Brenda Perusse Journal Entry 1 May 10/07
In class, the point was made that the most important part of teaching reading is to make reading a pleasurable experience. This should motivate a child to want to read, and for those children who have difficulty with reading, will give them the incentive to keep working at improving their reading. This makes perfect sense to me because I think it’s human nature to do those activities that bring us pleasure and to avoid those activities or situations that are not pleasurable or are stressful. It makes me think of a situation I had in my practicum where a student with learning disabilities actually risked getting up and reading for the class.
I had been working with the class on a personal planning unit and used stories as my lead in. With each lesson, I’d read a story and then have the students do group activities to share what they took from the story. The students all had an opportunity to write their personal discoveries and come to a group consensus. These were grade 7 students, and they hadn’t been read to in a long time. They seemed to really enjoy both the “story time” and the activities. While reading the story, I’d pause throughout and ask their feeling or connections they had with various parts of the story. The boy I’m speaking of would always raise his hand and want to share some off color remark. I used humor rather than annoyance with him and once in a while he’d make a really thoughtful comment for which I’d thank him.
The really fascinating thing that happened is that when doing a socials lesson, I’d have the students take turns reading from the text, this boy raised his hand to read. It was slow and painstaking for him, but he did it voluntarily. These are the moments that mean so much. To me, being able to read is the most important thing for children to learn because it opens the world to them. My hope is that I can make reading pleasurable so that even the children with learning disabilities will persevere and learn to read.
Thursday, May 10, 2007
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Reading Journal 3
What struck me this week when considering the readings and activities is just how important it is to access prior knowledge to enhance learning. At the earliest level, when teaching children phonemic awareness and phonics, the child’s large vocabulary of words that are relevant to him/her can be utilized when reinforcing the connections between letter and sound. I can see how much more difficult it is for children who don’t have English as their first language to grasp reading and writing because they little to draw on- it’s all new rather than a building of something familiar. It makes me wonder how I would go about reaching those children, and I’ve realized that a really important first step is to have a wide range of reading materials, in regards to content and reading level, in the classroom. For ESL students, the big books would be perfect for building their vocabulary while they are learning sounds and letters.
I also have been thinking about how I’ll reach the multi levels of abilities in the class. I was really impressed with the number of really great ideas that came from the class on building a lesson from the magazine. In a very short period of time, everyone came up with something that was really doable. I realize that there is so much to be gained from collaborating with other teachers. If I have an idea and am unsure how I could tier it to the various learning styles and needs, running it by another teacher or two will most likely result in some great strategies. Besides other teachers, our class text book has many lesson ideas. I think by being conscious of the diverse needs and considering them when making my lessons, I’ll find ways, through resources, other teachers, or my own imagination, to address the various learning styles and developmental levels.
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