Tuesday, March 24, 2020

LinkedIn Discussion – Explicit targeted instruction



Here is a discussion on LinkedIn last month.

I was sure there will be a lot of discussion as this post was by an Educational Consultant.

Lynn Givens an Educational Consultant, Developer of Reading Intervention Program, posted the following photo on LinkedIn and made the following comment:


“This is why we MUST provide explicit, targeted instruction and practice opportunities to all of students.” (Lynn Givens)

I was the first to comment:

Luqman Michel


For how long are we going to kid ourselves by saying 'This is why we MUST provide explicit, targeted instruction and practice opportunities to all of students."
Have we not been doing this all this while?
Do read my post this morning on exactly this matter at https://www.dyslexiafriend.com/2020/02/no-child-left-behind.html
Let us discuss this matter and reduce illiteracy.

Deborah Semenza , District Instructional Coach at Trumbull Public Schools, made a comment as follows:


100% agree! Otherwise it’s like throwing instruction against a wall and hoping something sticks!


Luqman Michel 
 

Would you like to discuss this? I did research on why many kids could read in Malay but were considered 'Dyslexic' when it came to reading in English. I have successfully taught all the more than 70 kids who came to me for intervention. I have observed them and interviewed them and know why they had shut down. Does anyone here really want to discuss this. Grill me on anything I have to say and let us move from there.

Then I made a general comment and tagged the person - Lynn Givens - who had published the post as follows:

Luqman Michel:


Why are researchers and teachers doing the same thing for decades and expecting different results?
We don't need intervention if we start teaching kids correct pronunciation of phonemes.
Lynn Givens, shall we discuss this with an open mind and try to end the reading wars?

(Note: On hindsight this will be something all these people do not want to hear nor admit. This is what their business is – intervention. If children are taught the correct pronunciation of phonemes that will definitely affect their income.)


Deborah McDaniel Math Teacher-Middle Grades at Bay District Schools 1d


As an educator, I agree that TARGETED intervention is the only way we can close learning gaps, but as an anthropologist I am curious WHY those gaps are now so prevalent and WHY the school system struggles so hard to remediate and intervene effectively.  If we don’t address the root causes of learning deficiencies, we will never be able to correct them. Is anyone else out there wanting to really fix the problem instead of just bandage it?


Luqman Michel:


I know the root cause of the problem. Are we willing to discuss this with an open mind?


Deborah McDaniel Math Teacher-Middle Grades at Bay District School 14h


Luqman Michel I read the article you posted below and I agree that poor core instruction is partly to blame. And I’m not blaming teachers for that. They are doing exactly what they have been told to do. But, I also believe that we need to address issues concerning the way core instruction and interventions are implemented in the classroom, the nutritionally bankrupt meals that are being served in our lunchrooms, and the general lack of support for educators both inside and outside of the classroom. I don’t believe that any one thing is to blame, but that we have a very broken, reactive system that keeps trying, unsuccessfully, to fix itself with “one size fits all” solutions.


Luqman Michel:


Deborah McDaniel, Thank you. Now we are getting somewhere. Most of the time I see no discussion. 

" If we don’t address the root causes of learning deficiencies, we will never be able to correct them." (Deborah)

That is exactly what I am addressing- The Root Cause. I do appreciate that what you have listed is also applicable.

However, if poverty is a cause then we need to address the fact that kids from rich families do leave school as illiterates.

I believe that one size does fit all when it comes to kindergarten and the first 2 years of schooling.

If you teach the pronunciation of phonemes correctly there will be no children, except those with acuity problems, who will be unable to read.

If all children are able to read, then we do not need intervention.

Here is one sentence from my post on importance of initial learning found at https://www.dyslexiafriend.com/2019/02/early-input.html

"Thorndike (1913), for example, hypothesized that the degree of transfer between initial and later learning depends upon the match between what was learned initially and what is learned subsequently."

I find that the above sentence applies mostly to kids predisposed to disengaging from learning to read due to confusion.


Luqman Michel:


Deborah McDaniel, I am trained in the auditing field and quit working at the age of 52 to do 'research' on why smart kids could read in Malay and Romanised Mandarin (which use the same letters as does English). I started teaching kids on a one on one basis when a friend sent his son and asked me to help him read. His son had gone to kindergarten and completed primary one but was unable to read even a single sentence.

Everything written in my blog is from personal experience of having taught more than 70 such kids on a one on one basis since 2004.

I urge you to read 3 unsolicited book reviews of my book 'Shut Down Kids' you can find on Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/Shut-Down-Kids-Prevent-Shutting/dp/1643240420

Please also read another article I posted on what causes confusion and disengages kids at https://www.dyslexiafriend.com/2020/01/unnatural-confusion.html

Please let us continue with this discourse and help in ending the 'Reading wars'.

There was no further comment from anyone.

I decided to nudge a little and posted the following and tagged the original writer.


Lynn Givens, I am waiting for your insightful input as former Director of Intervention at the Florida Center for Reading Research where you were involved in providing intervention training and professional development for teachers throughout Florida.



Lynn Givens



I have been involved with students and teachers here in Florida for many years, and sadly I find that a good deal of reading instruction is NOT explicit and targeted.  We have a long way to go!!


                                                            THE END

About Lynn Givens (From LinkedIn)

I have been a teacher of struggling readers and a teacher educator for over 35 years.  I served as Director of Intervention at the Florida Center for Reading Research where I was involved in providing intervention training and professional development for teachers throughout Florida.  I have previously taught undergraduate reading and English/language arts courses at FSU's School of Teacher Education. Currently, I am acting as instructor/facilitator for online teacher endorsement courses in reading and as developer/facilitator for the Connect to Comprehension course at the Orton-Gillingham Online Academy.  Trained in the Orton-Gillingham method, I spent eight years at the Schenck School in Atlanta, which provided me with a firm foundation in teaching dyslexic students and other struggling readers. My goal has always been to provide high-quality, explicit instruction to close the gaps for students who are having reading difficulties and to instruct teachers on how to do this as well.

To assist in this effort, I have published several unique instructional materials: the Connect to Comprehension reading program and Phonics Games for Fluency. (www.connecttocomprehension.com) The Connect to Comprehension program is now being used as the primary resource in the practicum for struggling readers at FSUPC and is one of the approved Tier 3 intervention programs for struggling readers in Bay County, Florida . It has also been used successfully for a number of years in an afterschool program in Marion County, Florida, and is serving as a reading intervention program in various locations in the US and Canada.

Training in this effective intervention program for struggling readers is available for districts and will soon be available for individuals via a professional development DVD.

Is it possible that she and many others like her are not interested in solving the problem? Once you teach the correct pronunciation of the phonemes the kids needing intervention will be drastically reduced.

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