Theoretical Discussion #2

Valencia and Buly Article

         My group met to discuss the 2 articles for this week.  The article by Valencia and Buly sparked our interest by just reading the title.  Some of our good classroom students are not proficient on the standardized tests at times.  It is so frustrating to believe that they know the material, they have mastered the skills needed, and then when push comes to shove, they miss the mark.  We have all been very disappointed at times when it happens to another talented student. 

         We all related to the article when it said that teachers spend an enormous amount of time preparing kids for the standardized tests, even though preparation for the one test doesn’t translate into real learning (Valencia and Buly, page 520).  We completely agreed with this, but what else do you do?  This one test goes on the student’s report card.  This one test goes against us on our evaluations!  If we, teachers, do not teach to the test and students do not pass it, then we look like failures in the eyes of the state and local government officials.  It is a win or lose situation.  That is why this article about the results of a study of students who failed a typical test intrigued us. The authors described a pattern of performance, and suggestions for teachers to use to help these students be successful.   

         It was of great use to us that all the students tested were found in the regular classroom.  There were no ESL or special education students used for this study.  These were the kids who the regular classroom teacher was solely responsible for.  This was especially helpful to us regular education teachers.  We are held responsible for their success and no one else.  So we were glad this study included only those kids.  They found that all students fell into 3 categories: word identification, meaning, and fluency.  Not only did they fall into these distinct categories, but they were also found to be below grade level in all 3 areas.  We all have had students in our classrooms that have struggled in those areas.  So we were not surprised by this information.  As we discussed the rest of the findings, we agreed with the authors when they said, “one-size instruction will not fit all children” (Valencia and Buly, page 528).  There are many missing skills that different children have, and many need individualized instruction with these skills.  No two kids are alike, so individualized intensive instruction is the key to helping those kids.  We feel that our school is on the right track to helping our struggling readers succeed.  We focus on individualized study with-in our flexible, small-group instruction during our guided reading program.  We concentrate on what each child needs to focus their attentions on and build on those areas daily.  Time, money, materials, and training will help us move farther along in this process.  Our hope is to be the most effective classroom teachers we can be. 

Allington Article

         The article “What I’ve Learned About Effective Reading Instruction:  From a Decade of Studying Exemplary Elementary Classroom Teachers” went right along with the Valencia and Buly article.  We discussed how many similarities there were between them.  We talked about Dr. Allington’s 6 T’s of effective elementary literacy instruction: 

·      Time

·      Texts

·      Teaching

·      Talk

·      Tasks

·      Testing

We thought it fascinating that there was almost no test-preparation activity in the classrooms of the highly effective teachers.  The teachers that were studied believed that their good instruction would lead to outstanding test performance.  The less effective teachers, on the other hand, made use of packaged test prep programs.  The used the programs to make up for their lack of instruction in the classroom. (Allington, pages 740-747)

         This article, like the first, highlights how important teacher effectiveness is in student success.  Students need direct on-level instruction.  They need to be taught strategic reading strategies and have access to books that are on their reading level.  The teacher is in charge of making sure that students are getting what they need as learners on a daily basis. Teaching cannot be packaged, but needs to be done in an exemplary manner.  We need to constantly work on ourselves to become expert teachers.