Reading fits the student, teachers say in interview
By CAROL DeBONIS
"Tip and Mitten" may still be around but the methods and philosophy of instruction have changed a bit since today's college student learned to read.
Instruction based on individuality, freedom in supplementary reading and mechanical devices characterize today's classroom according to teachers interviewed Saturday at the 10th Annual Conference on Reading.
THE CONFERENCE, sponsored by the School of Education, University Extension and the Kansas Council of the International Reading Association was held from 9 a.m. until 2:30 p.m. in the Kansas Union.
Ten to 15 years ago students were not grouped according to ability, said Dorothy Brautigan, an Easton fifth-grade teacher. "Now it's more individualized."
"We try to make the material fit the kids instead of fitting the kids into the material," said Maxine Bair, first grade, Topeka. Mrs. Bair said each group reads and progresses at its own level.
ALTHOUGH TEXTBOOKS and workbooks are about the same, Richard Kessler, first-grade teacher from Emporia, pointed out the use of different material for individual students.
He said the opportunity for each child to pursue his own interest is now available to a greater extent.
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What he called the "swing away from using a basal text" has indirectly affected the teaching of reading according to James Unruh, Hesston fifth-grade teacher. The basal text is still used but supplemented by materials of interest to the student.
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UNRUH MENTIONED access to paperback books as an important step. In many schools students buy them through book clubs for from 25 to 35 cents. "This has created more interest in reading than the basal text has," said Unruh.
COMPREHENSION, speed, word recognition, sentence structure can be improved through the use of these machines. "Children work by themselves and check their own work," he explained.
Tape-recorders, statistascopes, and controlled readers are but a few of the mechanical devices mentioned that are being utilized in most schools. They are used in initial instruction as well as remedial reading according to Calvin Dill, Emporia federal project co-ordinator.
All teachers questioned stressed the influence of television, radio
and abundant reading material.
The consensus was that the child of today is more ready to read, more curious and more informed through what one called their "wider variety of experience."
Monday, October 31, 1966
Daily Kansan
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McNown to travel for AID
John S. McNown, the Albert P. Learned professor of engineering mechanics at KU, will be on an education mission in Africa and the Near East for the Agency for
International Development (AID) Nov. 1-29.
His first stop will be in Isfahan, Iran, for a conference on engineering education.
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