Student scores on exit and entrance tests and high-stakes tests have been declining for several years. We heard that news before. But it’s difficult to understand when there are so many initiatives to encourage reading and boost test scores in schools and schools have so many more resources and materials than ever before. Why are students not reading, reading well or reading for pleasure?
The answer has many components. There is the obvious reason, or to my mind, excuse that many educators espouse: kids watch too much TV and play too many videos games; how can we compete with that? While time spent watching TV and playing video games may have some deleterious effect on student reading, this doesn’t nearly begin to explain the deficiencies in US students. Schools and education as a systemic whole needs to wake up to the fact that many of the initiatives, programs, methods and materials actually have a debilitating affect on students’ reading abilities
Reason One: The Michigan Model of Reading (1991) states that reading is composed of four parts: Reading (decoding), Writing, Speaking and Listening. This is a revolutionary concept, but it isn’t often incorporated into curriculum. We tend to think of reading only as the act of decoding words. Many pre-reading and reading skills are developing in children that are not recognized as such: listening to stories, narrating a story, re-telling a story to a friend in your own words, explaining a concept, illustrating a story, and many more activities that children, especially boys, do regularly.
Reason Two: Children are often forced to perform traditional reading skills before they are developmentally ready to do: sitting still, sitting at a desk, naming letters, drawing letters, etc. I have subbed in kindergarten classes in which children were made to copy whole sentences and read them when they still did not recognize letters or understand the concept of decoding a word. In essence, these children were just tracing a series of symbols with no more meaning for them than if it had been cuneiform.
Reason Three: We often jump around, touch on ideas but do not instruct children in an organized way. What is needed is regular daily time to systematically teach and practice material. Some of this time should be guided, and other time should be devoted to exploration of material.
Reason Four: We do not recognize the less traditional ways of reading and learning to read, that boys are clearly exhibiting; for example, we tend to think that if a child is wiggling around on the floor during story time, fiddling with a toy car or drawing, that the child is not listening. On the contrary, the child may actually be listening better. Performing an activity often helps make connections in listening and processing.
Reason Five: We do not implement enough higher order thinking skills: analysis, application, synthesis and evaluation, in our lessons (see my article: What are Higher Order Thinking Skills and Bloom’s Taxonomy?) We focus on knowledge and comprehension questions and activities. We don’t relate material to the child or help the child see connections. Children are egocentric; we must apply what they learn to their own life. We don’t allow for individual interpretation of literature. We ask precise, closed questions designed to elicit a certain response. When the child responds is an unexpected or unplanned way, we say he is ‘wrong’.
Reason Six: We read from texts, rather than real books and literature. The classroom day should be filled with books and literature exploration, not dissected, processed stories from workbooks or excerpt’s.
In conclusion, we need to incorporate the following practices to help students read, read well and read for pleasure.
Implement reading, writing, speaking and listening in reading instruction.
Teach developmentally appropriate reading skills.
Organize lessons systematically and schedule times for guided instruction and practice, as well as free exploration.
Allow for individual response to material.
Recognize and address the need for movement and activity in children.
Ask analysis, application, synthesis and evaluation questions.
Make lessons interactive and hands-on
Read books, not textbooks and workbooks.
