Stacy's Critical Incident (Narrative Draft)
Burning question: How can I use writing to enhance my students’ reading skills?
I have often been overwhelmed by the challenge of helping learners at various levels become better readers. For many years, this has translated into helping my students pass the TAKS Reading test. I can remember when I first began teaching reading. I felt very under-qualified and the district I was in offered no training for their teachers in their content areas. There were many days when I felt like I was “winging it,” which was truly no good for my students. In spite of my deficiencies, many of my students were successful on the state mandated reading assessments, but I must admit that some were not. The ones that stick out most in my mind are those who were not. And every year, the names change, but the struggle that these students have to become better readers, remains the same.
When I transferred to a new school district, I had the opportunity to take graduate level courses. My Master’s courses have allowed me to learn a great deal about the teaching of reading, and I have applied what I have learned to my classroom instruction with more than favorable results. This past year, I had the opportunity to teach a sixth grade English Language Learner who was also a struggling reader. Her name is Lee. Lee failed all three administrations of the fifth grade TAKS Reading test. When I taught Lee, I felt much better prepared to teach reading than I had been in the past. I had been exposed to so many new and innovative ideas in teaching literacy learning and I was using research based methods in the classroom. I had learned about conducting Reading and Writing Workshops and I was applying those ideas in my daily activities. Even so, due to time constraints, my writing lessons often took a back seat to my reading instruction. It always seemed as if I could never fully incorporate the writing piece into my instruction even though I knew that my learners desperately needed to understand the reading and writing connection.
That year, I was able to implement some writing to learn activities which I think proved beneficial to many of my students. I used writing activities such as KWL charts, story maps, literature discussion questions, daily journaling, and reading response to incorporate some aspect of writing into the curriculum. Many of my students did well on TAKS that year, but Lee did not. It was disappointing because she had passed every reading benchmark given by the district that year. Although I used many different teaching strategies that year, I feel that if I had done more writing with Lee, she may have fully grasped the idea of reading and all that is involved with it.
Stacy
I have often been overwhelmed by the challenge of helping learners at various levels become better readers. For many years, this has translated into helping my students pass the TAKS Reading test. I can remember when I first began teaching reading. I felt very under-qualified and the district I was in offered no training for their teachers in their content areas. There were many days when I felt like I was “winging it,” which was truly no good for my students. In spite of my deficiencies, many of my students were successful on the state mandated reading assessments, but I must admit that some were not. The ones that stick out most in my mind are those who were not. And every year, the names change, but the struggle that these students have to become better readers, remains the same.
When I transferred to a new school district, I had the opportunity to take graduate level courses. My Master’s courses have allowed me to learn a great deal about the teaching of reading, and I have applied what I have learned to my classroom instruction with more than favorable results. This past year, I had the opportunity to teach a sixth grade English Language Learner who was also a struggling reader. Her name is Lee. Lee failed all three administrations of the fifth grade TAKS Reading test. When I taught Lee, I felt much better prepared to teach reading than I had been in the past. I had been exposed to so many new and innovative ideas in teaching literacy learning and I was using research based methods in the classroom. I had learned about conducting Reading and Writing Workshops and I was applying those ideas in my daily activities. Even so, due to time constraints, my writing lessons often took a back seat to my reading instruction. It always seemed as if I could never fully incorporate the writing piece into my instruction even though I knew that my learners desperately needed to understand the reading and writing connection.
That year, I was able to implement some writing to learn activities which I think proved beneficial to many of my students. I used writing activities such as KWL charts, story maps, literature discussion questions, daily journaling, and reading response to incorporate some aspect of writing into the curriculum. Many of my students did well on TAKS that year, but Lee did not. It was disappointing because she had passed every reading benchmark given by the district that year. Although I used many different teaching strategies that year, I feel that if I had done more writing with Lee, she may have fully grasped the idea of reading and all that is involved with it.
Stacy
posted by Scott S. Floyd @ 6/19/2006 06:34:00 PM
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