Teaching for Reading Diagnosis and Improvement

The Role of the Teacher The role of a teacher in a reading diagnosis and improvement program is complex. The teacher must: observe individual children, understand individual differences and the factors that influence them, build readiness for reading at various reading levels, identify children who are having reading difficulties, combine diagnosis and improvement with everyday reading, help children gain an appreciation of reading.

The Role of the Teacher Teachers must have knowledge of the various word recognition and comprehension skills and strategies at their fingertips and be able to teach them effectively. They must know observation techniques and be aware of the factors that influence children's reading behaviors.

The Role of the Teacher Teachers must be able to administer and interpret a variety of assessments such as informal reading inventories and word analysis tests. If teachers are not able to construct their own informal diagnostic tests, they should be aware of those that are commercially available. Clearly, teachers in a reading diagnosis and improvement program must be well prepared and well informed.

The Role of the Teacher Although a school may have the best equipment, the most advanced school facility, a superior curriculum, and children who want to learn, "good teachers" are crucial for the desired kind of learning to take place. With today's emphasis on accountability, the spotlight is even more sharply focused on the teacher. Although there is no definitive agreement on how to evaluate teachers, researchers and educators agree that teachers influence students' behavior and learning.

The Role of the Teacher Researchers have discovered that it is difficult to compare different methods or sets of materials and that students seem to learn to read from a variety of materials and methods. More important, researchers consistently point to the teacher as the key to improving reading instruction.

The Role of the Teacher Most professional reading organizations, educators, and the public at large agree that the teacher is the key to improved instruction. While the precise factors may vary according to grade level and individual students, effective reading teachers share some general qualities.

The Role of the Teacher Good teachers know how to identify and work on changing assumptions and beliefs they hold about teaching and learning. Good teachers work to improve their knowledge of content and their knowledge of how to teach diverse learners. Good teachers learn to reason and reflect on their work while they are doing it.

The Role of the Teacher Reading researchers have identified the practices and beliefs of teachers whose students demonstrated the highest reading achievement. Among first-grade teachers, eight characteristics have emerged: Coherent and thorough integration of skills with high-quality reading and writing experiences. A high density of instruction (i.e., integration of multiple goals in a single lesson).

The Role of the Teacher Extensive use of scaffolding (i.e., support). Encouragement of student self-regulation (i.e., solving their own problems). A thorough integration of reading and writing activities. High expectations for all students. Masterful classroom management. An awareness of their practices and the goals underlying them."

Teacher Expectations A positive expectation of good reading teachers is that all children can read age- appropriate texts if they are provided with the support they need for that text. The more teachers know about their students, the better able they are to plan for them. Teachers influence students' learning through their expectations about students' abilities.

Teacher Expectations Teachers must always be mindful of the self-fulfilling prophecy-where assumptions about children become true, at least in part, because of teacher attitudes and because of the structure of schooling itself (e.g., ability grouping, curriculum mandates, high- stakes testing).

Teacher Expectations Over time, these kinds of hidden assumptions define a child's reading identity and school career. Researchers have found that a child's identity as a reader can actually override reading ability when he or she is working on authentic reading. Also, the social consequences of failing to learn to read in the early grades are severe.

Teacher Expectations Longitudinal studies find that disadvantaged third graders who have failed one or more grades and are reading below grade level are extremely unlikely to complete high school. Rather than shape a child's identity by assuming that past scores or performance on curriculum materials define a competent reader, a good reading teacher will start with a positive perception that all students are capable.

Four Teacher Roles 1. Planning Teachers in a reading diagnosis and improvement program must also be good planners. Planning helps guide teachers in making choices about instruction; clarifying their thinking about objectives; discerning their students' needs, interests, and developmental levels; and determining what motivating techniques to use.

Four Teacher Roles The teacher in a reading diagnosis and improvement program bases instruction on continuous analysis of students' strengths and needs. The teacher is flexible and is always alert to student feedback to determine whether to proceed with instruction, slow down instruction, or stop to correct or clarify some misconception.

Four Teacher Roles In other words, the teacher uses diagnostic teaching, "the practice of systematic trial and evaluation of a variety of instructional strategies (including materials, methods of presentation, and methods of feedback) with individual students as part of their everyday educational program. Teachers use a number of assessment instruments and techniques in such teaching, and they make whatever modifications they want based on feedback from their students.

Four Teacher Roles The teacher in a reading diagnosis and improvement program must wisely plan time allotments for reading. Some have noted there are different ways to do just that. Sometimes the instruction will be planned and intentional. This is the type of instruction in which the teacher has designed a lesson that focuses on a specific reading skill or strategy.

Four Teacher Roles The lesson includes a specific objective, teaching procedures that will enable students to attain the objective, and an individual assessment that will help the teacher to determine how well the students learned the objective of the lesson.

Four Teacher Roles Unplanned, intentional instruction is another way to plan time. This type of planning requires teachers to be responsive to what students are doing and to think on their feet. For example, sometimes students might show a misunderstanding of a topic through their oral responses. As a result, the teacher may decide to clear up any misunderstandings.

Four Teacher Roles This requires on-the-spot thinking of intentional ways to teach students in order to clear up their confusion. At other times, something might happen that will encourage the teacher to seize the moment to teach students.

Four Teacher Roles 2. Explicit Teaching The kind of instruction teachers use to teach reading explicitly will affect how well their students learn to read. To help students become good readers, teachers must have metacognitive ability, so they know when to do what and how. In other words, they must know a number of teaching strategies and consistently monitor their teaching to help students become active consumers of information and good strategic readers.

Four Teacher Roles Explicit instruction is guided by a teacher, who uses different kinds of strategies to help students gain understanding of what they are reading. There are several instructional strategies that teachers can use to teach reading explicitly, and the techniques teachers employ transcend the kinds of materials they use.

Four Teacher Roles Explicit instruction requires the following: Goals are well stated and activities are designed to accomplish these goals. Students know what the goals are. Students are given clear opportunities to learn. Teachers assess and give prompt feedback. Teachers arrange ways to assess and adjust to successes and failures at reaching goals. As noted in the previous section, explicit instruction is most often planned and intentional.

Four Teacher Roles 3. Teacher Evaluation. Teacher self-assessment plays an important part in the diagnosis cycle. Taking time to reflect on lessons and how students perform can help you to measure the effectiveness of the lesson. Did all students attain the lesson objective? If not, why not? Asking questions such as these can illustrate that sometimes the problem resides with the teacher rather than with the student.

Four Teacher Roles There are many ways to self-evaluate. Videotaping and reviewing lessons using specific criteria is one. Evaluating student performance is another. In addition, a checklist can be designed to help evaluate the entire diagnostic reading and improvement program in general. Another checklist can be constructed to reflect on reading lessons.

Four Teacher Roles 4. Organizer Experienced reading diagnosis and improvement teachers are good organizers and managers. They know how to work with large groups, small groups, the whole class, and individual students When thinking about grouping students, teachers need to think through what they are using as a basis for grouping.

Four Teacher Roles Usually the basis for placement in reading groups is the student's achievement level. In this case, during the first few weeks of the term, teachers collect data concerning the achievement levels of each of the students in their classes through observation, teacher-made tests, and standardized tests. After evaluating the collected data, the teacher organizes tentative groups.

Four Teacher Roles The number of groups in a skill area depends on the amount of variability within the class. For some areas, there may be three or four groups; for some, there may only be two groups; for some, the teacher may decide to work with the whole class as a unit.

Four Teacher Roles For some areas, the teacher may have a number of children working individually. The grouping pattern is flexible, and the groups themselves are recognized as flexible units; children can easily flow from one group to another. When the purpose for the group has been met, the group dissolves.

Four Teacher Roles The teacher as a good manager is able to deal with more than one situation at a time. A teacher working with a group should be aware of what is going on not only in that group but also with the other children in the class. The alert teacher is able to prevent problems.