What You’ve Learned About Teaching Reading
Tell Me About . . .
It’s Never Too Late
Several years ago, our school decided to focus
on building literacy skills across the curriculum.
As a science teacher, I was now expected to
teach reading strategies to my students as part
of my science instruction. I quickly realized that
when I was in school I had never used the skills
and strategies I was now teaching. As a result of
my experience teaching my students nonfiction
reading skills, I began to use them myself. I
immediately noticed that my retention and comprehension improved. This experience showed
me that these skills are important for the student
to master early on—and it’s never too late for me
to learn them, either.
—Ray Leonard, science teacher,
Glasgow Middle School, Alexandria, Virginia
Model the Thinking
I was reading aloud to my 5th graders when
I came to parentheses in the text. As usual,
I lowered my voice as an audio clue to the
structure of ideas. Then I wondered—maybe
they don’t know why I’m doing that. So I paused
and explained how the punctuation signaled
meaning that I was trying to convey through my
changed tone of voice. That’s when a student
said, “Oh! Really?” and I knew I had struck a
learning need. My modeling of good reading
wasn’t enough. Students also needed me to
model the thinking behind the reading.
—Scott Hayden,
director of curriculum and instruction,
International Community School,
Bangkok, Thailand
Excitement Doesn’t Have to Fade
The unfortunate reality is that the excitement
and enthusiasm that define a new reader at age
4 or 5 often turns to dread, embarrassment, and
self-doubt by high school. I am certain that as
educators we can help all students grow in their
reading capacity, but at my core I believe that
improving adolescent reading has as much to do
with the student’s mind-set and self-confidence
as it does the instructor’s methodology. A top-tier adolescent reading program needs to address
both needs.
—PJ Caposey, principal,
Oregon High School, Oregon, Illinois
Students’ Interests Come First
As an avid reader since childhood, I was eager
to share my love of reading with my students. I
assumed they would fall in love with the same
good books that I had loved. However, I quickly
encountered reluctant readers who thought of
reading as a chore. I learned to engage them by
choosing books representing their cultures and
interests. By offering books about sports and
popular culture, I was able to ignite a passion for
reading that eventually transferred to classroom
reading. It also helped me to learn that even in
the classroom, students need to have a purpose
for reading and teachers need to look for ways to
engage students in the material.
—Cathy Hix, K– 12 social studies specialist,
Arlington Public Schools, Virginia
Teen Readers Need
Continuing Support
I’ve learned that we stop instruction on learning
to read just when kids need it the most. We
pour resources into the primary grades with the
assumption that a student who can read well
at grade 3 will read well throughout school,
but that just isn’t the case. Many students who
were great readers in elementary school aren’t
successful in middle and high school because we
don’t continue to teach kids how to read more
sophisticated and complex nonfiction texts. Politicians love photo ops with little ones learning
to read, but they are seldom seen with the teen
who reads at a 3rd grade level and is in danger of
dropping out.
—Ramona Lowe, secondary literacy specialist,
Lewisville Independent School District, Texas
