Tompkins Chapter 3

As I read through this chapter, I am reminded how important it is for teachers to be educated and knowledgeable about the subjects they are going to teach. A lot of the issues covered in this chapter are discussed in my CEP 301 class. The CEP, for those unfamiliar, are special education classes. The class is similar to TE 301, except the focus is on students who are struggling with reading and writing. Students with learning disabilities have an uphill battle with language. Many students who are in special education exit behavioral problems related to their academics and difficulty in expressing themselves. Even though I hope to work with an older group of students than this book often deals with, knowing the stages of emergent, beginning, and fluent readers and the qualities that contribute to these stages will be helpful for struggling readers of any age. Knowing what to look for will help me know where a student is having the most difficulty, the area most holding them back from being able to express themselves and enjoy the art of language. ELL students develop reading and writing skills similar to young children learning how to read and write, but the thing that sets students with learning disabilities apart is that their development in these stages is not typical. For example, a student might read fluently but struggle with comprehending anything they read. I think the chart on p. 97 is going to be particularly helpful with this group of students because it gives ideas to help students in the different stages, and most of the suggestions could cross a spectrum of ages. (It's often an issue trying to find age-appropriate activities and materials for older students struggling with reading and writing.) The section on handwriting is another point we talked about in CEP 301. Again, there are certain traits of writing older, struggling students exhibit. The idea of writing centers is another idea this book gave to help students learning to read and write that could be designed with an older group in mind. Of the chapters I've read in this book, I think this one is the most applicable to what I want to do in the future.