Hi Roman, I suppose in not correcting errors immediately we are placing emphasis on understanding and/or content, which makes sense. Content and understanding should be more important. I was also wondering why students' problems should not be diagnosed early. If we are aware that a student is struggling in reading or any other subject area, don't we have an obligation to give the student the supports they need to succeed? It made noticeable to the other students that someone else needs extra help, and working with students in homogeneous groupings where all the students in the group need similar help could promote a feeling of solidarity. The student would know that they are not alone. It seems especially silly not to diagnose "problem readers" for fear of distinguishing them when the students themselves could tell you who in their class are the "good readers" and the "not so good readers."
Yes, Roman...when we stop students to correct "errors" then it does stop the flow or the "fluency" of their reading. When competent readers read they "chunk" (or read 3-4 words at a time). When we stop them to have them zero in on a letter, sound or word it can create what Smith calls, tunnel vision. This means that they then put their eyes on the smallest part of the page and this can taking away from the chunking processes of reading. Does this make sense? "What harm does it do to treat problems readers early Great question. So, I think that one of the biggest problem is that potentially what schools identify early as problem readers may in fact not even be problem readers. American schools push kids to read very early. Many of them just aren't developmentally ready to be reading as early as schools say "all" kids should be reading. Then, the child is identified as a problem and then the child gets the sense that they are having problems and then a big layer of stress gets laid upon the child and the child's family. Another big reason why this can be a problem is that, typically, when a child is identified as a problem reader we tend to take the joy and excitement out of reading and remediate by having them practice the bits of language. We take about the beautiful picture books, we take the fun out of it and make them practice drills. This can then hinder a child's progress is many ways (for example, what I mentioned above about putting their focus on the smallest part). OK...my two cents for today. :)
Hi Roman,
ReplyDeleteI suppose in not correcting errors immediately we are placing emphasis on understanding and/or content, which makes sense. Content and understanding should be more important.
I was also wondering why students' problems should not be diagnosed early. If we are aware that a student is struggling in reading or any other subject area, don't we have an obligation to give the student the supports they need to succeed? It made noticeable to the other students that someone else needs extra help, and working with students in homogeneous groupings where all the students in the group need similar help could promote a feeling of solidarity. The student would know that they are not alone. It seems especially silly not to diagnose "problem readers" for fear of distinguishing them when the students themselves could tell you who in their class are the "good readers" and the "not so good readers."
Yes, Roman...when we stop students to correct "errors" then it does stop the flow or the "fluency" of their reading. When competent readers read they "chunk" (or read 3-4 words at a time). When we stop them to have them zero in on a letter, sound or word it can create what Smith calls, tunnel vision. This means that they then put their eyes on the smallest part of the page and this can taking away from the chunking processes of reading. Does this make sense?
ReplyDelete"What harm does it do to treat problems readers early Great question. So, I think that one of the biggest problem is that potentially what schools identify early as problem readers may in fact not even be problem readers. American schools push kids to read very early. Many of them just aren't developmentally ready to be reading as early as schools say "all" kids should be reading. Then, the child is identified as a problem and then the child gets the sense that they are having problems and then a big layer of stress gets laid upon the child and the child's family. Another big reason why this can be a problem is that, typically, when a child is identified as a problem reader we tend to take the joy and excitement out of reading and remediate by having them practice the bits of language. We take about the beautiful picture books, we take the fun out of it and make them practice drills. This can then hinder a child's progress is many ways (for example, what I mentioned above about putting their focus on the smallest part).
OK...my two cents for today. :)