Before we can teach something we must define it. What is reading? I realize this is an enormous question, but also an essential one. What is reading to you? How can we help our struggling readers if we have not thought this through? If you were to define reading what would you say about it?
If you could teach your students 5 things about reading what would they be and why?
Reading is the acquisition of knowledge or information, via the written word.
ReplyDeleteThe five things that I would teach my students about reading and why:
1. It is ok not to know every word. Looking up an unknown word in the dictionary will help you “understand” the material.
2. Talk with others about what you are reading. If you are unsure about something-ask! I always like to ask my students what they thought of, or what they learned after reading something. Their responses are always eye opening to me; they usually come up with a response that I did not think about. That way when we are reading something as a group they will stop and ask and want to discuss something that they were unsure about or something that they thought about when reading it.
3. Visualizing the written word. When teaching vocabulary words I like to give students a visual that represents the word. I explain that sometimes you might not be able to remember the “words” for the definition but if you can visualize the word it usually helps to remember the context of the word. For the word diversity I showed a picture of all different sizes, shapes, and colors of buttons. I asked them several questions about what they saw in the picture and through our discussion they knew what diversity meant. I told them if they were to forget what it meant that maybe they could remember the picture of the buttons and that would help them remember.
4. Any type of reading is good reading. Reading comic books, cookbooks, magazines, picture books, etc is all good!
5. Having to read aloud or have someone read to you is ok! If the material that is being read just doesn’t make sense to them I usually ask my students if they can you “hear” themselves read? Can they get a mental picture or can they see a movie of what is going on in their head? If they cannot, due to the material, I will ask them to read aloud. Then I can guide them, talk about punctuation and what that character might sound like. If they are having trouble making a connection I have found that it helps if they have someone else read the material and then discuss it with them to help give a visual of the material or story being read.
Reading is an avenue for gaining knowledge and a form of entertainment. I have found that over time, as I've grown and have become a better reader, I have begun to enjoy reading more and more. If I could teach my students five things about reading I would teach them the following:
ReplyDelete1. READING TAKES PATIENCE.
Patience is a crucial element in reading- from decoding words, to comprehending challenging texts, to actually finding what one loves to read. I try to express to kids that they don't have to love everything they read but part of the process of finding what you do love to read is eliminating what you don't love to read. This, of course, takes patience. I encourage kids to explore a book or genre with an open mind and to give all texts a chance in order to truly find what works for them.
2. READING SHOULD BE ENJOYABLE.
While we all read for knowledge, students must also realize that reading can and should be done for entertainment. Reading doesn't just have to be in the form of a text book, it can be all sorts of materials from magazines to graphic novels.
3. THE MORE YOU READ, THE BETTER READER YOU BECOME.
My mom used to always say, "Practice, makes perfect." Those words always annoyed me, but I knew then and know even better now that they are true. I believe we need to teach students this same lesson; that practicing is not just for sports or musical instruments, but also for reading. In order to become a better reader, you need to read.
4. IN ORDER TO BE A READER, YOU MUST COMPREHEND AND VISUALIZE WHAT YOU READ.
I have many wonderful decoders in my classroom who struggle immensely with comprehending what they read. I think it's important to teach students what it feels like when you actually understand a text. So many students don't realize that they are even missing any part of reading if they can decode a text. I think this is why read-alouds and modeling reading for students is so crucial. When students clapped after a read aloud novel that I read I realized that they may have never completed a full book with a picture in their mind and a strong understanding of the story.
5. IT'S IMPORTANT TO TALK AND TO THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU READ, (EVEN AFTER YOU'VE FINISHED).
So many students read the last words or lines of a text and want to shut it right away just to feel that sense of completion. I think good readers continue to think about a text and can talk with others about it. I believe it's important to model this and to find ways for students to relate to texts and refer back to them even once they've closed the book. Reading a book or piece of information is like an experience that the reader should take with them.
Reading is making meaning from a text in order to gain knowledge from it.
ReplyDeleteThe five things I try to teach my students are…
1. It is okay to get stuck but it is not okay to give up. As readers when we are challenged appropriately and overcome it, that is where the growth happens. Using strategies to help figure out a text (rereading, looking up a work in the dictionary, etc.) is perfectly fine. Text does not always make sense the first time you attempt to read it, but if you pretend it does and keep reading or give up, you will not grow as a reader. Everyone fumbles at some point and students need to know that is okay to do that.
2. Reading is an active process that at first glance looks passive. There is so much more than meets the eye when someone is reading a text successfully. Students need to realize that there is so much more that goes into comprehending a text then just reading the words. In order to get the full meaning of a text you need to be an active reader before, during, and after you are reading. A book is only as good as the quality of what a reader brings to its table.
3. Everyone reads differently and it is fine. When reading students might visualize, infer, or predict different outcomes. They might use different strategies to help them understand a text. There is no one prescribed way for a text to be read actively, and that is part of the fun.
4. Students need to be able to comprehend a text. If you can’t understand the text that you are reading – what is the point? This is a huge umbrella under which many other things fall but you need to understand a text before you can move onto other steps like enjoyment.
5. Reading unlocks doors. Reading can help you in many ways – learning more about a war, how to overcome obstacles in video games, the ability to enjoy a foreign movie with subtitles, or reading an instruction manual to fix your car. The ability to read helps far beyond the classroom.
I will attempt to answer the question, “What is reading?” and also talk about things I try to teach my students about being a reader. Reading is such a giant topic and it is so many things. I think I try to teach my students that most importantly it is a time when they interact with the author. I think reading is just as personal and independent as writing. The best way I know how to show my students this is with my read alouds. I do a lot of thinking aloud when I use these books. Sometimes we spend almost as much time talking about the book as we do reading it. During these conversations, I hope they see how different everyone’s experience of the book is, even though they are all hearing my oral interpretation of the author’s text. I have pointed out to my students how much I have slowed down the reading compared to when I read silently. They are always surprised at this, because so many students think that good reading must also be fast reading.
ReplyDeleteReading is creating your own story in your head, adapting and changing it as needed. Sometimes in my class we will stop and share what our setting looks like and where we each got the information for that. Now my students realize it’s a good strategy to take places we know well as a basis, but personalize it with information from the story. In that way they each have a strong, individualized comprehension of the setting (or characters). The important thing is that they know it is good to be flexible and add or subtract things to their setting as their reading progresses. This always leads to conversations about why book covers look the way they do and why movies based on books sometimes disappoint them.
As I work with my students to focus on comprehension, I really try to teach them to savor the language of good authors. To do this I model slowing my reading pace, thinking aloud and rereading. Currently I am reading The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle to my class. In some chapters, Avi really uses some beautiful imagery. I am stopping to reread these selections and having discussions about why they think the author used that type of language. This all takes so much time, but I hope it will carry over into better comprehension of difficult language in their own reading.
I want my students to be part of a reading community and feel the support that can give them with their comprehension. Beyond that, I really want them to know how to create their own casual reading communities in the future. This might be just realized which friends they have that like the same types of books and authors and tapping into that group for recommendations. I can build this into my classroom, but it is even more important for them to take this skill beyond sixth grade. Now I try to foster less formal discussions and recommendations than I used to. It feels more authentic and I see my students taking ownership of it sooner. There are “book discussions” at snack time and small groups asking to go to the library together to help each other find books. I think this is a more useful skill for my students than doing a book discussion that I set up. Really, I want my students to leave my more independent and capable than when they came to me in September!
From Pam:
ReplyDeletePam’s 2nd Blog
As I work with an entire grade level at a time, I run into many struggling students. It takes a while to get to know 300 kids when you see them twice a week for ½ a year, but I do my best to talk with each child and to learn their needs.
One student I’ve been working with stands out. His struggles could be used to create a chart like the “confidences” chart as home, school, and social issues are all so intermingled, you can never be quite sure what you are dealing with that day. I’ll call him Pal.
Pal likes other kids, and many of them like him. He generally chooses a solitary seat in my class though. Pal makes a lot of enthusiastic noises from his lone seat. Most students ignore it. The ones who can’t are strugglers themselves and will complain directly to Pal (who seems oblivious) or to me to please get Pal to be quiet. Pal knows that he is easily distracted and he knows too that he might become loud, so he always asks for drawing paper when he arrives. He takes it to his seat in the back and focuses on drawing or making me an “I’m the boss” hat.
Pal is generally one of the last students to be collected after school and stands quietly in front of the building by himself waiting for his father to pick him up. I often think, “How can he be quiet out here and not in my classroom?” Last Friday when I left, Pal was outside again waiting, and I wished him a good weekend. He said, “I probably won’t have one.” I responded, “Well, maybe you will,” but I felt sad when I drove away.
Pal’s academic successes have been few. I work with him encouragingly and modify assignments based on his needs. He doesn’t appear to be moved by success or failure, but I keep plugging with him asking him comprehension questions and showing him new computer skills. Sometimes Pal is very happy and his eyes light up with it. It is those eyes that own me. I will always stop to help him and always wish him well.
Pamela J. Alexander
Learning Through Teaching
2/15/11
Linda Scribner Says...
ReplyDeleteReading is a multipurpose interactive activity engaged in by people from inside the womb to the age of 110 (and higher if you are really lucky)!!!
Reading is that time of warmth, acceptance, excitement, and eager anticipation in the laps of parents and grand parents from birth until the time a child says, “I’ll do it myself.” Children soon learn, of course, that even though they can read independently, being read to is still an enjoyable activity.
Reading is using what you know to find out what you need to know. The more you read the more you think; the more you think the more you know; the more you know the more you read! Reading is the gateway to the world!
Reading is a skill where children show off what they have learned and what they can do on their own! It is a skill learned from birth throughout the rest of our lives where we find ourselves in the midst of a fairy tale, researching to find information on an endangered species, escaping into a book while enjoying the beach during a 3 hour vacation, working to earn an education while reading a math book, a social studies book, or looking up those pesky abbreviations on the elements charts for the next chemistry test!
Reading is what you do in the middle of the night when you are barely awake, while trying to decide if the medicine in your hand is appropriate for your two year old who is coughing, crying and cannot sleep. Reading is what lawyers do for hours and hours trying to prepare for court to defend you in your case before the court. Reading is what you do while trying to decide where to go for your next vacation and if you can afford to go there. Reading is what teenagers do with great anticipation while studying for their driving tests. Reading is what everyone, who is lucky enough to learn how to read, does to find their way around life! Reading is a critical, essential, and active engagement with the other people on this planet and their thoughts, actions and conclusions! Reading is what teaches us about life, that we are not so different from others in this country, perhaps in other countries, or perhaps in other generations!
Linda Scribner goes on to say...
ReplyDeleteFurthermore, the lack of the ability to read is a disconnection from others in life. It is segregation from the mainstream of the research, stories, ideas, conclusions, entertainment and the fluid thoughts of those on this planet. If people cannot read for themselves they are always under the influence of someone else. If you do no think this is so…read the Bible and decide which version is correct…what translation of the Greek, or Hebrew is most accurate? Unless you are fluent in the original Greek or Hebrew you are reading a translation done by someone else!
The five things I would teach students about reading are as follows.
The first thing I would teach is the love of reading. I would encourage them to jump into a world of books, all kinds of books written by all kinds of authors!! It is the greatest form of entertainment! This is of course accomplished by reading to and with them!
Second, I would try to remember and support the love of reading as I taught them how to read. I think separating the teaching of reading from the act of reading has helped some students dislike reading.
Third, I would lead students into many kinds of reading and different reasons for reading. Academic reading is only one kind…there are many other kinds! Work, entertainment, escape, sharing, learning, discovering, growing, relaxing, exploring, testing out your own thoughts and actions are all reasons for reading and the list goes on and on.
Fourth, reading to and with others is fun, educational, and a good way to grow and learn instead of just staying within your own mind and your own thoughts! This activity applies outside of school as well as inside. There are book groups, study groups, support groups, groups where people just come together around an idea or subject about which they want to know more! Sharing in those groups helps you become well rounded and open minded.
The fifth thing I would teach about reading is that as people on this planet we are never done reading! It is a skill that grows and changes as we grow and change as people. It leads us to decide who we are, what we are about and where we are going and how to get there!
Linda Madden Says...
ReplyDeleteWhat is reading? For me reading is re-living a personal moment, thought or experience and growing the experience. Reading is a journey.
The five things I would teach my students about reading and why:
1. I would teach my students that there is something in every reading assignment they can relate to on a personal level. I would help my students access any background knowledge they may have regarding vocabulary, setting, events, conflicts, or any experiences from their own lives. I observed a teacher verbally teaching the vocabulary word “dependents” to a group of developmentally delayed students. Students were struggling to understand. One suggestion was to have a few students role play a family unit and show how the children are dependent on their parents for food, money, clothing and a place to live.
2. I would teach my students that you can experience vocabulary and concepts. I would provide them with living breathing experiences using their five senses. I think it’s important for students at all levels have the opportunity to see, hear, feel, smell and touch. It brings life to our reading.
3. I would teach my students that understanding what you read can be easy when you have learned the strategies. I would teach comprehension strategies explicitly and directly. I would model using these comprehension strategies over and over again throughout the entire year.
4. I would teach my students there are multiple ways to show your reading comprehension. I would teach them about Gardner’s multiple intelligences and the eight ways of knowing and allow them to respond utilizing their preferred way of knowing. It encourages their understanding that all people have strengths and weaknesses and there are a variety of ways people can show their intelligence. I’ll never forget the unit I taught on the Civil War in a 5th grade class. I prepared a project list for students to choose from for the culminating event. Projects were carefully designed to fit under each category of intelligence. The projects were amazing and unforgettable!!
5. I would teach my students how to develop a goal, recognize their personal progress and chart their progress and reflect on their progress. It’s amazing how motivated they are when they can see they are learning and reaching their goal.
I think all of the above also helps to personalize and individualize student learning.
I've loved to read since 6th grade. Prior to that, I couldn't read. It's kind of an odd thing to say, but looking back that's how I remember it. I've always had some pretty significant attention issues so acquiring new information was (is) very much a hit and miss process. Since I only heard half of what was being said it was challenging to put new ideas into any meaningful context. That, in turn, made it nearly impossible to classify or organize the various components of the various reading strategies into a coherent whole. Consequently, I preferred the pictures. Then, in the middle of 6th grade and for no reason that I can recall, it all just clicked and suddenly I could read.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure there was more to it, but that's how I remember things. One day I couldn't, and the next day I could. I know it couldn't have been that simple. I assume that my sudden grasp of the fundamentals of reading was in fact the culmination of several years spent randomly trying every tool in my toolbox, gradually realizing what each of them did, and slowly assembling my own blueprint for success. I don't recall any details, but I do remember that it was painful. So anyway...
#1. You might have to forge your own path, and it might not be easy.
#2. It's worth it. I promise. Reading opens doors, expands horizons, and even entertains. Seriously.
#3. If you hate to read it’s probably because you’re reading the wrong book. It makes a difference.
#4. Read about what you like, not about what you think you’re supposed to like. Read for yourself, not for your parents, or teachers, or friends.
#5. Practice. It really helps.
For me it’s all about buy-in. Reading is complex. It’s challenging. And for some kids trying to figure it out is a brutally difficult, frustrating, painful process. When they do finally figure out what that sentence says, it really ought to be interesting. Interest breeds motivation, and motivation breeds success.