Terry,
I leave in your full comments on EAs. Great suggestions especially with
the
amount of back and forth interaction you have detailed. Interesting
comment
re Allington -- also a longtime favorite of mine -- that he disagrees with
EAs for assisting weaker students. I know one of his major points is
expert
help for those kids.
However, I feel a "live, warm body" is better than a computer (that
responds with whatever ding or boink when you're right or wrong ;/ ). I
speak of using volunteers. I recruited volunteers very selectively -- not
from the general parent population per se, but often from my educated
friends (including retirees). (My husband will regularly find me at a
gathering chatting up a friend -- turns out we're discussing whether I can
rope them in to help one half hour a week.) No they are not trained
specifically at length -- but I did train them and give them ongoing
feedback.
I have had this argument with other university personnel, and I think
those
kids need *both* (obviously, I'd say). They need my expertise, but they
also need a lot of oral reading practice at a suitable level (in
self-chosen material, another Allington 'pillar' of reading instruction)
-- practise reading with a friendly adult who has a bit of training. You
can train as to 'pause-prompt-praise' (just one simple approach people can
remember, not my invention). For example, it is common for adults to think
they must instantly say, "no", and interrupt "that second". Reading
Recovery taught us to use -- *after* the paragraph or whatever -- "Let's
look at that, there's a tricky bit here," and "You said <whatever miscue>
-- what would we expect it to look like [or sound like] if it was
<miscue>?"
In more substantial material (or with very struggling students) I would
also encourage the adult to "take a turn" -- read for a page or two, just
to improve comprehension, establish some of the vocabulary, share
enjoyment, etc.
And so on. Great stuff, thanks, Terry.
Linda Rightmire
SD #73 Kamloops, BC
On Thu, Jun 14, 2012 at 9:51 AM, Terry Decker
<deckerteac...@yahoo.com>wrote:
Hi Cathy, I'm sorry I'm so slow getting a response to you. Life's
been
very hectic, as you know from the teaching at the end of the year
perspective.
As for supervising EAs, I've found it to be one of the most rewarding
parts of my job as our school's Title 1 teacher/Literacy Specialist &
supervisor. There are a few things that I think have helped our team to
be
successful, and I hope this is what you're wanting. If not, maybe this
will trigger specific questions I can answer. 1) Hire the right EA. If
you have input on personnel, I'd opt for experience as much as possible.
I
have 3 retired teachers on my team, and they're wonderful. They have the
background, the "teacher work ethic," and the love of children. I also
have 2 EAs who have worked in Title for many years and one certified
teacher (secondary math--but still a teacher) who just wanted part-time
because of family...It helps when your EAs don't have to learn the ropes
from the ground up. 2) Take time to train your EAs on exactly which
programs, progress monitoring tools, and routines you want to use. Make
sure he/she
can use materials with fidelity. 3) Find a way (and this is a hard one
for me, but I found it helps a lot ) to do regular mini-observations on
your EA to support her/him and for your peace of mind that the students
are
getting what they need. This will also help support the EA and give you
the opportunity to answer specific questions about practice. This is
particularly important if your EA has no prior teaching background. 4)
Meet weekly to go over the data he/she has collected on students. You
should be the one to enter that data into whatever record-keeping system
you use, so you know exactly where each student is working. 5) Build a
professional and friendly rapport with the EA. Those weekly meetings
give
you the opportunity to listen to the EAs insights and feelings about the
chilodren he/she teaches, and are usually insightful. 6) If you learn
something new/know of available professional development opportunities
that
would be beneficial, help to facilitate the EA's professional growth.
For example, I scheduled a training from our district ELL department on
SIOP techniques, which was very beneficial and appreciated. You don't
have
to do all the training yourself. I hope this helps. One of my
favorite
reading gurus, Richard Allington, is very against the use of EAs, saying
that the least trained people are working with the neediest children. He
is undoubtedly correct most of the time. But if you can hire experience,
train carefully, and monitor effectively, I think you'll get a lot of
bang
for your district's buck. :) Terry
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