Hi! My name is Melissa Brown and I am beginning my 15th year as a special education teacher at Drexel Hill Middle School. This year is especially exciting because I am finally getting started on a goal I set for myself as an undergraduate student. I am pursuing my master’s degree in education with a reading specialist certification. As an undergraduate I studied special education and was introduced to the reading specialist program. Now as an eighth-grade learning support teacher I find myself wanting to learn more about the process of reading and how to help my students become more confident and stronger readers.
John Carroll’s article, “The Nature of Reading”, introduced the eight components of the reading process. As I read the article I found the first component; understanding the language that you are learning to read, a challenge for some of the students I teach. Specific Learning Disabilities, Speech and Language Impairments, and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorders are all hurdles that affect the processing speed and working memory of my students, make learning to read more difficult. Faced with these challenges learning to become a fluent reader requires more grit. This year my classroom is not just working on phonemic sounds, but also a growth mindset. After working with students year after year on the same skills I see their confidence drop and their motivation wilt. This year I have introduced growth mindset activities to engage the student to increase motivation and allow room for mistakes without becoming discouraged. My classroom has been decorated with posters, reminders to persevere, and guidance on how to change your frustration into a learning experience. The first week of school we took time to read about Famous Failures, like Steve Jobs, Michael Jordan, and Oprah Winfrey, and how they grew to become extremely successful. During these activities, I took time to have the students connect with the stories we read on a personnel level. In turn, we worked on building a group conversation where all members of the class engaged with one another. This activity was focused on listening and responding to one another.
"Theory to Practice" 