Beginning Reading Instruction in Urban Schools: The Curriculum Gap Ensures a Continuing Achievement Gap
by William H. Teale, Kathleen A. Paciga, Jessica L. Hoffman
This article focuses on the curriculum gap with literacy as a big problem in urban schools and it does not seem to be getting any better. Many educators tend to focus on one or two aspects and brush the others under the rug. The five pillars; phonological awareness, phonics, fluency and comprehension are all essential pieces to being successful readers and writers. It seems that comprehension and writing are the two of the main areas that get lost or pushed to the side when it comes to reading programs. I agree with the writing aspect because I see most teachers focus more on actually teaching their students to read and to decode words but not so much with the comprehension part. I feel that teachers do teach fluency before moving up the ladder and that is where I disagree with the article because the teachers that I have seen would not move on to comprehension until their students could read fluently. Again I understand this is an issue in urban settings so they do not always have the same resources to work with but it should still be addressed.
I definitely agree when the article says that the first years of school are critical to a child's development and that is not only for reading and writing but in life as well. If children start off behind the eight ball in kindergarten they are always going to be playing catch up throughout their school years and will not fully enjoy them. That is why I believe we as educators need to make sure all of our students get on the right track from the start. This curriculum gap may not be something that will ever fully go away but it can definitely be diminished by working hard and trying to solve it.
Response to Daniella F. from Jenna Galatro
ReplyDeleteI agree with Daniella that for the most part, the teachers that I have worked with and observed have made sure that their students have mastered the concepts and reading fluency in the targeted text before moving onto a more critical thinking activity. Part of this critical piece is comprehension. Most of the teachers that I have observed have modeled and started with activating the children’s prior knowledge with some type of organizer as a whole-class. Once discussing their background knowledge and possible predictions, the teacher then reads and stops periodically throughout the read-aloud to assess whether the students are following and comprehending. Another important aspect that has helped student’s progress is the ‘individualized’ guided reading level. Once again, this is periodically assessed from the teacher to ensure the student is at the right level and reading to their ability. This is a nice feature of the modern classroom today as all students can move at their own pace and have the appropriate time and practice to apply the skills they are learning as a whole-class to their individual text.