I'm taking a Linguistics class as I work toward my ESOL endorsement {the happy part is my district provides the books and reimburses me! Yippee!!} After muddling through about 5 chapters, I finally got to one that has something I think I can use - I'm just not sure how yet!
Two quotes from this book:
"Many struggling readers focus too much on phonics."
"Unfortunately, when students experience reading difficulties, the first response is often "They need more phonics."
First of all, I am SO seeing this at my school. We had the embarrassing distinction of scoring way low on our mid-year AIMS testing. So we are being asked: what do we do with phonics? How do you teach it? Are you following the basal reader's teacher guide? And we're a grade level that actually helped our school. I feel for some other teachers in our school.
Second, in retrospect, I'm noticing this in one of my lowest readers especially. I was very surprised when this boy didn't move up when I tested his DRA level before Christmas. His reading had been so fluent, I just knew for certain he'd move up, maybe even two levels. But even though he can read pretty well, he isn't comprehending what he's reading.
One thing my textbook says is that proficient readers don't depend on phonics skills; instead they use context. And the reverse is true of struggling readers - they depend almost solely on phonics skills.
What I'm realizing is that I've got to figure out how to encourage my students, especially my struggling students, to think about context - is what they are reading making sense.
I sorta skimmed over the chapter in this book:
that talked about that. Definitely need to go back and highlight some things in there.
So what about you? What do you do to help your struggling readers get past just reading the words? I'm looking for clues :)
Good Saturday Morning!
Where should I start?
OK, first, as I told one of my blogger friends, I was beginning to despair of getting a snow day this year. And I don't remember a year, even when my daughter was in school, that we didn't have at least one snow day. But we hit pay-dirt on Tuesday and Wednesday. I worked like mad both mornings - and not on school stuff! and watched TV and goofed in the afternoon.
Which brings me to this:
Sorry the second one is a little blurry, I was trying to get his back and they were walking.
First day back - The important thing is that as I took this picture, it was 8 degrees out; wind chill some mind numbing number. I mean, it's cold! And these two sweeties are wearing T-Shirts. Hello!!!
{The girl asked why I was taking her picture, and I told her I was going to show Mr. S. what she was wearing today. And she said, because it's so cold, right? Ummm, yes!}
One little share thing that I caught on a blog - and this time I know which blog!!! Teaching Maddenness wrote about a comprehension strategy she calls the Rainbow Strategy. She has them use a crayon to underline a question, and then the same crayon to underline where the answer is in the passage.
I have a comprehension intervention group that meets each morning. We had some books, but they were just too hard for these guys. So new books are on order, but I've got to have something to do until they come. We were working on characters - so I had them use yellow to underline what Emily said; red to underline what Emily did; and green to underline what Emily thought. Sorta like this:
{I like this short passage I got off of Reading A-Z.} You might notice that this little friend underlined what Mom said - no, no, no!
Of course, we didn't get to the discussion part, so we'll do that Monday.
So yeah, it's Saturday and the temp is way up to 18 degrees already this morning {brrr} - and my bubby is telling me he wants to head out for lunch. I'd better go bundle up! Have a great weekend.
