Improving Reading Fluidity

Many students who are having trouble reading have trouble with reading aloud. The student is using all their brain power to think about letters and the sounds they make. They are still at the point where reading means saying the words aloud. 

So to improve this so when the student reads I tell them we are creating a video about this book to share with students who are younger. I practice and let the student film me. We watch the film. We practice. We do one or two pages and watch the film and evaluate it together. Slowly the reading improves as the student should have the book almost memorized. I hope to post a sample soon. But this week I am on vacation.

'Mainstreaming' Special-Ed Students Needs Debate

Miriam Kurtzig Freedman wrote an interested article in the Wall Street Journal last week that I believe is important for parents to think about.

I have subbed in the San Diego Unified School District for the past year in various classrooms from K - 8.  Many of these classrooms include mainstreamed Special Education Students.  What the district does to meet the education needs of these students it to include a special education teacher in the classroom.

What I have observed is the district pays me to sit and watch another teacher teach.  Yes I do help students when they need help but I don't get to share a lesson with them and watch them learn.  I can understand why many parents have wanted their special needs student mainstreamed but I question the outcome for all students.

I have observed over 30 students sitting in the classroom and two teachers.  I think the education for all students would increase if we had two classrooms of 15 students and a teacher.

I thought this quote is important for parents to understand, "Teachers may tell you (privately) that inclusion often leads them to slow down and simplify classroom teaching. Yet the system is entrenched and politically correct.  Many parents remain silent.  Some quietly remove their kids from public schools."

I taught in a resource classroom for a middle school.  I had classes from 6 to 18 students.  I taught with an aide.  I used the same textbooks as mainstreamed students.  I pushed my students to enter the mainstream classrooms as soon as they were ready.  I made my classes interesting and engaging.  Test scores improved for special education students at my school.  I don't feel my students would have been successful in a regular classroom with me watching the other teacher teach.

Again something to think about...