Success Starts with Foundational Skills
By: Lori Furgerson
As many of you know my boys play basketball.
A lot of basketball!
They have played since they were 4 years old. We had them try all of the sports and basketball is the one they really love. So now they are on a club basketball team that travels and is really getting them ready to play very well at a higher level.
My older son Zac has been in the club since he was in 5th grade. His coach was a former NBA player and his goal is to get his kids playing at the college level. This year they are all freshman and all go to different high schools around the valley. Out of the 15 kids he coaches, they all made the JV high school team.
Well, basketball season has ended for school ball and now the club ball is picking back up. However Zac’s high school is holding open gym times for kids who are interested in playing next season. The coach really wants them there so they can continue to work on the fundamentals.
There was a conflict with the first open gym – it was the same time Zac’s club ball was starting. So Zac went to the coach and told him that. The response of his coach was that he knew Zac’s club ball coach went over the fundamentals so it was fine that he didn’t come to open gym.
It made me think how similar that is to reading. As long as students have the foundational reading skills in place, they are off to a great start, but without them they will never be a successful reader.
We cannot forget to not only teach these skills explicitly but also assess them to be sure our students have mastered the skills.
Our students must get the foundational skills they need to be successful in life. Just like a basketball player has to first learn how to dribble a ball before they become great, for a reader it all starts with phonemic awareness. No matter what way you look at it, children must be equipped with the tools they need to be successful in anything they do.
Lori Furgerson has been in education for 18 years and has taught in three under performing schools with great success. She has been a reading intervention teacher, instructional coach and national literacy consultant. Lori works with teachers daily to improve students’ reading. She has a true passion for seeing them succeed and become the best they can be. She is on a mission to help teachers and parents meet the needs of struggling readers. Click here to learn how to bring your struggling reader to benchmark
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