Simple steps can help students read better

Throughout my education career in middle and high schools, parents have often asked what they can do to help their child become a better reader.

I used to struggle with their question. Because of some hard work done by professionals in Valley View School District, I now have an answer to share.

The first step is to have your child read. I'll say more about that later.

Next, ask your child any or all of the following questions: What did that passage mean? Have you heard, seen or done anything like that before? What does that look like? Do you agree with what you read? What do you think the author is trying to say about this topic? What is the most important part of what you read? What new words did you come across in your reading? How would you recap what you read?

These questions are related to the reading strategies being taught in Valley View schools. Recently, teachers from the middle and high schools in Valley View School District 365U met to identify a group of skills that good readers demonstrate during reading. These "great eight" are: Monitoring comprehension, connecting to background knowledge, visualizing, questioning, inferring, determining importance in text, building vocabulary and summarizing and synthesizing. These skills are now being taught at all the middle and high schools in Valley View School District 365U.

Monitoring comprehension describes the process a reader goes through to ensure he understands the words and sentences he just read. Good readers will self monitor and reread confusing text in order to clear up sections they do not understand on the first read. Unfortunately, this skill does not exist in struggling readers.

One way to assist children in developing this skill is to model it for them by reading and thinking aloud to demonstrate that rereading strategy. Asking your child to restate something she just read (What did that mean?) is a way to help her practice monitoring comprehension.

Connecting to background knowledge is a way for us to try to understand new information. The more we can compare new information to something we are familiar with the easier it is for us to understand. Often in classrooms before a teacher starts a new reading passage with a class of students he will have a preliminary conversation about a topic related to the passage. Good readers will try to relate new information to something they already know about in order to better understand the passage they are reading. Asking your child, "Have you heard, or seen anything like that before?" is a great way to help him practice connecting to background knowledge.

Visualizing often helps students understand what is going on in a passage. If a reader can picture in her mind what is happening in the text or what is described in the passage she will better comprehend the reading. Even a simple representation of a concept can lead to clarity of understanding. Asking your child, "What does that look like?" will help her practice visualizing.

Questioning is the act of stopping for a moment during a reading passage to think about what was just read. Good readers will stop and think about what they read and form an opinion related to the passage. Asking your child, "Do you agree with that?" after she had read a passage is a good way to practice questioning. Following up that first question with a "why or why not" will push her to think more as she justifies her opinion.

Inferring is the process of deducing information beyond what is clearly stated in the text. My experience has been that this is a difficult skill for emerging readers to develop. Often when asked this type of question the child will pore through the text looking for the sentence that states the answer. Asking a child about the author's intent of a story is usually a good way to cause the reader to take the information that is directly in front of him to infer the intent. Here is another time that using that follow up "why" question will push him to continue to think about the passage.

Determining importance from text is the process of extracting the most significant information in a larger passage. This skill is especially important when students are reading textbooks. Students that are skilled at determining which information is most important can better prioritize their learning and thus do better on following assessments. Emerging readers often do not use text clues like bold and italics to identify information the author is emphasizing.

You can help your child to determine importance from text by asking him, "What is the most important part of what you read?" Here, if you wish to push your child's thinking, ask him how he knows it is the most important.

Building vocabulary plainly stated is increasing the number of words your child knows and can use appropriately. The size of a person's vocabulary is directly related to their success as a reader. One of the best ways to build someone's vocabulary is to increase his exposure to words.

Often, good readers will try to determine the meaning of unknown words by looking for clues in the surrounding sentences. A reader who cannot determine the meaning of unknown words from a passage will need to turn to other resources to find their meaning. You could be that resource or you could direct your child to a dictionary to look up the definitions. It would be a great idea to discuss with your child the definitions provided by the dictionary to find the one that is most applicable to the passage. Asking your child to identify unfamiliar words is a great first step towards building vocabulary.

Summarizing and synthesizing is described as putting together and remembering important information and details, while disregarding the irrelevant information. Often this involves merging the new information with previous knowledge. Asking your child to recap, briefly, what they read is a good way to have him summarize and synthesize what he read.

Getting back to what your child reads. Experts suggest that what they read is not as important as the fact that they read. Encourage her to read often from a variety of resources; books, magazines and newspapers, just get them reading! Let them see you read as well. Children learn to value what the caring adults in their lives value. If they see you reading, they may be more willing to read regularly, too.

You should continue to hear and read about the "great eight" from the middle and high school your child attends in Valley View School District. As I stated at the beginning of this article the "great eight" are a product of Valley View staff working on our Literacy for Learning Initiative. The Literacy for Learning group based its work on the works of nationally known experts in reading including Stephanie Harvey, Anne Goudvis and Cris Tovini.

If you would like more information, try the book by Tovini, "I Read It, But I Don't Get It," or contact your child's school. From Valley View schools