Peter What you say is so true...it is the knowledge of the teacher that makes the difference. When I had the chance to look deeply into our reading series with some colleagues from all around the district for the purpose of aligning it to the state curriculum, we discovered that really, most of what our state deems important was included. What was missing, though, was the pedagogy... So of course, while our district reading scores improved generally after the implementation of our reading series, the rate of improvement leveled off at our school rather quickly. A good curriculum is the floor, I think you have said, not the ceiling. If a district doesn't invest in the professional development of its teachers, and if teachers don't seek to grow professionally, then we can only go so far with a particular curriculum. When visualizing was introduced in our series, the teacher directions included words like "Tell the students that visualizing will help them to understand the story better." What was missing in the anthology directions was SHOWING the students how to visualize. A teacher who understands not only the reading processes, but knows how to model...gradually release responsibility to students and provide independent practice, will do fine with a reading series, because she/he knows how to do that modeling. Ellin's ideas can, mostly, be integrated by a good teacher if he/she understands both the content and has the pedagogy. Where I think a reading series may run afoul of good practices may be in the pacing guides. I have long struggled with the "strategy of the week" approach of our current basal and find that if I really want students to use a comprehension strategy with any kind of independence, I cannot leave the strategy after a week, wait two months before I come back to it, and then expect students to pick up where they left off. Again...it takes a knowledgeable teacher to know how long to spend on a particular aspect of both deep and surface structure, and also to use Ellin's guidelines of what is essential, to dump the parts of the series that are less than essential. And... I think that the passion for learning, the drive to know and to understand...that too needs to be modeled. I wonder if a district series adoption makes that more difficult to do for some teachers...it is harder to follow interests if you are tied to a theme and/or particular stories in the theme. Yet...generally I agree with you. A good teacher will still find a way to bring in Ellin's ideas somehow. It is our responsibility as professionals to help each other learn and grow, to share knowledge of best practices and to help build pedagogical knowledge of best practices, including the nature of understanding in both our youngest teachers and our veterans, and perhaps in some cases, our administrators. (Though in my own case, I am blessed. That last item is not one issue I need to worry about!) :-) Jennifer In a message dated 6/14/2008 7:01:42 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
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. **************Vote for your city's best dining and nightlife. City's Best 2008. (http://citysbest.aol.com?ncid=aolacg00050000000102) _______________________________________________ Understand mailing list [email protected] http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/listinfo/understand_literacyworkshop.org
