Dr. Margie B. Gillis is the president and founder of Literacy How, Inc., which provides professional development in the area of literacy to educators. She has presented in numerous SERC and SDE sponsored professional development activities.
What recent research has most impacted your work in helping struggling readers?
The research on reading and language acquisition has given me aDr. Gillis Headshot deeper understanding of how difficult learning to read is for many children. I also have grown to appreciate how important it is for children to have a strong foundation in their native language. This foundation is what they bring to school and will either set them up for success or failure. Hart and Risley’s research should be a wake-up call for educators and policy-makers to find ways to support parents and caregivers of babies and young children along with school-aged children.
What is one myth about teaching struggling readers that you would like to debunk?
There are many but the one that seems to prevail is that ‘research-based’ programs teach the child. Whenever an administrator hands a teacher ‘the new reading box’ it gives teachers the wrong message – that is, that they don’t know what they’re doing. Just follow the script and you’ll be fine. I believe that every elementary teacher must be a reading expert and that knowledge will empower teachers to use the ‘program du jour’ effectively and optimally for each individual child. The knowledgeable teacher, not the program, teaches the child to read.
A lot of research emphasizes the importance of phonics instruction for struggling readers. How should teachers balance this with the need for comprehension instruction?
If teachers are using assessments properly and are taught to analyze those assessment results, they will know what instruction each child needs. Some need a code-focused, teacher-managed approach and others do well with a meaning-based, child-focused approach. One size doesn’t fit all and the challenge that teachers face, particularly when it comes to addressing the needs of the struggling reader, is to ‘dig deeper’ into the assessment data and determine what the underlying cause of the problem is. The ‘struggle’ could be related to decoding words and involve phonological processing difficulties or, on the flip side, it may have more to do with language comprehension problems. Some kids have difficulties in both domains and need instruction in all areas of comprehensive literacy.
What words of advice would you give to teachers who are teaching struggling readers?
Learn as much as you can about what it takes to become a skilled reader. Take courses, read journal articles, participate in professional development that supports deep understanding, confer with colleagues who have experience and knowledge, and never give up! I have been at this for 37 years now (yikes!!) and every day I learn something new.
What changes have you seen in education over the course of your career?
On the positive side, I’ve seen more collaboration among professionals and the pursuit of knowledge as those of us in education realize how much we don’t know about the complexities of learning to read and the science that informs that knowledge. On the negative side, however, I see people continuing to blame the child, the home, the environment, etc. and a lack of ownership of the problem. And I believe that schools of education have shirked their responsibility to thoroughly prepare teachers to do the most important job there is. They have allowed politics to enter into the equation and that almost always translates into shifting the focus away from the child. As a nation, we must elevate the teaching profession to a higher status and recruit prospective teachers from the most rigorous teacher education programs.
What excites you about teaching children to read?
There is nothing more powerful than giving a child that gift and when you watch a child learn to read and grow to love reading, you know that their trajectory for success in life will be much greater than if they can’t and/or don’t want to read. When that skill is mastered, it unlocks countless doors – particularly for those who come from poverty or who struggle because of a reading disability.
What is the most challenging part of teaching children to read?
For kids who struggle, it’s sometimes difficult to motivate them to want to do something that’s hard. Once you teach them the requisite skills, you know how much more their vocabulary, ability to comprehend, and writing skills will develop if they spend time reading. If they don’t, it will be more challenging to accomplish what they’re capable of because they’re not spending time honing their skills and developing metacognition. And for teachers who work with adolescents, it’s more than developing their decoding and comprehension skills. At that point, teaching struggling readers requires knowledge about engagement and motivation.
How would you describe your philosophy of teaching?
My philosophy of teaching is pretty much my philosophy of life…be open to listening to your students and learning from and with them, be honest in every relationship you have, be generous with others AND yourself, and ask for and accept help when you don’t have the answers or know what to do.
How would you describe yourself as a reader?
Avid, voracious, and eclectic.
What are some of your favorite books, websites or blogs, for both professional and personal reading?
- Non-fiction: Leaving Johnny Behind by Anthony Pedriana; The Secret Life of the Grown-Up Brain by Barbara Strauch
- Fiction: Anything written by Wallace Stegner; Peace Like a River by Leif Enger; Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
- I’m not a blogger but I do love to surf professional websites. There’s so much available on line.
- Professional reading: I try to read journal articles to stay current with the reading research. A great listserv for doing that is: http://mailman.listserve.com/listmanager/listinfo/spelltalk
What interesting things are you reading now?
- The Good School by Peg Tyre; Leap of Reason by Mario Marino; and The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
- Oh, and one more… The Handbook of Reading Research-Vol 4 for my light reading!
