I have always been a rather avid reader, some could even call me a bibliophile (its nicer than saying book hoarder). My Mother was an English Major, so our bookshelf was always overflowing... as was our library book basket! She encouraged my siblings and I to explore different writers and genres and we always had great bedtime stories (with all the voices). She is also a writer and her love of language has always been infectious. My affinity for stories and books has alwas felt rather natural as it has been connected to positive and beautiful memories. I continue to read often and I have a fascination with story!
I have always connected reading to a love of learning. That is because I got the majority of my knowledge and factoids from books. I would pour over encyclopedias and picture books absorbing all of the fascinating newness that their pages contained! And the scholastic book fairs! I could not wait to run home with the latest flyers, carefully selecting what new books my parents would add to my already overflowing shelves...
Surely there couldn't be children in the world who despised reading?
Fortunately the world gives you perspective on things and rather unfortunately for them, my brothers were my examples. My eldest brother has an auditory processing disorder and struggled with dyslexia as a child. My youngest brother has a learning disability as well as AD/HD. Both of my brothers grew up in the same lively, vivacious reading environment as I and yet they deplored cracking open a book despite what excitement it may contain! However, they both loved films and documentaries! Which are living breathing colorful stories! My Mom worked hard to encourage my brothers to develop their reading and writing skills, and through perseverance they have both grown into their love of reading and in their ability to do so effectively.
I did not ever think of reading as such a complex and multifaceted skill prior to having to evaluate how I could teach it. According to the Ontario Language Arts Curriculum, "An effective reader is one who not only grasps the ideas communicated in a text but is able to apply them in new contexts. To do this, the reader must be able to think clearly, creatively, and critically about the ideas and information encountered in texts in order to understand, analyse, and absorb them and to recognize their relevance in other contexts."(Page 10) There are so many strategies that you must utilize in order to read effectively. But how do you teach these things!? I love how practical the Guide to Effective Literacy Instruction is for teaching various strategies and differentiating instruction for students of varying ability. I have included a link to the PDF (which is downloadable!).
Page 41 begins an overview of the reading process and deconstructs how you can engage a student during the beginning, middle, and end of a reading assignment and starting on Page 65 they have suggestions for tools and technologies students can use to aid them in their reading process.
I think the most important thing we can do is improve a student's self-efficacy as a reader. If they grow discouraged with the process they may not want to continue and we all know how valuable reading is. I truly believe it is a great loss if reading "the skill" is not effectively taught. And yet, I'm still learning too and I am far from perfect and have so much growing to do as an instructor to help my future students slay the big bad dragon that is being a detriment to their reading.
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