Reading - A Keystone Subject

Reading in a keystone subject because it is the key to learning just about anything else. The language arts progression begins when children first develop the ability to read followed by writing which develops almost simultaneously.  The ability to spell follows reading and writing. Unfortunately, reading is declining in the United States.  Just 53% of adults say they had read at least one book for pleasure in the past year according to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Human Indicators Survey.  The Academy does policy research for business leaders, policy makers, scientists, and scholars in order to help these experts analyze political, intellectual, and social topics. They have been keeping track of American reading habits since 1982. The survey also found that the average American adult  reads just under 17 minutes per day and this average has dropped by five minutes since 2003.  

Americans with all levels of education declined in the amount of time spent reading. Interestingly, those with advanced college degrees showed the most decline falling from 39 minutes per day in 2003 to 27 minutes in 2017.  There are gender differences in the kinds of books Americans are reading.  Roughly half of men report reading a book on history and 37% of women say they read a history book.  Fifty percent of women report reading a short story or novel in the past year compared to 33% of men. What the trends from the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Human Indicators Survey on reading tells us is that teachers and parents are not doing a good enough job teaching children to love reading and books.  

How do Children Learn to Read?

First, children learn to recognize phonemes which are individual sounds in words.  They begin to learn that words are comprised of specific sounds.  This skill occurs in children prior to kindergarten as children pick up on sounds, rhymes, and syllables in the words they hear.  When children enter school, their level of phonemic awareness is just about the strongest indicator of success in learning to read.  Without this phonemic awareness, children quickly fall below grade level.  This is why parents are encouraged to read to their children at a young age in order to build their phonemic awareness.  You may notice that books for young children have repeated sounds and rhymes. Hence books like One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish by Dr. Seuss repeat phonemic sounds like the fff sound in “fish”.

Phonics is the next skill children learn as they begin to read.  Children’s ability to understand the general relationships between letters and their sounds or phonemes is what phonics is.  As children learn phonics, they also learn to recognize words by sight.  Children know how to read their name without sounding it out.  They recognize the letter pattern in order to read it.  There have been times in education when schools taught students to read words by sight while de-emphasizing or skipping phonics instruction all together.  This method was popular in the 1930’s and 1940’s, but it has resurfaced in the 1970’s as well as in the 1990’s, and it’s called whole language.  More on this later.  Children that fall below grade level often have holes in their understanding of phonics, so good reading instruction teaches both phonics and sight words simultaneously.  Children reading below grade level in upper elementary and middle school grade levels often receive additional phonics instruction.

Once children have grasped phonemic awareness, phonics, and sight words they have the ability to read.  They must begin to build their fluency at this stage, and in order to build fluency they need to read as much as possible.  The ability for children to quickly recognize a word and understand  its meaning is fluency.  Since the more children read, the better they become at understanding reading with speed and accuracy; therefore, children must read, read, read, and read some more.  Teachers and parents are both responsible for fluency development.  Fluency will not develop just at school.  Reading has to happen at home.  Lately, there has been controversy over the amount and quality of homework assigned to students.  The bulk of homework that elementary and even middle school students are assigned should be independent reading in my opinion.

Vocabulary and reading comprehension are the next skills that are mastered as children develop as readers.  Vocabulary and the deep understanding of text continues to develop throughout adulthood.   Without fluency, these skills do not develop; they only develop when a wide variety of books and text is read.

The Hallmarks of a Good Reading Program

The way we teach children to read in America has varied since the establishment of the Boston Latin School in 1635 which was America’s first public school, and it is one of the most controversial topics in education today.  For the past eighty or so years, the disagreement on how to teach children to read using phonics or whole language has intensified.  This battle has become so heated it is known as the “reading wars”.   It has even become political in some states.

The whole language theory holds that teaching children to read is just like teaching them to speak.  Simply put, whole language focuses on children making connections between real life and reading.  It imerses children in reading and writing.  Children memorize words instead of phonics instruction.  The memorization of sight word vocabulary is done both in and out of context in a whole language approach to teaching reading. In the 1990’s California adopted whole language reading instruction.  In “the nation’s report card”, California ranked last (tied with Louisiana) in reading proficiency during that time period.

Phonics views written language as a code with certain letters and letter combinations that represent certain sounds.  By teaching children how to sound out the code, they can learn to read words.  The unfortunate fact of spelling in English is that it includes numerous exceptions that phonics relies on.  Therefore, there are a lot of sight words children must learn to recognize because they cannot be decoded using phonics.

In addition, many schools level their reading by assigning stronger readers harder texts while easier text is given to weaker readers.  The philosophy is that students will get frustrated if the reading text is too difficult.  As students’ reading improves, they can move to more challenging texts.  In some schools, students are grouped by their reading ability and may change classrooms during reading instruction.  Research in reading shows that students learn more when challenged and that teacher time may be better spent helping students with content knowledge and vocabulary in order for them to understand the material they are reading.

Because of the differences in reading instructional philosophies, there is always a new program that advertises to school districts, schools, and teachers that ther program will revolutionize reading instruction so that all students read at grade level or above.  By adopting the program, teachers are trained, and reading text with materials may be provided.  There is a lot of money to be made by companies and consultants in the development of a new reading program.  The program is usually a tweak on phonics, whole language, and/or ability grouped instructional strategies.  Educators are always looking for the magic bullet to improve students’ ability to read.  When a new reading program is adopted, test scores in reading show an improvement and then level off.  After a period of time, they may actually decline.

As you can see, reading instructional philosophies change and in many cases hamper instruction.  So what should a good reading program look like at a school? First and foremost, the staff should instill a love for reading in its student body.  Many teachers, especially at the elementary level, say reading is their favorite subject to teach as well as their favorite pastime; however, those same teachers may be causing students to dislike reading.  The best way to describe a good reading program in a school or classroom is to discuss the elements that cause a student to dislike reading as well as to love it.

Phonics instruction is important and should be part of the curriculum in kindergarten through second grade.  Because of all of the spelling exceptions in the English language, sight words should also be taught.   Some reading programs teach morphological families so students learn how words are related to one another.  Word morphology is the base, suffix, and prefix that many words have.  The word “walk”, for example, can become “walks”, “walker”, and “walked” with the addition of suffixes, and with the addition of a prefix it can become “catwalk”.  Morphology studies these word forms together.

Sometimes a school will eliminate or greatly reduce time spent in science, social studies, and the arts to build more time for reading.  This is not good for students, and reading is part of science and social studies.  Schools should have a balanced curriculum that has time for students to learn about the arts, science, and social studies.  

Novels and short stories are critical to good reading instruction at any grade level.  Students can either love or hate novel instruction.  Many students become disengaged when every detail of the novel is analyzed under the microscope.  Questioning and testing to measure students' level of understanding after every chapter also turns a lot of students off. Novels should not be read for months at a time if they are expected to engage students and hold their interest.  Students gain the most from novel and short story instruction when teachers hold students accountable for getting the reading done and guide discussions about the narrative and character development.  A writing assignment at the end of the book also helps students show gains in their reading comprehension.  When students have a choice on the novels they want to read and study, their interest is elevated.

The dictionary can also kill a child’s interest in reading.  When you think about it, the average literate person has a vocabulary of about 25,000 words.  How many of those words were learned by looking them up in a dictionary?  They were learned through fluency - reading a lot of text.  Looking up words in a dictionary and using them in a sentence is not meaningful, and many students strongly dislike that type of instruction.

Common Core Reading Standards asks students to answer questions and provide textual evidence to support their reasoning.  This is another way that teachers kill the joy of reading.  While this skill is important, a good school will ensure that it is not over-taught.  Schools with good reading programs have coordinated this important skill between grade levels.

Independent reading is another hallmark of a school with a good reading program.  Independent reading builds children’s reading fluency.  Many teachers want to hold students accountable for reading independently.  One of the ways to do that is to use an online program where students read their book, take a multiple-choice quiz on the book, and then earn points.  Accelerated Reader, Reading Counts, Book Adventure, and Read-N-Quiz are examples of these programs.  The downside is that students become bored, and they are limited to only the book titles that have quizzes.  Some students get good enough at taking the quizzes to complete them without reading the book.  Book reports are another way teachers ensure students have read their book.  These reports can cause students to lose interest in reading especially if the same report is written over and over again. Choice helps students engage in book reporting.  Good schools provide variety.

Good reading instructional strategies include having students talk about what they are reading.  Talking about books is a great way to hook other readers and create a culture of loving books.  Students like choice in their reading as well as in assignments.  Good reading teachers conference with their students about what they are reading.  Often that information is used to set reading goals.

The best teachers teach their students to love reading.  Half of teaching children to read is to inspire and motivate them.

A Parent’s Role in Developing Reading in their Children

More than any other subject, a parent’s role in reading is critical.  It is the parent who reads to their children from an early age which builds phonemic awareness.  It is also the parent who is largely responsible for the development of fluency.  As previously mentioned, reading comprehension and vocabulary do not develop without fluency.

As children mature, reading time at home should increase to about an hour to an hour and a half by middle childhood. Once children can read independently, a family reading hour is a great way to build fluency. When children see their parents reading it shows them how important reading is.  Children who read independently tend to score higher on reading tests, but a lot of research shows that unstructured, independent reading in the classroom is not effective; therefore, independent reading needs to occur at home.  Reading helps reduce stress in children and builds intimacy when parents and children are cuddled together reading.

Reading often decreases during the teen and pre-teen years as a lot of other activities cut into reading time.  Having children earn screen time by reading is an effective strategy for teens and pre-teens to keep them reading.  How that time looks can be negotiated between you and your children.  Also, explain to your children that online games or time on screens can be too much of a good thing.  

Talk about the literature your children read.  Literature is an excellent conversation starter.  You can ask questions as simple as. “Who was your favorite character?” to the imaginative, “What would you do if you were in the character’s situation?”

The American Academy of Arts and Sciences recognizes a gender difference in reading.  Those of you who are parents of male children may have noticed that boys are more resistant to reading than girls. An excellent resource for boys is http://www.boysread.org/index.html

Summer is also problematic for reading.  Numerous studies have shown that reading over the summer prevents a loss in reading fluency known as the summer slide.  By grade six children who do not read over the summer are two years behind their classmates, and they never catch up.  To prevent summer reading loss, it is imperative that children read during their summer break.

The reading children do in school is not nearly enough to build the fluency they need to become good readers.  Children have to read at home.

Teachers and parents are both responsible for developing reading skills, reading fluency, and the love of books.  If both teachers and parents work together, we can create a generation of readers.