From: caravette_at_comcast.net
Date: Sun, 06 Feb 2011 13:52:07 +0000 (UTC)

In order for a child to read, she has to have the basic knowledge of letter s and sounds. She should be read to, so she can begin to understand what ma kes up a story. She has to have a system for wresting with words she doesn' t know. She has to have books that interest her and she has to have access to books so she can practice. Any and every child can learn to read. Readin g does not require special mental capacities.

Who is to blame that there are kids who still don't know/or want to read? W ell, we start at home and then pan out to schools, libraries and yes, child ren's writers/publishers. (Did I miss anyone? :) ) Something we are all doi ng/or not doing is causing this problem. There are a lot of aides/systems t o help children learn to read. Are they working? If not, why not? It takes a lot of courage and strength to look at what is being done and find out wh ere the system needs improving. We need to examine the methods used for enc ouraging/teaching reading that may not be working any more. (I'd love to do a study on this!) By having discussions like this, we begin the process of discovery and 'recovery.'

Loretta Caravette Writer Thesis: Portrait of an Early Reader Hamline University, St. Paul


----- Original Message -----

From: "Susan Daugherty" To: ccbc-net_at_ccbc.education.wisc.edu Sent: Saturday, February 5, 2011 2:20:50 PM Subject: Re:
 teaming up for reading challenged students

You are right, Christina, teaming up is essential. The team should consist of the librarian, parents, teacher, and any specialists who work with the k id. Easier said than done though, but it is the ideal. Sometimes it works w ell. With the stresses on teachers to get everyone in class to pass the tes ts at a certain level or possibly lose their jobs or not get a raise (what I fear is coming down the pike); the stresses on librarians to both teach t he skills the teachers want taught (to get those test scores), teach comput er skills, and, oh yes, do everything else they used to do; the stresses on specialists with their larger and needier caseloads; and the stresses on t he parents to work harder for less money and sometimes to be unemployed or underemployed and forced to work more than one job, oftentimes reading just doesn't seem as important as it is. Or at least as important as it is to m e and you all, I assume.

I think someone has mentioned that often the parents aren't totally keen on reading themselves. Maybe kids sense it when parents don't truly LOVE read ing even if their parents go through the motions and seem to be doing what they should. This same criticism actually fits for many teachers and even l ibrarians. I am amazed at the number of librarians and teachers of every le vel I've talked with who don't read for pleasure, or read very little. Sinc e everyone on this listserv is probably addicted to reading (I do it when I should be doing other things!), we don't really understand this attitude. Maybe we should relax and realize that reading isn't for absolutely everyon e. It makes me sad, but it seems to be a fact.

Another factor is huge and has been mentioned by Meghan, but it bears repea ting. Kids are stubborn and do their own thing. I was always surprised by t he large number of young kids (1st and 2nd graders, even kindergartners) wh o came from highly literate, well educated families and doubtless had piles of books at home who did not want to check out the wonderful books we had in the school library. I believe they were feeling the pressure from somewh ere (parents, teachers, me?) to read, read, read, and they could assert the mselves by either not checking out anything or taking some obscure book fro m a section of the library that didn't even interest them. What is the libr arian really supposed to do in this situation? Say no, you must take a book I approve? That's coercion, and I submit that it doesn't really work. I ba cked off from pushing things on those kids. When I expressed concern to tea chers, the answer was invariably, "Oh, don't worry, that family has tons of stuff to read at home." True, but I do ubt if it was as carefully chosen as my collection.

I could never say no to a little first grader who insisted he check out Har ry Potter, even though I knew he wasn't going to read it and I doubted if a nyone at home would read it to him. He just wanted to be in the in crowd! I t's natural!

The success stories sustain you as a librarian. The little girls who get in to a series and can't get enough and move into more challenging books over time. The little boys who read all the graphic novels and then move on to a ll kinds of nonfiction. Etc., etc.

I agree that more effort should be put into silent reading sessions and rea ding aloud at the upper elementary, middle school, and high school levels. My daughter was read to in college by her favorite English teacher, a gifte d man with dramatic flair. (I had been reading to her from babyhood, and sh e lapped it up. I'll bet there were other students in his class that were n ot as appreciative.) We might have to wait quite a while for this current a ccountability fad to prove pointless, but I believe that it will do eventua lly, and probably some of the traditional love of reading ideas will be see m new again and be resurrected.

Susan Daugherty Retired school librarian


--- On Sat, 2/5/11, Christina Drakos wrote

:

From: Christina Drakos Subject:
 teaming up for reading challenged students To: pearsoncrz_at_earthlink.net, "Meghan McCarthy" , ccbc-net@ccbc.education.wisc.edu Date: Saturday, February 5, 2011, 10:59 AM

I think everyone loses out when we carve boundaries too deep between classroom teachers, reading specialists, librarians and parents. They're al l playing crucial roles in the development of a reader with reading challenge s (whether it's called a disability, dyslexia, or something else).

ALL of them should be knowledgeable enough to be sensitive to the social an d emotional needs of these students, to provide a range of literature to suit

that child's current reading potential, and to be informed of best practice s and effective interventions (although the reading specialist and classroom

teacher would put these into practice more than the librarian).

I'm not sure which situation would be worse - the reading specialist who 20 works at the specific skill level (let's say decoding) and provides appropriate reading text for that, but doesn't offer books that meets all

the other needs of a real, live, breathing, multi-faceted reader (including

audiobooks); OR a librarian that is unaware of a child's reading challenges

and continues to send a student home with books the child simply cannot=2 0 access (but might be consistently choosing in order to impress friends). 20

I'm all for much more communication and collaboration between classroom=2 0 teachers, reading specialists and librarians, and think there's room for 20 improvement in that area!

Christina

From: Claudia Pearson Reply-To: Date: Fri, 04 Feb 2011 13:31:40 -0600 To: Meghan McCarthy ,

Subject: Re:
 Trying to define "reluctant readers"

IMO, it is not the role of the librarian to help a reader who has a reading disability. That is the job of the parents and reading specialists who are trained to help these potential readers develop coping strategies.


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Received on Sun 06 Feb 2011 01:52:07 PM CST