Striking the right balance.

“So what is wrong with the way we are teaching now?”
This was the sentiment expressed by some of my fellow teachers during a one-day reading workshop that I presented along with another colleague. Of course, we had to assure them that we were there to add to the knowledge bank and not replace their ideas.

Just trying to complete a syllabus does not mean that we are teaching effectively. As teachers, we have a responsibility to develop problem solvers and critical thinkers and our traditional methods of teaching are simply not enough to accomplish these things.
Some teachers fall into the trap of teaching reading skills in isolation but, it is important to show connections among the strands because it makes learning more meaningful when children see patterns.

In addition to the ‘Fabulous Five’ reading skills that we know about ( phonics,phonemic awareness, vocabulary, comprehension and fluency ),Tankersley (2003) adds a sixth strand, “higher-order thinking”. One of the ways to achieve higher –order thinking among our students is to allow them opportunities to use technology to learn to read. The Web 2.0 technology that we have been exposed to in this course allows greater collaboration, exploration, feedback and independent learning and they are ideal tools to enhance traditional pedagogy. According to Pressley (1998), the “most effective teachers continue to demonstrate that effective literacy instruction is a balance of explicit teaching as well as holistic reading and writing experiences”.