A different approach to reading

I’ve preached for years to my students that if they have someone else read their paper out loud to them, they will find many of the mistakes they miss prior to turning it in. The idea is that the other person might pause when reading if they are confused. They might pause when they encounter something they know is wrong, such as putting the same word twice by accident.

I finally demanded that they do this with a story earlier this year. We spent an entire class period with the kids going around having their papers read back to them. I thought we might finally make a breakthrough in proofreading!

Nope. Not even close.

As I marked up paper after paper, finding those silly mistakes that should be caught when read aloud, I pondered the problem. Why didn’t this work? What was I missing?

Then it struck me. I had been thinking about MCA tests as well, and our scores were not optimal. Kids struggle with reading, and I’m constantly thinking about why that is and how to change it. 

I did some math, putting two and two together. The students read papers out loud but still didn’t notice easy mistakes. They have a hard time reading and comprehending. The answer?

Oral interpretation. That was my favorite and most influential class in college. Oral interpretation is about taking a written piece and not just reading it, but performing it. We were taught how to read the spaces and the punctuation.

What in the world does that mean? Reading punctuation is about pausing any time you run across a period, comma, question mark, exclamation point, etc. When I listen to kids read, they just keep going at those spots. This can completely change the meaning of a paragraph. Punctuation marks are meant to be pauses. 

Plus, end mark punctuation can be critical to reading. Take this sentence: “She had been down at the docks that night.” Okay, pretty straightforward, telling you when and where someone was. But add a question mark instead, and the meaning changes a bit: “She had been down at the docks that night?” It’s as if the narrator can’t believe it. Or if you add an exclamation point: “She had been down at the docks that night!” Now it becomes a revelation. 

So when you read out loud, or even to yourself, you should always be scanning ahead a bit to notice those end marks. It can be tough, and if you don’t, you can always go back and re-read the sentence for the full effect.

Now for reading the spaces. How does that work? That’s pretty simple. Slow down. When we race from word to word, sometimes they blend together and we lose the context of the passage. Plus, if we just skip past words we are unsure about, we also miss out on important parts of the story. See the spaces and enunciate your words.

I talked to other teachers, including those in the elementary. Was I missing anything here? Mrs. Ihrke suggested adding the WhoWhatWhenWhereWhyHow questions. Great idea! We would work on answering those along with our other activities.

I crafted a weeklong unit for my 7th graders to try to zero in on reading better out loud. We started with Dr. Seuss’ “To Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street.” I divided the story up into small segments, and we worked on reading it out loud, focusing on the spaces between the words, trying to make them clear. Kids would ask about pronunciations since Seuss was known for making up some words. We finished with a classwide read-along.

Next, I trimmed half-page sections of “The Outsiders,” since all the kids had read it earlier in the year. It was material they knew. We spent time learning how to mark up a page for reading it to the class. We underlined words we wanted to emphasize, wrote out how to pronounce words, and circled punctuation marks. After working on all that, the students read those pages and we rediscovered some good parts of the book.

Finally, I had them select a half-page from the books they were currently reading for my class. They went through and marked up copies of those pages the same way and practiced them with their classmates. They ended by getting up in front of the class and reading their selections.

This was a lot of fun! The kids did really well overall. Now the next step begins.

I need the kids to keep buying into this concept. Granted, you can’t always read out loud for things, but if you work on slowing down and doing this in your head, the same ideas can buoy you to better reading comprehension. However, I followed up with some short stories and had the kids partner read. That kept the momentum going and gave them more confidence as they continued asking the essential questions. 

I’m already thinking about next year. I want to continue some things with these kids as they move through 8th grade and see if my theory is correct. Plus, I plan to start the year doing oral interpretation with my new 7th graders. Let’s get them going right away and work on it throughout the year.

Reading is essential. I wrote last week about the dying form of the novel and how sad that is. I also wrote about reasons people don’t read as much, inability being a big reason. I hope to chip away at that. At the very least, I want my students to be able to comprehend the basics they need to survive and thrive in life. 

I’d love it if they loved reading. I’d love it even more if they read out loud with an enthusiasm and verve that would have that on display. Maybe that will be part of what I do with them in 8th grade!

Word of the Week: This week’s word is sanguineous, which means confident or optimistic, as in, “The student was sanguineous before his presentation, knowing that he would read well in front of his peers.” Impress your friends and confuse your enemies!