A perspective from reading instruction
The perspective you get from teaching a student to read cannot be replicated through a talk or read.
Teaching reading was the most difficult challenge I had in the classroom. It taught me things I would not have understood without the experience. The grade level or course did not matter. Reading instruction was necessary for my elementary and secondary classrooms.
My teacher preparation classes gave me a place to start, but I found the experience more challenging. Every grade level required reading instruction that was unique to the class or course.
Experience teaching reading
Teaching reading helped me make better instructional decisions, even though most decisions did not involve reading instruction.
Most of my students struggled with content text. I saw this at every grade level or course I taught.
I was fortunate to have two experiences, a Title I reading lab position and a couple of tours in Kindergarten, guide my understanding of reading instruction. Teaching young children to read cleared up misconceptions I had about the struggles of older students.
It helped me understand reading instruction is never over. It doesn’t stop in third grade during the transition to “reading to learn”. Students will always be learning to read, even as they are learning from content. Content difficulty and technology text delivering styles are constantly changing.
Better decisions
Understanding reading instruction makes you a better decision-maker. It helped me in all kinds of situations.
- Instructional
- Purchase
- Staffing
- Goal setting
- Data analysis
Instructional decisions
One reason it is easier to get elementary schools to move forward with new instructional ideas is they tend to have leaders that understand reading instruction. Secondary schools have many administrators that have not experienced the process.
Purchase decisions
Instruction in this century is more about content than technology. Technology is an effective creation and delivery system, but the content quality and quantity is key to student learning. We have bought many cool tech tools that deliver poor content.
Staffing decisions
Staffs are split or hurt by bad decisions. If an effective teacher does not need technology, do not force it. Students will learn to read and think from a good teacher. Learning from various content delivery methods is important, but a serious reader will adapt and succeed from any technology source.
Goals and data
I spent many years analyzing student performance data with other educators. The most efficient were educators that understood the difficulty of reading a text. These teachers and administrators also created the best assessments and goals for all students. They took the quality and complexity of an test into consideration when making decisions and changes.
Every administrator should know how to teach reading
Administrators that have not taught reading need the experience. They don’t have to be good at it, just experience the process and difficulty. It will provide a perspective that cannot come from a book or professional development.
