I was diagnosed with a learning disability when I was in
third grade. I mainly had a difficult
time in the fields of reading and mathematics.
I am much better at math now but I still read much slower than anyone I
know. In addition I have always had a hard
time with reading comprehension and the ability to stay focused. In school, they gave me audiobooks so that I
could keep up with the material. Looking
back I see that this was actually a crutch that impeded my learning, which is
probably why I continued to have such a difficult time even through
college. The other problem was that I
was scared of it. I was so frustrated
that it took me a half hour to read what took most others just a few
minutes. I never wanted to read and I
would only do it when it was absolutely necessary. When I was forced to read for school, I would
have a bad experience with it which made me hate reading more and more. I only recently began reading for pleasure
and reading the news. I received a
tablet as a gift awhile back that had the Kindle e-reader app on it. Interestingly enough, this is what made me
enjoy reading. I could read faster and
comprehend more than I ever could before.
The reason for my success is the text sizing feature on this wonderful
little device. I found out that, if
there is less text on each page, I can read it and comprehend it much more
efficiently. I began reading books close
to ten times faster than I formerly had, which gave me more confidence in my
reading ability. So now I can read and
understand regular text better too, but I still do much better with the
e-reader. Most importantly, I don’t hate
reading anymore. I actually kind of enjoy
it. If I had been given the scaffolding
when I was a child and adolescent, I don’t think I would have hated it so much
or had such a difficult time with it.
As teachers we need to make sure we are not enabling the
students or they will fall further and further behind like I did. What I have learned from personal experience
and from reading this book is that there is always a way to teach a student, no
matter if they have a difficult time reading, have a hard time seeing, are dyslexic,
are disengaged, etc. There is always
some avenue to get through to them. We
just have to do a little homework ourselves to figure out what it is.
Leslie, I liked this post. Perhaps your experience with the audio books helped you attain the reading proficiency you have today. Just like the tablet and e-reader, maybe not a crutch but a walking stick to help one climb the mountain. Baby steps to great strides.
ReplyDeleteThere can be so many reasons for students that fall behind in the willingness to engage in reading. Sometime it can be as simple as confidence. I can't remember if it was your blog or someone else's, but at some point the a discussion was stated about making sure the classroom environment was a safe one. I can remember having a difficult time reading aloud when I was in school because I was nervous and when I was nervous I made a lot of mistakes and when I made mistakes kids would snicker, laugh or become impatient with me. The result was, I hated to read because I felt dumb. It is our job as teachers to try to not let that kind of stuff happen in our classrooms. Confidence needs to be nurtured.
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