From the northern California news source Redding.com, I learned that a local school will use grant funds to help special educators improve their reading and language arts teaching. I’m curious about how the school plans to do this. Any guesses?
State grant helps Lewiston school
LEWISTON - Lewiston Elementary School has been awarded a $19,500 grant from the state.
The Professional Development in Reading for Special Education Teachers Pilot Program grants are designed to provide support to special education teachers to help them improve reading and language-art instruction.
About 10 percent of California students are designated as needing special education services. In all, $26.6 million was given to 27 school districts across the state.
Link for the article.
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I wonder, John, if this is related to a study I read last year that talked about the results of teachers who were tested in their own phonemic awareness. They were asked things like “How many phonemes are there in the word “sing” etc. The results showed a shocking LACK of awareness for content considered critical for reading success, in the very people charged with teaching this content.
I just wrote post on my blog in which a teacher told me she didn’t know what phonemic awareness was, even though she taught grade two. I haven’t taught primary school in a very long time but I am pretty sure reading development is still an integral part of the grade 2 curriculum.
I hope that is part of what that grant is for. I think to teach reading effectively we first have to have a solid grounding in English, and we certainly need to have developed phonemic awareness ourselves.
Kathy, thanks for the comment. I hope that you’ve got it right or your hint will help direct the LEA. Teachers’ knowledge of aspects of phonology, morphology, syntax, and etc. is important (as L. Moats has noted). I remember a marvelous little book by M. Hull that helped teachers to learn some of these fundamentals.
Given that the funds for the grant to Lewiston Elementary are public monies, one ought to be able to obtain a copy of the proposal and learn what they’re doing. Hmmmm…it would be interesting to learn on what the $26.6 million is being spent. Quite a study.