assignment # 5 Wilma--Y

Y--In reading from the Youngest Learner, " Spaces Beyond the Book Nook and the Writing Center", I felt right at home. I have used learning centers for all of my career in teaching and have tried to make each center a print rich environent. This has always encouraged interest and inquiry into many aspects of learning. I agree with Dr. Montessori in her writing, "The Absorbent Mind". We determine, to a large extent, students/learning by how we surround them and stimulate their minds.

It is true that our reading strategies have become so automatic that it is difficult to identify them. However, after reading the list of strategies on page 100 in T-A, I am aware that I sometimes stop in my reading and say to myself, "This is not making sense." I will then reread or read on to try to clear up the confusion. I substitute words I know, and that fit the context, to replace words with which I am less familiar. I also bring my own knowledge, beliefs and ideas into the text and try to visualize what the text means. These are probably my most frequently used strategies.

It was helpful for me to review the checklist of strategies. I think this would be helpful for students as well. I teach kindergarten and I think that I can help my students become better readers in the future by doing think-alouds and incorporating some of these strategies in the think-aloud. However, if I were teaching older students, I think I would provide them a laminated copy of the, "Stop, Ask, Fix: Student Checklist" on page 100. I would also teach, and post in various places in the room, the "Flow Chart of Comprehension-Monitoring Behaviors" on pages 98-99. Individual copies of these pages, as well as pages 120 and 170 would be beneficial. I think we will have to deliberately teach these skills, rather than expecting students to just figure it out on their own. It will require much modeling and practice before these skills become automatic for students.