The Science of Reading

I am a fan of new technology and new teaching methods! However, I will say that with any new methods of teaching reading, my radar is on high-alert. I've told many colleagues that teaching reading is teaching reading...that's if it's done in a responsible, thoughtful, and planned way using assessment to help prepare new lessons. 

Publishers make a lot of money. They hire researchers and do a lot of work; no doubt. The research changes every 5-10 years so once we all get a belly-full of Orton-Gillingham, Fundations, and other techniques touted by the Science of Reading there will be other researchers and publishers out there who will have yet a better way. And why not? We all want to get those reading scores on I-Ready to shoot to the stars. 

I'm a realist in that way and have taken so many PDs and classes on how to teach reading that I can't even remember how many at this point. I've gleaned so much from each of them and now have a proverbial "bag of tricks" in my teaching arsenal that I can pull from to teach students. What I retreat from are those who will only use what the current research says to do. I use it all. I use all the techniques that I have ever been taught and I can get away with it since I do not teach a homeroom and since I'm about to retire!

So many districts are becoming unreasonable about using only district approved resources. That really puts a crimp in a teacher's creativity. Oh, I get it. We and the admins are all looking for results and hoping to pad our evaluations with accolades about how we are using district resources.

 My first thoughts are how I began teaching 40 years ago when all I was given was a piece of paper with a few sentences describing student's course of study. That forced me to become creative. It forced me to think outside and inside the box and to work diligently with the students I had. It made me create all kinds of interventions that would work specifically for my students. And I collected data. All my students could see that data posted on the bulletin board and it made them hungry to achieve. There was no shame involved. We celebrated everyone regardless of what the data showed. There was no computer program where I could click on a link that would take me to a district-approved intervention. I WAS IT! 

Now it seems like many of the newest teachers (bless their hearts) wouldn't know how to create interventions outside of a district platform or the time to do so unless their lives depended upon it. My heart goes out to these newbies. I cannot in all truth say that I would recommend elementary teaching to anyone unless they are so set on doing it that they could do nothing else.

 I have watched my colleagues work through so many changes to curriculum and I have seen the lack of support by so many admins. That's not to say that teaching is without its wonderful points. I have had students come to me later in their lives and tell me I changed their lives....that's what it's about. It's not about what is the latest research or how to teach digraphs. It's not even about making the admins happy. It's about little people and working to provide lessons that work for those people. I don't care how good the research is. It will not fully cover every student out there. Ok rant over!

When I retire this year, I will be standing by with baited breath to see what new reading research will say. Will I stop being with kids? No way! I have several goals. I want to assist my ESL department in some way. I'm planning to become more involved with Lifewise Academy. A passion of mine has been to support Samaritan's Purse and it's on my bucket list to help them, too! I also am looking into publishing a children's book...wish me luck! Of course, I will still be doing TPT and Boom Cards. I can't help myself! I as of yet have no grandchildren so I'm free to wander, and wander I will. 

 Glued Sounds: The Exceptions

I have always felt teaching reading should have explicit phonics instruction. I believed that while teaching in schools that had other programs. At that time, I taught phonics and kept my mouth shut about it because shamers were certainly out there. 

Now I feel teaching phonics can be a slippery slope. Here's why. So I had fifth grade students (low first grade reading level Swahili speakers) who got "kill and drill" instruction through their homeroom teachers and tutors about digraphs. When I asked them to say words with the digraphs they could NOT. When I read words with digraphs they couldn't tell me the meanings. This is how teaching of phonics can go off the deep end in my view. 

There must be a balance. I am certainly not a "kill and drill" teacher and never have been. It's incredibly boring and mostly useless unless the context is there. Not only is context important, but a student's personal experiences and knowledge base is crucial. In fact all of their experiences are unique to them so somehow in the teaching of these kids there has to be a way to bring the content to be comprehensible and relevant to each of them. I included short selections here that my students would understand and that would be relevant to their experiences (excepting very new ESL learners). 

Glued Sounds: The Exceptions

Here is a back-to-school freebie you might want to pick up!

Summer Reflections 2021

     After the year we have all taught through, I find myself reflecting on what is truly important. I feel like it's our relationships with each other that are the most meaningful. 

     Sure we have a lot to do and think about in our teaching careers but when it comes down to it, 10 or 20 years from now most of what we scamper about doing will not be as mind-blowing as we might imagine. Just pray a lot, right?

     It always comes back to how we interacted with our families, staff, and students. I think about the teachers and professors I have had and what always stands out is how they treated me and how they helped me succeed.

     So while those in high places continue making their demands, let these thoughts remain that our first and foremost mission is to bond with our kids as best as we can. The benefits of an effective teacher last a lifetime.

     I have been researching (as usual) animal life and have become rather obsessed with ocean creatures; specifically those that live deep. I mean really deep. I created a set of Boom cards with that in mind. I took some particular aspects of the chosen animals and created main idea and supporting details for the task card deck. I like how it turned out since the text is not too overwhelming for reluctant readers but still challenging enough to not absolutely breeze through without any new concepts. If you are interested and use Boom cards here it is:

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/DIGITAL-BOOM-CARDS-Main-Idea-Details-DEEP-SEA-CREATURES-Drag-Drop-6939972

I Love BOOM CARDS!

 This is my newest set of Boom Cards. I have a small but growing collection so don't judge me! I am creating more and more because they have been so helpful for me and my students while we were all Zooming and even now when I am posting assignments on student's Google Classrooms. My Boom Cards are very affordable and most are a dollar to add additional licenses!

Boom Cards 

I am enjoying Boom cards for my English learners.  You ask, why that resource? I like them because as you probably know they are self-checking. It is a confidence building resource; not one that kids will dread because they can be successful with them and gain exposure to whatever concept they are assigned to do. I like the fact that when I cannot be there to help my newcomers, I know they will get something from doing them rather than staring blankly at an assignment they have no idea how to complete. I just created a new set. 

This set is certainly language arts but I marked the subject as science since it involves kids looking at habitat backgrounds and connecting them with the animal choices on the cards. There is a title card, direction card, and 15 animal cards. Each of the cards has three animal choices based on "first person" context clue type riddles. It is basic and will be great for kindergarten, first grade, and of course newcomers to the country. 

This resource along with my other resources on Teachers pay teachers will be on sale August 18 as a bonus sale especially for back to school. Here it is.

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/BOOM-CARDS-Guess-the-Animal-INFER-IT-Distancelearning-5903176

Pat Bath

 

Dr. Patricia Bath

In the past few years I have had multiple conversations with Patricia Bath, the African American (heroine) who invented the laser-phaco probe. We talked on the phone several times and emailed back and forth. She had a lot of drive to succeed even though she was retired. She created a consumable book that describes how we can see light and rainbows. She sent me several for Christmas in 2018 I promptly set up a Donor's Choose to get more of them so I could send them home with some of my students. We also used a special refraction material I found on Amazon so that kids could get the experience of seeing rainbows. I emailed her a couple times in the past six months to tell her about it and wondered why she did not respond as she usually did. Last May 2019, she died of complications from cancer. I feel like I've lost a friend.

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Patricia-BathTest-Prep-Close-Read-Core-Aligned-with-Text-Dependent-Questions-1080983