An interview with Rita Wirtz: Rita gives fresh ideas on the best ways of teaching reading. Interview conducted by Dr. Sam Bommarito
As many of you know, for the past few weeks, I’ve taken a break from doing interviews. I’ve been writing blogs defending Balanced Literacy (I still prefer the term Constructivist Practices), and those blogs have had over 35,000 views in the past month. In case you missed them, here are the links LINK, LINK, LINK
This week I am resuming my interviews. The first I’m posting is from Rita Wirtz. It was done several weeks ago. I want to thank her for her patience and understanding about the delays. Now let’s talk about Rita and her wonderful ideas. Here is an excerpt about Rita taken from her website LINK:
As you can see, Rita has an extensive background in teaching. Her teaching career spans over forty years. A visit to her website will show she has put those forty years to good use LINK.
Now let’s see what Rita had to say during her interview:
Here are the topics we covered (they are time-stamped):
| Rita Introduces Herself | 01:00 |
| Revisit NRP (National Reading Panel) for relevance.Brief History of “Reading Wars,” back to Adams, Chall, Goodman, Veatch (Rita’s mentor, ASU Reading Clinic, Whole Language guru) “Reading the Great Debate.” Finding Common Ground. SOR/Balanced Literacy. NAEP | 03:44 |
| Retaining kids is not a recommended practice | 06:00 |
| Redefine five areas of reading instruction and why they matter. (phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency, comprehension). (Writing, Speaking, listening). | 07:09 |
| Balanced Literacy | 11:05 |
| Cueing, Sight words, Why all the fuss?, Leveled readers, Readability, Fluency testing (yuk),. Hot topics. | 12:50 |
| Final Thoughts | 20:19 |
Here are some additional links and resources from Rita. Note her two guest articles. One of those articles is scheduled to be reprinted in the summer issue of The Missouri Reader.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ReadingChamps/
Instagram: @ritamwirtz
Twitter: @RitaWirtz
Books: Reading Champions! Teaching Reading Made Easy, Stories From a Teacher’s
Recent podcasts:
Rethinking Learning with Barbara BrayThe Transformed Teacher, with Meredith Newlin
EdChat: Our Commitment To Teaching History Accurately
EdChat Radio on Learning Recovery
The Literacy Advocate with Timmy Bauer and Shalonda Archibald
Videocast:
The Transformed Teacher, with Meredith Newlin
Helping Students Read Better and Faster!
Everyone Academy (Comprehension)
Unlock The Middle with Principals Dean and Chris
Interviews:
Recent Guest Articles:
Protocol Education
Rita would like to thank BAM Internet Radio for supporting her writing.
She would also like to thank editor Tyler Trostrud.
Next week I will be continuing my interviews and guest blogs. Sometime over the summer, I will also share some of the nuts and bolts of my own teaching and my plans for teaching next year. Hoping everyone is having a great summer. I am looking forward to sharing literacy ideas with everyone this summer!
Happy Reading and Writing!
Dr. Sam Bommarito, aka the centrist who uses ideas from all sides to inform his teaching
Copyright 2022 by Dr. Sam Bommarito. Views/interpretations expressed here are solely the author’s view and do not necessarily reflect the views of any other person or organization.
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