Catching Readers Before They Fall

As a Reading Teacher or Literacy Coach, you occasionally hear comments that are related to teaching reading in upper elementary grades.  Here are the “Top Ten” fallacies or misunderstandings that I’ve heard over the years.

1. “The kids in my class already read chapter books, so there’s nothing left for me to teach them.”
2. “All my students can pass the state tests, so why should I give up precious class time to reading?”
3. “I’ve got a few struggling readers, but, to tell you the truth, I blame the primary teachers for not teaching enough phonics.”
4. “I have way too much content — in Science and Social Studies — in my grade.  I can’t afford to give that much time to reading during the school day.”
5. “I have so many English Language Learners and Learning Disabled students in my room, that I have to read the texts TO them.  They just follow along.”
6. “I can’t possibly read all the books the kids are reading, so I always use whole class novels.  That way we all do the book together.”
7. “My students do get time to read everyday, but it’s a homework assignment.  They are expected to read at home for ½ hour every night.”
8. “I assess my students on reading with a word inventory and a spelling inventory.  I don’t’ have time for one-on-one conferring.”
9. “I like my struggling readers to get pulled out by a resource teacher, so that I can really teach reading to the bulk of the class.”
10.   “I have my students read chapter books each month, but the books have to connect with a content area topic.”

If you find yourself saying any of these —- STOP!!!—– REFLECT — and start a conversation with your colleagues.  Then find a group who would like to do a teachers-as-readers group with one of these books:

Sibberson & Syzmusiak  Still Learning to Read, Stenhouse

Tovani    I Read It But I don’t Get It, Stenhouse

Vinton/Barnhouse   What Readers Really Do, Heinemann

Schulman, Guided Reading in Grades 3-6, Scholastic

How are you handling comments like this in your schools?

I’m reading Susan Cain’s book called Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking. (Love that title!) As teachers, we come across all kinds of kids in our classrooms, but I’m wondering how much thought we put into the activities we set up and how comfortable or uncomfortable they make kids feel.

The book is full of stories and ideas for forming better relationships between parents and children, husbands and wives, and friendships (whether one person is an introvert and the other an extrovert or both the same).  It’s not an ‘educational book,’ but I could not help but read it through a teacher’s lens, especially the chapter entitled “On Cobblers and Generals:  How to Cultivate Quiet Kids in a World That Can’t Hear Them.” Here, the author suggests that most schools are designed for extroverts  —- teachers teach many lessons to the whole group, calling on the children who raise their hands and constantly have something to say; some group work often allows the more gregarious child to take control; being aggressive in sports in highly valued in most schools; teachers often put on report cards comments like, “I wish Molly would talk more in class”; and so on.

Here are some ideas or comments that I drew from this text:

1.  Don’t think of introversion as something that needs to be cured.  If an introverted child needs help with social skills, teach her, but celebrate these kids for who they are.

2. Studies show that one third to one half of us are introverts, so you may have more introverted kids in your class than you think.  Balance teaching methods to serve all kids.  Extroverts tend to like movement, stimulation, and collaborative work.  Introverts prefer individual choice, downtime, quiet work places, and independent projects (or working with just one or two others).

3.  Don’t seat quiet kids in “high-interaction” areas of the classroom.  They will feel more threatened and will have trouble concentrating.

4.  Make it easy for introverted kids to participate in class, but don’t insist.  Communications professor McClosky says, “Forcing highly apprehensive young people to perform orally is harmful.  It will increase apprehension and reduce self-esteem.”

5. Introverts often have one or two deep interests that are not necessarily shared by their peers and sometimes they are made to feel freaky for their passions.  Build a community spirit in your classroom and value everyone’s uniqueness or strengths.  Strongly enforce anti-bullying programs.

6.  “One of the best things you can do for an introverted child is to work with him on his reaction to novelty.  Remember that introverts react not only to new people, but also to new places and events.  So don’t mistake a child’s caution in new situations for an inability to relate to others.  He’s recoiling from novelty or overstimulation, not from human contact. Introverts are just as likely as the next kid to seek others’ company, though often in smaller doses.” S. Cain,  p. 248.

I highly recommend this book if you are a parent of an introverted child, whether you are an introvert or extrovert yourself. Any thoughts or comments?

I received an email recently from a school I am working with.  The preschool and K teachers had liked what I said about Shared Reading and they wanted to order some Big Books.  They asked me for my favorites, so of course, I mentioned Mrs. Wishy Washy, Dan, the Flying Man, The Hungry Giant, One Cold Wet Night, Who’s in the Shed?, Who Will be My Mother, The Enormous Watermelon and a bunch of others.  I emailed two other primary teachers I had worked with and asked for their recent favorites to add to the list I was recommending.  They reminded me of several non-fiction ones that were fabulous. It was definitely a GREAT list!

But here’s the catch.  When the teachers went to find out about ordering these, they ran into several dead ends.  I tried to help by researching where these could be found.  Except for some Mrs. Wishy Washy books (see Katie’s post), I didn’t have much luck either. Where have all the Big Books gone?

Then I read Shari Frost’s article just days later.  She expresses her concern about teachers who are not doing Shared Reading experiences in many K-2 classrooms. This is definitely a related issue that concerns me.  If you are lucky enough to HAVE these Big Books in your building, what are you doing with them?  I’m keeping my post short today, so that you can read Shari’s article (in case you don’t regularly read Choice Literacy.) It echoes my sentiments exactly.

In my travels recently, doing workshops about supporting struggling readers, I’ve had several conversations about the loss of funding for Reading Recovery.  Teachers from North Carolina, New Hampshire, and even one from Halifax, Nova Scotia told me how much they value what they learned as Reading Recovery teachers, how much it has helped those children who are most at risk for learning to read in grade 1, how powerfully the Reading Recovery program has influenced their school, and so on.  Yet, these teachers also reported that their funding has been cut and they’ve been moved into other positions. I’m still scratching my head trying to make sense of this.

Whole districts, counties, and states have done away with Reading Recovery.  What in the world were they thinking? We know Reading Recovery has powerful results as an early intervention model, just check out the What Works Clearinghouse. Also keep in mind that RTI suggests not only quality classroom instruction, but also extra small group support on the next tier, and one-on-one help for students who still need additional support.  ALL OF THESE PIECES are crucial.  We can’t keep trading one for another.

I heard Richard Allington say (at an IRA conference a few years ago) that we KNOW how to help struggling readers; we KNOW what early intervention support is supposed to look like; and we even have enough money to do so. We are just NOT spending our money in the right ways. At this conference and in an article he wrote for Ed Leadership, he talks about what one-on-one help and small group support should look like. He also mentions what doesn’t work. He definitely sees the knowledge level of the teacher as a major important factor.  I cringe when I visit schools where I see a parent volunteer or untrained assistant working with the most at-risk students out in the hall.

One reason I heard for why Reading Recovery has been cut in many places has been that it was replaced with LLI kits.  Principals have said, “Why have a teacher working with one student when she can be working with three at a time?” I am sure Fountas and Pinnell (who developed the LLI kits) did NOT intend for this to happen.

So what happened in these places?  Who is to blame?  Did administrators break under pressure from above and not defend Reading Recovery in their buildings? Is there a relationship between Reading Recovery getting cut and the Common Core coming in? Did the money that used to fund Reading Recovery get spent on test prep materials? Did Reading Recovery teachers themselves not help enough to ensure that others understood its necessity? Did Fountas and Pinnell not make it clear enough what LLI kits were for?

Thanks for listening to me “sounding off” about this topic. I have no answers, only questions… and sadness, too.

I’m presently reading My Beloved World, the memoir by Sonia Sotomayor.  It’s wonderful!  There are so many places in the book where I feel she is speaking directly to me, as a teacher, or as a parent and grandparent. At other times, I can see her message loud and clear for kids, especially those who are trying hard to break the cycle of poverty in their families by getting a good education.

Sonia had a big aha moment in fifth grade.  She was an extremely avid reader as a child, but realized that a handful of students (not her) always got the top marks.  She finally got up the nerve to ask a top student how she studied.

“Donna Renella looked surprised, maybe even flattered.  In any case, she generously divulged her technique:  how, while she was reading, she underlined important facts and took notes to condense information into smaller bits that were easier to remember; how, the night before a test, she would reread the relevant chapter.  Obvious things once you’ve learned them, but at the time deriving them on my own would have been like trying to invent the wheel.”

This made me think of how important explicit modeling and gradual release of responsibility is when teaching our students.  I’ve often said that struggling readers do not realize what goes on inside the heads of proficient readers as they read. Hopefully teachers are sharing this knowledge as they teach FOR strategies— teaching in ways that the child sees how the strategy could help him, takes the strategy on, and uses it when independently reading. Teaching inferring or questioning or visualizing or making connections, and so on, is only useful if the child actually makes use of it when he/she is stuck on a word, phrase, or passage.

As Sonia Sotomayor continues this story she realizes what an important life lesson this was for her.  I wish all teachers would find a way to share it with their students.

“But the more critical lesson I learned that day is still one too many kids never figure out:  don’t be shy about making a teacher of any willing party who knows what he or she is doing.  In retrospect, I can see how important that pattern would become for me:  how readily I’ve sought out mentors, asking guidance from professors or colleagues, and in every friendship soaking up eagerly whatever that friend could teach me.” (p. 72)

What a wonderful way to live your life… learning from every person you come in contact with!  And, at the same time, being humble and respectful enough of others to realize that everyone has something to teach you.

How have you encouraged your students to learn from each other?  Are you the only teacher in the room?