Who Decided This Was Good Teaching?

There are many students in our classrooms who struggle with reading grade level material due to decoding, fluency or automaticity issues. Too frequently, I hear of teachers who read text to these struggling learners as an accommodation strategy, not just once, but throughout the day.

There are many students in our classroom who struggle with producing written work according to teacher expectations due to difficulties with the mechanics of writing, executive function issues, poor legibility or a variety of other issues. Too frequently, I hear of educational assistants who scribe for these struggling learners as an accommodation strategy, not just infrequently, but throughout the day for all written work.

Who started this trend? And, why? Is this good teaching? An effective instructional method? What is the educational rationale for this?

If you can sense my frustration, it’s because this is happening too often in our schools and this must stop!

The availability of technology makes dependence upon adults for accessing materials and demonstrating what students know unnecessary. Students can be taught how to use text-to-speech to hear the text read to them and they can listen repeatedly as needed without asking an adult to read it to them again if they didn’t get it the first time. In addition, research shows that reading skills improve when text-to-speech is combined with highlighting each word as it is read. Makes sense to me!

Allow students to gain control through accommodations and bypass strategies that support their strengths. Federal special education laws require a free, appropriate education for all students. I ask you, is having an adult read content to you "appropriate?" Picture yourself in a middle school or high school classroom dependent upon adults to read you a book chapter or directions on a handout or whatever. How would YOU feel?

When we encourage adult dependence, we are allowing our struggling readers to fall further behind. We are encouraging learned helplessness. Is this good teaching?

It is vital to provide exposure to grade level text in a multi-sensory format that promotes independence. Otherwise, the opportunities to read are lost with devastating long-term consequences. Learned helplessness often results with reluctance to explore any text. The gaps between the readers and non-readers increase and by middle school and high school it is very difficult to recapture those lost opportunities.

Similar issues with scribing. A few years ago, I worked with a student who was a senior in high school. A paraprofessional was assigned to work with her since early elementary grades to help with content acquisition (she had difficulty with reading) and to scribe for her (she had difficulty getting her thoughts on paper). She was ready to graduate and yet could not even write a paragraph! What had been done to her? The paraprofessional couldn’t continue working with her after graduation! The educational team failed her....

A great disservice could have been avoided by offering effective interventions that promoted independence instead of dependence.

Can we agree to put an end to this pervasive practice?

Technology supports exist which provide a variety of options to promote independence. Use them in your classrooms! Now, this IS good teaching!