From: debrae123 at comcast.net <debrae123>
Date: Thu, 09 Nov 2006 05:51:26 +0000

Netters,

Please excuse this late entry on the strand of struggling readers, but I just read a comment that is the same question I ask year after year. Why do we have so many struggling readers in middle school? Last weekend at the TASL Convention, Tennessee Association of School Librarians, I asked several speakers this same question. Dr. Stephen Krashen, Professor of Education at the University of Southern California, felt like students do not have enough books in their home at a young age. This could be true for some. Our area is rural, but for the most part we are middle class working families. Next I talked with author, storyteller, and librarian, Walter M. Mayes. He seemed surprised that I had so many students reading on the second, third, or fourth grade level in the sixth and seventh grades. Mr. Mayes suggested I form a group of Middle School Students that could read to elementary students regularly.

Why do school systems wait until third grade to test students for reading problems? Why can't they be tested at Christmas time in the first grade? Then spend the rest of the year with a concentrated study of the element of reading that is causing the problem. My daughter had trouble reading in first grade and the school system I work for would not test her. My husband and I took her to Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN and had her tested. She is slightly graphic dyslectic, yet has a high IQ. For the next five summers we had her tutored in a particular reading program that concentrated on her problem. Slowly we began to see improvements. She is now in the seventh grade, reading above reading level and doing fine. Some of her friends have not fared so well. They were placed in a special education class in second or third grade and have not improved. WHY?

In the twenty-five years that I have taught middle school the same problem arises and for some reason it always amuses me? Parents come in and say what can you do for my child that is in the seventh grade and can't read? Sometime I will contact a parent and see how aware parents are of their child's reading ability. Of course we start several different tactics: books on tape, high low books, books on personal reading interest, and more time at school and home for reading. Is it not true that students brains learn to read faster from the age of five to nine than any other time? What are parents waiting for? What are school systems waiting for? Teachers know by Christmas who is having trouble and some of the time they may even know what the problem is, but our hands are tied to a curriculum with a pace where everyone must stay together. Wouldn't is be easier and cheaper to nip this problem before it gets started? The simple difference in control, peer pressure and attitude has to make teaching someone to read easier. Often when we peel back the layers of a student wit h depression or unruly behavior we find they can't read well enough to follow the level of study. I know nothing about teaching the lower grades and maybe their is something I have missed.

love to hear your thoughts on this subject, Debra Evetts Librarian Greenbrier Middle School Greenbrier, TN evettsd at k12tn.net
Received on Wed 08 Nov 2006 11:51:26 PM CST