Reading Specialist

We asked the Reading Specialist, Mrs. Walda, if she would answer our questions. She is a Reading Specialist in the Poway Unified School Districts in California.

Dear Think"Questers",

I apologize for taking so long to respond to you - a Reading Specialist must have a very busy job, huh?

Here are my answers to your survey questions:

1. What does a Reading Specialist do?
In the elementary school, Reading Specialists are in charge of most of the activities that involve reading and language arts. In my case those activities include working with students in grades K-5 and their teachers, planning for author visits, maintaining volunteer literacy programs, serving as the school test coordinator, providing reading materials for all students, and serving on school site teams for student evaluations.

2. Do you like your job? What do you like best? What do you like least?
I really like my job a lot!! The best part is the children with whom I get to work. They make every day an adventure. My least favorite part of my job is the paperwork that must accompany some of my responsibilities.

3. What other jobs have you had? Did they help you do this job?
In High School, I was a waitress - no help!! Every job I have had since then has been as a teacher. I have taught Kindergarten, First and Third grades. Each of them helped prepare me for my reading specialist job because they helped my understand how children think and learn.

4. How long have you been a Reading Specialist?
I became a Reading Specialist in 1981 at Garden Road School in Poway, California. I have had this job ever since.

5. What special training or education do you need for you job?
I have a Masters Degree in Education with a concentration in Reading. The Reading Specialist Credential Program required 30 graduate hours of training (for me, at San Diego State University) and successful completion of the Comprehensive Examinations. I also have 12 graduate hours in Reading Recovery training

6. What are some ways that you help kids learn how to read?
I spend the majority of my day with first graders and their teachers. I provide reading Recovery instructions for students - this is a one to one accelerated tutoring program. I like to meet with groups of students in their classroom and in my room.

7. What do you do if someone can't learn to read?
I am not being silly with this answer - I have never worked with someone who could not learn to read. I have worked with many students for whom it wasn't easy to learn to read, but I have been trained to use many strategies to help children be successful at reading and writing. The only thing that is required of them is that they be able to fit through the door!

8. How do you decide what books a kid should read?
This is a very complicated question, and deserves a good answer. In order to be a successful reader, a child must be interested in the book, the text can not be too hard (no more than 3-5 "tricky" words or ideas in the whole book), and he/she must be able to apply everything they know about how words work with meaning. If you are reading a book that is too easy, you're really not getting good work done; however, you are building reading mileage. You must see a word or phrase lots of times in text in order to have it come to you automatically. On the other hand, if you are reading a book that is too hard, you are sacrificing meaning, words, and most of all, pleasure! It takes finding the right fit through trial and error and expertise!