I am a Primary school teacher with 15 years experience in teaching at both the primary and secondary levels. I have always had a love for reading and I am an avid reader. I also attempt to transmit this love of Reading in my teaching and practices. I have therefore found it difficult to understand why many children do not have the same keen interest in reading.
In many of our schools in Trinidad and Tobago, there are many readers who struggle as well as those who are alliterate (able to read but simply choose not to). Many of the struggling readers do not know what fluent reading should sound like and they struggle with vocabulary , chunking and phrasing.
Through my own reading and attempts to assist pupils under my charge, I have administered teacher- made and other tests as well as applied strategies which I have discovered over time. I believe that teachers are not only accountable to various stakeholders inclusive of pupils and their parents, but also to a conscience and to God. Thus, I discharge my responsibility with professionalism and a sense of responsibility.
The opportunity to become formally trained as a Reading Specialist is one which I grasped because I would be armed with the appropriate knowledge and strategies to assist pupils as well as their teachers. I therefore feel that it is important for teachers to become au courant with the theories, strategies and techniques which are important in affecting reading success.
Really, why do students struggle to read? Is it because they don't want to? Or because they are ashamed? Or because they struggle to make sense of print. I remember a class in the foundations of reading instruction where we were given a passage written in Dutch. Everything looked so foreign to us and we could not interpret it. This similar to what our students go through. They need the tools to decode what is in print. They need to be able to interpret the vocabulary associated with the shape of the word,and make associations between the word and is meaning. The more you see things through their eye the better your planning for reading instruction will become. So focus on the needs of your students and you will arrive at your destination which is student literacy.
ReplyDeleteTerence,
ReplyDeleteWhile I am indeed suggesting that some pupils in our classrooms are alliterate (NOT illiterate) there are those who indeed also struggle to read. They are unable to decode words and generally make sense of anything printed on a page. These are the students deemed at risk of failure.
How then do we go about remediating the struggling reader? We must offer the reader the opportunity to interact with electronic text and multiple forms of media within the classroom which may lead to greater motivation and engagement in literacy activities.
I’m saying in effect that these tools and strategies can be used in tandem with explicit teaching of reading skills.