Thursday, October 31, 2013

Why is it so hard for students to adopt new reading strategies?

Take any group of emerging readers, and you'll find people who are stubbornly clinging to a few minimally effective reading strategies, such as:

  • reading from the first word to the last word without thinking or stopping
  • taking notes only after reading the entire text
  • highlighting everything that seems significant
  • if you didn't understand it, reading it again, and again
  • if you didn't understand it, reading on to see if the meaning comes to you later
  • if you didn't know a word, looking it up in the dictionary 
  • if you didn't know a word, asking someone what it means 
Why is it so difficult for emerging readers to try new strategies?
  • active reading seems to take more time, even if it's more efficient
  • active reading has more steps
  • they've never heard of active reading
  • if this were so effective, some K12 teacher would have taught it to them
  • they're following the advice of a former K12 teacher, probably someone they respect
  • writing in a book is forbidden in K12 (because it would require owning texts = $$$$)
  • stopping and starting while you read aloud means failing at reading in K12 - it's not fluent!
  • saying something out loud that might be "wrong" is a sure way to get humiliated in K12
  • talking to yourself is something crazy people do
  • they "understand" the text, they just can't remember what they read
  • sharing your thoughts out loud is "touchy feely"
  • if they were just better at "comprehension," the way they learned it would work


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