Final Personal Model of Reading Theory

Final Personal Model of Reading Theory

My idea of how students learn to read has changed, developed, and grown throughout this semester.  Although I had many literacy courses through my undergrad education, this semester has granted me the opportunity to delve farther into the act and process of reading.  In the past, when conducting fluency assessments or miscue analysis, I have based students’ abilities to read on the amount of miscues that occurred through their reading.  I now see what an error and disservice to the students this could be.  Reading is so much more than correctly pronouncing words.  Reading is about constructing meaning from texts and taking away an understanding of what a specific text is trying to convey. 

            Children learn to read through varied and consistent experiences with words.  They learn to read with support, encouragement, and instruction from educators and parents or caregivers.  It is clear from Weaver’s book that students learn to read best in a whole-to-part manner, which includes the teaching of skills only as it is relevant to a text.  This is one area of my thinking that has evolved.  During this course, I have learned the importance of teaching skills in context.  It doesn’t mean much for a student to be able to read off a list of words that follow a particular phonemic pattern in isolation; it is, however, much more effective for students to learn that phonemic pattern when it appears in a book being read.  An overarching idea I have taken away is that in reading, nothing should be isolated.  Reading is much more effective, and students are far more successful, when they learn skills and strategies in context. 

            I have reshaped my ideas about fluency and comprehension, and I feel sure my ideas will continue to develop as I can put these ideas into practice with students in the coming year.  The fact that fluency and comprehension are not necessarily interrelated was a revelation to me as a teacher.  My previous thinking was that students who could read a passage with minimal errors automatically understood that text better.  With fewer interruptions to the text, students would gain more meaning.  I quickly learned through Weaver’s text that this was not always the case.  In fact, a rather shocking point was that good readers often make miscues, as they are reading for understanding rather than to correctly pronounce each word.  This makes me more aware, and I now know many students that miscue often can still comprehend the text they are reading.  

            A comprehensive literacy program is essential to effectively teaching reading.  This is an area in which my thoughts have grown this semester.  As a result of many experiences in different classrooms, I have seen and utilized many aspects of a comprehensive literacy program.  There are, however, aspects of a comprehensive literacy program that I have not used in the classroom, and I hope to challenge myself to use them in different ways.  For example, I hope to make reading and writing more of an intentional focus in other subject areas.  Of course, students and teachers alike know that part of learning anything new involves the use of reading or writing, but I hope to intensify this relationship through the use of journaling for all subjects.  Another striking aspect of a comprehensive literacy program was inquiry, or reading to learn.  Again, this is something that is understood.  Part of learning something new involves reading to a great degree.  However, I want to make an explicit relationship to this idea, and I want to encourage students to regularly turn to nonfiction texts to answer their questions. 

            My ideas as a teacher have truly evolved this semester.  I have learned a lot about what reading is, and more importantly what it isn’t.  I have learned the importance of a whole-to-part reading instruction, and that skills education is beneficial, but only when included as part of the current text.  Further, I learned a great deal about a comprehensive literacy program, and that all aspects should be included in reading and writing instruction in order to guide students into becoming successful readers and writers.  As a result of this course, there are strategies I am anxious to implement with my students, and my wish is that these new ideas only make me a more effective teacher for my students.