Saturday, April 25, 2009
Jamie's Summary/Reflection of the book
Reading this book has challenged me to reevaluated the way I currently teach kids how to read. Last year, I focused mostly on skills, not strategies. This year, I have decided to shift focus and emphasize reading strategies to my classes. I post them on the classroom wall and do mini-lessons on a weekly basis. This book has emphasized that reading is strategic, and effective strategy instruction can improve students' ability to read. The strategies improve self-confidence because they give the students "ammo" to use when they get stuck. The kids don't feel stupid or embarrassed. I have utilized many of the ideas from this book and have noticed much improvement. Monitoring comprehension is probably the chapter that was the most helpful because my students have much difficulty in this area. I plan to continue implementing the ideas from the chapters. Overall, I have learned...if all else fails...use sticky notes!
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Jamie, I couldn't agree with you more heartily that reading instruction should be based on the strategies rather than skills. I completely support and feel that any teacher/ school/district that is focusing on skills rather than strategies are doing their students a disservice. However, in my district, we have seen the educational pendulum swing. They used to focus on skills but about five years ago, they brought in a program called Star W which taught the teachers to focus on strategies instead. This was very beneficial and students appeared to be making greater strides in their reading. However, at the end of last year we were given a newly written curriculum for everyone to follow that was 100% strategies and 0% skills. Now teachers feel that the "baby has been thrown out with the bath water" and they are trying to incorporate some skills as much as they can. So, I think it's always important to remind ourselves that we maintain balance in our teaching. (Does anyone think balance is my favorite word these days??)
ReplyDeleteJamie, you're so right about how strategies help the self-confidence of students. I used to have trouble getting my students to apply the skills I taught them on their own. Teaching strategies helped my students remember what they'd been taught even when they were reading independently.
ReplyDeleteI find that my students still have trouble with the Making Connections strategy. We'll have to keep working on that one!