Interview With A Teacher Interview

Summary of “Whole Language Lives On: The Illusion of Balanced Reading Instruction” by Louisa Cook Moats

My early reading experiences reflect the history that Vogt and Shearer (2011) describe in the first chapter of Reading Specialists and Literacy Coaches in the Real World. The basal reading programs of the 1970s and 1980s included “leveled readers, phonics activities, and a great deal of comprehension skill practice, usually found on the pages of the accompanying workbooks. The programs also included highly structured, detailed teacher’s guides, with different lesson plans for each of the three instructional groups” (Vogt & Shearer, 2011, p.13).

Early reading success is the foundation of a student’s knowledge and self-esteem. The foundation also provides future opportunities for growth. Students must learn to read proficiently so that they are able to learn more in future grades, post-secondary schools, and the workforce. Beverly Tyner’s Small-Group Reading Instruction: A Differentiated Teaching Model for Beginning and Struggling Readers states “In the United States, which offers few career opportunities for the illiterate, teaching children to read proficiently is the most important single task in education.” (Tyner, 2009). Beverly Tyner created the Small-Group Differentiated Reading Model which incorporates research-based strategies for teaching beginning reading skills and skills

he most fundamental responsibility of schools is teaching students to read. Indeed, the future success of all students hinges upon their ability to become proficient readers. Recent scientific studies have allowed us to understand more than ever before how literacy develops, why some children have difficulty, and what constitutes best instructional practice. Scientists now estimate that fully 95 percent of all children can be taught to read. Yet, in spite of all our knowledge, statistics reveal an alarming prevalence of struggling and poor readers that is not limited to any one segment of society:

This is a very important component in education to be aware of and when you are a teacher. I interviewed a first-grade teacher at my local elementary school to gain more information about the processes that our local schools go through for professional training, interventions, and in the classroom to ensure that students are developing their abilities in reading. My main focus was on what our school’s process was, how support is given, professional training offered, and what more is needed to be done to increase success for students.

I interviewed a childcare teacher engaged in the Early Childhood Development. She graduated from East Tennessee State University. She has been intrigued by children her entire life, she has volunteered with children with disabilities and worked with children since age 16. You can say that teaching has been a dream job of hers. Going through the interview I went through a series of questions as follows. What are positive and negative parts about being a teacher? What disciplinary styles work the best? And how can teaching in America be improved?

This Tuesday, February 23, 2016, I had the opportunity to interview Carolina Portales. Mrs. Portales is a Pre-K ESL teacher at the elementary school Lorenzo de Zavala in the Grand Prairie Independent School District. Even though I had to wait about an hour to interview her, it was worth it because she was very helpful and kind answering most of my questions. The interview lasted about an hour; it started about 4:00 pm and ended by 5:00 pm. She not only answered most of my questions, as well, she gave me some advices to get ready for my first year of teaching.

When interviewing Mrs. F, she explained that a behavior concern for Richard is his inability to stay focus on a task for a long period of time. She mentioned, “He loves to walk around the class, especially when he sees a group of students talking. Richard will get up and try to join their conversation”. She expressed that his peers have difficulty understanding what he is saying because of his lack of speech. When asking her what she does when he becomes to wonder around the classroom, she mentioned that he just tells him to return to his seat. Richard is response positive to commands when they are given to him. He has not shown aggressive behavior when he does not get his way with Mrs. F. Mrs. F

Motivate your students to take an advantage of the free resources that are available at their local library. Furthermore, they might be acquainted that they can get books, yet they might not be acquainted that they can try out to use the computer, try out movies, video games or even try to adhere community reading programs. Struggling readers can remain defiant to reading when they do not totally have to, On the other hand, the best time to establish them to audio books or audio visual read along websites is now.

The teacher I interviewed has taught for more than ten years at the same school. She started as a fourth grade teacher but she now works as an interventionist.

Each teacher during an interview process experience the anxiety of answering each questions accurately to successfully obtain a teaching position in the school they apply. But sadly, not all teachers are qualified to be granted a teaching position. As it is required all teachers underneath the No Child Left Behind act (NCLB) are to be highly qualified in a content area, this leaves little room for educators who are solely certified in initial teaching and special education regardless of their background experience as they do not consume the certification in ELA, Math, Science, Social Studies and etc. While interviewing a potential teacher for a school, the administrators along with the panel must determine how qualified is the teacher is to be offer a position in their school, but also eliminate other candidates due to their lack of experiences. In some situation a potential teacher with experiences working with students in special education without a highly

Struggling readers need personalized, focused, and assessment-driven instruction. In other words, they need interventions that work. The most important aspects of literacy are oral language, phonemic awareness, word recognition, vocabulary, fluency, comprehension, and writing. Books can open the door to child's imagination, or they can represent

I had the honor of interviewing my mentor and field experience teacher who is a high school teacher. During my interview, I found out some background information about her. She has worked at Seventy-First High for about 10 years. She has also previously worked in elementary and middle schools but enjoys teaching at high schools. She graduated from the University of North Carolina Wilmington. She is 40 years old and has been teaching for the past 16 years. She is an English teacher as well as the school's speech and debate coach. She chose to become a teacher because she truly thought that every child has the ability to learn and to be taught. She strives to make sure that the students she teaches don’t endure the hardships of having a teacher that does not care about them or whether or not they are actually learning. The most common type of family violence she deals with is child abuse.

Over the course of the semester, I have been fortunate enough to work with a student who is having difficulties when it comes to reading. My student does not have difficulties when it comes to hearing a word, but rather when he sees a word. My student has definitely benefited from one on one work with me as well as the additional help he’s getting from the reading specialist during their WIN (what I need) time. My student does not like to read because he knows that he is struggling and he is embarrassed about it. When my student goes to his WIN time, he does really well because the instruction is at his level and there are only two other students who are also on the same level there as well. Besides the current intervention, programs I would recommend are Direct Instruction: Reading Mastery, Letter Spacing, Wilson Reading System and the Lindamood program (LiPS).

After the survey was over, Lucy was walked back to the class where she laid down and began to read a book right away.