U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Stephen Murphy [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
Dr. Teri Lesesne is brilliant, of course, and I’m always eager to read what she has to say! This post about new, “personalized” leveling apps (October 2014) is en point as usual! They seem to be just a new twist on an old, and wrong-headed system. It’s just the latest take on restrictive reading as in the AR of old!
I can see that being able to have all students in a room read a common article at a comfortable reading level could facilitate discussion, and by extension, deeper comprehension of the topic at hand. I suspect that in most classrooms where it took hold though, it would be wildly overused and abused–because it’s easy on the teacher! And most teachers are sooo slammed for time that they will snap up anything that promises to make their task surmountable. I also wonder what is left out of the easier reading levels, and I wonder what those kids will be missing that might have inspired them. Aren’t these struggling readers the very students that we most want to inspire to keep reading? Is it really an “equal” experience for all?
Why not employ some other scaffolds first, rather than laming up the experience for a whole segment of our class? (see Lesesne’s Reading Ladders or this article by Todd Finley) These methods might be more accessible to our kids, social-learning, collaborative & connected as they are!
connect2jamie 