have not read the book but from the reviews on Amazon it seems to say that teachers should not try to teach 'reading strategies' to young readers. If young people are all owed to choose books of interest, and just all owed to read, they will , in many cases, do just that. Once the teacher jumps in with advice on how to plan reading, connect ideas, or whatever other 'strategies' are in fashion, the chances are that the young reader will either ignore that advice or simply tune out of reading. The reading will cease to belong to the reader. It will belong to the teacher. As a result it will be spoiled.
I have seen language learning books, which are full of pre-listening or post-listening, or pre-reading and post-reading 'task lists'. To me these lists are, at best, a waste of time. In the worst case they destroy the pleasure of listening and reading in the new language.
When my son Eric was in grade 8 or 9, he wrote a 25-page essay comparing Japan to the USSR. It was well written. Eric had done a great deal of research. It was illustrated with maps.
Eric got 4 out of 25. I was so angry that I went to see the teacher. The teacher told me that Eric had not answered the specific question that the teacher had asked. I think (or I hope) that I told the teacher that he was an idiot.
The main role of a teacher is to encourage the learner to pursue learning. If the teacher thinks that the main job is to teach a lesson, according to latest fad in education, that teacher missing the point. If the teacher can instill a hunger for learning, for exploring, for reading, for expressing, then the job is well done.
It is like coaches of sports teams that think that they will make everyone do it the coach's way, and that then they will win. It is only when the coach can get everyone to work together and have a positive attitude that the team will do well, for the team and for the individuals.
Reading is more important than studying, more important than everything, make sure that your children get books into their hands - Ziraldo, famous Brazilian educator.
To some teachers, literacy is not just reading. It is much more complex. It relates to culture, to advocacy, to funding, to classroom teaching strategies, reading strategies and whatever else they can find to complicate the issue. To me literacy is just reading. The more you read, the better you will get at reading. If you get used to reading you will enjoy it and do more. If you can choose material of interest, and at your level, you will enjoy reading, develop the reading habit and progress, natural y. If you have trouble reading, you need to listen first, so that you can hear the language when you read. The less complicated the reading is, the better. No comprehension questions, no reading strategies, no teacher standing over the learner. Just the learner and the book he or she chose.
Yes there are some people with handicaps, or reading difficulties. I suspect that among all the people who do not read, or are discouraged from reading, the people with these reading handicaps is a small number. I suspect that, as the celebrated educator and author Nancie Atwel points out in The Reading Zone, the complications introduced by the well -intentioned reading teachers is a big part of the problem.
I suspect that Ziraldo, Nancie Atwel , and I are of the same view. Reading is about reading, and if possible, listening. Reading is the key to academic learning. Reading is the key to literacy.
Literacy can be as simple as finding the right book and reading it.
Where the learner is not motivated to do that, there is not much to be done. So let's not confuse the learner. Let's simplify the task and stay away from 15 different definitions of literacy.
Two popular activities that are used to promote literacy are national scale spelling bees, and the 'one book' reading campaign. As usual I have a somewhat contrary point of view.
The best way to improve literacy is to read, a lot. So I do not understand the relationship between reading and the spelling bee. I would imagine that mostly good spell ers go into spell ing bees, not the children who do not read. In any case, it is better to read than to study isolated lists of obscure words. I am not sure that the spell ing bee actual y encourages those who do not have the reading habit, to go and pick up a book and start reading.
As for the 'one book' campaign, this too seems aimed at people who already read.
Undoubtedly some panel of 'experts' decides which book everyone should read. But I fail to see why that is a way to promote reading. It can be fun for people in a book club to read the same book and discuss it, but if we want to encourage more people to read we should real y encourage them to read whatever they are interested in.
I am curious to hear opinions on how to get more people to read, for their own sake and for the sake of society, since poor performance in our society seems to be linked to poor reading skill s or reading habits.
'Good readers often have benefited from exposure to a wide variety of spoken language at an early age, and poor readers are often those who did not receive that benefit at home.'
Dr. E. D. Hirsch, Jr., founder of the Core Knowledge Foundation and professor emeritus of education and humanities at the University of Virginia, has written extensively on cultural literacy.
As he points out, different family educational backgrounds can have a decisive impact on reading skill s at school. This difference is not evident in the first few years, but becomes evident during what is cal ed the ?fourth- grade slump.'
'In fourth grade, poor children's reading comprehension starts a drastic decline—and rarely recovers. The cause: They hear mil ions fewer words at home than do their advantaged peers -and since words represent knowledge, they don't gain the knowledge that underpins reading comprehension. The Cure: Immerse these children, and the many others whose comprehension is low, in words and the knowledge the words represent- as early as possible.'
Hirsch points out in a paper from American Educator in spring 2003 entitled 'Reading Comprehension Requires Knowledge-of Words and the World' that fluency in a language is key to reading and education. Fluency is greatly enhanced by word and domain knowledge (knowledge of the subject). For Hirsch, the three most important principles of literacy.
1. Fluency all ows the mind to concentrate on comprehension:
2. Breadth of vocabulary increases comprehension and facilitates further learning; and 3. Domain knowledge increases fluency, broadens vocabulary and enables deeper comprehension.
What this means is that the more fluent you are, the better you comprehend what you hear and read. If you understand better, you can acquire more new words as you come across them in your reading. The more words you already know, the more you can learn from your listening and reading. The more words you know, the more different subjects you can enjoyably read about, and this in turn enables you to understand even more of what you read, learn more words and become more literate. It is a tremendously powerful virtuous cycle. Those who read poorly fall further and further behind those who read well . The difference in vocabulary level starts to become evident at grade four and the difference gets greater and greater through life, with major consequences in terms of educational and professional success.
What is interesting in Hirsch's article is his emphasis on building oral comprehension and background knowledge rather than trying to teach specific reading skill s, as the most effective way to improve language skill s.
Research is increasingly showing that literacy is very much influenced by sound. This is not surprising since language is first and foremost sound. We have been listening for much longer than we have been reading.
If you can listen and understand a language you will find it easier to read it and learn to speak it. I could
