Module 2: Instructional Challenge

*Are these children's miscues evidence of proficient or non-proficient reading? Explain. 

As educators, it is important to gain background knowledge on our students to gain a better understanding of their learning style.  As teachers we need to be aware of the fact that all students come from a variety of backgrounds and will therefore most likely have dialects when speaking or speak in a grammatical structure that differs from Standard English.  As teachers, it is our job to prepare students for the future and teach them how to "code-switch".  I appreciate the Code-Switching/Constrastivist Approach of teaching instead of the Correctionist Approach. I believe it is more respective of students and their family culture to not correct students but to demonstrate and model the appropriate professional language of Standard English.

I do not believe the following statements are evidence of non-proficient reading.  If students can gain the same amount of meaning from the original response as we expect them to in the expected response, they are still reading proficiently.


*If you were teaching children who made these miscues, what, if any assistance of teaching would you offer?

If students in my class were making these miscues, I would respectfully model the Standard English way of speaking when teaching.  I would ask them if they thought their original response is how they would respond if they were going on a job interview or another professional setting.  I would take the time to have students reflect on their responses and re-state their original response if they chose to.  As teachers it is our job to help students take responsibility of their own learning.  In this case, I believe the best way to reinforce Standard English would give the student the option to re-read a passage or decide if that is the best way to make a statement.