A Tale of Two Schools

Prior to watching A Tale of Two Schools, I never truly grasped how difficult it can be for teachers to teach their students how to read, especially without the proper resources to do so. This film really made me see the pros and the cons of the Reading Mastery and Project Read programs. The program that stood out to me the most, however, was the Reading Mastery program. I loved how one of Fort Worth’s teachers commented on how important it is for students to learn how to behave in a classroom environment before they can be expected to learn how to read. I think that the structure of the Reading Mastery program would really allow for students to focus on the task at hand, while still having fun and being engaged in the lesson. During one part of the video in particular, a Fort Worth teacher allowed her students to become the teacher, which is something that I certainly plan on doing in my own classroom someday. I think that allowing students to act like the teacher is a great way to motivate them. One negative aspect of this program, however, was the fact that some believed Reading Mastery took the creativity out of the classroom. In my opinion, this is an easy fix. Teachers can be very creative when implementing lesson plans if they choose to be. The Reading Mastery program is the program that I would choose to teach in my prospective classroom.  

I particularly liked how the Reading Mastery program added elements like reading stories, writing, and spelling. I felt as if the Project Read program lacked these elements, especially since we did not see many books being used in the classroom. I really felt for the teachers in Sumner, Mississippi when I learned that they had difficulties learning how to teach the Project Read program to their students due to their lack of training, which caused them to feel unprepared. I can imagine how tough it must be to be expected to teach a lesson to students without the proper knowledge and skills to do so. Overall, I certainly believe that the Reading Mastery program was more effective than the Project Read program. I enjoyed the fact that the Reading Mastery program’s reading curriculum relentlessly taught students letters and sounds until they knew them as well as they knew their own names. In my opinion, it seemed as if the teachers in the Reading Mastery program had better access to the appropriate resources, such as workshops, compared to Project Read.

It is difficult for me to assess whether or not these programs would be used in an affluent area or not. Although I believe that affluent areas would most likely have the resources available to them to implement these reading programs, I feel as if affluent areas might rely more on technology to teach reading. I would hope that affluent areas would also stick to using books and other resources to teach kids how to read fluently. In the video, I was blown away as to how many children lived in poverty, which limited many resources that could have helped them become better readers. I am interested in developing my own teaching style and implementing numerous techniques when I teach my future students how to read. I am sure that it will be a learning experience for my students, as well as myself.