Chapter Ten, "How All Teachers Can (and Must) be Reading Teachers," states what an important tool reading is for students to become well-educated and shows how teachers can foster that skill in students. First, teachers must get back to the basics of reading. Sometimes they go over the students' heads with analyzing texts and intrepreting texts with no thought to how to teach the actual process of reading the words. Many of the greatest thinkers were self-educated and learned much of what they knew from books.
It is important to give students time to read in school and make sure that it is meaningful reading.
An easy, quick tip is to not tell the students how much they will be reading out loud (by saying, "Amy, please read the next paragraph.") Instead, say, "Amy, please pick up where John left off." This helps make the other students follow along if they don't know when they will be called upon to read the next part. This also allows you to cut short a student who is struggling so much with the reading that the rest of the class is losing the gist of the reading.
Bridging is also a good technique for keeping the reading moving along. In it, a student reads about four lines, the teacher reads two, then passes it off to another student. Interspersing the teacher into the reading helps keep comprehension alive with added expression and serves as a model. Using another technique, the "Oral Cloze," is a simple way to leave out the final word or two of a phrase in the text and have the students fill it in. This helps prove they are following along. Another effective technique when discussing a passage is to tell the students to "Hold your place" by putting a finger where they left off, closing the book, and tracking the speaker. When they are finished discussing, they can quickly open to where their finger is and start reading.
I plan to use all these techniques in my classroom and hopefully come up with even more. Reading is such an important skill to teach!
It is important to give students time to read in school and make sure that it is meaningful reading.
An easy, quick tip is to not tell the students how much they will be reading out loud (by saying, "Amy, please read the next paragraph.") Instead, say, "Amy, please pick up where John left off." This helps make the other students follow along if they don't know when they will be called upon to read the next part. This also allows you to cut short a student who is struggling so much with the reading that the rest of the class is losing the gist of the reading.
Bridging is also a good technique for keeping the reading moving along. In it, a student reads about four lines, the teacher reads two, then passes it off to another student. Interspersing the teacher into the reading helps keep comprehension alive with added expression and serves as a model. Using another technique, the "Oral Cloze," is a simple way to leave out the final word or two of a phrase in the text and have the students fill it in. This helps prove they are following along. Another effective technique when discussing a passage is to tell the students to "Hold your place" by putting a finger where they left off, closing the book, and tracking the speaker. When they are finished discussing, they can quickly open to where their finger is and start reading.
I plan to use all these techniques in my classroom and hopefully come up with even more. Reading is such an important skill to teach!
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