In this essay, Smith ascertains the famous platitude that "a man that knows something knows that he knows nothing at all". I say this because, his twelve rules for reading teachers are the methods that my teachers used to teach me how to read ever since I have been in this country. He admits that those prevalent methodologies are not as helpful as the masses may believe. This shows me that if I want to be an effective teacher, I must be flexible and willing to learn new techniques in order to make certain that my students get as much as they can from my lessons.
When Smith states that the one difficult rule for making learning to read easy is to "make reading easy"I automatically knew that I was going to have to reassess everything that I was taught in the past about chunking, phonics, word association etc... By focusing one the one difficult way to make it easy, teachers can help students to conquer their academic fears by teaching them that fear is actually nothing more than False evidence Appearing Real!
It is essential to have a huge bag of many tricks when you step in the classroom. So if you find one technique does not work with your students, you can reach in that bag and try two more. I agree with you that flexibility is key. It is pretty amazing to be reading the scholarship and research of those who have been in the field for many years, and I imagine as any professional learns and grows they will be able to add their own techniques to the mix.
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