INTERVIEW

Transcript and Reflection of Interview



Transcript and Reflection of Interview

Introduction of the Interviewee

Sheila Picasso is a reading specialist teacher at Sun-Rise School in Washington, DC for 6 years. Currently she has 25 students in her classroom. Picasso offers resources for creating useful literacy lessons. Picasso works with Barbra, the ESL teacher, who has trained Picasso several strategies of English teaching that she employs in her classes. For over 06 years, Picasso has been teaching English Language. Currently she is teaching Learning, phonemic awareness, writing instruction, and front loading vocabulary and concepts to learners from 01st to the 08th grade at Sun-Rise School.

Transcript of the Interview

We asked her for an online interview on 05/05/2011and gained knowledge of the insights she got from her association in reading specialist education. The details of the question asked and answers given by her are as follows. The introductory questions have been included here.

Q.1: Why are goals so important in constructing a literacy program?

Picasso:

Well, according to me, constructing a program means assembling the blocks in some logical way and then reassembling them when necessary. Effective programs have some common features, such as a philosophy that all children can learn to read, high expectations for students, objectives that are specific and clearly stated, motivation, varied and appropriate materials, effective teaching strategies, building a sense of community, efficient use of time and increased time on task, continuous monitoring of progress, involvement of parents, cooperation among staff, a consistent program that builds on past leanings, prevention and intervention as necessary, and a process for evaluating the program.

Q.2: When choosing materials, techniques, and strategies, what factors do you need to consider?

Picasso:

I think that developing Educational Standards offers a wealth of information about curriculum frameworks and standards and provides links to each state's standards and to national standards in all subject fields. (Glenn 2004)

Goals and philosophy lead naturally into a choice of materials and activities. For instance, one teacher may elect to use children's books together with a holistic approach to phonics. A second might use a specialized basal, such as Reading Mastery (Distar), which focuses on phonic elements. Both approaches have the same goals but reflect different philosophies. See, for example, Allington (2008) has presented a research-base which supports ending the achievement gap in reading. (Allington 2008)

The heart of the instructional program is the quality of the teaching. Effective teachers will have mastered a variety of techniques that they can adapt to fit the needs of their students.

Teachers must also decide when it is time to substitute one technique or approach for another. For instance, if discussion techniques such as KWL or Questioning the Author aren't working, the teacher might try direct, explicit teaching of strategies. The important point is that the teacher chooses the techniques to be used and makes adjustments when necessary. (NPTS Core Propositions)

Teachers' knowledge of techniques should be metacognitive. Not only should they know how to teach the techniques, they should also know where and when to use ...