Painless Reading Comprehension - Darolyn “Lyn” Jones Ed.D. 2016

Improvement strategies
Further reading for teachers and parents

The best way to improve a student’s reading skills is to have them read. It is imperative that students dive in and practice reading all kinds of text. Just as we need to eat a balanced diet to remain healthy, students need to read a balanced diet of books and materials. They can’t read textbooks all the time. Given a choice, I doubt that any of us would voluntarily choose to read a textbook. Use young adult literature and children’s picture books to entice kids into reading. In Chapter Eight, I listed some wonderful books. If you have a student who is struggling with reading but loves comic books, hand that student a graphic novel to read. If you have a student who loves nonfiction, reading about sports figures or celebrities, hand that student a magazine or a biography. If a student’s reading skills are so poor that he or she can’t handle the textbook or a novel, then a picture book should help the student along because picture books use imagery to help make sense of the text. Meet students where they are and lead them to where you want them to be. Build upon students’ interests. Don’t assume they know how to help themselves and don’t expect them to make the transition to more advanced reading without help. Get them reading something, anything. Once they are reading, have them practice some of the reading strategies in this book.

Balance students’ reading instruction. Surround students with a variety of reading materials. Use the textbook, a book of their choice, and an online source. Students need to have some choice in what they read. In the “real” world, those of us who are readers balance our reading. We must read some things that may not be our choice but we also read our favorite morning newspaper, magazine, or best-selling book. If we want our students to be lifelong readers, which should be our ultimate goal, then we need to allow them to function like real readers do. Students must hear highly literate language. Read to them. Read a fiction book, part of a chapter of a textbook, a newspaper article—anything. It can be connected to the curriculum, but that is not necessary. Read for five minutes or the whole period. Encourage students to browse. Ask them what they think. Allow them to talk to other students about what they are reading. In the real world, we browse online and in bookstores and in libraries, we choose our reading materials, and we talk to our friends and families about what we are reading. We must translate those real-world experiences to our students.

Reading improves thinking, and reading improves writing. Every time a student reads, he or she adds new words to his or her brain’s word bank. Those additional words allow for more complex thought, and with more words available, for easier and improved writing as well. Remember that we are motivated to learn, and we consider ourselves readers. Our students may not be either. In order for them to make better grades, see improvement on tests, and successfully move to the next grade, we first need to convince them that they can read and that they are readers. We must break it down for them and show them how to conquer difficult text. We must lead them to good reading material. Will this take more time? Yes. Will this make planning lessons or our time schedules more difficult? Yes. Will this make covering the curriculum or completing all homework more difficult? Yes. BUT, will we see improvements in our student’s attitudes? Yes. Will we see improvement in our student’s work? Yes. Will we be creating independent, lifelong readers and learners? Yes. Teaching and parenting is a calling. I encourage you to step up and take the challenge with your student or students.

Get personal! Share your own reading process

The first thing you should do is to get personal with your student or students. Answer the questions in Chapter One. Share your thoughts with them as they share theirs with you. Describe what you like to read and don’t like to read. Explain to them how you read text that is boring or hard. For example, do you write in the margins? What do you write? What kinds of conversations do you have with text? Do you underline or highlight? What do you choose to underline or highlight? Do you reread? Why? When you don’t understand what you are reading, how do you fix it? Do you make outlines? How do you create an outline? Do you take notes? How do you take your notes? When you need to concentrate, under what environmental conditions do you read? When you are very busy and have a lot of reading to do, how do you manage your time?

The truth is that we have had a lifetime to figure out our toolbox. We learned tricks along the way to make reading easier for us. We watched someone else or were shown how to do something, and we used the things that worked for us. I remember the first time I could use a highlighter in my books because I owned them. That seemed so major at the time. I felt like a real student, but I ran into a problem. Because I had never used a highlighter before, I highlighted everything. After I did poorly on a test, a friend showed me how she highlighted key points and then took notes in her own words in the margin. I started doing that instead and found studying for tests easier because I was rereading a blend of the book’s words and my own.

The reading process isn’t privileged information. Sharing with students allows them to see that you too have had some struggles, that it’s normal, and that you are willing to work with them through this problem. We are all learning as we go. Providing many tools and allowing students to use the ones that work for them will allow them to become independent. The first time I used sticky notes was with a journal article on the Holocaust. I required my students to use all the prompts at least one time. The next time I used sticky notes, I asked my students to have at least five sticky notes in a book chapter and I didn’t care which prompts they used. And the next time, I told them it was their choice to use sticky notes. Ninety-five percent of my students used the sticky notes voluntarily the remainder of the year. They liked them because they were fun—something different than just turning the page. They also realized that using sticky notes helped them to maintain their attention. As a result, they realized they had something to contribute to group discussions, and they learned that doing the assignments later was easier. Students also picked up on the vocabulary staircase; many of my students use that tool voluntarily to study for vocabulary tests. They liked having a format with which to study.

A Click Away: Web Sites That Can Help

The good news is that there are too many web sites for reading strategies and graphic organizers. So at press time, I am going to list my favorite sources for both teachers and parents. I used these with my own junior high and high school struggling reader students and now use them with my teacher education students at the university. The sites listed below provide strategies and graphic organizers that can be used for reading practice in any content area. You can find even more web sites by typing in specific search terms such as “reading comprehension strategies,” “instructional strategies,” or “graphic organizers” into the search engine Google.

✵ All About Adolescent Literacy

www.adlit.org/

This site provides bilingual resources for parents and teachers of students in grades 4—12. The resources are rich and diverse and include classroom strategies, PDF graphic organizers that can be used online or in print, current research on hot topics in reading instruction, and a glossary of terms so parents can better understand their child’s reading styles and programming.

✵ Choice Literacy

www.choiceliteracy.com/public/144.cfm

This site created by literacy leaders for literacy leaders includes reading comprehension strategies and resources by topic and by grade. It even includes podcasts and videos that teachers and parents can use as a model with their own student or students.

✵ Glossary of Instructional Strategies

www.beesburg.com/edtools/glossary.html

At press time, this site offered 1,271 different instructional reading, thinking, and writing strategies listed alphabetically from “A, B, C Summarize” to “Zoom in Zoom Out.” Each strategy comes with a description and for most even includes additional links and resources that can be used or adapted for use in the classroom or at home.

✵ Kathy Schrock’s Guide to Everything

www.schrockguide.net/concept-mapping.html

Discovery educator Kathy Schrock has been compiling the best resources for educators for many years now. At this site, scroll down to find graphic organizers and online apps and digital literacy tools that promote critical thinking, reading, and writing opportunities.

✵ Reading Quest

www.readingquest.org

Originally, this site was designed to provide social studies teachers with strategies for reading across the curriculum that they could use in their classroom, but the site has become very popular among all educators now, even those in higher education. It provides explanations of reading to learn strategies as well as printable exercises that can be easily understood and modified, leading to successful implementation.

Form a study group: good professional reads

As we guide our students’ learning and reading processes and we ask them to eventually become independent and be in charge of their own learning, we should take our own advice. If you want to know more about the reading process and the reading, thinking, and writing connection, then form an informal study group. In fact, if you are an educator, many states will give you license credit or professional renewal hours for taking part in a study group.

Ask fellow teaching colleagues or parents if they are interested in socializing, reading, and talking. With your group, create a list of student needs. Choose books that will help you meet those student needs. Meet a day and time that is convenient for all. Make it fun—bring food, switch locations, and even create themes for each gathering such as chomp and chat! Study groups should be small (between five and eight individuals) so that each member’s concerns can be addressed in a timely fashion. Start on time and end on time and meet for only forty-five minutes to one hour. Have a study group leader who says, “Let’s get started!” Share the role of study group leader. The leader should create the agenda and that role should change with each meeting. Have a set of study group expectations so the reading is discussed and complaining about current students, schools, administration, and parents is not. Require the teacher to practice new methods for meeting student learning goals. Take the methods and ideas you read and discuss and model, invent, and evaluate practices that have the potential to meet the needs of your students.

Listed below are my five top reads for improving reading comprehension for secondary students. These books are founded in research but are balanced with practical applications. They can be used by a parent or teacher study group.

✵ I Read It, but I Don’t Get It: Comprehension Strategies for Adolescent Readers by Cris Tovani is a short, plain-spoken, and accessible book about the reading problems secondary students encounter and how to remedy those problems. This book is actually what inspired me to write my own book. Unlike all the other literacy books I have read, Tovani really understands the real-world struggles of the secondary reader and offers easy and life changing strategies. You will notice that I used many ideas from Tovani’s book in Chapter Three of this book. I recommend this book and have witnessed its successful use in many teacher study groups. I encourage all groups to start out with this book.

✵ Strategies That Work: Teaching Comprehension to Enhance Understanding by Stephanie Harvey and Anne Goudvis is really an extension of Tovani’s book. It draws upon Tovani’s premise and strategies and uses close to forty strategies paired with lessons for understanding text. This book is especially useful for teachers of specialized content areas like social studies and math or parents looking for ideas to help their student with non-English courses. There are also examples of student work, scripts of student dialogue, and lists of good books to pair with lessons.

✵ When Kids Can’t Read: What Teachers Can Do: A Guide for Teachers 6—12 by Kylene Beers is a book written from the heart. Kylene Beers shares her experiences and epiphanies as a former middle school teacher who discovered that her students couldn’t read. She illustrates reading strategies and shows how to make the reading—writing connection. She has catchy phrases for her strategies such as “Say Something,” which would appeal to a secondary student reader.

✵ Real Reading, Real Writing: Content-Area Strategies by Donna Hooker Topping and Roberta Ann McManus is a book written by a middle school science teacher and a middle school English teacher. It’s a collaboration that showcases real middle school lessons in both English and science and pairs those lessons with reading and writing strategies that work in helping to bring students closer to understanding text. I actually use this as a textbook with a course I teach on reading in the content area. It shares student models and many graphic organizers.

Learning and teaching

Tony Buzan says that “learning to learn is life’s most important skill.” As well, Oliver Wendell Holmes says that “To teach is to learn again.” I encourage you to learn with your students as you share with them the strategies in this book. I ask you to open the door of reading to them. I challenge you to make a difference.

REFLECT ON WHAT I HAVE LEARNED!

That’s right! Teachers and parents have to reflect, too. Don’t worry, I won’t make you take the Brain Ticklers! But, let’s turn this information into action!

What are three strategies from this book that you would like to try or implement with your student or students?

What one idea discussed in this chapter resonates with you, made an impact on you?

What is one book from the list of books for improving reading comprehension that you would like to read?

Which web site will you explore first for resources?