Does any of the information presented in Chapter 15 influence your personal philosophy of reading? In what ways? How has your perspective this changed since you took the DeFord TORP a few weeks ago?
The information presented in chapter 15 heavily influenced my personal philosophy of reading. As I moved through the class I gained more support for why and how a comprehensive literacy program works and how it helps higher readers but has more impact on struggling readers. The data provided within this chapter emphasizes that children from lower socio economic communities benefit from a comprehensive literacy program because they hear fluent reading, are offered opportunities to work on skills through guided reading groups and individual conferences, and have a vast array of choices to read. Many of these students do not have people at home to read to them or work with them and many do not have access to different book choices.
When I first took the DeFord TORP at the beginning of the semester, my answers fell within the skills range. There seems to be so much emphasis on test scores and accountability these days that teachers sometimes forget what is truly important- teaching the students based on what they need and their abilities. At the beginning of this course, I was not a huge proponent of phonics instruction (mainly because I had been taught more whole language approach and felt uncomfortable with phonics and its rules)- I however, have seen that value in teaching phonics to students but incorporating it into reading through context and not taught as separate skills. Emerging readers need pieces of phonics in order to use those skills with unknown words they find in their reading.
My answers for the TORP also fell in the skills range. After what I have learned in this class I feel kind of embarrassed that I was teaching my students in a way that was not completely beneficial. I love how we have learned to incorporate this type of learning in a comprehensive literacy program. I cannot wait to incorporate all I have learned about how to teach phonics during learning time as needed.
ReplyDeleteLike you, my answers to the DeFord TORP fell in the skills range. Phonics instruction was never a way I was taught or really had experience in teaching, so I also wasn't a big proponent of teaching it. This semester made me realize how useful phonics is in learning to read when it is incorporated in other aspects of reading.
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