PBS reading series features two Fort Worth ISD schools

by PegNews wire

A new season of the public television series “Reading Rockets” will feature two Fort Worth ISD elementary schools and highlight their efforts to address the reading challenges facing children with disabilities.

“A Chance to Read,” hosted by actress Molly Ringwald, is part of the award-winning series “Reading Rockets: Launching Young Readers.” Produced by WETA in StateplaceWashington, D.C, the series looks at how children learn to read, why so many struggle and what we can do to help.

Fort Worth ISD schools are featured in a segment called “Untapped Potential," which examines students at Versia Williams elementary school and Westcliff elementary school. Both are part of a federally-funded research project by Southern Methodist University’s (SMU) Institute for Reading Research that focuses on alternative teaching methods to help students with disabilities learn to read.

According to Dr. Patricia Mathes, TI Endowed Chair in Reading Research & Professor at SMU and the study’s lead researcher, many schools have low expectations for children with cognitive disabilities.

“People often make assumptions about what these kids are capable of doing,” she says in the program. “I call that ‘assumicide,’ because they make an assumption that they’re not capable, and then they never try.”

The research team has placed specially trained teachers in schools across the Fort Worth ISD. One of the teachers, Karen Britton, is featured in the program with her students at Versia Williams, and another teacher, Bea Jolly, appears in the program with students at Westcliff. The “Untapped Potential” section of the program highlights how the study approaches teaching cognitively disabled students and shows how the students respond to the instruction.

The program is available for viewing online at www.readingrockets.org/shows/launching/chance.

“A Chance to Read” airs on KERA on Sunday, September 2, 2007, at 8:30 a.m.