Catching Readers Before They Fall: Chapter 7

Before I begin this blog about Chapter 7, I first wanted to comment on how much the title actually caught my attention. "I thought I knew how to teach reading, but WHOA!" Often times as a preservice teacher, I get that same "whoa" feeling in a lot of different areas regarding my future teaching. I am excited to be studying books like this one and getting the experiences I need to hopefully lessen the fear that is often associated with that feeling.

One of the first ideas I looked over again was the section titled "What are the early key strategies and behaviors?" Since I am wanted to teach younger grades, it is important for me to grasp these strategies for early readers that are essential for them to grow and be successful in older grades. I thought it was interesting when it commented on how most teachers assume that the first aspect of learning reading is letters and sounds. The book pointed out other strategies that were key to learning reading like the actual different between words and letters, thinking strategies, and a one-to-one voice/print match. I remember talking about this last point in class, how some students need to be clearly taught how to even read a page of a book, where the words should be taking them, and using the finger matching strategy to master the one-to-one aspect of reading. 

I also really enjoyed the section of "suggestions for teachers". I found a lot of quality ideas and advice that I can already see myself using in my field experience/future classrooms. One of the suggestions said "if you have children who are learning to speak English, don't immediately assume they are struggling readers.. Ask questions about the country they came from, using student translators or other adults in your building who is familiar with the language. Use book introductions as one place to support their budding English vocabularies and their experience with book language" (pg 129). In my field experience now, there is a first grade student named MauMau who often struggles with his reading and writing. Most times during classroom work time, the teacher asks me to sit with MauMau and assist him with his assignments. I often struggle to find ways to break through to him, especially when I ask him a question and I know he is thinking one thing but saying something else. I found this strategy from the book really interesting because it made me wonder what reading level MauMau is at in his own home language. I am planning to ask the teacher for whatever background knowledge she may have, and continue using the strategies within this chapter and book to see if I can make more profess with him.