What can I say besides "Sound it out?"
The first half of the Clark reading focused on how important it is to use a coaching strategy while working with children on their reading skills. The article stated multiple times that this was one of the main characteristics of effective teachers. As I continued reading, I was surprised to learn that, "The teachers all said that....it was a technique they acquired after completing their teacher certification programs." (Clark, 2004, p. 446) I feel that same type of situation has occurred in other college level classes I have experienced. The class will cover the theory of the practice in depth and reiterate how important it is but won't provided you with an applicable way to use it in your future classroom or time to practice it. I enjoyed this article because it semi-broke down the practice of coaching and also gave many example of how it was used in the classroom. These examples, however, felt a little repetitive because they demonstrated very similar things. I was hopping the article would have delved a little deeper into the application of coaching. I hope we will get a chance to practice this essential skill in our 430 class.
That also stuck out to me as well. I think it its extremely important to figure out a way to teach phonics to each child in your classroom. I love that this article gave so many different examples of how to teach these aspects. I hope that I learn more about different teaching tactics about how to teach children to read throughout my education classes.
ReplyDeleteI think we are started on our way to learning practical approaches to coaching kids on word recognition by reading this article. Coaching is a skill that will probably come naturally to most of us as we interact with our students. However, it is certainly the kind of skill that will improve with practice. I think this is something we will have an opportunity to practice in our internships.
ReplyDeleteEllen, I completely agree with you. I hope we not only learn these techniques but also practice them. I know I have had teachers who are book smart, yet they do not know how to practice what they know to a classroom. That is not the teacher I want to be! I want be the kind that is book smart and knows how to effectively use my knowledge in the classroom.
ReplyDeleteAmen! More often than not, I find that high level classes teacher in depth on theory but only skim the surface of actual practice. It is so incredibly helpful to read articles like this where they spell out just what to do and then give reasons why.
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