Chapter 3: Assessing Dependent Readers' Needs

"As we teach necessary skills, we must also convince disabled readers that reading is an active process, one that requires their engagement, their active construction of meaning." p. 35

(Honestly I think I was a little overzealous with the last post, I'll try to calm it down this time....)
I really liked how this chapter talked about CONFIDENCE being important to a reader.  Beers really made it clear that cognitive confidence and emotional confidence were both really crucial to becoming a good reader.  This make so much sense, because think about the students in the classrooms that either read really quietly, refuse to read, or those who read...but very reluctantly. 
Beers's list about What good readers do was pretty awesome.  I really liked how in the book she listed what good readers do, and elaborated on each point.  My personal favorite point was Monitoring Understanding.  I thought this was vital because readers would be able to tell when:

• they have stopped paying attention
• know when vocabulary is an issue
• know when the text confuses them

These lead to the Action of Fix-Up Strategies which we all came up with in class when Dr.Pytash had us place our own on the board.  Beers lists rereading, changing reading rate, and using outside sources as examples. 

Beers's section on Underlying Beliefs was also pretty influential on me.  My favorite beliefs were:
2. Use a variety of methods
        -learn how to TEACH methods, do not rely on programs
5. Fluent word recognition is super important
        -if the student is spending most of their time figuring out the words then they won't have time to figure out what they mean
6. Teachers who encourage a wide range of reading
        -this will improve fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension

I am really learning a lot though reading this text, and am excited to try and apply some of the strategies in the classroom.  I also feel that the way Beers writes is very personal for herslef and the reader, this has been helping me and the examples/scripts in the book are also very interesting to read. 

Yours Reading,
Sara