Week Three

Assignment 1:

It is impossible to get all educators and teachers to agree on one method of teaching literacy. A study on the difference between NAEP tests and other state given tests won't change this either. On the other hand, I think that all educators would agree on the importance of being able to respond thoughtfully to reading. Just knowing and being able to recall information from text is not enough. Students should be able to take the reading a step further and ask questions about the reading, connect to what he/she read and identify significant parts of the reading, among many things. After I read the article, The Assessment of thoughtful Literacy in NAEP, I thought about how my teachers taught me to read. I did not like to answer questions that made me think. I much preferred the spit back questions in which the answers could be found somewhere within the text. I think that many of my classmates would agree with me and the reason for this is because we were never taught how to think. We didn't know what to do or what was expected from us. A teacher may not realize that thinking needs to be taught. I believe it certainly does. The result of the study was that teachers should “encourage their students to engage thoughtfully with the text and attend to the ways that details support thoughtful conclusions...”

The next article, Reponse to Intervention, What Teachers of Reading Need to Know, was very informative about the implementation of RTI. I learned about RTI before, but this article included a specific example which made it easy to understand how RTI should be carried out for an individual student. Students who are not meeting benchmarks, should have the opportunity to get extra help so they can reach their maximum potential. Some students that are not reaching benchmarks may not have the capabilities to do so, but a teachers should do his/her part to help each student. RTI is a brilliant way to make sure that students are at the level that they should be and if not, to receive intervention. Teachers should try to use various teaching methods so that all students can benefit. Sometimes learning in groups is best, sometimes individually and sometimes as a class. Each student may respond differently to different learning styles, but many students will enjoy and appreciate the change of the learning method. Teachers don't have to wait until RTI is implemented to use peer tutoring, one-on-one, or small-group instruction. In some circumstances, schools won't be able to afford to have a team work with individual students. If that is the case, teachers can follow the RTI method just as a way of observing student progress and evaluating when a student needs additional help.