“We're Supposed to Already Know How to Teach Reading”: Teacher Change to Support Struggling Readers

Abstract

S “We're supposed to already know how to teach reading”: Teacher change to support struggling readers When Roosevelt Elementary School hired a consultant to supervise community volunteers tutoring first‐grade students, they anticipated improved reading performance and enhanced community relations. A later decision to include teachers as tutors produced unforeseen benefits and challenges for a fledgling program. Focusing on the first three years of Reading Partners, this paper explores the evolving perspectives of six school members who served as tutors (three first‐grade teachers, two Title I teachers, and the school principal) on professional development, classroom language arts instruction, and school‐wide literacy curriculum. This qualitative study was conceived as an examination of a community‐based literacy intervention program through teachers' eyes; however, the focus of the inquiry gradually shifted to teacher development and curriculum reform as school personnel became personally involved as tutors. Participating in an early intervention program encouraged school tutors to reflect upon the individual literacy needs of children in the program and in the regular classroom. Tutoring increased communication and collaboration among participating teachers, administrators, volunteers, parents, and university personnel. One challenge was creating a flexible schedule that accommodated teachers tutoring while providing high quality classroom instruction for other students. Surprisingly, these experienced teachers expressed concerns about their own expertise in adapting a literacy intervention model; they requested ongoing professional support. Finding an appropriate consultant and funding proved difficult each year. Two issues that continue to be debated in the school community are which children should be served and when a child is developmentally ready to benefit from participation in one‐on‐one intervention. “Se supone que ya sabemos cómo enseñar a leer”: Cambios en los docentes para apoyar a los lectores con dificultades CUANDO LA escuela primaria Roosevelt contrató a un consultor para supervisar a los voluntarios para ser tutores de los estudiantes de primer grado, se anticiparon avances en el desempeño en lectura y progresos en las relaciones comunitarias. La decisión posterior de incluir a los docentes como tutores produjo beneficios inesperados y desafíos a un programa recién iniciado. Poniendo el foco en los primeros tres años de Reading Partners (Socios en Lectura), este artículo explora las perspectivas en evolución de seis miembros de la escuela que trabajaron como tutores (tres docentes de primer grado, dos docentes de Title I y el director de la escuela) en desarrollo profesional, enseñanza de la lengua en el aula y currículum general de lectoescritura. Este estudio cualitativo fue concebido como el examen de un programa de alfabetización basado en la comunidad, a través de la mirada de los docentes; sin embargo, el foco de la investigación gradualmente se volvió hacia el desarrollo de los do...

“I Can't Wait to See Carlos!”: Preservice Teachers, Situated Learning, and Personal Relationships with Students

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‘It didn't have to be so hard’: the first years of teaching in an urban school

“…Learning how to teach takes practice that is carefully structured and supervised by experts (Lave & Wenger, 1991;Evans, 1995). Studies in which preservice teachers (Roskos & Walker, 1994) and inservice teachers (Broaddus & Bloodgood, 1999) tutored struggling learners with constant supervision and feedback have demonstrated the value of helping participants to make connections between practice and theory. While preservice teachers often do have many hands-on experiences, what is often missing is systematic guided reflection to help prospective teachers make sense of what they see (Zeichner & Liston, 1987).…”

A randomized control trial of Shared Evaluation Pedagogy: The near-term and long-term impact of dialogically organized reading instruction

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