Final Reflection

I enjoyed this class a lot. It was different from most of the courses that I've had to take toward my special education licensure. It reminded me so much of why I majored in English during my undergraduate work. Reading is something that has always been important to me, and I want to share my love for reading with the students I work with who have special needs and often struggle when it comes to reading. My passion has become helping students who are struggling or nonreaders to become better readers. I learned so many useful strategies and ways of doing this throughout this semester. I loved the read alouds/book talks that Dr. Pytash took the time to do before each class. This is such a great strategy to use to help expose students to books that they might be interested in reading. I also think read alouds are great for struggling readers because it helps them to hear and see what a good reader looks like while eliminating some of the pressure they feel.
Finally, I think my favorite thing about this class is that Dr. Pytash modeled the strategies we were learning about and got us involved in using them. It's one thing to read about a strategy, but it's something entirely different to get to see and experience it.

Chapter 14: Finding the Right Book

Having been an avid reader my entire life, I've never given much thought to how I could help a nonreader "find the right book." I learned how to look at covers and preview a book in order to decide whether or not I wanted to read it. I have my favorite authors and the internet to help me find new ones. But, nonreaders don't think like I do. This is why the suggestions that Beers offers in Chapter 14 helped me to better understand how to help nonreaders or struggling readers how to find something that interests them.
From reading Chapter 14, I learned that many nonreaders like thin books with short chapters, wide margins, illustrations, well-defined characters, lots of action, and realistic language. They don't like to spend a lot of time trying to sift through tons of minute details. Nonreaders want to read something that is going to give them a lot of information in a confined amount of space. I liked Beers' suggestion of using a Read Aloud strategy to help entice nonreaders to read. I took a graduate level course where the professor read to us before every class. It was a lot of fun and really helped me to understand how important reading aloud can be, especially for students who didn't grow up in the literacy-rich environment that I grew up in.
I also thought it was interesting how few teachers take the time to take their students to the library. I was always at the library growing up, so I was frequently exposed to all the books I could ever want. Nonreaders don't have this experience and desperately need it. They need someone to introduce them to books and help them learn how to choose books they might enjoy reading.
Finally, I liked how Beers mentioned how important it is to know your students' interests. Simple interest inventories can help a teacher in a lot of different ways, especially when it comes to helping nonreaders find a book that they might like to read.

Chapter 13: Creating the Confidence to Respond

As I read Chapter 13, I found myself highly engaged and trying to put myself in the shoes of the struggling readers I will be working with in the future. I especially liked the example Beers used from one of the workshops that she led. The teachers participating in her workshop were hesitant and often reluctant to participate in sharing their thoughts with the larger group as a result of feeling inconfident sharing in front of peers they did not know. This really made me think about how struggling readers must feel when expected to participate in front of their seemingly more capable peers. As teachers I think it's important that we never lose sight of the fact that our students have feelings and many of the behaviors we don't like are designed to mask their feelings of incompetence in front of their peers. Also, I've realized how important it is to create a classroom that encourages risk-taking on the part of students by making sure they know each other's names, making sure diversity is celebrated, and making sure that students know it is unacceptable to make disrespectful comments to each other.
One additional insight I gleaned from this chapter is how important it is to make sure reading is about something more than just being able to answer a few questions at the end of a chapter. I especially liked the lists of possible questions to use that help students figure out what a text means to them.
Finally, the five stages of literary appreciation helped clarify for me where students are at with reading in what grades. I thought the shift from one stage to the next was interesting in terms of how a student's viewpoint changes as he grows older and moves from one grade to the next. I think this information can be very useful when it comes to choosing appropriate texts, as well as finding questions to use to guide students in creating meaning.

Chapter 10: Fluency and Automaticity

In Chapter 10, Beers notes, "It's important to remember that students don't develope automaticity via decoding but rather through repeated exposure to a word they can decode" (p. 205). She continues on to mention that "our dependent readers who are struggling with word recognition may need to see this word as many as forty times" (p. 205). These quotes helped me to consider the importance of frequent exposure to words and reading that our dependent readers need. For our dependent readers, they may be able to sound out a word but may to see the word up to forty times before they can automatically recognize it while reading.
Beers also offers many strategies for helping students improve automaticity and fluency. One strategy that I particularly like is reading aloud to students. Our dependent readers need us to model good expression, phrasing and pacing. By reading aloud to our students on a regular basis, we are modeling for them what it means to be a good reader. Also, I think reading aloud to students offers us a variety of opportunities to directly teach phrasing, for instance. It also allows us to work on comprehension skills which dependent readers often struggle with.
Finally, I like the fact that Beers mentions, "We cannot confuse teaching about reading with the act of reading" (p. 218). It's important to provide our struggling readers with ample opportunities to read texts at their instructional or independent level because repeated practice is what they need in order to become better readers.

Chapter 9: Vocabulary: Figuring Out What Words Mean

As I read Chapter 9, I thought about my own experiences with learning vocabulary. I couldn't think of one experience that didn't consist of being handed a list of words and definitions to memorize and regurgitate on a vocabulary test one week later. I remember being in high school and all of the language arts teachers focusing on SAT and ACT vocabulary. We memorized 20 words a week. Words that I'm sure I rarely used other than on the vocabulary test. Luckily, I've always had an excellent memory so this was never a problem for me; however, reading this chapter made me stop and think about how teaching vocabulary this way might be a significant struggle for other students, especially students who have learning disabilities. To help teach vocabulary more effectively, there were several strategies that I liked in Chapter 9.
One strategy I particularly liked was "Assign Word Study, Not Word Memorization." I like this strategy because it encourages teachers to have students learn words that they will actually use. I know many of the vocabulary words that I have retained were those words that appeared most often in conversations and the texts we read in class. It makes sense to me to have students focus on learning fewer words that they can learn to use well in both their oral and written language.
A second strategy that I liked was "Teach Word Parts." I like the idea of teaching students about roots and affixes and using a vocabulary tree to help them visualize the many different forms a root word can be turned into. Also, I like the fact that a vocabulary tree encourages students to listen more closely to conversations to determine if someone they know uses a word they are focusing on. Along this same line, I liked the strategy "Use Graphic Organizers" because it also provides students with a visual display that helps them to see relationships among words that they might otherwise miss.
Overall, I think this chapter helped me to see that vocabulary can be fun for students who aren't word lovers. Allowing students to interact with words in different ways seems to be a much more effective technique to ensure they are enhancing their vocabulary rather than to hand them a list of words to memorize that they will probably forget shortly after being tested on them.

Chapter 8: Extending Meaning: After-Reading Strategies

When I think about after-reading strategies, I think about strategies that help reinforce what I have read and help me to construct meaning. One after-reading strategy that I particularly liked is the use of scales. Scales help students perform a variety of tasks. A scale can help a student make comparisons between characters and events, it can help them to reach their own conclusions, and it can even help them differentiate between facts and opinions. Likert Scales, for instance, help students form their own opinion about characters, themes, conflicts, and symbolism. Semantic Differential Scales use opposite character traits to allow students to identify how a character has changed during the course of a story. In my opinion, scales are a great discussion starting point. It helps all students to understand that they can form their own opinions about different parts of a story and can play an active role during class discussion time. I believe it's important to create a safe environment for dependent readers in which they feel like they can play a role in pulling apart the components of a text.
A second strategy that I really liked from this chapter is called "It Says--I Say." I like the way that it helps students organize their thoughts and shows them how to take what's in a text and connect it back to things they already know. In other words, it helps students see how they think. Being able to see how we think is beneficial to dependent readers. If dependent readers can see independent readers model their thought process, I believe that it will help dependent readers to become more active participants in the reading process. Also, Beers has noted that "It Says--I Say" is a great structure to help students learn how to make inferences.
Overall, I think after-reading strategies help dependent readers begin to understand how to eventually make connections throughout the entire reading process.

Chapter 7: Constructing Meaning: During-Reading Strategies

"Dependent readers often fail to see reading as an active process." This opening quote of Chapter 7 stopped me. When I read, my mind is constantly engaging with the text and always busy trying to connect different pieces of the puzzle. Dependent readers don't do this. While I tried hard to imagine reading a text and not thinking at all while reading, I couldn't imagine my brain being still except for taking in the words on the page. It wasn't until a few pages later when a good example of being inactive while reading helped me to envision this. Beers gave the illustration of a struggling reader whose mind is taking in the words but focusing on other things, such as an upcoming sporting event or weekend plans. I know that when I have been excited, worried, or bored while reading, I have often read page after page without comprehending a single word. This is what it is like for dependent readers on a regular basis, and to help them get out of this vicious cycle, we need to provide them with strategies that help them remain actively engaged while reading.
One strategy in this chapter that I really liked was that of Rereading. I like this strategy for two reasons. First, from my own personal experiences, rereading a text has led to me uncovering more and more ideas. I read Jane Eyre three times during my undergraduate coursework. While I initially thought it was dumb to reread it again, I found that I saw so many things I didn't see during the first read. The third time around enabled me to make even more connections that I had missed previously, and as a result, this text has become one of my favorites. The second reason I like this strategy is to clear up the misconception that good readers never reread a text. Beers helped me to understand how important it is to show dependent readers what good readers do. I think dependent readers need to understand that rereading a text is okay. I don't think anyone is expected to find all of the meaningful connections made in a text during the first reading. It's with rereading a text that things start to make sense. Dependent readers need to understand that rereading a text is a perfectly acceptable practice, and it actually does make a difference on helping them better understand the text.

Chapter 5: Learning to Make an Inference

In Chapter 5 Beers says, "You can't teach someone how to make an inference. It's inferential. It's just something you can or can't do." I like this quote for two reasons. First, as a future Intervention Specialist, it challenges me because my job is to find ways to adapt and modify curriculum so my students can learn it. It might be difficult to teach a student with a learning disability, or any student for that matter, how to make an inference, but I believe that it can be done. Second, this quote made me stop to try and map out how I would go about teaching a student to make an inference. When you think about it, making an inference seems like it would be easy, but for someone who struggles to comprehend a text, I think I can see how it would be difficult for them to do so without explicit instruction. The chapters I have read prior to this point seem to highlight the importance of explicit instruction in order to help transform dependent readers into independent readers. This made me think that modeling how to make an inference would be the best plan of attack to help struggling readers understand this concept; however, I had great difficulty figuring out how I would explain an inference until I came across Beers' "Types of Inferences" list. As I read through the list, it made perfect sense. I had never realized that while I was making inferences about all of the texts I have read over the years that I was doing so many different things. It was enlightening to realize how many different forms an inference can take on, but it also helped me to understand even more why it would be hard for struggling readers to grasp this concept on their own. Making an inference doesn't have one concrete form. It takes on many, many forms. But, now that I understand these forms, I am better equipped to help the dependent readers in my future.

Chapter 6: Frontloading Meaning

I found myself in agreement with the fact that the large majority of teachers introduce a text by telling students something about the text. From my experience as a student, even as an undergraduate English major, this is how my teachers introduced a new text. Many of them would talk about the author and provide a brief background history on the times in which a story, poem, or play was written. Little was done to engage me and my classmates with a text prior to reading it. In thinking about struggling or dependent readers, I quickly realized that this method of introducing a story is doing nothing to entice them to read it. If they already consider themselves to be poor readers, they aren't going to want to read a story based on a brief overview of the story or the author by their teacher. Beers, however, offers many useful strategy to entice dependent readers to want to read a text.

One strategy that I found particularly interesting is the notion of Anticipation Guides. The purpose of an Anticipation Guide is to provide students with a set of statements about the text that they can either agree or disagree with. This gets students involved immediately while also encouraging them to connect with what they will be reading. In other words, students are actively engaged with a text even before they begin reading it just by interacting with the set of statements. I also like the idea of incorporating the Anticipation Guide throughout the reading process. They are a great tool to use to get students to interact with a text before reading it, but they also can be used during reading and after reading. Using an Anticipation Guide during reading and after reading gives students a chance to evaluate their responses and to determine whether or not they are still in agreement with their original responses.

Also, I like the idea of the KWL chart because it gets students involved prior to reading a text and encourages comprehension by challenging them to think about what they've learned once they've read a text. A KWL chart helps to get students thinking about their prior knowledge of a given topic. It encourages them to think about what they might learn when reading a text about a given topic. Finally, it helps them reflect on what they've learned after they've read a text.

Chapter 4: Explicit Instruction in Comprehension

The reading classes that I have taken to this point have all emphasized that comprehension is one area in which struggling readers tend to be weak. From my own experiences as a student, I remember having teachers who devoted lessons to different comprehension strategies even though I didn't fully realize their ties to comprehension at the time. What made these lessons beneficial was the fact that they were direct and explicit. My teachers modeled the strategies and showed my classmates and I how to use them. Chapter 4 showed me that as a teacher I must teach comprehension strategies directly and explicitly so that my students can learn to create meaning from texts just like I did as a student. Also, I like the fact that Beers offers her readers six steps to teaching comprehension strategies in a direct and explicit manner. Her process helped me to understand how to start teaching this way and what the end result should look like.

One thing that I was unfamiliar with in this chapter is the notion of direct instruction versus scripted instruction. I have frequently heard of direct instruction, but I can't recall hearing about scripted instruction. Scripted instruction appears to lay out word-for-word what a teacher says when giving a lesson. I can't imagine feeling comfortable using this method, and I can't imagine students feeling engaged when a teacher is essentially reading a script to them.

Finally, I liked the section that discusses the difference between a strategy and a skill. I was introduced to this idea last semester, but I never quite felt like I had an adequate handle on the distinction between the two terms. This section helped me to see a reading skill as the product and a strategy as the process. The strategy helps readers get to the skill. The skill is the end result of using a strategy.

Chapter 3: Assessing Dependent Readers' Needs

Chapter 3 helped me to better understand the broad spectrum that the phrase "not being able to read" can represent. It can represent anything from an inability to quickly recognize single-syllable words to having trouble recalling information from a text. This helped me to realize that as a teacher I need to know what strengths and weaknesses my students have as readers, especially those students who are dependent readers. After I know this, I can create a solid instructional plan that will address their needs as readers.

Additionally, this chapter got me thinking about good readers and what good readers do. When I first started to think about what a good reader is, I couldn't come up with anything specific beyond being able to read fluently and being able to comprehend a text. After reading the chapter, I realized that good readers do many different things. Good readers realize that the purpose of reading is to get meaning. Such readers are actively engaged with the text they are reading and are able to use a variety of comprehension strategies. They are also able to make inferences and connect different texts to things within their own lives. For someone who is a dependent reader, I can see how all of these things could quickly become overwhelming; however, I think it's the teacher's role to help dependent readers become good readers by modeling active engagement in the reading process. If a teacher can show a dependent reader the importance of being actively engaged while reading, it might make a dependent reader more willing to participate in the reading process. Personally, I think active participation is half the battle. Once a dependent reader is willing to interact with a text, it will open up doors for more instruction on specific skills and will help this reader begin to actively construct meaning from a text.

Chapter 2: Creating Independent Readers

In Chapter 2, one idea that struck me as being important is the notion of the struggling reader. I found myself conjuring up images of a struggling reader similar to the initial description given by Beers; however, I didn't realize that "there is no single template for the struggling reader" (p. 14). The only image of a struggling reader that came to my mind was the typical description of a student who crosses his arms or puts his head down. A student whose body language clearly indicates that he has no interest in reading. It surprised me to consider the students who are funny and smoothly avoid having to read; the quiet students whose shyness helps them avoid having to read; and the students for whom English is not their native language. These other examples of struggling readers made me realize that anyone can be a struggling reader. I thought about myself as a struggling reader when I was learning to read French during high school. I thought about being in France, Belgium, and Switzerland and being frustrated at my inability to quickly translate menus, street signs, and other written displays. I also thought about my attempts to read a science textbook or even some academic journal articles. I realized that what saved me in each of my situations was my ability to rely on a reading strategy I had learned previously. Because I had a strategy that I could utilize in each of these situations, I was able to overcome my struggle with these different texts. But, Beers helped me realize that the struggle isn't the problem. The problem is that many readers don't know what to do when they encounter a tough text. This is what separates good readers who struggle from true struggling readers.


One additional point of interest that I found in Chapter 2 is the description of the reading problems that dependent readers, or readers who depend on an outside source to tell them what to do, face. According to Beers, dependent readers need cognitive confidence, social and emotional confidence, and text confidence. As they work to improve one area, other areas that they are weak in also start to improve. This made me think about the important role that confidence plays in being a successful reader. Readers who have a variety of reading skills and strategies to use are far more confident and willing readers than those who have very few skills and strategies in their repertoire.