I was reading a snippet of an article this last week and came across an idea that I thought was important to pass along about struggling readers. Reading is more than decoding - it's figuring out what the writer is trying to communicate to you. Pretty basic, right? Then let's move on. This article stated that after students learn to decode there are three things students struggle with the most:
- The meaning of words - or vocabulary
- Not noticing that they don't understand what they are reading, or failing to monitor their understanding
- Failing to make inferences
I feel that reading teachers do a very good job of teaching vocabulary, so let's leave that alone. What we need to focus on is monitoring (pausing, evaluating, and thinking about where the text is going), and making inferences (using personal background knowledge coupled with what the author is saying to make meaning). I remember the first time I helped some fourth graders effectively monitor and make inferences about what they were reading. We were reading the book Hatchet and were in the passage where the plane the young man was attempting to fly was crashing into a lake. After reading the passage the first time I asked them about what had just happened in the story. They couldn't answer my questions. They were just reading the passage because I told them to read it. Their only goal was to get to the end of the passage. So I decided to build some background knowledge and started to ask them about times they had seen planes flying in the sky and what would happen if one of those planes crashed into a lake. After building some simple background knowledge, that most of them had some idea about, I gave them the assignment of reading the passage again with those pictures in their mind and then to draw a picture of what they had just read. The difference in their understanding of what they read was amazing. Students made comments about being able to see what the author was describing in their minds. Some students said it was like a movie had turned on in their head as they read. This was all done because we took the time to talk before we read the story about experiences they were already familiar with that were found in the story and connected that with what the author was writing.
So I encourage teachers, of younger students especially, to specifically talk about the main ideas authors are presenting in stories before you read the story for the first time with your students. As Harry Wong encourages, share with the students what you are going to be doing before you do it. Ask them questions about times they might have experienced or seen something that relates to the topics found in the story. Then tell them that today you are going to read a story that has to do with the topic you all just talked about. It's ok to do that as we are teaching students to construct meaning. We need to show them how to relate to stories just as we model for them how to do mathematics problems.
