Phoenix Union

Reading Allowed!

Making Sure the First “R” Comes First

What gets tested, gets taught. That’s one of the guiding principles of education reform. And it certainly appears to be working. But is it working the way we want it to with regard to reading?

Success Story: Teaching the Six Qualities of Good Reading

Using the Six Qualities to Help Kids Pick Books, Assess Their Reading Ability, and Set Goals for Improvement

Recently, I spent a week working with several classes of 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders. Most of these kids were two or more years below grade level in reading and had been trying to read books that were way too hard for them. As a result, they weren’t enjoying reading, they weren’t able to read quietly for long periods of time, and they weren’t finishing books. They were also developing  bad habits like ignoring any word they didn’t know or just turning pages without reading to make it look like they were making progress. Many kids still read word-by-word tracking with their fingers and a few had to read out loud because they’d never learned to read silently.

Understanding

Knowing What We Read, and Knowing What to Do When We Don’t

As literate adults who’ve been reading for decades, most of us have a well-tuned sense of what we understand and what we don’t. As we glide along line after line, we know intuitively if what we read makes sense to us, or if certain words or ideas are confusing. And we usually know what to do when we’re confused.

But many kids don’t.

Thinking

This is Your Brain on Text. Any Questions?

“What are you thinking?”

My favorite reading conference question absolutely baffles kids. “What do you mean ‘What am I thinking?’” they say. “I’m reading a book!” Yes, that’s true. But what I want to know is what they’re thinking about what they’re reading. And no, I don’t want them to read it to me. I want them to read their own minds and tell me what’s rattling around in there.

Teaching the Model to Kids

Introducing the Six Qualities of Good Reading to Students

I introduce the six qualities of good reading with a question: “How do we know we’re reading well?” Most kids have an answer or two:

• “We can read all the words.”
• “We understand it.”
• “It’s not hard.”
• “We just know!”
• Etc.

But these answers aren’t very useful when it comes to creating a class standard for good reading. That’s why I introduce kids to the six qualities.

Speed

It’s not How Fast You Read That Matters, It’s How Well You Read

The way most kids read, you’d think it was a race. Competitive by nature, kids are constantly comparing themselves to each other, and to us, in this regard. In the beginning, reading is slow and laborious. Who wouldn’t want to read faster? But as our skills develop, and we begin to read more fluently, the desire to speed up seems only to increase. As a result, many kids—and many adults, too—read faster than they can accurately decode and comprehend.

Phrasing

Reading’s Best Kept Secret

Phrasing is the best kept secret in all of reading. In the workshops on reading that I’ve attended over the years, no one has ever talked about it. In the dozens of books I’ve read on reading, it’s hardly mentioned at all. Yet in my teaching of reading, I’ve found it to be one of the most valuable things I teach to young readers.

Conferencing with the Six Qualities

Using the Model to Improve My Interactions with Kids

When kids are learning to read, they need a lot of help. Reading is hard and it only gets harder as kids move up to new texts at higher reading levels. To make consistent progress, kids need a lot of coaching. But it’s not always easy to know how to help them.

Accuracy

Don’t Forget to Read the Words

Kids often come away with strange interpretations of the things they read. They’ll say something about a book and I’ll think to myself, “Where in the world did they come up with that?” More often than not, they’ve picked up errant information by misreading something or not reading something at all. “Don’t forget to read the words,” I often tell them. It’s a simple notion but it’s easier said than done.

Redefining “Just Right”

Using the Six Qualities of Good Reading to Make Better Book Choices

To help kids find “just right” books, I start by telling them to find a book they like and can read well. But I don’t stop there. Having defined good reading as reading with the six qualities, the kids and I can use this as a more detailed way of determining whether a particular book is easy, hard, or “just right”.