Chapters 1 and 2 of Understanding Reading Problems: Assessment and Instruction

Chapter 1- Reading and its Assessment

                This chapter started off with the scariest possible scenario for a teacher who relies heavily on class discussion: EVERYONE IS THE SAME! Yikes! I would have some seriously boring classes if that were the case. If I pose a discussion questions and everyone agrees with the first person’s thoughts then I will have twenty minutes of class time to stare blankly at my little pod people. Thankfully students are not like that and they will argue about almost anything at the high school level. I led a forty-five minute long discussion this year on which version of Beauty and the Beast was the best. We never did reach a consensus.

                This chapter jumps into why we assess students before the book goes into how to assess students and I think that is a great way to do it. So many books take why we are assessing students for granted and just jump right into formal assessment techniques. I enjoy that this book showed why we assess and what different levels show educators about a student’s abilities because every student has some ability.

                The chapter then introduces us to the phases of reading ability from emergent to mature reader and tells us what to expect at each stage. AS I was reading through these stages I could see some of my older students had not reached the mature reading stage yet and for a class full of gifted students that is a serious issue.

Chapter 2- Response to Intervention and Struggling Readers

                Response to Intervention (RTI) is a way of helping students at all levels become fluent readers. This book talks about the challenges inherent in current education legislation, mostly that it is a one-size-fits-all model, and how to help students within the boundaries of the legislation and its challenges.

                The book offers two models of RTI. The first is the Interactive Strategies Approach (ISA) which focuses on phonological awareness and knowing how words and sounds are made. The second is the Comprehensive Intervention Model (CMI) which focuses more on assessment and testing than I think is necessary but has more room for technology and application to older students than ISA. With my child study I am using ISA because she is transitioning from kindergarten to first grade but is struggling with literacy.

                The book is quick to point out that ESL students may be shoved into special education classes when they do not belong there and a comprehensive ESL program will provide them with more benefits than special education ever could. I love that they point this out and that they talk about the differences in speech amongst cultures and backgrounds. I teach in mainly urban education and some of my brightest students use language that makes my inner grammar geek freak out but they are still smart students they just have to be taught the difference between their home language and “money English” (standard English).

                This chapter was very informative on the ways students can be helped and how to work within the well-meaning legislation that gums up curriculum.

This chapter briefly touches on gifted students but it focuses on things they may lack and never mentions how to improve them. Gifted students improve in the same ways as other students except with more rigorous material but it seems that all educational texts focus on the students with disabilities and leave gifted students to become average by lack of attention.