Essential Questions

1. What did I get from the readings in terms of thinking about reading and literacy?

I now have a better understanding of what literacy means now. I was a little surprised to see that Asia was a region with some of the lowest rates of literacy. But I now realize that the rates are referring to Asia as a whole.
The first article that discussed the exhibits that showed how illustrators come up with their pictures for books and how pictures and words come together to tell the story was very interesting. I beleive that it is important for a child to read something and then imagine what the picture would look like but I think that is something that comes later in life. For younger readers I think the pictures with words helps a child get a better understanding of what they are reading. It is like putting two and two together.

2.What are some of the key issues that stick out to me?

In my previous class I was introduced to the idea of differentiate instruction. (I am new to the MAT program). I thought the idea that students all learn at a different level and learn in different way what could be better than differentiate instruction. When I read Open Court- I was shocked to see that people thought that this was a better way to teach reading. What was wrong with the old way? Why fix something that wasn't broken? This article has created the most emotions for me. I was shocking to hear that if teachers didn't follow the teaching style as it was excatly outlined they were threatened. Don't the actual teachers of the class know the most about their students? Was it thought that students in lower-class districts didn't need a proper education? That they didn't need individualized learning?

3. What am I wondering most about?

I wonder what has happened to that school. I wonder if any other teachers spoke up or did they feel that they couldn't speak up? I wonder what happened to the Open Court. I wonder if No Child Left Behind has made things worse in the United States? How can every student receive the proper education? Can this problem ever be fixed?

What do I know right now about reading?

When I first see this question: what do I know right now about reading? My first thought was that I am a slow reader and have always had a challenging time with reading. I often have to read things twice to understand what they are about. It was discovered in 4th grade I wasn't reading at the 4th grade level and I can thank my 4th grade teacher for discovering that. She helped me the best that she could but than I moved on to 5th grade.

I don't really know anything right now in regards to how children learn to read. I work with teenagers with autism. Two of my students are on a program called Edmark Functional Words but I feel they aren't really reading those words they are memorizing them but don't generalize them when they are in that format. Which makes me wondering why those students are still on that program because they can't generalize those words when they are written or posted somewhere else.

I hope I am doing this right. I wanted to answer this question first and now I will create a new blog to answer the essential questions.

First blog

Hi

My name is Allison. This is my first time ever to blog.