Education
Perspectives on Parenting©
by Nancy Lambert Davenport
Nancy Davenport's Column:
For Richardson News 04-02-00
Copyright Nancy Lambert Davenport 2000
"Reading is fun --- when it's done right"
In spite of the rainy evening, it was fun to be back in an elementary school library. On many shelves, small stuffed animals stood guard beside books. A pink piglet was leaning against a book about pigs; a soft whale oversaw several books on whales, all offering additional life to the library shelves. Three-dimensional, brightly colored children's works of art danced along the area above the books as if celebrating the contents of the selves below.
Few children were in the room. The adults who were there sat around the tables in the library, instinctively respecting the rules of quiet that reign during the day. It was probably the first time for most of us to be in this building. The meeting was for parents of children who will be entering kindergarten in the Fall. A friend, whose grandchild will attend that school and has educational needs that will require some extra assistance, asked me to attend with her.
The Instruction Facilitators from RISD presented information to the group. They have set up elsewhere in the district a Demonstration Classroom using a method to teach reading that is applicable to just about any subject. Teachers from all over the district come to their classroom to observe and learn how to implement this method, then bring it back to their schools. This school's teachers have been through their program.
They explained that as with any area of learning it works best with support from the parents. That is why the District invited the parents there. They asked us to think of levels of support in the learning process. First the students watch the teacher do whatever they are to learn. Then the students work with the teacher on the same learning project. Last of course, they do it on their own.
According to the book entitled Word Matters, reading begins with hearing and saying jingles and songs. It makes language enjoyable and it allows students to learn that some words are alike. In conjunction with that, they would be hearing stories read aloud. In this method once again, students learn that language is enjoyable and that written language means something. In addition they learn that a story goes with a picture and represents meaning and that written language is constant.
From there students progress to listening to stories while looking at pages of print. They learn that there is a certain way to hold a book, to turn pages left to right, and that they need to look at the print. This moves into the process of sharing the reading of a familiar story with someone. They learn that the eyes go left to right and down the page, that groups of letters represent words, that a spoken word matches one written word, and that punctuation tells them to take an action such as stopping. This is probably the longest part of the process and uses many techniques of presenting the material.
When children master some of the above they move to the last step of reading alone knowing they have the pictures on the page to help them with the words.
This technique of the students watching the teacher, working with the teacher, and then doing the work on their own is fine for the average student. My friend's concern was just how adaptable was that for her grandson who might not learn so quickly as his peers. These instructors reassured her that this was perfect for her grandchild. Every child in the room will be learning at his or her own pace. There is no Redbird and Bluebird group with the fit-in-or-forget-it type teaching. It sounded great to us.
We both agreed as we said good bye to all the animals on the library shelves, that the program sounded wonderful but as with any learning experience, it all comes down to the bcompetence of the teacher. We're hoping for a good one, one who is ready to stretch a little and accept my friend's grandson as he is and go from there. Perhaps then he will enjoy coming to the library even on a rainy day.
Return to
Top of Page
Return to
Table of Contents
Return to Home Page
Nancy Lambert Davenport
EMAIL: ndavenport@ticnet.com
URL: http://www.nancyldavenport.com