Teaching students to read can be very frustrating and is a hard task to overcome. There are numerous details and steps that go into this process. For instance, phonemic awareness and word recognition are both crucial processes when learning to read. In every classroom, grade level, and school there will always be students who struggle with reading. It is our job as future teachers to learn strategies and activities in order to help these students. Kathleen Clark's article touched mainly on coaching word recognition. It starts out by giving highly effective instructional techniques to use when helping a student to read. It is important to allow the student to sound out the word on their own rather than just simply telling them how it is pronounced. While I was reading the article one sentence really stuck out to me. Clark states that, “The teachers all said that coaching was critical to their success in helping children learn to read, and they indicated it was a technique they acquired after completing their teacher certification program.” This made me feel a lot better because as of right now I am not very confident in my own ability to teach/coach a child to read. I will be student teaching in a Kindergarten class starting in August where I know learning to read will be an everyday activity for these students. I really look forward to learning how to become an effective reading teacher myself and after reading this article I feel like that will be possible sooner than I expected!
Taryn, I remember feeling the same way about coaching. It will come- with time. In fact, it is something you will work on the rest of your career!
ReplyDeleteI have had the same fears you do! Recently, I have struggled with whether I actually want to be a teacher or not and I think the fear of my teaching/coaching ability is what is causing this struggle. Your post and Monica's reaction really encouraged me! Thank you!
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