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October 15, 2002
Supporting the Reading First Classroom: Issues and Challenges (cont'd)
Training for Decision Makers
But ensuring the best technology products make it to the reading classroom is another new challenge educators face. Sivin-Kachala sees the Reading First provisions of NCLB as "likely to shape school and district behavior so that individual teacher decisions about product selection and ongoing program evaluation will be largely directed by the district and school."
"District-level adminstrators need to ask the right questions about software." — Paula Sanders, 3rd grade teacher
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Technology-savvy educators such as Paula Sanders, who teaches third grade in Sunrise, Fla., see this as a problem. Sanders believes the lack of professional development in technology is often responsible for district-level decision makers making uninformed choices about the best products for reading teachers and others. She cites her own district, which she says invested in dull, "canned content" software because its built-in assessment component meets accountability needs. Sanders, who uses a large-screen projection device with her computer to get kids involved in Internet-based activities, such as WebQuests and real-life learning activities offered through The Futures Channel (thefutureschannel.com), feels a danger of Reading First is that it seems to imply reading is taught in isolation from other subjects. "Integration is key," says Sanders. "Those canned programs include a lot of reading on the screen and dry multiple-choice tests as follow-up. What's fun and interesting about that?"
Jon Bower, CEO of Lexia Learning Systems, which offers professional training and reading skill development, would term that kind of program "curriculum-driven reading instruction" as opposed to "teacher-empowered reading instruction." "The mistake lies in approaches-such as scripted programs-designed to replace creative instruction, to bypass the teacher. Rather, if a teacher can use a tool to assess a student, to inform her teaching, to understand what's working and to redirect teaching where needed, then you have success," he says.
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