Comments on: (Mis)Guided Reading | Consider the Source http://www.slj.com/2013/02/opinion/consider-the-source/misguided-reading-consider-the-source/ The world's largest reviewer of books, multimedia, and technology for children and teens Thu, 19 Sep 2013 00:20:41 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4.2 By: Cheryl Vanatti http://www.slj.com/2013/02/opinion/consider-the-source/misguided-reading-consider-the-source/#comment-26127 Cheryl Vanatti Mon, 25 Feb 2013 18:59:26 +0000 http://www.slj.com/?p=31650#comment-26127 As a “minatory" reading coach, I would like to tell you that you are WRONG. It is the state & district who push mandates on coaches who must, in turn, bring these malpractices to their schools. The coaches are messengers (‘harbingers of reading doom’ being a better term). Ask most of us, we know our heralding is for the wrong deity. I obtained a master’s degree in reading education because I LOVED the process of learning to read, was enamored with its complexity and jumped for joy when I saw first graders begin to form meaning from symbols. I had a proud ideal and then I went to work as a reading coach. Now, when people ask me what I do, I reply with, "I kill the next Michael Jordon or Michael Jackson." I will not elaborate further here, lest my district call me to the carpet (and I really need my job), but before you point fingers at the coaches, especially those of us who are actually specialists in the field of reading education, please know that we are caught in a mandated, terribly flawed, system. As I ponder my career direction, whilst holding on to my health insurance plan, I hope that I have the courage to address these malpractices in a way that leads to change….. I like the potential of the CCSS. However, if the CCSS assessments test only narrowed ELA skills, continue to be tied to merit pay & ridiculous VAMs, test ALL students without regard to individual circumstances, and if students continue to lose arts and physical education classes to intensive classes of homogeneously grouped mayhem, it won't matter how good the new standards are. As a “minatory” reading coach, I would like to tell you that you are WRONG. It is the state & district who push mandates on coaches who must, in turn, bring these malpractices to their schools. The coaches are messengers (‘harbingers of reading doom’ being a better term). Ask most of us, we know our heralding is for the wrong deity.

I obtained a master’s degree in reading education because I LOVED the process of learning to read, was enamored with its complexity and jumped for joy when I saw first graders begin to form meaning from symbols. I had a proud ideal and then I went to work as a reading coach.

Now, when people ask me what I do, I reply with, “I kill the next Michael Jordon or Michael Jackson.” I will not elaborate further here, lest my district call me to the carpet (and I really need my job), but before you point fingers at the coaches, especially those of us who are actually specialists in the field of reading education, please know that we are caught in a mandated, terribly flawed, system.

As I ponder my career direction, whilst holding on to my health insurance plan, I hope that I have the courage to address these malpractices in a way that leads to change….. I like the potential of the CCSS. However, if the CCSS assessments test only narrowed ELA skills, continue to be tied to merit pay & ridiculous VAMs, test ALL students without regard to individual circumstances, and if students continue to lose arts and physical education classes to intensive classes of homogeneously grouped mayhem, it won’t matter how good the new standards are.

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