Preparing Children for Reading Success

Providing children with strategies to succeed in reading was the topic of a recent workshop held at ESU.

The workshop, called Guided Reading, was organized by the Jones Institute for Educational Excellence and held Wednesday, November 8, 2006. The event was attended by 34 educators from across the state including classroom teachers and literacy coaches.

Beth Kotzman, the workshop’s presenter, said the approach guided reading takes involves preparing students with tools and strategies before they read the text. The strategies are to be used so the student can read the text with limited guidance and interaction from the teacher. The purposes of guided reading are to develop reading fluency strategies and move children towards reading on their own.

“You set the kids up so they don’t fail,” said Kotzman. She explained this involved preparing the students before they read the text by decoding large words, providing them with an overview of the story line, and teaching them strategies to help them as they encountered obstacles in their reading.

                                                                                                        

Teachers attending the workshop said the material was an affirmation on what they have been doing with balanced reading. They also said materials provided were excellent for new teachers or teachers new to a grade level.

Kotzman is a literacy consultant with the Southeast Kansas Service Center in Greenbush, Kansas. She taught public school for 38 years - from kindergarten through eighth grade - before retiring from the Girard school system. At Girard, she held the position of school-wide reading coordinator for 12 years.

For more information about this workshop, contact Toni Bowling at 620-341-5372 or 1-877-378-5433, mbowling@emporia.edu.

Educators in attendance at the workshop included:

USD 230, Spring Hill –

Valerie Hill

USD 231, Gardner Edgerton –

Vera Beach, McKayla Miller

USD 253, Emporia –

Lori Linville

USD 259, Wichita –

Beth Naparstek

USD 267, Renwick –

Frances Stover

USD 287, West Franklin –

Brock Campbell, Kellie Hamblin, Patty Nelson, Matthew Parenti, Cindy O'Bryhim

USD 290, Ottawa –

Vickie Hall, Elizabeth Redeker,
Susan Yates

USD 335, North Jackson –

Jo Hufford

USD 368, Paola –

Sheila Bieberbach, Pam Wolford

USD 378, Riley County –

Jennifer Bullock, Nancy Knorp,
Joyce Troyer

USD 417, Morris County –

Judeen L. Bachura

USD 418, McPherson –

Deb Hulse, JoRae Myers

USD 490, El Dorado –

Robin Carleton, Tami Currier, Kambra Gallagher, Amie Mead, Carla Varner

USD 383, Manhattan-Ogden –

Sarah Bideau, Dorothy Claussen,
Jessica Major

USD 500, Kansas City –

Julie Brumet, Tammi Dagenett,
Kristine Kelley

 

Last Updated July 2, 2007>