First Steps in Learning to Read...

[zoebartlett]

Amc, I was in elementary school in the early '80s and although I know SRAs were around, I don't remember doing them. I happened to find a really old set the other day at my school (no one uses them but we had them for some reason). I didn't like them either.

 

[amc80]

Does anyone remember doing SRA? They were these little books you would read, then answer questions about the story. Each level was a different color. God, I hated those things. I remember moving to a new school, in a different district, and I was so bummed to learn the new school had SRA as well. I think I had to do them 1st-3rd grade, if I remember correctly. I remember the day I finally finished with the last level, red. Pure joy.

On a related note, I've always been bad with reading comprehension. I remember as a 2nd or 3rd grader being able to read really fast...but I was just seeing the words, not really soaking them in. I finally realized the problem- I would think I was reading but would really be thinking about all sorts of other stuff. In order for me to really comprehend I have to force myself to pay attention to the words. It's probably why I'm not much of a reader today.

I could give you some strategies to help you focus, if you're interested. Maybe even convert you into an avid reader in the process.

I'm going OOT for the weekend, but I'll check back and see if you're interested. You describe exactly what plagues most of the college students who end up in my classroom. The good news is that the ones who take my class seriously, and apply the skills and tools I give them, end up much better readers. It can be done! It's never too late!

Thanks, I'd appreciate that! It's interesting, because I still graduated with honors, got my MA degree, etc....so it certainly didn't hinder me. And my undergrad degree was in Economics and Political Science, and the PoliSci side had a ridiculous amount of reading. But I could never just pick up a book casually read. It had to be a true effort in concentration.

Oh, and I've been reading the latest book in the Shopaholic series for about a year and a half now. That tells you what kind of reader I am

 

[amc80]

Amc, I was in elementary school in the early '80s and although I know SRAs were around, I don't remember doing them. I happened to find a really old set the other day at my school (no one uses them but we had them for some reason). I didn't like them either.

Ahh, validation

 

[nfowife]

mayerling, this is exactly why it is so difficult to work with struggling readers whose first language is not English. Because they get to a word they don't know/recognize (it's not a sight word or just one they've never seen before) and even if they sound it out they don't know if it's even right if it's an unfamiliar word. The word has no meaning to them so they just continue on and then they aren't getting anything out of what they are reading, it's just straight decoding.
Here's an example from my first year teaching at a school where 98% of the kids were native Spanish speakers and spoke Spanish at home, with English only at school. We were reading a story (one of those truly boring phonics stories) and we get to the word JAM. So the child reading gets to the word, tries to sound it out and gets it right. We read the rest of the story and are discussing it when she raises her hand and says, "What's Jam?". The problem is, if you don't have the background and the vocabulary to make sense of a word after you sound it out, it's meaningless. She could have read it as JUM or JIN and it wouldn't have meant squat to her because she didn't know the word either way. It's very hard to work with these students because you are trying to fill in all this stuff that more advantaged kids already came in with, plus keep them moving up in their ability and skills.

Pandora, the best thing you can do to help your daughter learn to read is READ TO HER. Don't worry about instructing her. Just keep reading to her, and follow her lead. If she asks you how to spell something, answer her. If you want to point out things like "Your name is Betsy. Betsy starts with the "b" sound. What's another word that starts with the "B" sound like Betsy" that is a good start. If she has the interest she will probably pick it up in the next year or so on her own with no formal instruction from you.
I highly recommend reading "The Read Aloud Handbook" by Jim Trelease. It discusses the importance and benefits of reading to your child and has great book lists too.

 

[Pandora II]

mayerling, this is exactly why it is so difficult to work with struggling readers whose first language is not English. Because they get to a word they don't know/recognize (it's not a sight word or just one they've never seen before) and even if they sound it out they don't know if it's even right if it's an unfamiliar word. The word has no meaning to them so they just continue on and then they aren't getting anything out of what they are reading, it's just straight decoding.
Here's an example from my first year teaching at a school where 98% of the kids were native Spanish speakers and spoke Spanish at home, with English only at school. We were reading a story (one of those truly boring phonics stories) and we get to the word JAM. So the child reading gets to the word, tries to sound it out and gets it right. We read the rest of the story and are discussing it when she raises her hand and says, "What's Jam?". The problem is, if you don't have the background and the vocabulary to make sense of a word after you sound it out, it's meaningless. She could have read it as JUM or JIN and it wouldn't have meant squat to her because she didn't know the word either way. It's very hard to work with these students because you are trying to fill in all this stuff that more advantaged kids already came in with, plus keep them moving up in their ability and skills.

Pandora, the best thing you can do to help your daughter learn to read is READ TO HER. Don't worry about instructing her. Just keep reading to her, and follow her lead. If she asks you how to spell something, answer her. If you want to point out things like "Your name is Betsy. Betsy starts with the "b" sound. What's another word that starts with the "B" sound like Betsy" that is a good start. If she has the interest she will probably pick it up in the next year or so on her own with no formal instruction from you.
I highly recommend reading "The Read Aloud Handbook" by Jim Trelease. It discusses the importance and benefits of reading to your child and has great book lists too.

We read to her a lot and she knows rather a lot of books off by heart now, she's starting to ask about individual letters and I'm worried about pronouncing them wrong - have already discovered from the red-shirting thread that I'm pronouncing 'b' wrong!

 

[zoebartlett]

Pandora, I'm sorry. Like Haven pointed out, when you're talking about sounds, it's a little difficult to write out. I didn't mean to imply that you (or anyone else) are doing something wrong.

 

[Pandora II]

Pandora, I'm sorry. Like Haven pointed out, when you're talking about sounds, it's a little difficult to write out. I didn't mean to imply that you (or anyone else) are doing something wrong.

Zoe, no, not at all - it's incredibly helpful, and exactly what I want to know as I want to get it right! T'he rolling eyes were intend at my own uselessness!

Is there a resource that tells you the correct ah, buh, cuh sounds?

 

[nfowife]

You just don't want to add a vowel sound at the end. Cut off the sound to just what the letter says. B says /b/ not /buh/, if that makes sense.

 

[diamondseeker2006]

I happen to be a specialist in reading disorders, and 100% of the kids I have worked with had a deficit in the area of phonemic awareness and phonics. A human being is incapable of memorizing all the words in the language, so we must be able to sound words out. Good readers do this without thinking about it. Even those of us who were taught with sight-based methods generalize sounds in words to new words. But kids who have poor phonemic awareness cannot do this. And for this reason, it is very important that all children be taught phonics so they can learn to decode unknown words. It also can greatly improve spelling. Yes, there are some words that are rule-breakers (irregular) that cannot be sounded out. Those are memorized or guessed through context. But it is essential that children be given the tools to decode most words. The US went on a tangent called "Whole Language" for a number of years that discarded structured phonics (and phonetic spelling instruction) for a whole-word approach and it was a disaster resulting in something like 60% of 4th graders in the US scoring below basic level in reading. Then there was a great deal of research into what the problem was and the best way to teach reading, and that resulted in a huge report by the National Reading Panel in 2000. That site has a wealth of information: http://www.nationalreadingpanel.org/

Yes, nfowife is SO correct that there is more to reading than phonics! A brief summary here:

The National Reading Panel has identified the 5 major areas of reading that research shows must be in place for reading proficiency. These areas, followed by a brief definition are:

Phonemic Awareness: the ability to identify and manipulate sounds in words. (Phonological awareness is a broader area which involves identifying and manipulating larger units such as words, syllables, onsets, and rimes.) It is important because it helps children decode words and learn to spell.

Phonics: Also known as the Alphabetic Principle, phonics is the ability to associate sounds with letters and then combine them into words. The scientific research has found that systematic and explicit instruction in phonics is most effective and should be started in kindergarten and first grade.

Fluency: the ability to read text accurately and quickly. Fluent reading is effortless and with expression. Children who have to focus on decoding will read slowly and be unable to give full attention to the meaning of the text. Repeated oral reading with error correction is an effective method of improving reading fluency.

Vocabulary: the words we use to receive or convey meaning through listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Vocabulary is learned indirectly and should also be taught directly. Poor vocabulary is very detrimental to comprehension.

Text Comprehension: understanding what is read; the reason for reading. Comprehension strategies must be taught directly. Six strategies that research has shown help improve comprehension are: comprehension monitoring (thinking as one reads through the text), using graphic and semantic organizers, answering questions, generating questions, recognizing story structure, and summarizing. Background knowledge is another essential component in comprehension in addition to the 4 items above text comprehension.

 

[diamondseeker2006]

Now, for Pandora specifically...

I have had contact over the years with colleagues in the UK who have gone through the same thing we have gone through here trying to get schools to go back to proper reading instruction. I am going to give you a couple of sites that should be helpful, although some may be more geared to teachers than parents.

First, here is a site with a good synthetic phonics reading program, and on this page, she says all the sounds on video so you can learn to say them correctly!

http://www.phonicsinternational.com/new_hear_sounds.html


Suggestions for supporting your young child with early reading from the Reading Reform Foundation (and there is other good info on the site):

http://www.rrf.org.uk/pdf/parentsguidanceforreading.pdf

I don't personally really think it is the best idea to teach children to read before they start school because they may end up quite bored in school. Not only that, research shows that by the end of third grade, the early starters are no further ahead of those who started learning at age 5. But if you do go ahead, just be sure you are using good resources to do it the right way. A good beginning phonics program in the UK is called Jolly Phonics. There are some materials on the products page that are appropriate for home use. I have seen some of these materials and they are really appealing for children!

http://jollylearning.co.uk/overview-about-jolly-phonics/

http://jollylearning.co.uk/shop/

Naturally you continue reading to your child to build their vocabulary and knowledge and pleasure in reading books while a phonics program is being taught.

Hope this helps!

 

[Pandora II]

Thanks diamond-seeker - this is exactly what I'm hearing from teachers over here.

Are there any schemes/programmes/courses etc that you particularly like, recommend? I've heard a lot about 'Jolly Phonics' and 'Read Write Inc' - not sure if these are UK only though.

 

[diamondseeker2006]

Yep, see my second post! And you are very welcome! I am very passionate about this subject because it can affect a child's entire future if they are not taught to read well! (And I definitely recommend Jolly Phonics!)

 

[Pandora II]

Ooops, cross post...

I would agree about not teaching her to read before school and had had no intentions of doing so, but when your child comes and sits on your knee while you're playing with your laptop and starts pointing out the letters and what they can be ie 'a is for apple, p is for princess' and you didn't actually realise they even knew what they looked like it's a bit of a shock!

Then her nursery said that the staff were all in the process of going on phonics training courses and that DD is wanting to do what her 4 year-old friends are doing - learning to form letters etc you think that you'd probably be better to just run with it and see what happens.

I just don't want to go against the school method - nothing worse than the first week of school consisting of 'mummy says to do it like this' and 'well Daisy we do it this way at school' so I want to 'get with the programme'.

Off to look at those links,

Thank you!

 

[diamondseeker2006]

I think when the child shows interest, it is fine to give them a little instruction! Her fine motor skills probably aren't really ready for writing, so I wouldn't try to have her write letters yet, but it wouldn't hurt to use her forefinger to trace big letters in the air or on a table with you holding her hand while saying the sound. It is a problem when children come into school forming letters incorrectly because if they have written them a lot, it is pretty ingrained in their motor memory and very hard to change.

If she points to a letter in a book, you can say, "That is /t/. It is the first sound in the word 'table' (or whatever the word is)." (Letters between the slashes generally mean to say the sound and not the letter name. And I gave you a link to a video with the sounds.)

 

[mia1181]

Okay I am halfway through this thread and I am just loving this discussion! I have some of the same language and grammar pet peeves as you ladies! Mayerling, I went to school to be a teacher so I was a bit sensitive reading about your fears that you will be annoyed by teachers. It really frustrates me when parents seem to want to be at odds with teachers. But once you explained your point, I totally get it and agree! It is really frustrating when grammar myths etc., are perpetuated by people. My first name ends in an "s" and I really HATE having to explain why I prefer to write "__s's" as a possessive for my name because everyone's teacher just told them to add an apostrophe at the end. It must be really difficult for you since you probably notice incorrect uses of language much more frequently than most people. Thanks for your insight on this subject!

I could give you some strategies to help you focus, if you're interested. Maybe even convert you into an avid reader in the process.

I'm going OOT for the weekend, but I'll check back and see if you're interested. You describe exactly what plagues most of the college students who end up in my classroom. The good news is that the ones who take my class seriously, and apply the skills and tools I give them, end up much better readers. It can be done! It's never too late!

Hey Haven, what about the opposite problem? I read veeeeery slowly. I take a lot of time to process each word and often find myself saying the words in my head. In high school we did a speed reading unit where we were instructed never to pronounce words in our head and keep our eyes moving as we read. Some of my classmates mastered speed reading, but I felt like I had a hard time keeping up and comprehending what I was reading.

Okay gonna finish reading the thread now!

 

[mayerling]

Thanks for understanding, Mia. I was actually thinking over this last couple of days that perhaps my posts came off as really rude to teachers. I'm sorry.

 

[soocool]

DD is now 19, but she began reading just before she turned 4. I remember that she had these large Sesame Street plastic letters of the alphabet at age 2 to 2 1/2 and I placed them in order. She knew the song and started pointing to the letters while singing the song. It was soon after that that I noticed that she would pull out certain letters and tell me what they are. Then when she was 3, while I read to her (Berenstain Bear book series were her favorite!) I would point to the words I read and she seemed to picked up very quickly to the " and, the, it, the, was, etc. And while some people would tell me she just memorized the text, I could open the book to any page and she would read what I asked.

I am not a professional and did not research teaching a child to read. It just came to her naturally. She was the only kid in her kindergarten class who could read, while some others in her class struggled even when they got to 2nd grade. But all these kids have graduated high school already and are in college now.

 

[littlelysser]

Hi Pandora!

Interesting discussion.

I'll share my perspective on this, FWIW. I really think at her age, you can't go wrong by engaging her and having fun with the letters and words and sounds.

Here's where we are with the reading: Don't know if you recall, but letters and books have always been Mr. C's favorite thing. We have video of him at like 3 months, listening to DH read Dr. Suess to him, completely engrossed. He had a little play laptop with letters and sounds that we got him when he was about a year old. And he has always loved the American show,Word World, which he watched 30 mins/day after he was 18 months. It is a great show - is all about teaching phonics and letter sounds. And of course, he's always had books around and we read to him a lot.

We realized that he was actually learning when DH gave him an alphabet cookie and he said "buh" and it was a B. He did the same with the T and the M. He was about 20 months. We were pretty surprised - he wasn't much of a talker at the time.

Seeing his interest, DH and I got magnetic letters, looked at some website that had letter games (which he loves to this day, begging us to PLAY LETTERS) and just sort of supported him. We didn't push him at all. When he'd bring the letters over to play, we'd sort of mess around with them and he'd hand me a letter and I'd make the sound and give him a word that started with the letter. All totally fun. The kid just loved his letters. I'm SURE we did things that weren't "correct," but it really didn't even occur to me to worry about it! Just by doing those things, he learned all of his letters (upper and lower case) and their sounds.

He just turned 2 and 1/2 - which blows me away - but he's sight reading and spelling (all three letter words, with exception, randomly, of "mask") with his magnetic letters. He was very proud that he spelled apple - APL - with his letters. He tell me he's "making words." I like to ask him what letter a certain word starts with, or ask him if he can tell me some words that start with L, etc.

I don't if there is anything else we should be doing at this point.

I'd appreciate any counsel from those in the know. We want to continue to encourage him, but I don't want to push him or hothouse him.

 

[Haven]

Great discussion in this thread.

I wasn't going to bring up The Big Five, as we refer to the five components of reading in my little group of reading specialists, but it warms my heart to see that people are actually interested in learning about the reading process.

Now that it's been brought up, I will add that emergent readers must first become phonologically aware before they can develop phonemic awareness. Phonological awareness is, in a nutshell, the recognition that words are made up of sounds, and that the sounds can be chunked. Children cannot learn phonics until they've developed phonological awareness, so doing things like pointing to words as you read them aloud is a great help for your emergent readers. Once they understand that words are made up of sounds, then they can begin to learn phonemes, as well as begin to connect letters with corresponding sounds. These skills will ultimately lead to learning phonics, decoding words, and READING. Keep it up, moms!

Pandora--I wanted to add that accents affect the way we teach letter-sound correspondence. The /b/ sound remains the same, of course, but once you begin working with onsets and rimes there will be some major differences between the way you pronounce CAT, and the way I pronounce CAT. This doesn't really have any large implications for this thread, but it's just interesting. One of my former graduate students is from the deep south, and she had a very difficult time adjusting to our bland Midwestern accent when it came to teaching her students onsets and rimes. She added an extra syllable to the common rime AT, for example. (Think "CA-YAT" instead of "CAT", "RA-YAT" instead of "RAT") I'd be interested to learn about the common rimes used in the UK versus the US, and how our different accents affect the way we approach phonics instruction. Just thinking as I stype here, but it is interesting, isn't it?

Mia--You describe a situation that plagues a lot of my college reading students. I'd have to meet with you individually to really figure out what's going on, of course, but in lieu of that I can throw some ideas out there and see if any of them resonate with you.

The issue might be skills related to fluency, comprehension, or vocabulary. OR, it might be a combination of a couple things that straddle into two or three of these components.

Fluency skills/behaviors to consider:
Fixations. When we read, our eyes make fixations, or points at which our eyes stop and rest as we read lines across a page. The fewer fixations a reader makes, the faster she reads. It sounds like your eyes might be making fixations after every single word you read, which is going to significantly affect your reading rate. It is possible to train your eyes to fixate two or three times for every line you read, it just takes practice. I would begin by trying to read a familiar novel and practice making a fixation once in the middle of each line, and once at the end. Trust your eyes to take in the words in-between. Practice with the same passage until you get used to making only two fixations on a line, and then move on to the next passage.

If this doesn't help, then perhaps you might want to consider working on some comprehension skills.
Research shows that the things you do before you read have the greatest affect on your reading comprehension. Before reading skills include things such as activating prior knowledge, predicting, asking questions, setting a purpose for reading, making connections to the reading, and previewing. (Obviously, these things are all inter-relating, and the reading brain doesn't break down one skill and then move on to the other. For the purpose of discussion and teaching, we break them down into separate skills. Just have to include that disclaimer.) The more you do these things, the more fluid and successful your reading experience will be.

From my years working with adult developmental readers, I've come to believe that activating prior knowledge and setting a purpose are the two most powerful before reading skills. Readers who do not activate their prior knowledge or set a purpose often read at a slower pace with lower comprehension. Activating PK is simple and becomes automatic for skilled readers. All it takes is a couple minutes of thinking about what you know about the topic, the author, the ideas you believe you are about to read, etc. To set a purpose, I teach my students to do two things: 1) Identify the type of annotation and the amount they plan to make while reading the text. (This can be to note a connection, ask a question, identify a key idea or moment, etc. Two questions per page, for example.) 2) To set a time or length that they plan to read before taking a break. (I will read for 20 minutes. Or, I will read the next ten pages before taking a break.)

These seem like very simple things, but they are powerful, and they work.

If these approaches don't help, then you might need to work on developing metacognition. Metacognition is basically thinking about your thinking--skilled readers are aware of the way their thoughts are helping or hurting thie reading *as they read*, and this awareness leads to better fluency and comprehension.

To do this, consider tracking your Inner Voice to develop metacognition and determine what is getting in the way of your reading. (Cris Tovani talked about the Inner Voice concept at a presentation in Chicago around 2006, and I appropriated the idea and made it my own.) Your Inner Voice is that voice you have in your head while reading. Some people hear a voice, others see images or pictures, or colors, etc. Whatever you see, I'm going to call it the Inner Voice. You have two types of Inner Voice: A Useful Voice, and a Waste of Time Voice. The Useful Voice does things like ask questions, make predictions, connect, etc. The Waste of Time Voice distracts you by thinking about the laundry you have to do, what you plan to eat for dinner, or how the girl behind you is so annoying because she is clicking her pen.

This is what I'm going to ask you to do: Read a short two-page article and track every single thing your Inner Voice says while you read it. This is going to be annoying, and it is going to take time. That's okay, in time it will become easy and automatic, but until then, we need to figure out what is slowing you down while you read so we'll start here.

Once you record your Inner Voice, take a look at what it said to you. (The brain is an amazing thing--your eyes can move across a page, decode every single word they see, yet comprehend none of them, by the way. This is why need to learn to identify the waste of time voice as soon as it kicks in, and to shut it off.) Was your Useful Voice speaking? If so, that's great! What about your Waste of Time Voice? What did it say?

If your Waste of Time Voice was speaking, identify the source of the distraction.
Can you eliminate the distraction? (If your Waste of Time Voice keeps saying "Cheese fries! Cheese fries!" Maybe you just need to eat something before you'll be able to focus and read at a better pace.)
Can you ignore the distraction? (If your Waste of Time Voice keeps talking about that annoying girl and her clicking pen, can you move your seat? Or ask her to stop? Or just get over it?)
Do you need to take a break from reading right now? (If your Waste of Time voice is focused on how terrible you feel about your friend who just told you she's going to get a divorce, and you can't think of anything else but that at the moment, you just aren't ready to read right now. That's okay, too.)

Practice developing an awareness of your Inner Voice, and when it becomes distracting, turn it off. Once you turn it off, reset your purpose for reading, and start anew.

Finally, vocabulary. I don't imagine this is the issue, but if you run into ten or more unfamiliar words in a typical two-page layout, then that text is written at a level that is going to frustrate you if you try to read it without getting the necessary background knowledge about those words before you begin. If this is the case, consider scanning texts for unfamiliar words and write short definitions or synonyms above them before you begin reading.

These are just a few things I can think of that might help you get started. Without watching you read, I figure it's best to throw out a variety of things that fall under different components. Maybe one of them will work for you. Let me know!

 

[TravelingGal]

Interesting discussion!

I've been reading to Amelia since she was 3 months old. She's always loved it!

And now she has no real interest in spelling but is fascinated by addition and subtraction and is enjoying doing basic math. So GO FIGURE.

I just figure, it'll all work out at some point. In the meantimes, I'm not going to stress too much that everyone around here says "buh".

 

[Haven]

Interesting discussion!

I've been reading to Amelia since she was 3 months old. She's always loved it!

And now she has no real interest in spelling but is fascinated by addition and subtraction and is enjoying doing basic math. So GO FIGURE.

I just figure, it'll all work out at some point. In the meantimes, I'm not going to stress too much that everyone around here says "buh".

This is the perfect attitude, TGal!

In time, the words will out. Until then, have fun with all those numbers!

 

[innerkitten]

My daughter is in kindergarten and they seem to be sounding things out. She is reading a little bit but doesn't seem excited about it. Wish she was. She's way more excited about math.

 

[Haven]

My daughter is in kindergarten and they seem to be sounding things out. She is reading a little bit but doesn't seem excited about it. Wish she was. She's way more excited about math.

To-may-to, to-mah-to, I say! It's great that she's excited about SOMETHING in school!

 

[MichelleCarmen]

Pandora, the best thing you can do to help your daughter learn to read is READ TO HER. Don't worry about instructing her. Just keep reading to her, and follow her lead. If she asks you how to spell something, answer her. If you want to point out things like "Your name is Betsy. Betsy starts with the "b" sound. What's another word that starts with the "B" sound like Betsy" that is a good start. If she has the interest she will probably pick it up in the next year or so on her own with no formal instruction from you.

I agree that reading is the best approach.

Both my kids read at a much higher reading level and my younger son is so beyond spelling for his grade level that his teacher gave me a packet and is having me teach him at home. He's in 3rd grade and he's beyond 5th grade spelling.

One thing I SWEAR BY is using close captioning on the TV. ANY and EVERY time we watch a movie or show where CC is available, we turn it on so the kids are reading while they're watching TV. I'm also an avid reader (about 2hrs a day) so the kids have grown up around books. It's a part of life here at home.

At school, the kids did phonics and both were journaling in class way back in kindergarden and I could see them spelling many words right and then sounding out the rest/incorrectly spelling them. Then the teachers incorporated the site words so the children learned the correct spellings of words they didn't know. This seems to have worked for my kids as both read at higher levels and my older 5th grade son is in a 5/6 split class now and his current in-class book is 7th grade, but not for other kids, so it really is about what works best for each kid and sadly, not all kids learn the same and teachers are often stuck. I think this is where having good communication with your child's teacher is key. Also, volunteering in class and helping with reading gives you an idea of how kids' minds work.

Every time I tell the teachers we've used CC as a teaching tool, they look at me in surprise, however, I think it makes sense. I'd love to say we are so great of parents that the kids never watch movies, but we do so I consider the CC supplemental.

 

[MichelleCarmen]

My daughter is in kindergarten and they seem to be sounding things out. She is reading a little bit but doesn't seem excited about it. Wish she was. She's way more excited about math.

She'll probably flip-flop around. My younger son appeared to be a budding artist and wanted to take drawing classes. We fill out placement forms requesting he be put with a teacher with that style. THEN suddenly, he lost all interest in drawing and began writing books. So, we went that direction and he did get placed with the creative teacher for his grade. THEN, he turned to math and asked his creative teacher to teach him quantum mechanics (imagine the horror his teacher must have felt - a 9 year old asking about that!). I was told he needed to be placed in a specialized class and I talked to the gifted teacher and was going to put him in that class, but alas, about a week after that, my son turned back to legos and began reading goosebump books. lol He's still figuring it all out. He says his favorite subjects are math and PE. It's funny that he likes PE since he HATES sports. He was the one kid on the soccer team that made all the other parents mad! We got the dirty looks!

 

[jazzoboe]

Just wanted to drop into the conversation and say hi, and let you all know I am enjoying reading through this thread. I have just started training for my summer job: teaching reading classes for the Institute of Reading Development (anyone familiar with this company? They've been around for 40 years and teach all over the country, but I had never heard of them until a good friend of mine taught for them 2 summers ago). I'll be teaching classes from beginning 4-5 year olds all the way up to adult classes, so there is a lot of information to take in, but everything I have learned so far is completely on track with what I'm reading here.

As for me, no kids of my own to teach yet, but I've been a huge book nerd for years, was always way ahead in reading as a kid, and am now more involved on the writing side (almost finished with my MFA in fiction- 200ish pages of my novel down, ??? to go!). This is my first experience formally learning about the development of reading skills, but I'm finding it pretty fascinating, especially since I really don't remember what methods we used when I was learning to read.

Anyway, I don't have much to add for now, but I may pop back in with questions for those of you with much more experience as I continue training over the next 6 weeks or so!

 

[Haven]

Welcome, JazzOboe!

Do you have a degree in reading and literacy? Or is the institute teaching you how to teach their classes? I'm just asking because I've had people ask me about this institute before, and I'm curious as to what formal background they require of their teachers. In my state you need a master's in reading and literacy to teach any sort of reading class. (As well as another degree in education prior to earning the degree in reading and lit.)

Welcome to the wild world of reading instruction!

P.S. Will you be at the IRA convention in Chicago at the end of this month?

And of course, feel free to pop back into this thread if you have any questions!

 

[jazzoboe]

Hi Haven,

No, my undergraduate degree is in History, actually (And a minor in English Lit. if that counts for anything...). The Institute only asks for a Bachelor's degree (in anything, I think) and some related experience and interest. They provide about a month of full-time training, which is obviously nowhere near what you'd really need to be qualified to teach regularly. The classes they offer are an hour or two per week for five weeks during the summer- certainly not meant to be a comprehensive course, just encouraging a good foundation in reading skills, and not associated with the public school system at all. They have partnerships with local colleges who provide facilities for the courses. I'm by no means going to claim to be an expert, but depending on how the summer goes, I might consider looking at getting a grad. degree in something like this.

 

[Haven]

JazzOboe--That is very interesting. Well, I definitely think you're in for a wild ride! Teaching reading can be a wonderfully rewarding thing, but there is definitely a lot that you need to know in order to do it effectively. I imagine they're giving you a brief introduction to pertinent studies in linguistics, educational research, and cognitive science to get you started. You'll learn a lot as you go along, of course. I'm kind of shocked that they allow people to teach after such minimal preparation. I think you're very brave!

And ah yes, an English degree. I have a BA in English, but of course that has nothing to do with the teaching of literacy. It is a good sign that you enjoy to read, though, as you'll probably have a lot of intuitive knowledge about the various skills that are required to read well.

I always recommend the book PROUST AND THE SQUID by Maryanne Wolf to people who are interested in pursuing a formal degree in reading and literacy. If you love that book, chances are you're just the type who will enjoy such a degree. In my state, you must first have a degree in education, as well as an initial teaching cert and two years of full-time teaching experience in order to be admitted into a reading and literacy program, but I'm not sure about other states. They may have different requirements.

Well, welcome to the field! I'm a full-time faculty member in a community college, I teach reading, writing, and English courses, and I think I have the best job in the entire world. I used to teach high school full-time, as well as K-8 in a part-time program for gifted kids. Please don't hesitate to post any questions you may have as you go along. We have a few reading specialists and some reading teachers who post here on PS, so this is a great resource.

Also, I strongly recommend you join IRA. It is a wonderful organization with fabulous journals, a great website and blog, and excellent conferences in this country and abroad:
http://www.reading.org

 

[zoebartlett]

Haven, I had a different experience. In my grad school's M.Ed. program, you can get your masters and pursue an initial teaching certification at the same time. That's what I did because I had no experience in teaching or with the education field before going back to school. I have an M.Ed. in reading (as opposed to just an M.Ed.) and I first got certified when I completed my year-long teaching internship.

Jazzoboe, I'm sure you'll learn a lot in your job. Teaching literacy is so much fun.