On Thursday September 28, we had two visiting speakers. Dinelia Rosa came to talk to us about coping with difficulties and most specifically preparing ourselves to work with the students who would likely come from different backgrounds that we did. Most important guidelines she gave us were threefold - 1) Awareness 2) Knowledge and 3) Understanding. We also talked about how we should be aware of our own perspective, feeling and where we are coming from. The aim is to acknowledge all these things so that we can most effectively help the students. They after all are the most important group in our interactions.
We also discussed the importance of structure and space, which all children need. There was some discussion about what were appropriate boundaries to set up so as to maintain proper lines of authority. The long and short of the matter is that it's not about "us", it's about the students.
Stephen Peverly also came to speak to us about the teaching of reading which I found to be a very fascinating session. We got an introduction into the basic themes of the "reading wars". He stressed the importance of developing automatiscity by encouraging them to read quickly and accurately. This is a very important foundation to lead them towards more intense comprehension of what they are reading as well as improving overall language ability. It makes perfect sense to me.
The basic components of the whole language approach to reading, from what I got, is that students are talk in word families, vocabulary of high frequency words is taught, and they are encouraged to learn meanings of words from context. This approach is an interactive approach that does not emphasize phonics.
Phonics on the other hand emphasizes a systematic focus on recognition of symbol sounds. Symbol-sound association is very important in this intensive and systematic approach. Dr. Peverly stressed that he considered both approaches necessary for achieving automatiscity in reading but if he were to choose an approach most appropriate for populations considered "at risk", he would restrict a curriculum to reading, writing and numeracy that intensely established automatiscity. Why is automatiscity so important? Research has shown that to the degree that we spend our time trying to recognize words is the degree that we do not have enough space in our working memory to comprehend what we are reading. In all basic skills automatiscity is essential!
Our work is not just to create individuals who can read well, but those who WANT to read. Learning to reading is closely related to developing verbal ability and reading is related to the ability to think critically. Equity is about equipping students with these skills in the first three grades.
We also discussed the importance of structure and space, which all children need. There was some discussion about what were appropriate boundaries to set up so as to maintain proper lines of authority. The long and short of the matter is that it's not about "us", it's about the students.
Stephen Peverly also came to speak to us about the teaching of reading which I found to be a very fascinating session. We got an introduction into the basic themes of the "reading wars". He stressed the importance of developing automatiscity by encouraging them to read quickly and accurately. This is a very important foundation to lead them towards more intense comprehension of what they are reading as well as improving overall language ability. It makes perfect sense to me.
The basic components of the whole language approach to reading, from what I got, is that students are talk in word families, vocabulary of high frequency words is taught, and they are encouraged to learn meanings of words from context. This approach is an interactive approach that does not emphasize phonics.
Phonics on the other hand emphasizes a systematic focus on recognition of symbol sounds. Symbol-sound association is very important in this intensive and systematic approach. Dr. Peverly stressed that he considered both approaches necessary for achieving automatiscity in reading but if he were to choose an approach most appropriate for populations considered "at risk", he would restrict a curriculum to reading, writing and numeracy that intensely established automatiscity. Why is automatiscity so important? Research has shown that to the degree that we spend our time trying to recognize words is the degree that we do not have enough space in our working memory to comprehend what we are reading. In all basic skills automatiscity is essential!
Our work is not just to create individuals who can read well, but those who WANT to read. Learning to reading is closely related to developing verbal ability and reading is related to the ability to think critically. Equity is about equipping students with these skills in the first three grades.
posted by Miss J at 8:53 AM
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