Reply to Teachers (and Parents): What reading comprehension strategies have you found effective?

Forum Index » Schools and Education General Discussion

Reply to "Teachers (and Parents): What reading comprehension strategies have you found effective?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I feel like this is one of the large areas that separate public schools from private schools. Public schools seem obsessed with getting kids hooked on reading and decoding. Private schools conquer decoding early and then spend the rest of the time reading for content and understanding. [/quote]

To be fair, many private schools have entrance requirements and will decline to admit a child who appears likely to have reading difficulty or who is reading below grade level.  It's not so much that private schools "conquer decoding early" as it is that they decline to admit, or "counsel out", students who experience difficulty!

I personally have known three families who experienced this in private schools.  In one family, the 2nd grader new to the area applied to private school but was told her reading wasn't good enough for admission.  In one school, a child was urged to leave his Montessori school end of third grade because his reading wasn't progressing and they had no idea what to do with him.  In the third school, the child was reading below grade level when she entered the Catholic school in 5th grade and the parents were told it was no problem, but after one year they said the student had to leave because she failed to make sufficient progress (or parents could hire a tutor etc.)

I'm a public school teacher, and I do sometimes wonder how different my classes would be, if I were allowed to simply deny admission or counsel out students who failed to progress in my classes. [/quote]

True, but there are many public schools where there are only a few children with any difficulty and they go to see a specialist. No reason why in 4th grade the majority of kids in public should be reading comic books just to get hooked on reading while private schools are busy actually learning content and understanding relationships. Reading is thinking and learning. It's a form of communication. You wouldn't have children watch just any TV show or listen to any conversation just to get hooked on talking. You'd want the communication to be meaningful.[/quote]

I teach in a Title One school and the vast majority of my students don't read at home at all. That means they won't read a thing for nearly 3 months of summer break. I ask them about this and they say that nobody reads at home. Reading is something you do at school. So imagine if you have a class full of students who are behind from Day One AND are reluctant readers. Why are many of them reluctant? The curriculum is heavy on teaching reading strategies so reading becomes like a chore. Who wants to do chores in their free time? When I talk to parents about making sure their child reads at home, they shrug their shoulders and say, "He/she doesn't like to read." So to get them to read at school, teachers have to find books/magazines that the kids will read like what posters are mentioning in this thread. Can you imagine how hard it would be for your child's teacher to get him/her to read good literature when he/she doesn't read anything at all outside of school? It would be like pulling teeth so many teachers use interesting books that kids like just to get them to read at all. It's similar to why poor children tend to be more obese than higher SES children. It's easier for parents to give their kid what they want. So many of my conferences are about this very issue. "Larla doesn't like to ___________ (go to bed, wake up early, do her homework, etc)." [/quote]

Ok, but not all schools are Title 1 and I assume those children get extra assistance. How about the kids who aren't poor? Why are they still on the same strategy of getting hooked on reading at 4th grade in public.
Also, books are often given to the Title I children to read over the summer and/or packets made for them. Plus summer school.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics