How to Read Effectively

“Once you learn to read, you will be forever free.” –Frederick Douglass

“Literacy is a bridge from misery to hope.” –Kofi Annan

As a teacher of Language Arts and Reading, I see every day the effects of reading ability.  It is generally one of the best indicators for whether a child will enjoy school or not.  To be clear, if a child can read well, he or she will generally enjoy school; if a child cannot read well, then he or she will generally not enjoy school.  There are exceptions, however, but we should not look at the exceptions; we should look at the trends.

The problem with this trend is that as students go into the real world, reading ability becomes an indicator of success or of failure and trouble with the law.  According to this Huffington Post article, 70% of prisoners in America read below the ability of a 4th grader.  This has led the Department of Justice to state, “The link between academic failure and delinquency, violence, and crime is welded to reading failure.”

How to Read EffectivelyPicture © Daniel Hanna 2013

National research carried out in the 1990s and early 2000s showed that 14% of the population read at a below basic level, and a further 28% at a basic level, and that statistic had not improved in over 10 years.  Below basic is a technical term that means reading ability is limited to understanding basic sentences, signs, and instructions.  Basic means they can read very simple texts usually not higher than a 5th grade reading level.

These numbers present a real problem because reading is the basis of our modern civilization.  All institutions in our civilization whether it is the church, schools, and work are based on reading.  With the church, reading is especially important because at the heart of the church is a book: the Bible.  If people cannot read, then they cannot participate in our civilization and are at risk of ending up in prison.  For that reason it becomes the moral duty of parents, teachers, and churches to educate the masses to read well.  Only when all three groups participate in helping children read will the state of reading ability in America change.

I have often been approached by parents who ask me how they can help their children become better readers, and I answer with the following five steps that I use in my classroom any time I have my students read an assigned text.  These steps are the result of research by many scholars and educators as to what produces effective readers.  It is also the process recommended by AVID, a national program that provides teachers and students with effective methods for instruction.  I also teach these five steps to my students so they can use these skills independently to become effective readers.

The following five steps of the reading process are used to help readers understand what they read:

1. Set a purpose for reading

The most important action one can do for any endeavor is to set a purpose.  The same is true for reading.  What is the purpose of a specific reading?  Is to learn about a subject?  Is to practice a skill such as identifying themes or comparing different views on the same subject?  A purpose must be set before one reads in order to read effectively.  Setting a purpose also helps readers process what they read carefully and meaningfully.

2. Background building and pre-reading activities

One time I had training at work that required me to leave the classroom, so I wrote lesson plans that included students reading an unfamiliar text with a substitute teacher.  I did this on purpose, so I could show students how important the reading process was.  I had not spent time in background building for students.  When I came back the next day, the majority of my students told me they had not understood the story they read.  They could not even remember more than a few details.  After I came back and built background with them, the students not only understood the story very well, but they also enjoyed it, and they scored high on an analytical essay they wrote on the story.  A simple building of background that took less than 20 minutes made the difference between the total darkness of not understanding and the light of comprehension and enjoyment.

3. Vocabulary building

It is extremely important for children to build their vocabulary as they grow as readers.  Without expanding their vocabularies, children cannot grow as readers (or as thinkers).  One way parents can help their children here is simply by reading to them.  The child can hear how the word is pronounced, used, and ask his or her parent what the word means and receive an answer.  When a child asks about the meaning of a word, then he or she is less likely to forget the meaning of that word because it was out of interest that the child asked.  What people are interested in understanding, they hardly forget.

4. Interaction with the text

Just as we do not understand how things work in the world unless we interact with the world, we also cannot understand texts unless we interact with them.  In a family this can be as simple as asking your children what they read about, and their thinking back about the text will make them better readers especially if this becomes a routine at home.  In schools, comprehension questions help students process and integrate the details and ideas they read about.  So next time we want our children to comprehend what they read whether we are parents or teachers, then we should prompt them in some way to reflect on what they read whether they are verbal questions or written ones.  This helps students process what they read, and processing leads to understanding.

5. Extending beyond the text

The ultimate goal of reading is to extend beyond what we read and make connections to ourselves, ideas, and the world.  How this is to be done can take a variety of forms.  In a family, this can be a discussion during dinner about what your children read.  It will prompt them like interaction with the text to process what they read.  After you determine comprehension, then ask about connections.  Ask them if they have read something similar, or whether a character in a story was similar to another one, or how what they read is different from something else they have read or seen.  Teachers give these same types of prompts in class to help students integrate what they read.

I cannot exhaustively stress and talk about how important reading is; I could take all day.

If we as parents, teachers, and churches do not teach our children how to read effectively, (and give them adequate practice doing so) then we are effectively denying them the ability to participate in our modern civilization and the chance to be successful, happy, and free.

Please note: I reserve the right to delete comments that are offensive or off-topic.

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