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Whether you are a pre-service teacher preparing to take on the classroom or an in-service teacher looking to deepen your teacher knowledge and skills, there is a wide range of professional development opportunities to choose from. Still, knowing which knowledge and skills to target can be a challenge. When developing a free practice assessment for science of reading knowledge, the IRRC was interested in the resources educators use to gain a deeper understanding of their content and pedagogical knowledge, helping to prepare for the classroom.
Recently, we reached out to a graduate from the University of Iowa’s elementary education and special education programs, Lauren Schafer, who has just begun her first year as a special education teacher. Lauren gave us her perspective on how she prepared for her current teaching role.
Iowa Reading Research Center (IRRC): What Is Your Current Teaching Role, and How Long Have You Been in This Role?
Lauren Schafer: I am currently a special education teacher (Strat I endorsement – learning disabilities instructor), and this is my first year teaching.
IRRC: To What Extent Did Your Teacher Preparation Program Prepare You to Teach Literacy Effectively? What Were Some Practices or Experiences From That Program That Were Especially Formative?
Lauren Schafer: I attended the University of Iowa for my undergraduate teacher preparation program and also for my master’s degree in special education. I feel that the courses I took in my graduate classes for literacy instruction really prepared me for my student teaching and also my teaching currently. During my special education coursework, I was able to learn about and use the UFLI (University of Florida Literacy Institute) curriculum, which I got to observe and use with students in practicums and student teaching. This curriculum is an explicit and systematic program for teaching phonics. By getting to use this in practice in the elementary classroom and also discussing it with the other people in my special education cohort in my classes, I feel like I was able to learn a lot. Additionally, in my special education coursework, I got to learn about structured literacy and practical strategies to use in the classroom for students with reading difficulties. We were able to discuss the strategies and learn about them and then actually go into our practicums with students and practice them.
IRRC: What Is Your Approach to Assessing the Literacy Abilities of Your Students? What Experiences Prepared You to Assess Students’ Literacy Abilities?
Lauren Schafer: In my special education coursework, we got to practice assessing student knowledge with example student data and use that data to plan for literacy instruction. This was very helpful to practice making data-based decisions. Looking at literacy data and finding out specifically what instruction a student needs is an important part of my teaching right now, since it is the beginning of the school year. I feel like I was well prepared to do this and had helpful practice and feedback. I am always assessing student progress and abilities with both formative and summative assessments.
IRRC: What Resources (Books, Podcasts, Professional Development, Websites) Have Helped You the Most in Building Your Literacy Knowledge?
Lauren Schafer: When I was in elementary school, it was during a time where the focus of literacy instruction was on whole language. Now, when learning how to teach literacy with what is currently known about how children learn how to read, I have learned much more about phonics and the science of reading. One book that has really helped me gain literacy knowledge is Uncovering the Logic of English by Denise Eide. This book really changed the way I think about language and all of the rules and exceptions that are a part of it. Additional resources I have found helpful are the UFLI website, Reading Rockets website, as well as the Iowa Reading Research Center’s website and many other resources.
IRRC: If You Could Give Advice to Teacher Preparation Programs About Preparing Future Literacy Teachers, What Would You Say?
Lauren Schafer: One memory I think of is from my graduate class about reading difficulties. On the first day, we all took a short quiz on seemingly basic literacy and phonics items that we teach our elementary school students. Many of us went in confident and then were very surprised at how tricky some of the questions were since we were never explicitly taught them. Some of these questions included topics such as syllable types, the number of phonemes in a letter, meanings of morphemes, etc. While many of these seemed like easy questions that everyone would know the answer to, we realized that they were not. So, I think it is very important for all students in teacher preparation programs to learn these concepts about the science of reading, phonemic awareness, etc. that we are teaching students. They may seem basic but when they are not explicitly taught to you, it is hard to have a solid understanding of them. I was lucky to take these courses in my graduate program for special education, but I definitely think all teachers would benefit from what I got out of those courses.