Abstract of

"We're Supposed to Already Know How to Teach Reading": Teacher Change to Support Struggling Readers

Karen Broaddus

Janet W. Bloodgood

When Roosevelt Elementary School hired a consultant to supervise community volunteers tutoring first-grade students, they anticipated improved reading performance and enhanced community relations. A later decision to include teachers as tutors produced unforeseen benefits and challenges for a fledgling program. Focusing on the first three years of Reading Partners, this paper explores the evolving perspectives of six school members who served as tutors (three first-grade teachers, two Title I teachers, and the school principal) on professional development, classroom language arts instruction, and school-wide literacy curriculum. This qualitative study was conceived as an examination of a community-based literacy intervention program through teachers' eyes; however, the focus of the inquiry gradually shifted to teacher development and curriculum reform as school personnel became personally involved as tutors. Participating in an early intervention program encouraged school tutors to reflect upon the individual literacy needs of children in the program and in the regular classroom. Tutoring increased communication and collaboration among participating teachers, administrators, volunteers, parents, and university personnel. One challenge was creating a flexible schedule that accommodated teachers tutoring while providing high quality classroom instruction for other students. Surprisingly, these experienced teachers expressed concerns about their own expertise in adapting a literacy intervention model; they requested ongoing professional support. Finding an appropriate consultant and funding proved difficult each year. Two issues that continue to be debated in the school community are which children should be served and when a child is developmentally ready to benefit from participation in one-on-one intervention.

Abstract from Broaddus, K., & Bloodgood, J.W. (1999). "We're Supposed to Already Know How to Teach Reading": Teacher Change to Support Struggling Readers. Reading Research Quarterly, 34(4), 426–451. doi: 10.1598/RRQ.34.4.3