So Much Information

I am one of those people who can tend to make TOO many connections when reading text as informationally dense as the Clay and Gillet.My mind is swimming with validations about ways in which education has made a wrong turn as well as returning back to the ultimate idea of true differentiation (wince) for ALL students. Meeting kids where they are is key to a relevent educational experience. I wince because this requires a lot of reflective teaching, i.e. TIME.

As I move towards conferencing and strategy grouping, I also move away from my mandated reading program and I better be able to defend that action. In reading Clay and Gillet's Chapter 6, I reviewed all the teaching and assessment techniques I was kind of "raised on" as a new teacher back in the early 90's. It is a reminder for me that as I build on my case study's strengths, we can begin to address his reading habits and limits that do not serve him as a reader.

In a school where kids are place in reading groups by DIBELS ORF alone, the only information I got was ORF 7, INTENSIVE RISK. Doing the DRA and Clay assessments, I am armed with the information that he DOES use picture cues. He DOES use visual and meaning cues. He does have basic comprehension skills. He has very limited English vocabulary. He cannot read in his primary language. He knows the majority of his letters and sounds. He struggles with speech production and articulation. He does have the majority of the concepts about print. He HAS learned a great deal since entry in kindergarten. This is so much more informative and diagnostic to me. It helps me to plan what is next instructionally for him.