Day 5-Learning for Text

I think this article resonates with many teachers as we have all experienced the effects of a one-size-fits-all curriculum. The time, conditions, and achievement associated with the curriculum is not achievable by every student. This however, is not new knowledge to us. It has been a topic discussed time and time again and yet we fail to make the appropriate changes.

I found the article comments about curriculum files cumulating a child's failures somewhat amusing. Why do we collect all this information without making appropriate predictions for the future in order to assist the child? Instead we keep a record of all of their failures for teachers to examine each year. 

The article also clarified for me the difference between remediation and compensation. At this point in the article the comment is made "how much failure data do we need before we have enough evidence that the child can't perform the task?" At what point do we introduce assistive technology? What guidelines do we follow? As a teacher, I rely on my professional judgment to make decisions about my students learning. This is not to say that these decisions are easily made or that I know the appropriate solution. In these situations I find myself relying heavily on our school planning team. I think this is an invaluable resource to all teachers. To be able to have a group of professionals with whom you can discuss concerns about students and seek advice is a great resource to teachers. Unfortunately, in my experience there has been limited access to assistive technologies therefore limiting what was available to help students. 

I like Dyck and Pemberton's advanced model for making decisions about text adaptations 1) bypass reading, 2) decrease reading, 3) support reading, 4) organize reading graphic organizers, 5) guide reading. I think the table provided to help during the decision making process could be very useful:

This article has been one of my favorites. The ideas, resources, and tables provided are useful and the issues discussed are issues experienced by every teacher.