Dear George, Much too late in the year, I asked you what you needed me to do to help you be a better reader. 'You could just do it all for me,' you said, hiding behind what I was coming to recognize as truth hidden behind flip responses. 'I'm afraid I can't do that. What's your next choice?' I said. You stared for a moment and said, 'What makes you think there's anything you could do? I can't read. That's it.' ......... Dear George, Looking back, I'd have to say that the only things that guided my instructional decisions that first year were our literature book and grammar book. Had I only known then what I know now, I'd have plotted a much different course for you. I'd have known how to assess your strengths and weaknesses as a reader. That assessment, rather than textbooks, would have guided instruction. Then perhaps I would have been a teacher who made a difference in your life.
Kylene Beers, When Kids Can't Read, What Teachers Can Do, pp.23/29
While we're not reading this text together, I find that you all have so many thoughtful connections in class to what Beers writes about. These letters to George came from a chapter titled "Assessing Dependent Readers' Needs." This week in class many of you discussed and sketched the significance of building instruction from students' needs. This semester you'll have the opportunity to do just that as you work with your small teacher each week and support his or her growth as a learner. Here's a short list of some of the things Beers says proficient readers do (many of these could lead to nice mini lessons with some of your small teachers too)....
 - readers recognize that the purpose for reading is to make meaning
 -readers use a variety of comprehension strategies
 -readers make a range of inferences about texts
 -readers use prior knowledge to inform inferences
 -readers monitor their understanding of texts
 -readers evaluate their engagement and enjoyment with texts
Any of these sound familiar? I made lots of connections to our "If You Knew Me as a Reader" sharing.... How about that!!
