[MOSAIC] teacher expertise was off topic math conversation

[CNJPALMER at aol.com]

Bonita
You are the best...truly!
 
What a fascinating and thoughtful question! I will reply and ask you to  
consider cross-posting a version of it on the To Understand list where there are  
some other souls who might be interested in discussing the topic. (I am  
hoping that those of you on both lists will understand why that might be a good  
thing to do.)
 
Your post is of personal interest to me right now. We have had, up to this  
point, a fantastic reading intervention in our district called Reach. Reach was 
 a reading recovery clone which pulled many, many first and second graders to 
a  proficient or better level. We never had the money as a district to become 
truly  reading recovery...we used highly trained instructional assistants to 
implement  the program under the direction of reading specialists. There was 
continual  staff development including "behind the glass" sessions where we 
helped build  their knowledge of how to teach reading and how reading developed. 
These  assistants read Marie Clay...gave running records, leveled their books 
and just  did a fantastic job all around. For years it was universally 
acknowledged that  this intervention was successful...not for every student, but 
about 75% of all  our kids in the program would meet and continue to meet grade 
level  standards.
 
Well, under NCLB and the resulting current state guidelines, Reach is not a  
'researched based' program. Can you tell where this is going??? Rumor has it  
that the title one schools in our area will no longer be using Reach...they 
will  be going instead to a scripted heavily phonics based program. Now I will 
tell  you that I absolutely do NOT condemn this choice...the schools  really 
have no choice. If they don't use a research based program, there is  no chance 
to appeal when schools fail to meet adequate yearly progress. I know  these 
scripted programs do work to build decoding skills for some kids...and I  know 
that the reading specialists in our district understand the need for  balance 
and will ensure that these kids get comprehension instruction as well. 
 
What saddens me is that we are handing these instructional assistants  
scripts and not putting our resources into helping them understand the nature of  
how reading develops and how to make good choices in instruction. It won't  
matter for a few years...these ladies (mostly they are women who are willing to  
work for little pay) already know a lot from the time we have invested in  
building their expertise...but as they retire or move to greener pastures, we  
will have moved the focus from teaching assistants to technicians. 
 
I am lucky...I am not in a title one school and I can keep going with  
Reach...albeit without the district level training and support. But...I am  feeling 
the pressure to at least explore the researched based programs and train  
folks in one so that I can ensure that the positive affects of using a scripted  
program outweigh the great number of negatives. Using a researched based  
program in addition or as a supplement to Reach may be required  to keep us out of 
AYP jail within a very few years. 
 
Bonita, a colleague of mine always says that a good, quality curriculum is  a 
floor...not the ceiling. We need that...but we also need even more, teachers  
who understand how kids learn to read, how to respond to the different needs 
of  the children in front of them.  Lesson study, to me, would fill the second 
 requirement, but not the first. Lesson study is about the process of 
teaching,  to me, not a way to find out what to teach. 
As a beginning teacher, I would have been lost without my anthology  teachers 
guide. It is a floor...but by now, I don't even crack open the  covers...and 
there is no way I feel that I know enough to say I have the ceiling  in sight!
 
Hmmm... I don't think I am even beginning to answer all your questions...I  
guess my first thoughts here are that we need a quality curriculum to start  
with...and then highly trained teachers who know how to build from that to meet  
the needs of their kids.
Jennifer
 
 
 
 
 
In a message dated 5/3/2008 12:36:30 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
bonitadee61 at ca.rr.com writes:

Sorry  Jennifer,

I always forget that the Mosiac list tries to keep true to  reading 
comprehension. When a topic is raised where I have thoughts or  passion, I tend to jump 
in. That said, I will now make the connection between  all this math talk and 
reading comprehension.  

Do teachers  require materials that dictate day to day instruction in order 
to teach  reading comprehension (in any subject) and teach it well?  Is  
comprehension something in which we are so versed we do "not need" the support  of a 
specific text? Is comprehension so fundamentally different from other  
subjects (like math or science) that we should be left to fish around and do  it our 
own way without articulation through the grades?  I ask this  honestly, 
because I do not know or even have an idea of the answer.  The  difference, to me, 
it seems, is that reading comprehension does not develop in  any sort of 
linear fashion.  That we are all teaching "all of  comprehension" at all grade 
levels.  Am I correct in this  thinking?

I am playing devil's advocate here.  I know, Jennifer,  that you are involved 
in lesson study on comprehension, a very in-depth  process of professional 
development that is teacher-driven (not district  "assigned").  Would such 
teacher development be enough to assure quality  comprehension instruction at all 
grade levels? Could it inform us where,  developmentally, certain comprehension 
should and should not be  taught?

:)Bonita--trying to get back on track  ;)



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