Expert+Teachers

Carol Lyons (//Teaching Struggling Readers: How to Use Brain-Based Research to Maximize Learning,// 2003. Heinemann) observed teacher-student interactions of ten expert teachers, analyzed videotapes, and interviewed the teachers. She found the following points of convergence about how they think, reason, and act. EXPERT TEACHERS **
 * Have a thorough understanding of reading and writing at the acquisition stage and know how these processes change over time as children become more proficient.


 * Assess children's progress and identify roadblocks to learning.


 * Know how to provide a dynamic, flexible scaffold that assists children in mastering new competencies; and when it is too difficult for a child, they adjust the task so the demands at a specific moment are appropriately challenging.


 * Are reflective before, during, and after lessons.


 * Never stop working to make the children's experiences positive and rewarding.


 * Convey through their actions and words that their struggling learners can and will learn, and that they will find a way to teach them.