From a reading minor

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From a reading minor
By maryteach

Wright Group is excellent. Good advice.

Truly, I wouldn't worry too much about a program. Kids learn to read by having quality literature read to them DAILY and the use of Big Books, as the poster said, is paramount.
Students should be encouraged to predict and modify predictions. Kids should be exposed to enviromental text. Label everything in the room.

Children should write as much as they read. They should write daily. Encourage the use of phonetic spelling. We want their richest language. We do NOT want them hesitating to use a word because they can't spell it.

Kids

should buddy read. They can re-read the Big Books, or any of the hundreds of picture books that I trust you have in your classroom library (if you don't have those, concentrate on getting those first. They will help you more than any program).

Make a tree in your room, on the bulletin board. Use die-cuts to make a bunch of apples. Every time a kid finishes a book, they get to fill out an apple and hang it on the tree. You can do the same thing with a bulletin board full of bookworms.

Here's what a lot of teachers don't realize: A child who is developmentally ready to read will almost spontaneously do it when it's time. All it takes from you is best practice at the right time. For the kids who are ready, it doesn't seem to matter whether you use bottom-up (phonics-based, which I admit to not liking as well) or top-down (whole language, which is what I've been describing here). Kids who are ready are gonna do it, and believe it or not, I don't think it can even be stopped. BUT ANY KINDERGARTNER WHO CAN'T "READ" IS NOT BEHIND AND SHOULD NOT BE FRETTED OVER. We are biologically programmed to learn to read between the ages of 4 and 9. Some kids get there at 4 or 5, but many do not. It's developmental, and you can't change it with a program. Please do not hit the slower developers with worksheets!!!!!! When something is already abstract and hard for us to understand, to be given an abstract way of looking at it makes it even harder. BURN ALL WORKSHEETS!!!!!!! They are widely used and are so counter productive (they're easy to grade. Teaching decisions, especially at this age, need to be made based not on how easy it is for the teacher, but how helpful it is for the child).

I realize that many elementary schools are extremely prescriptive when it comes to teaching reading. That's because most teachers don't learn how to teach reading in school (3-5 hours in your undergrad was not NEARLY enough). So we have programs to help people out, but if you read the right books, and pay attention, you will see that programs don't help you out at all. Reading is natural, is developmental, and is not at all difficult to teach. I think kids who hate reading have had basal readers and worksheets shoved down their throats till they can't stand it. Basals and worksheets are not an authentic reading experience at all, so to use them as instructional techniques makes very little sense.