book discussion-Chapters 4 and 5 "What Really Matters for Struggling Readers"

Book discussion-Chapters 4 and 5

Tracy, Ryan and I discussed repeated reading increases fluency and that it can be developed.  Teachers should not interrupt readers and continuously prompt and reassure as students, especially those that struggle, come to expect it and it makes their reading more “choppy”.  We, as a school, need to make sure everyone, including aides are trained in the approach to take when a reader produces a mispronunciation or simply stop while reading aloud.

We all agreed, with Dr. Allington, that we need to encourage more real conversation between students about what they have read.  We should not just be asking them questions to which we already know the answer.

We discussed ways of increasing background knowledge for our students.  One idea that we discussed is for each grade level to identify a field trip that would help with this.  Some of our students who are at a high poverty level rarely have the opportunity to take these types of trips, otherwise.

We are certain that teachers work hard, but often they are not teaching the right way for students to learn.  One example of this is that schools purchase boxed intervention programs that help with decoding skills.  Dr. Allington states that only about 10% of struggling readers need this type of instruction.  In reality, they are having difficulty with comprehension, so teachers must be able to ask the right questions to effectively teach comprehension strategies.

Benton Elementary is focusing on many of the strategies that Dr. Allington discusses for teaching vocabulary.  We are even putting more of an emphasis on implementing this for the upcoming year.  We are in agreement with his idea that students need to have vocabulary instruction.  Another thing that we can improve on is allowing students to become part of the “decorating” of their classrooms.  Instead of purchasing pre-made bulletin board cut outs, allow more input and participation by students.  An example is a list of different adjectives that are displayed on a wall.  If students are encouraged to invest in the making of the display, they are highly more likely to make use of it.  Our school is making great strides and must continue to implement effective teaching strategies for our students.