Reading Differences

I was really moved by Tovani's description of fake reading (Tovani, 2000), and the trials and tribulations of her class for poor readers. Students are so good at hiding what they are not good at, like the ELL student whose spelling and conversational English is remarkable, yet has no reading fluency and little comprehension of grade level texts. In those shoes, I would become a fake reader too. It takes a tenacious teacher to stay on point with something that has become an embarrassment for the child, it is good, hard work.

It is a similar quality in the teacher, that is sensitive to different English dialects, so as not to shame or embarrass the student. Understanding the cultural foundation of the student, the traditions of the story form and language usage, enables the teacher to meet the student in their realm and enriches the classroom experience. Delprit points out how hard this is, as most teachers are white middle class women, like myself, teaching an increasingly more diverse student population (Delprit, 1995). It takes a concerted effort to expand your cultural awareness to be inclusive and not judgmental. But, that inclusiveness needs to be balanced with the value proposition that Standard English presents. It is important that all students learn the currency of success in our economy, and that starts with Standard English. The usage of which is an indicator of educated person in our society.

I really liked Delprit's practical suggestions for introducing dialects including Standard English through role playing. In this way, a student does not reject his home culture. but learns an additional role in a different interpretation of English. She also reminded me of my own language assimilation experience in college living in a group house with a bunch of students from Long Island, N.Y., people were always asking me what part of New Jersey I was from. Of course, I am from Michigan and I was attending the University of Wisconsin, (another dialect I can pick out anywhere), I was pretty offended, and I was talking "funny".

With the other readings this week, I was particularly interested in the reading disability perspectives presented because I have two students in my main placement who have significant difficulties with reading comprehension. One of them is on an IEP and is getting services, the other is new to the school and the teachers here were thinking that her difficulties stem from the Montesori program she came from, but clearly this is not the case. Her inventive spelling, even when copying text and non-fluent reading are red flags. My MT is now working with the family to carefully find a path for this student to catch up. So as I start my fulltime teaching I will looking to see how these two students progress, and what I can do to support their learning.

Fake Reading

When I read the phrase "fake reading", I thought "hey, I've done that". I did not even need to read the various techniques. It is easy to fall into the trap of fake reading the text is too difficult or you are uninterested in the information presented. When I came to the University to study art and took countless required art history classes, I tried everything to penetrate the text. Ironically, the pictures were not that helpful. After I faked the entire series of the History of Western Art by putting the book under my pillow, combining science and art using osmosis, I realized I was going to have to fulfill my electives with topics I cared about which were inter-disciplinary approaches to Greek Art and Archeology, and Northwest Indian Art and Anthropology. I was important that I find something of interest to me to make the text accessible. This seems very ego-centric in retrospect. this experience supports both Routman (Routman 2003) and Tovani (Tovani, 2000).

As an elementary teacher, I think there is a danger of creating fake readers when we require students to read a certain amount of time at home, with parental sign-off (of course). It is a practice that could lead to a fake reading habit. The student is no longer reading for enjoyment, only to prove they spent time with a book.

The key to setting students up to be successful (good) readers lies in providing instruction around text that they enjoy. When habits of comprehension strategies are mastered with text they love, they learn how to tackle texts that they are not so engaged with, whether that is an English Lit requirement or a tax form later in life.

The idea that all students leave elementary school as good readers is challenging. As the characteristics of the texts become more complicated in middle and high school, it only stands to reason that teachers at those levels need to continue to teach and support comprehension strategies. In my dyad placement, a middle school math classroom, the teacher modeled using a yellow highlighter, both as direct instruction and as a a shared activity. With homework that included a re-cap of the new concepts taught that day, she would highlight sections of text that were meaningful to the math lesson. It was a very effective way to bring the students attention to the content they needed to master as well as giving them a tool to help identify what was important in the text. Modeling appropriate reading comprehension strategies in this way was a very easy segue into the homework example. It is only one strategy, but the right one for this application.