Reflection #1

REED Reflection

I have a strong belief that children are a product of their environment.  In reading, The Early Catastrophe, my beliefs became solidified with the research conducted by Hart and Risley.  We have a rising problem in our country and as stated by Risley and Hart, the sheer magnitude of intervention needed to make changes to current trends needs to start now before we reach a point of no return.  In considering intervention, I liked what Fitzgerald and Graves discussed in Reading Supports for All; scaffolded reading experiences.  Although the idea is great for content areas that require a large amount of textual reading, being such that I am a pre-service math teacher I find it hard to consider using scaffolded reading experiences.  The chapter on Building a Community of Learners, in Subject Matters,( p. 173) I find having students read a mathematical process and write down their ideas on how the process works (pre-reading) could be a good stepping stone in scaffolded reading experiences.  From that point questions could be developed and students could critique and justify their reasoning with one another.  Then students could read into the material further to gain a better understanding (during reading).  After the have read the actual text they could discuss their findings (post reading). 

The most important aspect to any learning experience is the classroom community.  In the text, Building a Community of Learners, Daniels and Zemelman discuss the absolute importance of developing a positive community of learning.  If we are to expect any form of intervention to work, I believe it all starts in the classroom.  Students need to know that they are in a safe, non-judgmental environment, where their opinions are valued, where it is okay to make mistakes and inquiry is encouraged.  Positive learning experiences occur in a safe learning environment within an encouraging classroom community