Blog 1- A Tale of Two Schools

After watching “A Tale of Two Schools,” I was undecided about which reading program I would want to implement in my future classroom. Both Reading Mastery and Project Read have great things to offer children, but also things that I would want to do differently. However, I believe that both reading programs can be used in an affluent area. They were created to be a beneficial tool to aid students’ reading, which could help all children, not just the students who are struggling.

            We saw the teachers at Walton Elementary use Reading Mastery to teach literacy to their students. Reading Mastery is a structured reading program that constantly teaches letters and letter sounds. Gradually, elements of spelling, writing, and reading stories are added in. This program requires the teacher to read a script word by word. Although this makes it easier for the teacher to learn and adapt to the program, it does not make a creative learning environment. The teachers are confined to the words they choose, which means that the text and information is not being taught to the students in a way that is meaningful to them. As we have learned in previous classes, student learning is more effective when the students can relate the material being learned to their lives. In spite of this, I did see that this was an effective program. Tavares Gross’s reading progressed throughout the year in both comprehension and fluency. He may not have been at grade level, but he was reading.

            I would only want to use Project Read if I was in a supportive school. The teachers at Bearden Elementary felt unprepared and needed more training. Because the program uses physical cues to help children learn, it was more difficult and time consuming for the teachers to learn. However, I feel that this program was more fun and creative for the students. The hand movements and cute sayings got the students involved in the lesson, and helped them to remember the information they were learning. I also saw student progress in comprehension and fluency from the program.