I loved the exchange between Kylene and Leah, the five-year old she took to the fair. Making the connection to George’s inability to verbalize his embedded questions when stating “I don’t get it” was eye-opening. There are many times that I can’t find the words to explain just exactly what I’m trying to say. So, I’m sure for a student that is not understanding what he’s been asked to do…it is equally frustrating!
Beers points out the importance of listening and observing what her students were saying about what they were studying, and found this to be more valuable than what they were actually studying. She shares “Their conversations gave me a glimpse into what they were thinking, and often those glimpses were far more interesting than whatever conclusions they reached” (11). Beers realized that being aware of the process her students were going through was far different than grading the end product.
I liked the fact that Beers acknowledges that anyone can be considered a struggling reader, depending on what they are reading. Struggling readers are not just the disconnected, disinterested students sitting in the back row. In fact, they could be sitting right under your nose and you don’t know it.
The ability to draw on strategies that good readers use is the difference between independent and dependent readers. As educators, it is our job to make sure our students are armed with as many effective strategies possible. We can’t eliminate the struggle, but we can give them the tools they need to struggle successfully. Beers tells us that she wants to do is “teach them how to struggle with a text, how to develop the patience and stamina to stick with a text, how to figure out on their own what is separating them from success with the text, and what they should do to fix it” (16). These skills will stay with them forever and can be used in any area of their life.
Confidence is a huge part of being successful in anything we try to accomplish, reading is no different. I recently spoke with the mother of a 7th grade student who is struggling with her fluency. The mom states, “She’s beginning to loose her confidence.” For a young girl in 7th grade, this is the last thing we want to happen. Beers presents different areas of confidence that come into play with reading as: cognitive confidence, social and emotional confidence, and text confidence. Helping move dependent readers to independent readers builds confidence in all three areas.
Finally, I loved Kylene’s story about her daughter Meredith and realizing that making mistakes is a part of the learning process. Giving kids the correct answer (maybe even repeatedly) can reinforce the learning process. As Beers points out, sometimes we learn best from mistakes we make. We can’t be afraid of making mistakes…and we certainly can’t be afraid to let our kids make mistakes and help they learn through them.
The concept that everyone and anyone may be a struggling reader is an interesting concept for me. As I work with kids in the reading class everyday it always catches me off guard when one of the advanced students has difficulty with a particular book or type of book. At the same time the reverse may be true, a generally struggling reader may find something that opens the door for them and allows them to start to enjoy reading for the first time. The content, author's writing style, and other factors play a large part in the ease or difficulty that a reader may have with a given book.
ReplyDeleteI am generally a very good reader. My reading rate and comprehension are excellent but if you ask me to read one of my husband's texts about sound engineering I am completely lost. I can decode the words but cannot comprehend the information because I have no background to connect to. My husband on the other hand never reads for pleasure because it is a struggle for him. Decoding, fluency, and comprehension are all areas of difficulty. When he reads a text about his area of expertise however he is able to make the pieces work together to gain the information that he needs. I see the same types of scenarios in the classroom daily.
When I first returned to school (after 30 years) I really struggled with comprehension. I have always been a voracious reader, but it had basically been for pleasure. There is a big difference when you read a text to "get something out of it." I had to work very explicitly on developing comprehension strategies. I had some great professors early on that guided me...fortunately I had the fundamental reading skills otherwise things would have been pretty tough. We all need to have tools to draw from at various times in our lives. Hopefully, these strategies will stay with our students as they progress through life.
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