Exciting Developments -" Why Don't They Comprehend & How Can We Help Them?"

This past spring we presented a proposal to the Virginia Department of Education to present at the DOE Literacy Institutes.  We were elated to find out in May that we had been chosen to present at two of the Virginia's Literacy Institutes.  On October 2nd we presented in Abingdon, Virginia, and we will be presenting again on October 30th in Staunton, Virginia.  Over the past two years, Jessica and I have realized the need for explicit comprehension instruction is crucial to the success of our students, and have worked to develop some ways to address this through our presentations, "Why Don't They Comprehend & How Can We Fix It?".  In our presentations, we strive to address the comprehension strategies that are affecting students that struggle with comprehension.  We are passionate about the strategies included in this presentation and are very excited to have been contacted by several schools and invited to share our presentation with their staff!

Where the Passion Began...

It all started when our elementary school decided to implement leveled reading groups and placed the two of us together, teaching the struggling readers in 3rd grade.  Shortly thereafter, we were presented with a very difficult challenge- how in the world were WE going to get these students reading, much less comprehending, on grade level?  We did the very best we could that year, with the knowledge we had obtained from our undergraduate studies, but we still felt we were lacking in our ability to reach these students effectively.  The following year in Fall of 2010, we were blessed to be given the opportunity to join a Master's cohort through Radford University in Literacy Education.  Susan had always had a passion for reading, both teaching it and enjoying it, however, Jessica was a bit more hesitant not only about joining the cohort, but teaching reading in general.  The first class was all it took for our passion for Reading to be ignited!  Immediately, we began using every strategy our professors shared with us, tweaking and adjusting them to meet the needs of our students.  As we worked together and bounced ideas off of each other, we realized we shared a common passion and our goals for reading were the same.  Thus began our journey to develop more and more strategies to help struggling readers.  Over the past four years, we have created many new strategies, as well as borrowed a few, which we have begun to share with others through different state reading conferences, hoping to also ignite their Reading flame, too!  Our goal in this blog is to share our reading successes, failures, as well as to keep you updated on all the new ideas we're "bouncing off each other."  

Happy Reading!  Please share your thoughts with us.  We love to learn new strategies!

Susan & Jessica