Teach Effectively!

Although it is the story of an apparent success, I was saddened to read the account by Susan Engel in the New York (NY, US) Times about a young boy improving in reading. Professor Engel—she teaches psychology and directs the teaching program at Williams College—writes a column called “Lessons” for the Times, and in the installment for 10 January 2007 she described the case of a 9-year-old boy who had not become proficient in decoding.

At the beginning of the school year, his teacher, Eileen Brennan, paired the children in his class and asked them to read aloud to one another. The boy would hesitate over the first unfamiliar words, Ms. Brennan said, and then take so long to read anything that he and the partner would both give up, or run out of time.

Continue reading ‘Sad story’