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Exercises
Reading: Basic
Principles
First principle: Reading is complex, and it involves thinking
Reading is an interrelationship of several
skills. It is a thoughtful, conscious though seemingly automatic,
integrated process somewhat like that of walking, skiing,
riding a bicycle, swimming, or driving a car. Discovering
clusters of meaning from clusters of printed or written symbols
requires a coordinated effort. And like the other processes
mentioned, it involves adjusting one's performance to prevailing
conditions, not a condition; there are things to do together,
not one thing to do at a time. As with these other processes,
reading may be done in any way that pleases the doer. The
skillful reader, like the skillful swimmer or driver, develops
confidence, flow, rhythm, coordination, and flexibility with
experience.
As
a thinking process, reading goes beyond the decoding of symbols
to integrating and applying the meaning of these symbols.
It goes as far as discovering what an author is thinking,
and then discovering one's own thinking in the process. This
kind of thinking prompts many questions about what is read.
In a short story, play, or novel, a reader realizes that he
must not only ask, "What happened?" but also "Why did this
happen?" and "What does this have to do with the character's
problem?" As a result of asking questions of these kinds,
the reader may not only understand the theme of the work,
but may wonder what that idea has to do with his own life.
Literal or concrete reading leads to critical reading, and
critical reading leads to creative reading.
Thinking readers are participating
readers. As such, they have purposes and assume active roles.
They try to discover who is speaking in literature, and they
listen attentively to that voice, but they also assume their
own postures and voices in responding. As
they open their minds to the art and ideas of an especially
skillful writer, they probe, question, grasp, pull back, reconsider,
and probe again.
Second principle: Reading rate is adjustable
Rapid
reading, or "speed reading", as some people call it, has become
almost a fetish. It is understandable to want to read
faster, but it is unwise to want to read everything at top
speed. The best reader can read very rapidly, but he or she
adjusts the rate according to purpose to the kind of material.
Purposes and demands differ between an informal essay and
a formal one, and between the sports page in a newspaper and
a chemistry textbook. Francis Bacon, a famous Renaissance
scholar, was apparently such a reader. In his essay "Of Studies"
he very wisely said, " Some books are to be tasted, others
to be swallowed and digested; that is, some books are to be
read only in parts, others to be read, but not seriously,
and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention."
This observation is as apt today as it was when Bacon made
it. 
One task for the English teacher, then, is
to help students to read at rates that are appropriate to
the purpose for reading and to the demands of the materials.
To this end, the teacher can try to provide a wide range of
reading materials and can stress the desirability of different
reading rates. A literature program which is limited to a
single anthology usually does not offer students sufficient
range to develop this kind of flexibility. Fortunately, though,
a variety of reading materials is available for use in English,
especially in paperback format.
Third principle: Everyone in the English
classroom can read better
As any experienced English teacher knows,
a class is a mix of motivations, emotions, linguistic abilities,
self-concepts, physical characteristics, attitudes, experiences,
social conditions, economic conditions, cultural and ethnic
identities, work habits, personalities, values, intellects,
and so on. All of these factors affect reading, and in many
cases are affected by reading. They also act in clusters,
affecting one another.
Depending upon a student's
cluster of some of these factors, he or she might be called
advantaged or disadvantaged, or perhaps culturally different
or linguistically different. Of
course any such label is tenuous; it is relative to many contexts
and open to many interpretations.
Because these factors are relative, the teaching
of reading should also be relative. It should not work toward
a common level. An English teacher must help each student
to improve in the skills in which he or she is least proficient.
In a small school the teacher must look more
closely at the results of standardized test scores to get
a general idea of areas of difficulty and then develop and
administer a much more helpful kind of instrument—the informal
reading inventory. The focus will be on , building a larger , and finding literal meanings. High-interest,
low-difficulty materials should be used.
In a large school, the English teacher can
often turn to a reading specialist for help. This specialist
might assist in diagnosing difficulties or might work in the
classroom with the English teacher. The specialist might also
accept small groups of students from the English class in
a reading classroom or clinic at prearranged times for special
help.
What can an English teacher do to help students
with difficulty? First the teacher must provide a comfortable
classroom that will encourage these students to respond to
whatever help is given. Then the English teacher can provide
more opportunities in oral communication through structured
conversations and oral pattern practices. These are reinforced
by words, phrases, sentences, and pictures on flash cards
and other teaching materials. As they improve, they should
work with high-interest, low-difficulty materials which will
enable them to encounter some of the same topics and ideas
that other students will find in regularly assigned materials.
In searching for good transitional materials, though, the
English teacher should also look for literary value. 
The English teacher should be aware of special
problems that can arise in working with students who are trying
to read English as a second language. The same sounds may
exist in both languages but have different ranges. Words in
both languages can have the same form but different meanings.
Similar symbols can represent different sounds. And if this
is not enough to worry about, sounds in one language may not
exist in the other. The same can be true for word order and
symbols for the alphabet. To this list of problems can also
be added stylistic, idiomatic, and semantic differences deeply
rooted in contrasting cultures.
Although an English teacher can do much to
help problem students, the teacher should not attempt the
task alone. Other students in class can help, particularly
if they know both languages. So can specialists in reading
and teachers in other subjects.
Problem students can be found in English classrooms
all over the country. As we have seen, the English teacher
can help them to read better. The task is not easy: it requires
understanding, practice, flexibility, creativity, cooperation,
and hard work. It also requires doing whatever one can to
motivate the students.
Fourth principle: To read well, one must
want to read well
Motivation is a key. These five axioms for
motivating better reading, and the suggestions that accompany
them should prove helpful:
Axiom 1. Each student should understand the
personal advantages of reading. For those who claim that there
is nothing in reading for them, the teacher can provide a
wide variety of practical reading materials which could relate
to immediate interests and the need for information. These
could include newspaper ads, driver manuals, do-it-yourself
kits, recipes, bus schedules, yellow pages from the telephone
directory, information about jobs and careers, local laws
and ordinances, and many other materials could be included.
Materials such as these can
serve as prompters for students who refuse to read,
but they do not in any way substitute for a literature program.
Noting a show of interest, an
alert teacher will capitalize on it by offering， not just
suggesting, works which will allow the student to pursue that
interest. Some of the most reluctant readers can be guided
step by step from materials such as those mentioned above
to literature of increasing quality.
The "best" students in school can also be
reluctant readers. Even the most capable readers sometimes
fail to see that literature can do anything worthwhile for
them. The fault can lie in the reading material itself. Perhaps
a selection does not lie close enough to interests, experiences,
social backgrounds, cultural identities, anxieties, aspirations,
thoughts, and emotions. The most capable readers also seek
personal engagements with books, and will widen and strengthen
their reading performance if encouraged to read books that
interest them.
No teacher can assume, however, that the fault
always lies with the book. Sometimes a book is not taught in
a challenging way. If a teacher's questions in class discussion
or in individual conferences fail to go beyond simple recall,
a student may feel that the book has very limited value. Often
too much is said about a book. And that which is said is sometimes
so trivial that it wastes a student's time. Many capable students
will not see the need to go beyond literal reading into critical
and creative reading if not urged to do so by critical and creative
questions.
Axiom 2. Each student should know how well
he or she reads. This implies that students' reading should
be tested at regular intervals. Each student should be told
privately what test scores show about his or her own reading.
Ways should be designed to help students monitor
their own progress. The practice of keeping individual reading
folders for students can be useful. The results of questionnaires
and interest inventories; records of wide, individualized
reading; exercises in skimming, scanning, and vocabulary development;
and scores from diagnostic and progress tests can be kept
together in each folder. To protect each student's right to
privacy, these folders can be kept in a locked file cabinet
or closet.
Axiom 3. Each student should know that reading
can be improved. Students who feel that they cannot improve
or do not need to improve have no real motivation, and without
motivation there will be little improvement. It is therefore
the teacher's task to help students to break out of self-defeating
cycles. A well-informed, caring, stimulating teacher is without
doubt the most important outside factor in reading improvement.
Axiom 4. Reading materials should be appropriate.
Peter L. Sanders lists these six guidelines to appropriateness:
1. The only works worth teaching have an artistic
dimension.
2. Works should be selected for their probable
appeal.
3. The subject matter of the works selected
should be acceptable to the local community.
4. The work selected should reflect ethnic
diversity.
5. There should be variety in content, style,
and theme.
6. There should be a range in conceptual and
linguistic difficulty.
G. Robert Carlsen observes that
"the book
that has the best chance of weaning the teenager between the
age of twelve and fifteen away from sub-literature is the
adolescent novel".
Noting that adolescents
"will read books of great language difficulty if the subject
lies close to their interests, and reject even simple books
about subjects that bore them," Carlsen identifies "three transformations" that
readers between the age of 10 or 11 and 18 go through in selecting
content which interests them. In early adolescence, they find
greatest satisfaction in animal stories, adventure stories,
adolescent mysterious stories, tales of the supernatural,
sports stories, growing up around the world, home and family-life
stories, slapstick, and settings in the past. Reaching the
age of 15 or 16 teenagers apparently prefer the nonfiction
account of adventure, biography and autobiography, historical
novels, mysterious romance, and the story of adolescent life.
Those who are finishing their last two years of high school
are interested in the search for personal values, books of
social significance, the strange and unusual human experience,
and transition into adult life.
After reviewing some of the research on reading
interests, Alan Purves and Richard Beach (1972) concluded
that students' interests are most associated with the content
of a work rather than its form or style, and that most students
prefer plain, suspenseful fare.
There are many ways in which an English teacher
can discover the interests that can greatly affect reading.
Observations, discussions with individual students, class
and group discussions, oral and written reports, literary
check-outs, personal writing, and entries in journals all
help a teacher to gather this kind of information. These methods
should be supplemented by a teacher-made reading inventory
which provides a more structured approach to information-gathering.
By gathering useful information and providing
appropriate reading materials, an English teacher is taking
two very important steps toward helping students feel motivated.
If the teacher takes another step at this point, it should
be to help students taste some real success in reading something
that interests them. Success is of course the greatest motivator
of all. First questions in an informal conference should be
the kind the student has the best chance of answering. Reading
assignments should be easily attainable, and the student should
not feel hurried or pressured. Thus, they may begin believing
that they can do better than they thought possible.
Axiom 5. The classroom atmosphere should be
pleasant. All efforts described above will work best if the
classroom environment is friendly and free from tension. Even
in a rather gloomy, unattractive building, the attitude of
the teacher can make a class cheerful and cooperative. The
teacher also sets the tone. The way a teacher interacts with
students greatly affects the way students interact with books.
Fifth principle: Many teachers share in
the responsibility for improving reading
If there is any one feature of the total reading
program about which the experts agreed, it is that all high
school teachers have a share in the responsibility of teaching
reading, even though the major part of the burden falls upon
the teacher of English.
Social studies teacher should give suggestions
on how to read and study social studies material.
Teachers of science and math also must assume
special responsibilities to help students to understand a
test.
All teachers should teach skills appropriate
to their fields and all teachers should cooperate to make
reading uniformly valued throughout the school.
Sixth principle: There is no single right
way to teach reading.
The significant point is that there is a degree
of truth in most of the claims made by some researchers for
the methods which have been successfully used. Each of the
dozen of recommended methods is likely to lead to a special
and rather limited sort of improvement. The best program,
then, it would seem, would be a balanced one that borrows
some parts from each of the proved methods.
(2447 words)
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