Supporting All Readers

            When I read articles about “struggling readers”, I often read it with a “slightly raised eyebrow”. I come from an immigrant family who provided what they could for me, but as my parents did not speak English, I could have easily been classified as a “struggling reader”.  As I read these articles, I always look to see the circumstance of the children that are being highlighted. I also look for answers to my questions. What is it about the story that the children do not comprehend? Sequence? Subject matter? Vocabulary? Does the material connect with the everyday lives of the children in your classroom? Are the children English Language Learners?

            I do not accept the notion that just because the children come from low income families or have hard circumstances in their personal life as a reason for their struggles in reading. Although it is helpful to know the background of the family, their income and the educational achievements of their parents, it important to not have those factors as the reason why the children can not read or are struggling. I do believe that as Maslow theorized that children’s basic needs must be met before they can learn. However, school can also be seen as a haven. Teachers can be adults who listen and care. School can shelter and nourish your mind and body as well. I found comfort in going to school. Although some children may have more difficulties doing this, school is often a safe place for children. We take the information about the children’s home lives and we use it to be empathetic and to find ways to help them learn, not to let it be the reason that limits them.

            It is the teacher’s job to make connections from stories/books/concepts to a child’s everyday life. Our job is to make concepts applicable to the children and connect them to their interests and prior knowledge. It is also to make reading and writing a task that can be achieved by all learners. A great example of this occurring in practice is including situations that happened into math problems or into writing prompts.

Our classroom does an author of the day activity and the children usually tell stories about their daily routines or something special that happened over the weekend. Each child has a chance to be an author and an illustrator. Their story gets told (as well as heard) and they build confidence in constructing a narrative or storyline. We need to make connections and acknowledge their life stories and then build from that point.

For example it is popular for schools to include the reading of Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes to introduce a girl’s insecurities about her name. I would instead read The Name Jar by Yangsook Choi. The Name Jar shows a real girl who struggles with feeling comfortable about her name. To enhance the story, I could also tell a small story about how I grew up with a different name and the feelings that I felt. As I recount this to the children, they may begin to make connections of their own. These are more realistic stories. (This also goes into the debate of using stories that depict people instead of animals for certain subject matters.)

As a teacher, it is instrumental for one to pause to check understanding, providing appropriate prompt questions, making connections to relevant experiences, checking understanding of vocabulary, vary your tone of voice so children can infer and make predictions. There can also be a follow up activity to ensure understanding and then repeat the readings. Children often do not tire of repeat readings. New understanding is usually gained when books are reread. For younger ages, discussions can become tiresome. Create a re-enactment! For example, for “We are going on a lion hunt” if the children actually went on a mock lion hunt, the children are more likely to remember prepositional words and the sequences.  Children are naturally visual and kinesthetic learners.  Most adults still learn more by doing than just mere listening.

Borrowing ideas from reading with younger readers for older readers, we can still incorporate finger plays and/or puppets into storytelling and read-alouds.  We can also pose questions such as, “What would you do if you were _____?”  We can also sing songs that rhyme and/or mean the same thing. Dr. Suess books are great resources for word play. We can also play games with synonyms. Take turns saying words that mean the same thing until someone gets stuck, “Fabulous, Great, Excellent, Fantastic, etc.”

“The single most important activity for building the knowledge required for eventual success in reading is reading aloud to children. During read-alouds, it is important to discuss with children what they are hearing.” (Barrett-Mynes, 2010) I agree with Barett-Mynes that read-alouds are important, but what happens during and after the read aloud also makes a large impact. Much about learning how to read and learning in general is to spend time and practice the skills needed.

The author did a great job highlighting her steps in how her teaching evolved. It is also important to note that the interactive read-aloud and discussions helped comprehension immensely, but also that the children were getting extra time to discuss the books with an adult and their peers. Organic conversations and thinking is taking place. All of this varied and increased exposure is more than likely to have positive outcomes than negative outcomes. How much more time did the teacher spend incorporating these new strategies as opposed to the amount of time spent reading and discussing stories with the children prior to her study?

I am a believer that when we view children as capable beings and provide them with support, they can accomplish a lot. The author was able to really take a look at how reading was taking place in her classroom and adjust it to have the children become more independent. They were able to take strategies and direct their own learning. To enhance read-alouds, making the learning and content meaningful to the children is also paramount.