As a Special Education Teacher, when reading the
PowerPoint I found it incredible that by 2014, 100% of students are supposed to
have reached academic proficiency. I just don’t see this happening for all
students. Of course, that is because my class is split on the number of kids
who are on standardized assessments with accommodations and those that are on
alternate assessments. But even so, the system is set up so that not all
students can or will obtain proficiency. The assessments that are used don’t
allow all students to be successful and yet that is the expected goal.
Having stepped off that soapbox, I did like that the
information presented supported the use of direct and explicit instruction for
struggling readers to support prerequisite skills. I’ve been on the fence about
which direction is generally better, top-down or bottom-up, but overall my opinion
is still that the instructional choices have to be made based on the individual
child and what works for one won’t work for another. I have always based
reading instruction on literature but also provide systematic phonics
instruction to those who show progress with this method.
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