The classroom teacher and the reading consultant, a working team

Today, schools that do not have the services of one or more special reading teachers are rare. It might be assumed that this new influx of reading expertise has had a profound effect on the reading curriculum and individual teaching procedures. Regrettably, this is not true. Traditionally, programs have delegated the special reading teacher to a corner in the basement or cafeteria. Most of the teacher's time is spent working with students sent from the regular classrooms who are identified as remedial readers. These students are sent to the reading teacher for instruction only during certain times of the day. Problems are almost inherent when the special reading teacher is used th is way. The first, and perhaps most serious, is a breakdown of communication between the classroom and the reading teacher. Seldom does either teacher know what instructional objectives, daily lesson activities, or free reading the other teacher uses. Thus, the situation frequently develops where two teachers are working at cross purposes. A second problem is lack of time available to work with the classroom teacher. This occurs when the special reading teacher is used only as a referral agent for reading problems. If there is one generally accepted fact to be gained from past reading research, it is the belief that the classroom teacher is the critical difference if a child is successful in learning to read. It is important to allow the special reading teacher time to work with the classroom teacher on mutual problems.--Introduction"3/74/6M