Michelle S.- Reading Endorsement 2022

  Michelle Suggs Module 8 Reading Experts             Teaching all children to read requires that all students are given excellent reading instruction. This could simply be the classroom teacher, but it could also be someone who has taken additional classes in reading instruction. These teachers are known as reading specialists, also known as reading experts, are  professionals with advanced preparation and experience in reading who have responsibility for the literacy performance of readers in general and struggling readers in particular . This includes early childhood, elementary, middle, secondary, and adult learners (https://www.readingrockets.org/). Through these courses, this is what I am hoping to become. I am currently teaching middle school, but I teach self-contained special education, so it is more like early literacy for struggling students.           ...

  Michelle Suggs April 11. 2022 Module 7 I can use my professional judgment and practical knowledge to determine what reading instruction is needed for all students. However, the problem is that when students enter the middle school, and possibly even the elementary school, it is expected that they can already read, and the curriculum does not afford enough time to go back and teach early literacy skills. I typically do not think of phonics instructions or even basic reading instruction as lessons for older grades. The other problem is that many students are not fluent readers, which does affect comprehension. I have had some students who could read fluently but had a difficult time actually comprehending what they read, but that is not the norm. Generally, students have a difficult time reading because they do not know so many of the words or they just have such difficulty connecting the words with a natural flow. This is an issue across all subjects. Math even has a great dea...

Michelle Suggs March 28, 2022 Module 6 This week’s reading discusses making our students independent readers.  In chapter 2 of Classrooms That Work, it is noted that we do not just want students who can read; we want students who do read. “The more you read, the better you read.” One great way to foster independent reading is to actually read aloud to children- whether your own personal children or your students at school. You have to demonstrate how to read before you can expect them just to start reading on their own.  This chapter suggests that you read aloud to your students at least once a day, and hopefully, the students are being read to at home as well. Reading aloud to students, according to the same book, is a simple and research-proven way to motivate children of all ages to become readers. While reading aloud to students, we should be sure to include a large genre of literature. We should consider all the backgrounds and ethnicities in our classroom as best as we c...

Michelle Suggs Module 5 March 15, 2022 The following is the “I can” statement that I would like to add this week: I can teach all students, and all students can learn. I do not currently have any ELL students, and the only ELL students I have taught in the past had a good handle on the English language. I did not encounter some of the difficulties that many ELL teachers do on a daily basis. However, this is my 7 th year in self-contained special education. Although several of my students are working on early literacy skills, such as naming letters, Pre-Primer Dolch sight words, and matching pictures with their initial letter, etc. I often have people outside of education question why these students are coming to school. People will sometimes refer to my classroom as a daycare. In some ways, that is true. We have fun, and we incorporate learning into the fun stuff we do, as opposed to the general education classes where they try to add some fun to academics. My middle school, students ...

Michelle Suggs Module 4 March 2, 2022 I do not know an English teacher who does not struggle with getting students to read independently, whether inside the classroom or outside the classroom. Most students do not read for pleasure, but they generally will not even read for a class assignment. Going way back to my high school and college days, I often bought the Cliff Notes with the book! Possibly because I was not 100% sure I would finish reading the book, but also because some of the books were difficult to understand. My daughter’s teacher requires her students to do some sort of a book report or project on the book they check out from the school library every two weeks, and I know my daughter will often asked to hold my phone to Google a summary of the book she was SUPPOSED to read! A good portion of the students in her two classes do the same thing. And these are the gifted and accelerated students! Adults are given Sunday school books to take home and prepare for the class th...

 Michelle Suggs Module 3 February 23, 2022 After reading chapters 6-10 in Lenses on Reading , I think that this week’s reading assignment highlights the standard and component 6.4- Candidates advocate on behalf of students. Starting with chapter 6, it is evident that learning and teaching standards is more than just the academic work. Maslow through his Hierarchy of Needs Theory discusses needs that go well behind the actual curriculum. Children need to know that they are safe, wanted, loved, and cared for- stressing that there is more to teaching than just the academic work. A student who is hungry is going to be unable to focus on the lessons, as well as a student who feels unsafe. Unfortunately, many students are not safe, wanted, loved, and cared for outside of the classroom/school setting, which is what makes it so important that they have these needs met at school. The researchers of brain development state that the before the neocortex was developed, the limbic system ...