-> SK> Arrgh! Accuracy is not an essential goal of reading? I would
-> think
-> No! (Qualified Statement) Do real readers read for accuracy or
-> comprehension? Even five year olds who are almost readers go past
-> that stilted word by word style and when they begin to fly they don't
-> stop to correct a substitution ie a the for an a.
I've thought a lot about this message of yours since I read it over a
week ago. I think that there are several issues here, and it's not so
simple to say "yes, we read for accuracy" or "no, we don't read for
accuracy".
I do understand what you're saying about a "five year old...when they
begin to fly..." I've seen that occur in my own daughter. She cannot
read as fast orally as she can silently (she is seven, soon eight, going
into third grade). When she does her oral reading, which last year she
was assigned every night (often she had her free choice of what to
read), I notice that when the story gets moving along she will try to
pick up the speed of her reading (probably because she wants to see what
is going to happen next) and she does get "sloppy" about the words she
says. She will substitute similar words, or omit words. She gets the
general gist of the story, if she goes on like this, however she will
sometimes miss out on minor plot details and subtleties. I gave up on
correcting her over every such error long ago, because it did not make
the reading enjoyable for us. It became tedious. But I think it IS
important that she realize that she isn't reading exactly what is on the
page, so I do correct some of the errors, or point it out when we've
gotten to the bottom of a page, just so that she is aware of it.
-> Good readers skip words because they are fast and don't need to read
-> every word. Study this the next time you read. Are you really reading
-> every single word or do your eyes bounce over the text?
I did study this, this past week. I've been reading _The Hundred Secret
Senses_ by Amy Tan. For the most part, I read every single word. Then
again, I find that using myself as an example, especially for things
about education and the learning process, tends to not support
conclusions about the general population.
But, last night, as I was nearing the end of the book, I do find myself
skipping ahead, sometimes skipping over almost entire paragraphs,
wanting to find out what will happen in the end. And when I read some of
the newsgroups on the Internet, I will skim some of the posts and not
read every single word.
So, I finally decided, that the way I read depends on the context of the
reading activity that I am engaged in. If I'm reading for my own
personal pleasure and enjoyment, I am at my own discretion as to how
accurately I read. I can afford to skip over words if I like (I know
this is a commonly taught speed reading technique, but I've never been
comfortable with it myself), or even whole sentences and paragraphs.
OTOH, if I'm reading a memo or report for work, if I'm reading study
material for a course I'm taking, then I probably shouldn't be skipping
over words, because even a single word omitted CAN affect the meaning of
the material I'm reading.
I imagine that with the young children you are working with, that you
would classify almost all of your activities as reading for enjoyment,
and so skipping words seems OK in that context, as long as the general
meaning is preserved, seems OK. I certainly understand about the fine
line between encouragement and discouragement, in trying to get students
to learn something difficult (yes, even in secondary mathematics, I have
to deal with this!). But my question is this: Eventually, it will become
important for a student to HAVE THE ABILITY to read every single word in
a document. Maybe this doesn't occur until fourth or fifth grade, as
they study more complicated social issues. I don't know. But eventually,
I am certain that it does come. If a student has been allowed, until
that time, to skip over words, approximate the meaning of written
material, substitute similar words, and the like, won't it be difficult
to all of a sudden get that kid to (1) read accurately, considering
every word on the page, and (2) appreciate why it is sometimes important
to read for accuracy?
When should a student be held accountable for reading each word on the
page accurately and interpreting it correctly? I'm sure that their first
reading class is not the appropriate place to nitpick, but it has to
come somewhere. Letting kids get by with sloppy, inaccurate reading
skills past their third year of being readers is doing the student a
disservice, IMO.
-> As for your daughter and spelling. Doesn't the hidden curriculum
-> teach that what we allow, we teach?
I would say, yes, what we allow, we teach. Then, I think that the
teacher allowing incorrect spelling taught my daughter that it was OK to
spell incorrectly. I don't think she was able to distinguish well
between when it was allowed (journal) and when it wasn't appropriate
(homework...at least in my opinion, I'm not sure what the teacher's
official stand on spelling for nightly homework was. I expect that she
simply didn't have time to check all these papers over, and counted on
the parents to do so, since we had to sign off completion of our
daughter's homework each night, and since my daughter noticed that the
teacher did not remark on incorrect spelling in nightly homework, she
assumed that meant it was permissible.).
-> Spelling is part of presentation, a skill that everyone should do
-> their best at. John Feltham and I recently has a discussion with a
-> university student on the K12 teacher chat echo about this point.
I agree with you that spelling is part of presentation, and John Feltham
has long been a stickler about spelling. ;-)
Are you sure that discussion wasn't in the K12_Language Arts area? I
read the K12_Teacher_Chat area, and don't recall seeing this discussion
in there.
-> If your daughter was in my class I'd be taking her aside while doing
-> writing conferences and telling her how impressed I was at the way
-> she gets the words right and using her as a role model etc etc.
Why would you use her as a role model? For a student who is far above
the average kid's ability in the class, it is easy to do well what the
others are having difficulty with. She doesn't expend hardly any effort
to do this. Using her as a role model only reinforces in her mind that
she can expend little effort and be praised any way. An advanced student
needs challenges. IMO, using her as a role model only causes bad
feelings between her and other students who try much harder but cannot
achieve that same level of success. Sometimes I have suspected that she
does less well than she is able, in order to stand out less from the
rest of the class (purposefully missing words on her spelling tests and
such). Better to privately encourage her to work harder at her
presentation, not just handwriting, but spelling as well.
-> Are we teaching children to read every single syllable or language
-> and literature and their fun and rhythm and games?
I would say, we are teaching both (not being an elementary or a reading
teacher). I can see how, in the first reading course a student takes,
the emphasis might be more appropriately placed on language rather than
isolated words, in order to encourage and stimulate enthusiasm for the
reading process. (My children did attend a private school for a few
years, where words were taught in isolation...a phonics method, similar
to the McGuffy readers...a list of words on a page, practice sounding
them out. I can't say I really liked this, but I can't dispute the fact
that my kids are excellent readers and this may have helped.)
Sheila
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