Upon reading Applegate, Quinn, and Applegate's "Profiles in Comprehension," I realized that there are many different types of reading comprehension that I didn't even know existed. After reading through the eight main categories, it seemed the most logical that teachers strive to create "authors" out of their students. Different personality types held mold these ideals of comprehension into the individual student. For example, there is a student in my placement that is extremely shy and often times reluctant to complete any work. I would classify him as a "minimalist" because of the lack of effort and expression he uses in class discussions. On the opposite end of the spectrum, there is another student in my first grade class that is very outgoing and intelligent and would answer every comprehension classroom as a "quiz contestant." This student also believes that he knows more than the teacher at times. It is unfortunate that the classroom climate ultimately helps alter these levels of comprehension as the first student I had mentioned is very shy and quiet and the second is outgoing and talkative. As far as my reading comprehension goes, I would classify myself as a "politician" because I am often a visual learner that connects random things from texts to the outside world. These many different types and strategies for comprehension should be assessed by being scaffolded initially in the classroom. The teacher should take and manage steps to know and learn her students different techniques and abilities to understanding and relating material.
I was pleasantly surprised to read the second course pack article regarding LD children and how to assess their needs. I mentioned this earlier as a comment to Katie, I feel very nervous to teach children with learning disabilities because I'm not sure how to assess and handle their individual needs. I feel that MSU has ill-prepared us Elementary Education majors thus far in accomodating our whole classroom. Carlisle gave an interesting statistic that in a classroom of 20, one student is bound to have an LD. I am very thankful for our mini workshop that took place last semester by Lindsay, Natalie, Rachel, Kelly and Meryl because it taught me so many things to help modify my lessons to accomodate these children. I would like to have another day like that at some point before I am off to teach on my own to feel more comfortable in this area.
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When reading your post, I understand your nervousness in having LD children in the classroom. I will more than agree with you that MSU has done a very poor job in preparing its elementary education teachers on how to handle these situations and what options there are. Some advice I can give is stuff we have heard before in this class, but it is difficult to break the habits that we have all formed. The first thing to remember is to take each person as an individual regardless of their disability. This is the problem with labeling students because each student under a label can be completely different and have completely different needs. Knowing this, the second thing to remember is to put yourself in the student's shoes and remember that what you feel is easy or something that should not be difficult can be exactly that for some students. I know we have done simulation exercises to show this in class. However, the problem with simulation exercises is that we soon forget after doing them just how hard it is for some kids with disabilities. I know you have heard all this before, but just remember that it takes a lot of patience and a lot of adjustment each day. There is no right or wrong way and I am in no way an expert. Just keep adapting each day and do the best you can do with each situation.
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