“Read Through It” Rather Than “Sound It Out”
Keeping Secondary Struggling Readers Engaged with the Text
Kirsten briefly struggled with the word “companies,” so I told her to “read through it.” When faced with the word a second time in the passage, she read it perfectly. Without any reference to that particular word, I asked her how she felt about her reading. Her response, with a big smile of accomplishment, “I got that word, didn’t I?” She successfully figured out the word without having to sound it out.
Kathryn struggled with several words throughout the passage she was reading. Because she was well practiced in the Read Through It Strategy, she spent little effort sounding out the troublesome words. When she completed the passage, I asked her how she felt about her reading. She replied, “I messed up, but I got it,” and she confidently and successfully completed the comprehension questions.
Confidence First
By focusing on the correctness of their reading, we are interrupting their process of comprehension. More importantly, however, we are also discouraging them from further engagement with the text and with other classroom activities associated with the text.
By the time students who struggle with reading have reached middle school, they have already experienced years of evidence that they are “poor readers.” They do not need additional reminders. Instead, teachers need to find ways to get past the errors that they make and focus on the successes that they are having. We need to build their confidence.
The ideas in the text are far more interesting than the individual words, and these struggling students are often capable of participating in discussion and other activities about those ideas when given the opportunity. The Read Through It Strategy provides a systematic process for reaching these students to keep them engaged with those ideas. They are thus more willing to participate in classroom activities that will further enhance their comprehension of the concepts.
Mindful Reading
Encouraging students to be mindful of the ideas presented in a text requires explicit intention and effort. We must ask students to practice skills that focus on their interaction with the ideas in the text. Make no mistake, this is a skill and thus it requires repetition and practice.
In this article, I will discuss two of the four components of the Read Through It Strategy and its focus on encouraging engagement.
Positive Errors
The first skill to develop is one of learning to ignore errors that do not significantly influence meaning. I call these Positive Errors. Karen read the word “little” as “small.” Clearly, she understood the concept of smallness even though she misread the word. Karen’s mind created the necessary understanding. Our minds are powerful and can compensate for most errors if we allow it to work as it can.
We all make mistakes as we read, but most mistakes do not need correction. We can teach students to bypass these troublesome words. Sometimes the meaning of the words become clear and sometimes the word is not needed to comprehend the passage as a whole. If they have confidence, they will go back when needed; without confidence, they give up. Incomplete comprehension with encouragement to continue is always better than giving up from frustration.
Idea Units
Comprehension exercises typically ask the student to focus on either words individually in vocabulary activities or on entire paragraphs. These units of comprehension are too small or too large.
Focusing on individual words disregards context, and context allows the students to discern enough meaning to carry on with the activity. When instructed to “Read Through It,” Savannah replied, “You mean I don’t have to correct my mistakes?” She went on to read much more proficiently with much better comprehension.
Focusing on entire paragraphs, can be overwhelming and discouraging. Students who struggle with reading will face too many unknown words or too many challenging ideas within a paragraph to absorb the richness of the ideas at one time.
The English language has natural pauses within a sentence that allow the brain to absorb meaning within a context. Read that sentence again noticing the pauses. The English Language has natural pauses [pause] within a sentence [pause] that allow the brain to absorb meaning [pause] within a context.
By teaching Miguel to exaggerate these natural pauses he went from reading 90wpm (which he knew was slow) with 70% comprehension to 160wpm with 75% comprehension. More importantly, he came to believe college was a legitimate option for him. He became a successful rather than a discouraged student. He learned to trust his mind.
The Read Through It Strategy
The Read Through It Strategy is more than these two components, Positive Errors and Idea Units, but they provide groundwork for teaching reading skills to struggling readers that encourages them to engage with the text.
By changing the habit of “sound it out” to “read through it” we are more likely to communicate a message of confidence to our students. Students will still make mistakes and need assistance. With confidence, however, students will engage in the other classroom activities that improve their comprehension.