"The major folklore of reading instruction relates to the 'theory' that reading is considered an exact process. In other words, the reader is expected to read everything exactly as printed on the page in order to understand the message of the author. In general the consuming public, legislatures, courts and too many educators hold to this theory. It is like the theory of the world being flat during the time of Columbus."
- Robert Harper and Gary Kilarr
I would have to agree with this quote. I think many people think that if you make some mistakes when you are reading that makes you an incompetent reader. Whereas, throughout chapter 4 in my textbook the author, Constance Weaver, helps you understand otherwise. Proficient readers can make miscues because they aren't focusing on each letter or each word in isolation. Proficient readers are using both syntactic and semantic context to read. I have found myself substituting a word in for a different word that is written on the page but the sentence still makes sense. As long as the reader is grasping the meaning from the text they are proficient readers. I thought it was really interesting while I was reading that beginning readers or less proficient readers can read the basic sight words better in context than when they are asked the words in isolation. This really made me think more into my group of students I had this past year and how they performed on our literacy tests that are mandatory at my school. We test our students on running records, phonics, and sight words. Most of my students had mastered all the sight words and phonics before they arrived in my room, but some of them had not. I was given a passage with all the sight words in context and a separate list to test my students. I never used the passage for testing but now I'm thinking I should use it next year to help boost some students confidence when reading the sight words because they might actually know them when read in context. How often do we read a list of words anyway? When it comes to reading miscues I used to find myself getting embarrassed in high school when I would read aloud in a class and make a mistake. I wish it was more known through consuming public that just because you substitute out a word for something else every once in a while doesn't mean you aren't a really good reader. I think sometimes in schools we focus so much more on students getting everything perfect rather than focusing on what mistakes they are making and why they are making them. If you can still understand what they are reading that should hint to you that they understand they just might use semantic context to read. I think some of the best examples in my textbook to show you that each word on it's own isn't important to understand meaning were the passages with blacked out words. You could still understand the passage because you start inserting words you would find fit well based on the semantic and syntactic context. I think the best thing for me as a teacher to remember is "since meaning is the goal of reading, we hardly need to insist that every word be identified accurately" (Weaver, 73). I'm hoping that my fellow teachers at my school know this and we start focusing on the comprehension of reading rather than focusing on every word that our students read.
Lisa,
ReplyDeleteI agree that people, even some teachers, believe that making miscues qualifies the reader as not proficient. This is not the case at all. I believe that students can make meaning of a text, even if they miscue parts of the passage. As you stated, each word on its own is not important in gaining understanding.
Also, I like how you mentioned your high school fear of reading aloud. Much like you, I wished students realized that just because you may read something out loud that is slightly different than what's on the page, doesn't make you a horrible reader. Thanks for sharing!
Lisa,
ReplyDeleteAfter doing the reading, I asked myself the same question of why isn't information like this more known throughout the education community because if this was something that everyone knew then there wouldn't be so much emphasis on phonemic perfectionism. Why are we putting so much pressure on students to read the passage exactly has it is stated even if they understand the meaning? Thinking back on times when I did not correct a student due to a contextual miscue because it made sense, I remember my students correcting them. That scenario alone shows me and re-emphasizes your point, that children are taught perfectionism when that should not be the case at all. As you stated, as long as the sentence has not lost its meaning, we should need to correct them. I completely agree!
I liked the point you made when you said, “How often do we read from a list of words anyway?” It makes so much more sense to put the words from the sight word list into passages, sentences, or even phrases now that I’ve read this chapter. I agree with you also about focusing too much on getting everything perfect. I also think sometimes children feel that pressure to get everything perfect. I like to encourage children to attempt to read new words even when they aren’t sure and reassure them that it is ok to make mistakes because everyone, even adults, make them. I can also relate to you about the anxiety of reading out loud. I don’t think I ever liked to read out loud among my peers because of the fear of coming across an unknown word and stumbling through it while everyone listened. However, in my class I try to encourage my children to read out loud in attempt to boost their confidence at a young age. I love when my less proficient raise their hand because they want to read out loud to the class. I praise them for doing so, and I am also sure not to tolerate any comments from other students that are negative or might hurt someone’s feelings for not reading as well as others. I believe it’s all about trying and giving your best effort and along the way you are bound to learn something new!
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