use those best practices to guide the lesson, your students will do fine. It's all about the instruction. And, with any and all instruction, you will never have true consistency because our students are all different and may need different things. My favorite line nowadays is "Curriculum is the map, the child is the car, and the fuel that makes the car move is quality instruction from a quality teacher." If you just have a map and can read it, it won't get you anywhere without instruction. So, if a core reading series is the map, one must have great instructional practices (the fuel) to move the students forward. As an aside, I've just read about some districts in MD that are moving toward giving schools that are consistently high-performing on state assessments the autonomy to make instructional and curriculuar decisions...that really sounds interesting to me. And that would sound like a great solution to your dilemma! :) Hope this is helpful! :) Peter from Maryland. _______________________________________________ Understand mailing list [email protected] http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/listinfo/understand_literacyworkshop.org
