Group Summary on TIP for Michelle, Arlenia, Robert, and Czar

It seems after reading everyone's blogs that we all agree that we notice many different aspects of each theory in children. Arlenia and Robert have experience in the classroom and see a combination of these theories in their students. Robert even mentioned how he really saw a difference in his students that were in a supplemental reading pullout class when they started getting help from their parents, especially being read to at home. He said that it made a huge difference in his students abilities.

Although I have not taught I can imagine how the encouragement, help, and support at home making a big difference. Not only do children want to be like their parents, which makes them want to learn more, but they are just getting extra practice other than solely learning at school.

It seems that we all agree that the Maturation Theory isn't something we would want to follow. Not allowing a student/child to learn and be exposed to literay until 6.5 yrs old just seems odd. Why would we not allow them to learn, grow, and develop from an early age. Arlenia mentioned that she does notice that a lot of her students don't really learn to read until 6 and 7 years old, occasionally 8. I feel this may be the case, but I felt like the theory was saying to not allow them to, I bet most of these kids didn't get the nurturing and chance to learn as much at home, or possibly are just slower learners, but I can't see a parent denying a child of this.

It was also mentioned that separation of classes in schools might promote students to not go up and beyond as much if they are from a poorer class and don't get the chance to excel and receive a better education. Now that schools are being more intergrated I feel that this is changing this up a little bit. Overall, we all agree that one theory alone cannot explain the process of learning to read but that every individual learns differently, showing examples from multiple theories.