My memory of learning to read is foggy in my thirty’s, but I do not remember a difficult process. My parents are both voracious readers (interesting side note, my father is dyslexic and did not become a reader until his teenage years) and read to my brothers and I for hours on end. To pick up a book and understand that the lines and curves in black actually conveyed meaning was not something I learned per se, but something I inherited….maybe thats being too generous to my learning process. Again it was a few years ago. I did kindergarten at home with my mother who was trained as an early childhood educator and remember reading phonics readers. Then my memory jumps to checking out as many babysitter club books as I could at once in grade 1 and 2 from the public library. Whether or not I understood everything I read, I was reading and there was no stopping me. In fact at that time I was reading in two languages having been placed in French immersion. In French I have do not have many memories of phonic instruction either. Sure I have a silly song about a mouse singing the letter i sound in French…which is the long ē.
Ki, Ki, Ki,
la souris…
It must have been taught somehow. Much of my memory though has to do with stories. I remember again being read to. A lot. I remember books with a corresponding cassette tape being sent home. Everyday. In short order I was reading fairly fluently. In fact my strongest language skills in French remain in reading. My memories of learning to read would suggest that whole reading or maybe even balanced literacy was a success in my learning journey. Frequent exposure to books and rich literature made me a reader. If only others learned like me.
Recently however I stumbled across something called the Science of Reading. My brain has been exploding ever since. I had secretly believed that children really just weren’t being exposed to books enough, or even the right kinds of books, and this is why they weren’t readers. I would then read more to them. My children have certainly benefited from being read to from the womb (and they have, I do not want to negate the great benefits that reading curled up on the couch together has had…they are innumerable) and this is why they all love books. That is they all love being read too. However, as my daughter is in grade 2 and is an emergent reader I was beginning to realize that perhaps I didn’t have the whole story. Something was missing and I feel like I am just discovering what it is.
As a teacher I wish this science had been taught to me sooner…like in university. It wasn’t and I am not alone in this experience. Perhaps this is because some of this science is just being discovered, especially when it comes to the brain. Or maybe my professors believed as I did, forgetting just how difficult and unnatural reading is. So needless to say I taught phonological and phonemic awareness in my classroom as best I could, but I confess I also taught strategies along side that with reflection I would not teach now (such as look at the picture, or what is the first letter in the word, does it sound right, etc.). Strategies that encouraged a lot of guessing (not an effective strategy when words become more difficult) or strategies that required memorizing (also not helpful as words become more complex). These weren’t the only strategies taught, but unfortunately I can even see in my own daughter where guessing gets in the way. She much rather guess than take the time to decode a word by its sounds from start to finish. Instead I have seen her guess based on context, pictures, the first letter, the last letter, and anything else to avoid the work of decoding the word (when she takes her time to decode her success rate is much higher and quicker…imagine that!).
This is all to say that I am glad I have jumped down the hole. That I am taking the time to change my mind and to learn something new. I now realize that as I child I learned the code of reading and that is what made me a reader. It was not magic. It didn’t happen by having a lot of rich stories read to me (although that does help a ton!). I can now read a word with what seems like automaticity (my brain still does the work of recognizing graphemes, their placement, assigning the correct phonemes and then meaning in what all seems like an instant). I don’t remember learning to read this way, but this is how it happened and this is how I need to teach it. If I don’t I am doing a disservice to those I teach. I am throwing them in the water without teaching them how to float, how to breath, how their arms perform the strokes and how their legs should kick…and then how to do all these things at once. They may become comfortable in the water. After awhile they may be able to learn something that propels them through the water. They will never be a proficient swimmer however with out systematic instruction and practice. In a similar sense the same can be applied to reading.
Here I go. Just a bit deeper.
The Wonderful Thing About... 