Reading takes work and since the work goes “underground” the concept becomes daunting for students who need to work harder than others because it is not a visual process. How do we impress upon all students that reading at any age takes practice and work?
I think that one of the things that the middle school reading teachers in our district did very well was identify the root of the struggle for those students in grades 5-8 that were having difficulty. In the past, once a student reaches middle school, reading intervention focused on teaching students strategies that they needed to better understand the texts they would be reading in their content area classes. This year if students needed support in phonics or phonemic awareness that is where reading intervention support was focused. Because much of the work of reading is “underground” it is important to be intentional with assessments that will identify the root cause of the struggle and work specifically on the skills that students are missing.
-What stood out to you in these chapters?
The stories about George really stood out to me. As a former middle school science teacher, I can think of many students that were like George. I knew they were struggling to comprehend a text (especially science texts) but I was not sure how to help them. Like Beers, I have often thought about how I failed those students because I did not have a “toolbox” of strategies to help students be more confident and successful readers.
-How does the Science of Reading impact your instruction? (regardless of content area)
Most recently I have started reading Shifting the Balance. I really appreciate how this book ties the science of reading research to the balanced literacy model. The authors point out that although it is important that students receive explicit instruction on vocabulary, fluency, phonics, phonemic awareness and comprehension it is also important that students are given time to read books at their level that will help to instill a love for reading. At our district we are trying to identify what components of the science of reading research need to be incorporated into our balanced literacy curriculum to meet the needs of all of our students.
-What skills are important to be able to read?
I love Scarborough’s reading rope to identify the important skills that students need to develop to be able to read. The rope identifies two important strands: language comprehension (background knowledge, vocabulary, language structure, verbal reasoning and literacy knowledge) and word recognition (phonological awareness, decoding and sight recognition) form the strands that weave together to create a skilled reader. If a student is missing any one of the skills the rope becomes weaker which makes skilled reading less likely.