Carol’s Reflection on Taberski, Contents to Introduction

A couple of years ago, a professor encouraged me to read the preface of textbooks, and now I don’t feel right until I look at the stuff in the beginning of the book. This forward makes it clear that the author’s job of teaching reading is difficult since learning how to read is so complex. When I homeschooled my older kids, aside from taking them to the library to borrow books I just had them complete the lessons in the basal reader provided by the school district and thought I was doing great. Ha – what a misguided teacher I was! I’m eager to learn about Taberski’s teaching practices now that I’ll have a classroom with more than two students. I really like what she says at the end of her introduction – that we “assess, reassess, and refine our efforts so that we’re doing more of what’s working and less of what isn’t.” Teaching reading isn’t static. It should always be moving and changing according to the needs of each student.