While a million might be a bit of an exaggeration, that is what it feels like. Figures 3.1 and 3.2 in the texts show how many different things as teachers we may need to do depending on what our students are struggling with.
Reading the examples of students she supplies in this chapter really showed me how diverse these struggling readers can be. While Mike is clearly in need of immediate help, I don't know if I would have noticed Amy's problem. When Beers first introduces us to Amy, she sounds like a great reader. I think of someone who has problems with reading as someone who does not participate in reading exercises and when they do they stumble over words. Amy was not like this at all. She was quite good at reading the actual words. Her problem was more hidden then the others. At first glance she seems fine. Reading these makes me hope that by the end of this class I will be able to recognize when students are having troubles (even when they are not so obvious) and that I will be able to have the knowledge base to help them.
I felt the same way while reading this, especially since some of these kids were at an age when I just assume everybody can read. What I want to know is how these kids can make it this far without any of their old teachers noticing? Or did they notice and not care? Which ever the answer, I just know for sure that Beers is helping us to fix this through her text.
ReplyDeleteI felt the same way about Sharamee. She seems like the perfect student by always volunteering, but I want to know if her teachers ever asked comprehending questions to test her skills of understanding the text. This kind of student is my worse fear. I worry when thinking whether or not I would be able to pick Sharamee out as a student that needed help with reading.
ReplyDeleteI also worry about the type of student that AMy is. At first she seemed like she wouldn't even try to read for enjoyment. I worry that I would give up if she persisted on hating reading. I hope that I have the patience to help her find books that she'll find interesting and can visualize.
I think this shows the importance of really getting to know your students (as people and readers).
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