Reading And Slow Reading

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Strickland (2005) explained, “Children do need to learn by reading, but what teachers need to do is support them as they read, so they can do what real readers do. This isn’t done through skills and drills, phonics worksheets, or sequencing activities. It’s done through books and talk and listening and thinking” (p. 2). Strickland supported the idea that students need to find purpose in their learning, and when teachers teach through assessment and drill, the students cannot find the meaning or application of their learning.
Assessment and Drill Many factors can influence children’s ability to read (Combs, 2012). Effective teachers, therefore, must regularly assess the students to see how they are doing and to adjust the instruction as necessary. …show more content…

Cunningham (2016) defined fluency as “the ability to read most words in context quickly and accurately, with appropriate expression” (p. 46). While rate is often thought to be an indicator of fluency, and slow reading can be problematic, fast reading can be equally troublesome. When students read too quickly, they make mistakes and do not comprehend their reading as well as they do when they do not consider speed the primary goal. Using a timer sends a message to the student that reading is about speed, rather than about meaning. Additionally, a timer adds stress to the students’ reading, diminishing the safe environment that is integral to positive learning. Freire (1993) theorized that many teachers utilize a “banking” concept of education, the belief that education is merely a process of receiving, filing, and storing deposits. As students work to store their memorization, they diminish their critical consciousness and become passive observers of a passive world. Students memorize without knowing why they are memorizing or the true meaning of what they are memorizing. Still, these drills enable them to pass the assessments, which the teachers believe is most …show more content…

2). Consequently, comprehension is the most important part of reading, yet Cunningham and Allington (2016) wrote that it receives the least attention. When students understand the text, they are motivated to read and to learn. Teachers must, therefore, ensure that instruction in comprehension is a priority in the classroom.
Strickland (2005) defined comprehension as the “end product of meaning making” and asserted that teachers cannot fully teach comprehension because “readers themselves bring meaning to the text they read” (p. 85). Similarly, Serravallo (2015) explained that readers can interpret the same text differently because of their unique prior knowledge and experiences. It is important for teachers to realize that students can have different perspectives about the text. Some teachers believe that only their interpretations are correct, but the students’ understandings of the texts may be just as

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