THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, August 2, 1994 TAG: 9408020344
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY VANEE VINES, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: FRANKLIN LENGTH: Medium: 78 lines
Eight-year-old Robert Smith's parents are involved in his education, and they encourage him always to do his best. The family's computer has a prominent spot in the living room.
And with one exception Robert has done well in school, especially in math.
But ask Robert about reading, and his positive attitude about school turns sour. His troubles center on the fact that he still has problems matching sounds with letters, said his mother, Barbara, who has hired a reading tutor.
But there is something else, Robert said. Some teachers gave reading assignments that were just plain boring: a real turn-off to a skill so fundamental to learning.
``I think they should make reading something fun to do,'' the rising third-grader said. ``I don't think it would be so hard that way.''
As Robert and his mother discussed his ups and downs with reading in the past school year, about 420 educators mostly from Virginia and North Carolina attended a workshop Monday at Franklin City High School to learn more effective ways of getting students hooked on it.
Grooming highly literate citizens is imperative, said participant Anita Smith, a Portsmouth special education teacher who works with elementary students.
``We just don't have the unskilled jobs any more,'' she said. ``We don't have the farmers and the people that work in the factories for a daily job. We have to do something different if we're going to prepare our children for the world of tomorrow.''
The educators are attending a weeklong workshop aimed at showing them how to better mold students into enthusiastic and insightful readers early on.
A reading expert from New Zealand is on hand to help nudge the teachers down a more child-centered path that, among other things, calls for lessons tailored to each student's needs, constant evaluation of a child's progress, exposing students to books they find enjoyable and a strong emphasis on reading and writing for meaning.
``I like to use the jigsaw analogy,'' said Barry Kerr, who works with aspiring teachers at Dunedin College of Education in New Zealand, a country with one of the world's highest literacy rates.
``You get the overall picture of what it's supposed to look like in your head, and then you deal with the bits.''
In many cases, Kerr said, American educators are still doing it in reverse by stressing rote memorization and arcane rules, instead of teaching youngsters to learn words by first figuring out their meanings in context.
Nationally, the debate over the best way to teach reading has pitted advocates of phonics against proponents of ``whole language.''
The phonics method stresses practicing letter sounds before decoding words. Whole language, which is closer to the approach refined in New Zealand, usually involves children's literature, daily writing projects and language activities where what words mean is more useful initially than how they are spelled.
Many school districts now use a mix of the two. But whatever the case, experts say, the need for change is apparent.
Last spring, for example, a smaller percentage of Virginia's sixth- through 10th-grade students passed the reading section of the Literacy Passport Test than the math and writing sections.
In several conference sessions and during breaks, some teachers cited other reasons for poor academic performance, such as home environments that do not foster learning.
But Callie Williamson, a Franklin kindergarten teacher and 33-year veteran, said teachers must rise above such challenges to make school an exciting place of discovery.
``In the end, it's still up to us,'' she said. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
MICHAEL KESTNER
Barbara Smith's son Robert does well in school, especially in math.
But teachers, he says, should make reading more fun. ``I don't think
it would be so hard that way.''
by CNB