This chapter is full of really good advice and information about students' reading. But, there are a few specific facets that I'd like to focus on.
"Reading rates usually increase faster during the elementary school years than during the middle and high school years" (208). So, if the reading rate increases this quickly and we are still employing the "tracking" system in the public education system, where are we accounting for the fact that students can be placed in the wrong level of education. For example, perhaps a student in the 3rd grade exhibits exemplary reading fluency and comprehension, but then his or her ability sharply declines the very next year? Or vice versa? Then these kids who have been placed in an honors English class will end up getting totally lost, or students who could really benefit from being in an honors program in high school will not get that opportunity. It's really upsetting. However, I do really like that Beers gives a more informal way to test students' reading rate on page 210. That way, a teacher could do several mini-tests each year just to keep up with a student's growth.
I know it seems like a really obvious statement, but I LOVED when Beers made in unquestionable that "students need to hear fluent reading in order to become fluent readers" (215). I thought, "well of course", but then I couldn't help but question how often I actually read to my tutorees. Their mother really focuses on my creating lesson plans for them to write, but I know that at least one of the two is a struggling reader. Reading and writing are so conjoined that I really think maybe I should designate at least five minutes in the beginning of a session to read to him. What do you all think?
Finally, I also think that I really do too much correcting when I hear my tutoree read. Beers is explicit in saying that a teacher needs to prompt a student to correct him or herself. She says that sometimes readers will need different prompts, such as, "Can you divide the word into syllables and sound it out that way?", but the simplest prompt is usually just to say, "Can you read that again?" (217)
I also found it amazing that Beers said not to correct a student when their reading, but then when I thought about it, it really made sense! I had a teacher when I was younger that would correct us, but then make us reread the sentence with us saying the word. I wonder if Beers would support that idea?
ReplyDeleteDid you like how beers gave the list at the top of page 218 on what to do when you don't know what a word is? I think that list can become VERY handy for struggling readers.