Alexis Howlett's August Blog Post 1: Instructional Support...Even for GT Students?

At first, I was immediately put off by Debbie Miller's chapter "Not This" within the first paragraph when she stated that "Children learn to read by reading...but not without instructional support."  As a teacher of gifted and talented students, I don't agree with this statement entirely because many of these students have become incredible high level readers without great instructional support.  They also have an innate love of reading.  The more I questioned this statement, I realized that maybe I wasn't looking at why they are such high readers or have such a love of reading.

I began to think about the students who are exceptional readers that I teach and their love of books started at a very early age due to early exposure from parent(s), great teachers, early childhood education, and various other outlets.  As I continued to read Miller's article, I realized that all of these exposures fall under instructional support whether I label it this way or not.  Yes, do we assume that we are doing the best job through programs like DEAR or SSR, AR, ReadWell, etc.?  Of course we do because as Miller states "we're modeling what a good reader looks like."

In terms of my gifted and talented students I need to make sure as we research various units and explore various extensions of their everyday learning that they are also understanding/comprehending what they are reading no matter their high level of reading.  This means providing instructional support that shows how to research and read informational texts accordingly.  As for finding the time, that will still be a challenge for even me since like every other teacher I too have "benches I'm guarding."