Creating a Recipe for Reading Success

by Tammy Burt, Groveport Madison Junior High School, Groveport, Ohio

Perhaps the greatest challenge that we language arts teachers face is readers who struggle to make it through a text―any text―and walk away feeling frustrated instead of successful, defeated instead of enlightened. The reasons that students struggle are as plentiful and as varied as the students themselves: English is not the student's first language, low socioeconomic status and poor access to materials, the lack of an environment rich in literature, and the absence of an adult who has modeled a love of reading, just to name a few. Turning struggling readers into proficient―and, the hope is, passionate―readers is no easy task. It is an art comparable to creating a recipe: Each new student requires a certain mix of ingredients; and perseverance through the inevitable up-and-down, trial-and-error stages is a must to ensure that you get it "just right."

Knowing Our Students

A key ingredient for any teacher is the first commandment of education: Know thy student. It is imperative to know each student's reading ability or level as well as his or her passions and interests. We can use a variety of methods to gather this information: diagnostic tests, surveys, conferences, and plain old observation.

Offering Choice Within Boundaries

Next comes the fun―and tough―part: engaging students. One of the best tools for engaging students is choice. Teaching students the skills for selecting their own reading material and trusting them to make the correct decisions about their chosen text is educational in and of itself, and it is empowering. When students own something, they are much more invested in it. This does not mean that we should give students free rein to select their own texts. In fact, choice is not something with which struggling students are often comfortable or even familiar. The solution is to set boundaries and monitor each student closely to know when to stretch the boundaries or knock them down. In some cases, boundaries involve designated reading levels, genres, or topics. Or perhaps the boundaries relate to specific roles in a literature circle or goals in a reader's workshop conference. Sometimes the choice is as simple as selecting one of three poems to read or choosing to complete assignment A or B to demonstrate knowledge of the text. Read-alouds of certain chapters in novels or poems by a certain author or statements in a particular article are a fantastic way to draw students in and provide opportunities for choice, so long as the teacher selects the resources with the students' needs and interests in mind.

Creating a Literature-Rich Environment

Another critical ingredient in creating successful readers is providing a literature-rich environment, an environment that is absent for so many struggling readers. Once students become familiar and comfortable with their own choices, we need to give them an opportunity to voice their opinions. Much like selection, this is also a skill we need to teach. Giving students a vocabulary for critiquing their selection, teaching them to use the chosen text and others to support their opinions, and creating an atmosphere that is accepting are important tools in allowing students to voice their opinions. It is also necessary that we provide a platform in which student voices are meaningful. Allowing students to write and read each other's reviews, lead workshop discussions, and give book talks that focus on their supported opinions and interpretations of the text are great ways to help students practice their literary voice. Student-centered and student-led response activities are extremely useful in demonstrating comprehension and spark critical thinking and debates, not to mention that they create vast opportunities for choice with all of the student recommendations that take place. Once again, because the students own it, they are more invested. As students become more practiced in selecting and critiquing their own texts, they become more confident in their abilities and their opinions. As they become more confident, they become better readers, and, with any luck, passionate readers.

Identifying Struggling Readers

While choice is a key ingredient, every teacher knows that it is only one slice of the proverbial pie. In this era of curriculum requirements and state standards, there will always be a necessity for assigned reading. This is often where struggling readers are particularly alienated, many times because they can't read the text. At the secondary level, this is a tricky issue, as the sheer volume of students doesn't usually allow the teacher to complete oral assessments and running records for students. Secondary teachers must often make use of written responses, group conferences, and good old observation to ascertain whether or not students comprehend the material. When a student is not completing assignments about a text, or is withdrawing from discussion, or is writing vague or nearly nonexistent journal responses, there is a real possibility that he or she is not able to comprehend the text. In some cases, the text is not appropriate for the age group. In other cases, such as with a beginning ESL student, for example, the student cannot even read the text, let alone comprehend it. Again, the reasons for breakdown in comprehension are as plentiful and varied as the students themselves.

Increasing Comprehension

Fortunately, a variety of ingredients are available for the recipe to help increase student comprehension.

• One of the most important ingredients is teaching students to pinpoint their own problems in comprehension. They need to recognize whether they are distracted, whether they are unfamiliar with a concept or confused by certain vocabulary, or whether they just aren't getting it and need extra help.
• Students also need to understand that there is no shame in having difficulty with a text and that help is always available. Teaching skills such as rereading segments, looking back, skimming and scanning, reading headings and chapter titles, and prereading vocabulary helps students feel competent, which makes students confident.
• There are also great intervention strategies for students who continue to struggle with a text. Letting students listen to a book-on-tape as they read along ensures that they are not sacrificing meaning as they try to make sense of the words.
• Partner reading, peer tutoring, and teacher reading can also be effective, so long as fluency and expression are not abandoned.
• Connecting issues and topics in a difficult text to issues and topics in a familiar text or situation also helps students to make meaning and to interact with the text. If interaction can take place on some level, the reader feels success instead of frustration―and the confidence and motivation to keep going.

The complex recipe for reading success requires us to wear many hats under our chef's hat: that of coach, cheerleader, model, provider, and partner in success or failure. Whether our students are struggling readers or passionate readers, as the chief cook we must work to find the best mix of ingredients to enhance the ability of each of our students and create the best reading experiences possible. As it stands, meeting the needs of struggling readers is no piece of cake!

Tammy Burt is a seventh grade language arts teacher at Groveport Madison Junior High School. She is currently pursuing a master of education degree at Ashland University.

Return to top